In the Mahabharata war, the Kauravas form the chakravyuha, a battle formation. Arjuna’s young son Abhimanyu says: “I have been taught by my father the method of (penetrating and) smiting this kind of array. I shall not be able, however, to come out if any kind of danger overtakes me.”
A later folk version adds that Abhimanyu heard how to enter the formation while still in his mother’s womb. He never heard how to come out, and this incomplete knowledge led to his death.
In the Udana, an early Buddhist text, a group of blind men is shown an elephant. Each touches a different part. The one who touched the head says: “An elephant, your majesty, is just like a water jar.” The others name what they touched.
The Buddha draws the lesson in verse: “People who only see one side of things / Engage in quarrels and disputes.”
Shatkarno bhidyate mantrah chatushkarnah sthiro bhavet. “That which is (heard) by six ears gets shattered; that which is (heard) by four ears gets affirmed.” The verse is in the Panchatantra and, in a similar form, in the Hitopadesha.
Six ears are three people. The safe number for a secret plan is two.
On November 8, 2016, at 8:15 p.m., Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on television that 500 and 1,000 rupee notes would no longer be legal tender. According to Business Standard, “only 10 people in the system were aware of the plan in its entirety.”
The board of the Reserve Bank of India met at 5:30 that afternoon. The cabinet was informed that evening, and ministers were told to keep their mobile phones outside the room. “When I went to the cabinet meeting, I had no idea such a big move would be announced,” said the minister Piyush Goyal.
In May 1998 India carried out the nuclear tests known as Pokhran-II. The project employed 75 scientists and “progressed in secrecy.” A select group took part in the detonation, and all of them had to wear army uniforms.
The shafts had code names. The thermonuclear device was placed in a shaft called White House, and the fission bomb in one called Taj Mahal.
After India’s defeat in the war with China in 1962, two army officers, Henderson Brooks and Prem Bhagat, wrote a report on what went wrong. “The Government of India has left the report classified, citing national security reasons.”
On March 17, 2014, the journalist Neville Maxwell posted part of the report on his website. In Parliament, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said its contents were “not only extremely sensitive but are of current operational value.”
Indian courts have often accepted documents from the government in a sealed cover, seen by the judges but not by the other side. On April 5, 2023, in Madhyamam Broadcasting v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that the practice creates “a culture of secrecy and opaqueness, and places the judgment beyond the reach of challenge.”
Two weeks earlier, in a case on military pensions, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had refused a sealed cover from the government. “I am personally averse to sealed covers,” he said. “There cannot be secrecy in the court.”
Every Union minister in India takes two oaths. The second is an oath of secrecy, set out in the Third Schedule of the Constitution: “I will not directly or indirectly communicate or reveal to any person or persons any matter which shall be brought under my consideration or shall become known to me as a Minister for the Union except as may be required for the due discharge of my duties as such Minister.”
In the Mahabharata, Kunti bears a son before her marriage. Fearing the stigma, she abandons him. He grows up as Karna and fights against her other sons, the Pandavas. After the war Kunti tells Yudhishthira: “I tried in past times to apprise Karna of his brothership with you.”
Yudhishthira answers: “In consequence of thyself having concealed your counsels, this great affliction has overtaken me!” He then curses all women: “Henceforth no woman shall succeed in keeping a secret.”
The Arthashastra, the ancient treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya, has a chapter on the king’s council meetings. It states: “The subject matter of a council shall be entirely secret.” It also states: “Whoever discloses counsels shall be torn to pieces.”