Why does Kautilya call manual labour as true ‘arth’?
Answer»
Arth means purpose or goals. Another meaning of arth is land. As per Kautilya, the key to governance and authority lies in ‘arth’.
According to Kautilya, a person who does not have resources can also manage to obtain ‘arth’ by doing labour. Kautilya considers land i.e. arth as an asset for livelihood and settlement of humankind.
As the productivity of labour increases, the means of production also increase.
So, Kautilya calls manual labour as the true ‘arth’.