The British ruled almost half of the world not just by their superior naval and military strength, but by their uncanny strategic use of "divide and conquer" policy. That is how a nation of shopkeepers (alluded to the English by Napoleon), slightly larger in size than the state of Odisha and Georgia controlled the entire landmass of the Indian subcontinent. They did by playing one King with another, one Community against other, one caste against other caste - exploiting every possible division that existed in society.
The British wasn't the first one to use this strategy. Long before it was tried by one of the prominent characters in India's famous socio-political epic MAHABHARAT, the ubiquitous maternal uncle of the ever ambitious Prince Yuvraj Duryodhan. Just before the final battle of Kurukshetra which continued for 18 long days, Sakuni attempted to divide their opponents Pandava camp by bringing the the latter's chief asset Lord Krishna to Kaurava's side.
A shewd strategist, Shakuni was confident of implementing his master plan to success over the gullible Pandav brothers, but was afraid of one person of matching intelligence who could throw a spanner in his scheming wheels. He was Lord Krishna, who was firmly in Pandav's camp. "YEH VASUDEV KRISHNA HI MERA CHAAL PEHCHAAN SAKTA HAI. USE KISI BHI TARAH UN PANDAVON SE ALAG KARNA HOGA", "It's only Vasudev Krishna who could see my scheming, no body else. We should keep him apart from the 5 brothers" - so said Shakuni to Duryodhan.
The wily King of Gandhar tried his best in this mission. Just before the war he instructed Duryodhan to go to Dwarka and ask Devaki Nandan (son of Devaki as Sri Krishna is known as) for help. A reluctant, egotistical Duryodhan reached Dwarka, the abode of Lord Krishna soon followed by the archer Pandav, Arjun. Vasudev kept his offers open - Either Him who will not hold any weapon vis a vis his all powerful Narayani Sena (Army). Arjun promptly accepted the former, to have his friend Krishna by his side, where as Duryodhan was more than glad to get his Narayani Sena.
Upon returning to Hastinapur, Duryodhan boasted in front of his MAMASHREE (Maternal Uncle) Shakuni how the fool Arjun preferred a virtually useless Krishna to the vast Narayani Sena which Duryodhan got by default. He thought his Uncle will be highly impressed. But Mamashree Shakuni retorted back - "ARRE MURKH BHANJE, YEH KAISI GALTI KAR DIYA", "You moron nephew, what a blunder you did". You are going to pay for this mistake, he opined. Needless to say, it dashed the hope of Sakuni to divide Lord Krishna from the Pandavas who under the patronage of Giridhar (another name for Lord Krishna) went on to win the war.
This is not the only instance where Shakuni used his guile to judge people and use them as pawns like in the game of dice in which he was an expert. Karna - the valiant, generous but illegitimate son of SURYA (Sun God) and a close friend and confidant of Duryodhan was a person of utility for Shakuni who could match Arjun in Archery. In a scene from B R Chopra's Teleserial MAHABHARAT, Shakuni plots the death of the Pandavas with his plans to roast them alive inside their inflammable palace called LAKHYA GRIHA (The Jade House).
When Duryodhan is about the divulge the plans to his buddy Karna, Shakuni dissuades him - "There is no question of Karna's dedication towards you, my dear nephew Duryodhan. But he is just a pawn, part of the larger game towards your goal of your Kingship. It will be not be necessarily wise to divulge all our plans to him. But, keep your friendship alive, as he is our invaluable asset to take on Arjuna, but disclose stuff to him only as and only necessary."
In another scene, Mahatma Vidur, the step brother and Minister of Hastinapur tells the blind yet ambitious King Dhritarastra some hard truth. An irritated Emperor retorted back - "If you were not my brother, I would have punished you". Mahatma Vidur replies politely - " I may be your brother and well wisher, but I am advising the King in my capacity as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hastinapur. I am doing this as my duty, because the duty of the minister is to tell the truth to his King".
Fast forward thousands of years to the year 2020. Anthony Fauci (Director of Center for Disease Control) as Mahatma Vidur is telling his Dhritarastra Trump some harsh truth about the Coronavirus. But blind Trump is unable to see or accept it. Hastinapur was ruined due to the idiosyncrasy of stubborn Duryodhan, same could happen to America due to Trump. After all this is Kalyug, not the Dwapara Yuga of Mahabharat where sense still prevailed. Shakuni and Mahabharat were way ahead of time.
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