A Story on the Anniversary of 26/11
Thursday, 26. November 2009 - 1:13 PM
I’m not going to mourn the dead on the first anniversary of 26/11 because as this superb article shows, nothing has pretty much changed over the past year. We lack leadership and courage at all levels. Our callous, inept, and spineless government is simply relieved that there hasn’t been another terror attack since then. Mourning my fellow Indians will therefore actually mean insulting them: if we had a government that cared for something as basic as the safety of its citizens, they wouldn’t have died in the first place.
Instead, I’ll tell you a story from the Mahabharata. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
The setting for the story is when Duryodhana’s jealousy against the Pandavas, his cousins, begins to reach unmanageable proportions. The Pandavas, as young princes have secured a worshipful place in the hearts of the subjects and are praised by everybody and Yudhishtira’s place as the future king is assured.
In a bid to pacify Duryodhana, Shakuni, his maternal uncle, invites a political strategist and advisor from Gandhara to deliver a sermon to Duryodhana. The advisor tells Duryodhana a story.
In a forest, five animals—a tiger, a bandicoot, a mongoose, a wolf, and a fox had formed a partnership of sorts to secure a steady source of food. Their target was a deer in the vicinity. But because none of those animals were fast enough to match the deer’s speed, they waited in vain for weeks.
The fox, ever the strategist, hit upon a plan. He got the partners together and explained it. The bandicoot was to creep up to the deer when it was asleep and slowly and with as little pain to the deer as possible, had to nibble at the deer’s feet enough to cause an open wound. The open wound would worsen because of the dirt and mud and muck on the ground. This would retard the deer’s speed, which in turn would enable the tiger to kill it.
The plan worked and the tiger killed the deer. It was time to share the booty. The fox was suddenly unhappy: he was unwilling to share it with the rest of team. After all, it was his idea that earned them the deer. And so he thought of another plan.
He called for another meeting and told his partners to take bath before eating because a bath would allow them to enjoy this feast even better. And so the four of them left to have a bath.
The bandicoot returned first to see a sorry-looking fox. He asked him the reason for his sorrow. The fox said,
“I’m sorry that you’ll have to die. The tiger told me that he doesn’t fashion eating an infected deer and preferred to eat you up because your flesh is soft and you’re healthy.”
The bandicoot fled the next moment.
The tiger arrived next to see a sorry-looking fox and asked him the reason for his sorrow. The fox said,
“Look at the nerve of the bandicoot! He told me that without his effort, you wouldn’t have managed to catch the deer. He also said that you’re about to eat something, which he has already despoiled with his spit. I’m feeling bad that he insulted your might.”
The tiger was furious and swore that he’d have nothing to do with the deer, that he was very capable of hunting his own food and left the place.
The wolf came next to see a sorry-looking fox and asked him the reason for his sorrow. The fox said,
“I’m sorry but I think we’ll still go without food. The tiger just told me that he’ll go and get his family so that they can all feast together. After they feast, what’ll be left for us? I know he has broken the rule of our partnership. But can all the four of us together challenge him?”
The wolf saw reason in the fox’s words and thought it was pointless and left, too.
The mongoose arrived next to see a ferocious looking fox and asked him why he was angry. The fox loudly barked his reply,
“I thought of this idea and this deer is mine! I fought the rest of them and sent them packing. And I challenge you to a duel. If you defeat me, the deer is all yours. Else you’re dead!”
The mongoose refused the challenge and ran away.
And the fox enjoyed his meal leisurely.
The advisor concluded the story with a footnote that summed up its essence. He told Duryodhana that it was legitimate to use any and every means to vanquish the enemy. This story is a classic instance of effectively using Bheda (strategy, cunning, deceit) and Danda (punishment, war), in the parlance of statecraft.
This story set the stage for Dhritrashtra, Duryodhana’s father, to initiate the murder of the Pandavas by sending them to the Lakshagriha (the Palace made of Wax) and then burning them alive.
26. November 2009 - 4:41 PM
Your pessimism is unwarranted.India is diverse and plural.I am not underestimating the threat from Anglo-Saxon barbarians,Chinese animals,porki pigs,jehadis,ejs,’social justice thugs’.
But the indian polity is divided too on the basis of language,caste etc.Cheer up!There are a few decent persons in Congress.I believe there will be an upsurge in Hindu nationalism.Sattvikas should not worry too much about politics.But a strong righteous Kshatriya element is the need of the hour
26. November 2009 - 9:25 PM
“There are a few decent persons in Congress.”
Anony; that is probably the biggest joke I’ve heard in a long time. I had a hearty laugh. Thanks for that.
26. November 2009 - 10:42 PM
..are you basically saying that all is fair in love and war, and by those standards we should use every available means including deceit to reduce the Pokis to smithereens!
26. November 2009 - 11:30 PM
N Shah,
I said I have offered this entry without any comment and that you’re free to draw your own conclusions.
27. November 2009 - 12:16 AM
Right from the birth of the modern day Indian union anti-nationals on our side were always in key positions facilitating anti-india maneuvers from within and outside. Nothing cynical , but Indians due to their individuality, lack of understanding of history,politics and misplaced arrogance have always learned their lessons late and hard. Our focus should have been on discrediting two nation theory and utter destruction of terrorist state of pak, instead, we foolishly gave the podium to apolitical psuedo progressives who prattle relentlessly about ghazals, garlic naan, biryani and nations without borders. This mishandling of the rouge country called Pakistan eventually turned it into a migraine for all the civilized nations. It makes me believe that pseudo liberalism and far stretched political correctness will have long term affects akin to nuclear fall out and aftermath will be bore by more than few generations. On 26/11 many pseudo liberals too saw the results of advocating and lobbying on evil’s behalf, but very few still understand the necessity to become more objective. If we look back into human history, most of them in this category never learned as they were hung by the same people they tried hard to please.
28. November 2009 - 4:59 AM
v hav bootleggers, pimps, rascals as our politicians now, it is no point to expect that they now the diplomacy taught by the story above or by chanakya even the opposition is so silent on the action taken so far on 26/11
28. November 2009 - 2:58 PM
The morale of the story is – “The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend”. Right normal guys ?
29. November 2009 - 11:07 AM
I must make myself clear on the “normal guys” bit that I posted above. I consider muhammadans to be homicidal maniacs who are desensitized by beheading, gutting, skinning, and eating animals in the name of holy kurbani. I consider christians to be moderate homicidal maniacs because the church has undergone several reforms and these fundies are not able to burn witches (this does not mean that they don’t want to). The cult of christianity now tries to control minds by controlling mass media, and is definitely as big a threat as that posed by islam (not radical islam, not fundamentalist islam, just islam). I think (and know) these people are serious psychos, and therefore I refer to non-christians and non-muslims as “normal”.
29. November 2009 - 6:36 PM
The Christists(white fundoos) are more evil and more dangerous.They use pseudo racism to whip up seccessionist movements(Nagaland,mizoram,now meghalaya,Tamilnadu).their mindcontrol experiments are more developed to peddle Jesus and Mary lies and other fabrications
2. December 2009 - 11:05 AM
Agree with you anony. The christians are more dangerous than the muslims, because their cult has more experience with sophisticated mind-control than the primitive islam. Do read the history of the church on the thread below and be afraid of these manipulative people. They massacred millions in Europe in the name of being “pagans” and “heathens” and right now control media houses and publications that routinely deny that the cult of christianity spread at swordpoint and is responsible for genocides across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
http://freetruth.50webs.org/