Du Bois's Dark Princess, Kautilya's Arthashastra, and the Welfare State

W. E. B. Du Bois’s Dark Princess (1928) has become a paradigmatic text for left internationalism and Afro-Asian solidarity. This essay argues that Du Bois’s “hybrid progressivism” enchants the American welfare state by giving it an intellectual genealogy that emphasizes Eastern political thought. Dark Princess engages with the Arthashastra, an ancient work of political theory that was ostensibly written by the advisor to Chandragupta, who unified India as a subcontinent. This legend stimulated a Du Boisian fantasy of global leadership, one that parallels the contemporary recuperation of the Arthashastra for power politics. However, the Arthashastra’s discussion of social programs and infrastructure also introduces the concept of the welfare state. Interweaving the Arthashastra with black life in Chicago, Du Bois gives the progressive activist Sara Andrews a surprising agency. For our contemporary moment, the most important aspect of Dark Princess is its vision of an antiracist and culturally syncretic New Deal.