Politics of persuasion: essays written in memory of Dr. G.N. Dhawan

MAN IS a political", i. e. gregarious animal in Aristotle's sense, but his political filiation or gregariousness is circumscribed by the tribe. the polis, the nation, or the world community according to the stage of his social development and culture that affect him at particular periods of history. The political evolution of mankind is the history of the extension of human communities seeking power or dominance over open, rich, and vulnerable territories and communities that are welded together by blood and iron into homogenous states, kingdoms. and empires. Political theory is traditionally concerned with the acquisition, struggle, and sharing of power by communities of village, city, kingdom, or empire.

Peoples that had the widest power-base wielded the widest influence in history. Such influence had been exerted over man kind for the aggrandizement of national interest, religion, particular ideology or pattern of social organization or culture and were often associated with efforts of the unification of the race. The empires of Asoka, Samudragupta, Alexander, Augustus, and Charlemagne equally nourished and spread the ideas of human brotherhood. The Roman and British Empires developed the ideas of the common laws and rights of mankind.