RIFLE RANGE BOY: History repeats itself, again!

The Battle of Kurukshetra: Bhima killing the King of Kalinga,

from 1605 illustrated manuscript of the Razmnama, the Persian

translation of the Mahabharata,

Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata.

Being a historian must be quite scary; seeing everyday events unfolding in front of his very eyes just as it happened many times before in history. From time immemorial, the issues are the same. Even the language used is eerily the same. The end point is the same; usurping of power, wealth and dominance being the intent. Modus operandi remains the same; coming as friends or liberators with goodies beyond compare. Little do the recipients realise that it is just a bait to fish bigger catches. Your enemy is my enemy, they say. They speak of new incomprehensible lingos, the marginalised, the minority, the downtrodden, the outcasts and they embrace you despite the wart and all.

The setting may be different. The tool may vary. It would happen at a different time. But the manner would be the same. They would make you see a matter as a problem when it never was, to you or anyone in your vicinity. You will resist. They would use their resources make you feel stupid, obsolete and aloof. They would show proof to demonstrate their assertions. You relent. Poof! They have the solution, and you have a big hole in your pocket.

In times like these, the excellent observation of Freidrich Nietzsche comes to mind. In fact, it was observed in the Vedanta teachings many many centuries ago. That our life goes up and down in oscillation like a sinusoidal wave, with peaks and troughs. Sadness and happiness are temporary events. Do not be too contended when things go your way and, at the same times, do not despair when you are in the doldrums. It would not be long before you start singing and chirping once again.

Like an immortal seeing event of life unfolding in front of him again and again, like in the cycle of rebirth being born yet again, like the life repeating itself, a historian may develop a God-complex. The frustrating part would be that what appears plain to him may not be so to anyone else. Maybe the insanity in the other expects the outcome to be different!

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