Kautilya’s Arthashastra is well-known for its strategic and statecraft teachings. The treatise also offers a nuanced philosophy of leadership that extends far beyond mere military tactics. This research paper undertakes a critical examination of Kautilya's Arthashastra to extract its core leadership tenets and assess their applicability for developing a contemporary leadership model for Indian Armed Forces. The research focusses on three primary objectives: to identify the specific leadership qualities enunciated by Kautilya, to evaluate their relevance in the twenty-first century, and to determine the feasibility of constructing a leadership model for the training of future Indian military leaders based on these principles.

The study uses qualitative content analysis to identify leadership qualities from the primary text and compares them with modern leadership theories and current security issues to assess their ongoing relevance. The findings demonstrate that the Arthashastra offers a robust, indigenous approach to leadership—emphasizing ethical integrity, decisiveness, intellectual insight, and the welfare of subordinates—qualities that are still relevant today. Consequently, this paper proposes a structured leadership model derived from these qualities, designed for integration into the training and pedagogical curriculum of future Indian Armed Forces officers.

The research concludes that the leadership qualities described in the Arthashastra are still crucial today and can be effectively used for developing leaders who are prepared to deal with the difficult moral and strategic problems of modern warfare.