As an integral aspect of human relations and community life, politics is a fundamental denominator of social life. As a mode of organised enquiry and as the principal vehicle of statecraft, politics is among the most ancient of disciplines in both Indic and western civilisations. Much broader than focusing on the ways in which government, state administrations and institutions work, the idea of ‘Politics’ opens up an entire canvas on which the building of states, societies, nations and communities can be sketched. This effort necessarily involves a multidisciplinary lens, where economics, sociology, history and power all come into collective play to help us decipher why human communities work the way they do. Why do some cherish democracy while others revere authority and hierarchy? Politics helps us ask these and numerous other questions of ourselves and offers nuanced ethical parameters to seek a better understanding about the central dilemmas of social action.