Unspoken No Archives - understand-culture

The Silent Elders

In the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira loses Draupadi in the game of dice. She is brought into the assembly hall and asks the elders whether she has been won by right. Bhishma answers: “O blessed one, morality is subtle.” He adds: “I am unable to decide this matter.” The others “sat with faces downwards, uttering not a word.”

Only Vikarna, a younger son of King Dhritarashtra, speaks: “I regard Draupadi as not won.” Karna rebukes him: “though but a boy you speakest in the assembly as if you were old.”

Before the King

Kurippu arindhu kaalam karudhi verupila vendupa vetpach chollal. Read the signs, consider the moment, and say what is needed in a way that does not displease. This is couplet 696 of the Thirukkural, the classical Tamil book of ethics, in its chapter on conduct in the presence of kings. One English version reads: “Knowing the signs, waiting for fitting time, with courteous care, / Things not displeasing, needful things, declare.”

In the Dressing Room

On January 2, 2025, in Sydney, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir spoke to the press before the fifth Test against Australia. Reports had described stern words between him and the players. “Debates between coach and player should remain in dressing room. Stern words. They were just reports not truth,” he said.

The Maytas Vote

On December 16, 2008, the board of Satyam Computer Services approved the purchase of two companies, Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, for 1.6 billion dollars. Investors protested, and Satyam called the deal off.

Business Standard later reported on the minutes. Several of the five independent directors had raised concerns. As the meeting began, one of them, Mangalam Srinivas, warned the board against being a “rubber stamp to affirm decisions already reached.” The minutes still referred to “the unanimous approval by the board members.”

Four Judges

On January 12, 2018, four judges of the Supreme Court, Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M.B. Lokur and Kurien Joseph, held a press conference about the Chief Justice, Dipak Misra. “Unless this institution is preserved democracy will not survive in this country,” they said. Chelameswar called the step “extraordinary in the history of any nation.”

They had first gone to the Chief Justice himself: “We met the CJI with a specific request which unfortunately couldn’t convince him that we were right.” Soli Sorabjee said: “I’m very upset about this, I wish the four Supreme Court judges hadn’t done this.”

The Letter

In August 2020 a group of senior Congress leaders, later called the G-23, wrote to the party president Sonia Gandhi about the state of the party. The letter reached the media. According to Newslaundry, this “had several leaders expressing displeasure about letting such an internal matter play out in the media.”

At the Congress Working Committee on August 24, Rahul Gandhi said, as Business Standard reported: “it is the CWC where we discuss our differences and put out our thoughts, not the media.” Kapil Sibal tweeted: “Rahul Gandhi says ‘we are colluding with BJP’.” The party denied that Rahul Gandhi had said this, and Sibal deleted the tweet.

Private and Confidential

In September 2005 the Indian cricket coach Greg Chappell sent an email about the captain, Sourav Ganguly, to the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It reportedly said that Ganguly was not “physically or mentally” fit to lead the team. The email reached the media.

Chappell said: “I sent a private and confidential e-mail to the president of BCCI. It did not remain confidential though I would have preferred it to have remained so.”

The Parrot

In one of the Akbar and Birbal tales, Emperor Akbar’s pet parrot has died. No courtier dares to tell him, because he has ordered that anyone who brings news of the parrot’s death will be hanged. Birbal goes to the emperor and says: “Jahanpanah, your parrot is neither eating anything, nor drinking anything.”

When Akbar asks whether the parrot is dead, Birbal replies: “I did not say it. You said it.”