In this post, I will share the highlights I discovered from 7 budgets from the last 30 years !!!
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in Wall Street
Wall Street, the movie, was released in the same year that I began my career. The movie had a deep impact not just on me as a young finance professional but also on students and executives around the world. Several iconic dialogues (Greed is Good) were often quoted. There was also a surge in the sales of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War thanks to several lines from the classic (“Every battle is won before it’s fought”) being quoted in the movie.
This Tamil Saint Is the Most Quoted in All Budgets Since Independence
When I came to know that Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget speech quote from Thirukkural, I was reminded that Chidambaram also had a habit of quoting in Tamil during his budget speeches.
Curious, I quickly checked his past speeches and was pleasantly surprised to find that he, too, had quoted from Thirukkural. I then ran a check on all nine budget speeches by P. Chidambaram and eight by Nirmala Sitharaman and was surprised to find that both finance ministers had turned to Thirukkural in a total of seven budget speeches making it the most quoted text since independence.
Here are the references:
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- 1996-97 (P. Chidambaram)
- “To be able to increase wealth, to lay it up and guard, and also well to distribute it, marks a royal lord.” (Thirukkural 385)
- 1996-97 (P. Chidambaram)
- 1997-98 (P. Chidambaram)
- “A king without critics will perish.” (Thirukkural 448)
- 2005-06 (P. Chidambaram)
- “Health, wealth, prosperity, happiness, and security—these five are the adornments of a nation.” (Thirukkural 738)
- 2013-14 (P. Chidambaram)
- “Not the spear, but the scepter swayed with equity alone grants victory to a ruler.” (Thirukkural 541)
- 2020-21 (Nirmala Sitharaman)
- “Health, wealth, agriculture, happiness, and security—these five are the jewels of governance.” (Thirukkural 385)
- 2021-22 (Nirmala Sitharaman)
- “A ruler must create, protect, and distribute wealth justly.” (Thirukkural 385)
- 2025-26 (Nirmala Sitharaman)
- “Just as all life depends on rain, citizens depend on good governance.” (Thirukkural 542)
But who is Thiruvalluvar?
Thiruvalluvar was a Tamil philosopher and poet from 500 CE, best known for his work Thirukkural, comprising of 1,330 couplets. The text offers profound wisdom on virtue, wealth, love and statecraft.
But The Rest of Us Only Knew Sun Tzu, Not Thiruvalluvar !
Quotes in these budget speeches are from those who are deeply connected to their roots , while the truth of the matter is that the wisdom from these texts has not permeated across the country into the broader society.
Business schools are happy to discuss Sun Tzu but are wary of introducing students to Kautilya’s Arthashastra or Thiruvalluvar’s economic principles.
Colonial rule and post-independence education has completely sidelined our indigenous knowledge. Even though our intellectual heritage has contemporary relevance, academia hesitates to teach it.
Lets Reclaim Our Intellectual Heritage
What, then, can be done to reclaim our intellectual heritage? How can we integrate the principles from Arthashastra and Thirukkural into our economic policy and governance models?
While the government is making an effort to mainstream Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), I believe we must take responsibility at an individual level. Also, decolonization is not an event; it is a journey. It may take an entire generation to develop an Indic lens.
Each of us are at different stages on this path—some are just beginning to question the narratives we have been taught, while others are actively rediscovering and reclaiming their intellectual heritage.
Wherever we are on this journey, whenever there is a prompt such as the latest budget speech, let’s all make the effort to rediscover our ancient wisdom.
For a start, you can begin by reading Thirukkural here. (https://www.himalayanacademy.com/media/books/tirukural/tirukural.pdf )
Who knows—perhaps next year, Nirmala Sitharaman may even offer a special tax rebate to those who have read this text.
HARI’S CURRIES
A buffet of reflections