According to popular lore, Confucius once called on the elder statesman and hermit Lao Tze to ask him how to conduct his life.“Rid yourself of arrogance and desire, rid yourself of flattery and excessive ambition…That is all I have to say to you,” answered the Master.Humility and dictatorial dreams of winning and expanding do not go hand in hand. So Confucius went on to weave a philosophy of dominance based on order, disciplined structures of states and obedient bureaucrats. Humility however, remained an important element of the wielding of great power. The creator of vast spheres of dominance must create and sustain humble common folk seeking to be of some significance in their pitiful lives whose biggest dream would be to kiss the authoritarian’s ring, bow and touch the hem of his garment. With such a humble hero-worshipping fan base, the leader can create empires in his own image. West Bengal, which has replaced Mamata Banerjee’s long rule with that of the BJP, is already used to authoritarian bibles. For 400 years since the 16th century, it was ruled by Mughals, and then the British. In the middle came the French colonisers who established a conclave with a limited but effective presence. Even after they were forced out by the British they took to returning again and again. They left after the British in 1953, when Chandannagar was vacated and only then integrated in India. British rule lasted for all of 190 years. But it was a truncated West Bengal that became a part of independent India in 1947. The eastern Bengal became an independent Bangladesh.Marxist rule was initially handled at the top by an anglicised majority of bhadralok initially. Humility was not their strong point, assertive brutal assertion of power over the middle classes was. Mamata Banerjee pried loose Bengal from their grip and ruled Bengal for 15 years with her Ma, Mati, Manush call. Today BJP supporters are out in streets destroying a statue of Lenin while setting fire to Trinamool Congress offices and shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as they bulldoze meat shops.As in the Partition riots, Bengal once again reveals its contrasts, its contradictions and communal conflicts that cannot be buried forever. Nothing is unambiguous about the violence or fits the usual formulae. Crippled and deformed successively for four centuries by long autocratic rulers, Bengal is an enigma for a simplistic analysis. Since the early 20th century, it has prided itself for its rich intellectual past, its liberal ethos and its cosmopolitanism. But a journey into the hinterland of the City of Joy, is still a journey in time where remote epochs live cheek by jowl and Bangali and a-Bangali (non-Bengali) cracks run visibly. Colonial rule introduced modern factories, the print technology and colleges but also fostered the social chasms and fissures which deepened with the arrival of each new regime. Scratched a little, the elite of the town of Kolkata would reveal traces of Zemindari attitudes to Ma, Mati and Manush. Guerilla Naxal violence was romanticised as workers’ revolt against the new owners and resorting to it at election time was deeply embedded in the post Marxist consciousness of the political parties looking for power. The positive part of all this is that West Bengal is perhaps the most acutely anti-imperialist and anti-colonial state of India, but the negative part is the paralysis in its society which is unable to eradicate the divisions along caste-class lines to become a truly cosmopolitan and homogenous society. After the 2026 elections the émigré political activists of the right are visibly turning dominant. They and the left-leaning part of an elite that has been voicing the socio-political ethos of the state, and last but not the least, the spores of guerrilla violence embedded in downwardly mobile part of Bengali society, will create three restless factions. These will not react well to the ‘Ek bhasha, ek samvidhan, ek nishan’ cry of jhaalmuri-chewing Gen Z supporters who are ecstatic about their party ‘owning’ Anga, Kalinga and Banga! History has its own secret passages and whispered tales about emperors and empires they built. Darius the Great, of Persia, at 20-something, was crowned king of the then world’s biggest empire. He too inherited a multi-cultural empire where ethnic rebellions and sectorial clashes were routine. All such revolts were routinely quashed with brutal swiftness by him. But the insubordinate land of Babylon, incorporated in his empire in 538 B.C.E. by King Cyrus, remained defiant he sensed. But to hell with that lot. We’ll smash them if they dare to rise. Darius was occupied with dreams of conquering more lands. He went about operationalising his plans like a predatorial but methodical collector. He now needed a pretext to win over the land of the Scythians. The question was how to provoke the enemy. Darius dug into the past and brought out a list of ancient insults when the Scythians had won over part of a territory of Iranian people and must be punished now for their cheek. The Scythians called a meeting of friendly neighbourhood kings warning them of the terrible toll all must pay if the Persians won their land. Like most wobbly coalitions, this one too wobbled and scattered. So Scythians took recourse to jeering Darius and his army as it arrived predictably and laid a long siege. Like ‘Joy Ma Kali’ to ‘Jai Shri Ram’, the Scythians taunted the greatest army in the world saying it would defeat Scythians the day a mule gave birth. It was well known most mules are sterile. Then something changed. In the 20th month of the siege, a pack mule gave birth.Then an astute plan was hatched. A loyalist who had disfigured himself deliberately asked Darius if he may go to the ‘other side’ pretending to be a rebel punished by Darius seeking revenge. The answer was yes, Dhurandhar.This embedded spy was received sympathetically as proof of a cruel heartless Persian king. He soon acquired all necessary ‘inside knowledge’. After the Council inside the fort gave him an army and also the vital keys to the gates, he signalled, and soon on the appointed day Darius and his armies mounted the attack and his ‘inside man’ was the one who opened the gates for them. This is Empire building, a ruthless amoral affair by and large helped by many wiles and embedded turncoats. It needs lies and anti-enemy propaganda. And above all, a power hungry Supremo who says, ‘Go Dhurandhar, go!’ The King of Persia, Cyrus, once said it is impossible for the same country to be the producer of rich crops and philosophies, and also of good fighters. So colonise the former, but rely on men raised on arid hard lands. And this is why, first the Moghuls and then the British shifted their capital from the shasya shyamala – green and beautiful – east to the arid west that alone produced warriors and won in fratricidal wars. Sheer unapologetic quest for total power being the only holy grail, it’s ‘Go Dhurandhar, go!’Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues.