KING ASOKA AND THE ART OF GOVERNANCE

KEYWORDS 
Governance, Government, Models of Governance, King Asoka, Asoka’s Edicts of Governance, Governance in the modern world, Humanitarian Competition, Governance Metrics, Worldwide Governance Indicators, World Governance Indicators

Any nature of purposeful human activities requires to be organized with defined objectives and definite goals. To achieve this individuals or groups of individuals need to be directed to achieve the objectives. hence the need for governance, a Greek verb, which means to steer and was used by Plato for the first time. Governance is what a government does and the word government can be applied from a “nation-state” to a unit as small as a “family”. With the realization that development and the quality of human life in all its facets is dependent on good governance, there is a renewed interest in the area of governance ideologies; individuals and entities such as the World Bank, the Forum for a new paradigms in the method of governance and identifying the metrics of good governance methods practised in ancient India to build a model for the present times. This paper discusses the concept of governance as followed by King Asoka in ancient India and its’s relevance to meet the needs of the current world.

Sanjeev Sareen
The author Asst. Professor & Chief of PG Programme, Sri Sharda Institute of Indian Management Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-70. He can be reached at ss64@rediffmail.com