Jul
Divide & Rule – A strategy lesson
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The history books of India will always remember this phrase, the British policy of ‘divide & rule’ led to their colonization of India and ruling it for over 200 years. So everyone who has got his education in India should actually remember this strategy and understand its importance. In simple words the ‘Divide & Rule’ strategy means breaking up a combined entity into smaller units so that it is easier to conquer them. For a more concrete definition you can visit this article on Wikipedia.
Historically in India the divide & rule strategy worked like a wonder for the British. They were able to divide the princely estates and were able to easily conquer each of them seperately. It is believed that the creation of states in India by the British was not because of ease of management but rather to divide the people accordingly. The division of India and Pakistan is still considered by many as a final divide and rule policy (in terms of world politics).
World Politics: It is said that one should always learn from the mistakes of others because one does not live long enough. Well countries in this world do not have this problem still it seems ironic to me how India and its neighbors still do not understand from their own mistakes. If we look at the world then it is moving away from being divided. The European Union un-divided themselves by uniting all their countries, their currencies, their economies. USA in itself stands for United States of America. Moreover all the countries in the world always move for better co-operation and peace. Yet in the Indian Sub-continent we are fighting since the past 50 years over Kashmir and Eastern India (Arunachal Pradesh) and will probably continue doing that. We have not learnt from our own mistakes of getting divided and getting ruled by others!
Indian Politics: Credit must be given to Indian politicians in this regard that though they might not have passed class 10th examination in India but the way they understand ‘divide & rule’ probably scholars in India don’t. The division of Indian society by classes, caste reservations, caste based parties, religion and other innumerable artificial divisions, keeps the people haggling over petty issues ignoring the main ones, and thus keeps these corrupt politicians in power. One of the most perfect examples of divide & rule according to me.
Companies & Monopoly: I believe the only place where someone has learn from divide & rule and its after effects is the capitalist companies. Companies understand that if they divide amongst themselves, play price wars and bring the tariffs down then ultimately they lose. Thus in most industries the competitors agree to minimum pricing and do not tend to cut costs below those levels, e.g. Coke and Pepsi, most cellular operators, multiplexes to name a few. By staying united (atleast on pricing) they are able to form a sort of monopoly and avoid being ruled by the consumer!
Application in science: The strategy is so practical that even science has accepted it and developed an algorithm on it called “Divide & Conquer” (don’t know why they could not just use divide & rule). The algorithm works on dividing a bigger problem into smaller problems till the smaller problem becomes really easy to solve! I remember using the algorithm in many courses at IIT Delhi. More details about the algorithm can be found on the Wikipedia article.
The IIMs: Last but not the least I think even IIMs have not completely learn this strategy. IIMs the best business schools of India have united in the admission process and thus able to make it a strong one, but by fighting with each other over Indian B-School rankings, placements and many other issues remove the unity of the institutes. The result being that even the IIMs as b-schools are divided and are not able to make the impact that they can make by being together.
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17 Responses to “Divide & Rule – A strategy lesson”
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But do you think such unity (at least in the case of premier B-school institutes) would work ? On this platform, two points:
1) There’s no one ruling! The IIMs if united under a centralized control mechanism, would only make things like student assessment, consensus on fee structures, etc., more complicated!
That brings in the Govt. the only establishment relatively powerful enough to centralizedly monitor such a thing. Now you know what happens when govt. starts exercising control over this things …
(referring to reservation politics, student politics, etc,)
2) About politics you are completely right. Except one point about the US! You know in states like Texas, there is still a periodic election to decide whether they want to be a state in the US
…thats not unity its just diplomacy! (though apparently united, they are more loyal and polarized towards their regions than the regionalism in India)
Thanks for the comment. (1) I am not saying that bring all IIMs under one authority. What I am saying is that remove the constant rivalry which exists amongst IIMs and try to create rivalry from internation b-schools. IIMs need to start fighting for glory bigger than best b-school in India.
(2) Probably you are correct, but if such elections happen and the state chooses to be a part of US then doesn’t it show more unity? I think if such elections happen in states in India then a lot of states will not want to be part of India.
Azad kashmir belongs to only pakistan and you’ve rightfully attributed to pakistan. you should also give rest to Pakistan. every indian zealot should know this. i hope your map puts some sense into indians
@Tom: Thanks for pointing out the error in the map in the article, hopefully it’ll be changed to the correct one soon
Thanks Tom for the comment and correcting me. I have changed the image to show a better situation where some part of Kashmir is neither in India nor Pakistan.
I think you read the article but did not get the spirit. The whole point is to stop fighting over the small things and try to help each other. Ofcourse Europe can have open borders, G8 countries can allow people to travel without visa, and many countries can have economic co-operation. But India and Pakistan have to keep fighting over a small piece of land, never let it develop, just let it ruin.
Nice article, the breadth of the article is fascinating.
If anyone has the time, you can check this out
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/dloads.htm. It talks about Divide and conquer too.
There is one more strategy used to conquer people. Unite and conquer. Religion uses that strategy pretty well. Most of what religion has accomplished so far has been political and this would be impossible without uniting people under a common notion of God.
I think you are over simplifying wrt Kashmir and Arunanchal. Dont take EU at its face value:
http://polaris.nationalinterest.in/2009/04/30/film-club/
Just the fact that the word ‘United’ is there in the USA doesn’t mean that the people have the same opinion on all issues are not divided on anything at all (exhibit A: Presidential Elections last year).
“Moreover all the countries in the world always move for better co-operation and peace.” is a very sweeping statement. As some guy said: “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.”.
Why should some part of Kashmir be neither in India nor Pakistan? The constitution of India classifies a part of India as “Pakistan occupied Kashmir” and as an Indian, I tend to believe in the constitution.
Interesting point by Nattu, but I would disagree. Religion also uses the Divide and Rule strategy, albeit in a modified form.
@ #2 by Shubham:
I dont think it means unity. Texas is an oil rich state. US doesn’t want to lose it so there are always undrhanded dealing going on between the bearers of the Union Jack at the centre and the buereaucrats of texas (esp during elections) … it is politics and a capitalistic mentality.
And anyway, what makes you so sure that states in India would vote out of the Indian republic. Its a very sweeping empirical statement. We would not know unless it happens (the elections and the consequent theorized break-up) ….
But good post and discussion! Wonderful food-for-thought
^Baba: Actually, the Union Jack in the British flag, not the American flag. The American flag is the Stars and Stripes
And I agree that states in India won’t vote for secession, at least in the near future, and that is because of a somewhat strong sense of identity as an Indian (I could be wrong of course
)
@ AT_Korvus
If you look at religion as an industry, yeah people are divided are being ruled. But if you look at individual religions, it tries to unite people under itself and rule the world. Every religion has ruled the world at some point or the other and it would have been impossible it were not to unite people under itself. Every religion exists because the followers think that the religion can rule the world in the future. It is absolutely impossible for any religion to survive without its staunch followers.
@Nattu: Agreed, and thats where the whole Divide and Rule thing comes in. In case of religion, or for that matter, any mode of identity politics, the goal is to make a strong target segment from a given base group, and then to use that target group against the other groups. In the case of religion and Identity politics, the perpetrators are usually part of the target segment, while in Divide and Rule, the perpetrators were not. It should be mentioned however, that the Pre-British secular India (where Hindu kings allied with Muslim kings to fight against other Hindu kings allied with other Muslim kings) couldn’t have transformed into the divided India without support from the religious groups on the side of the British, and in the case of Pakistan, they gained an entire country. The basic underlying assumptions of divide and rule and religion and identity politics are pretty similar at the end of the day.
(would have loved to do an article on religion, but would be too controversial I guess
)
@ AT Korvus,
you write one, lets try to make it as politically correct as possible
@Nattu: Gonna be hard, cuz I’m not in favour of being politically correct
The problem is that if I write such an article, it would draw a lot of examples from the religions that are currently being practiced, and usually, people aren’t that open to having their religious beliefs dissected and analyzed. Of course, there are so many examples from hinduism and the history of India itself that fit the entire model of divide and rule so well, its a shame that people won’t be too open to discuss them 
I like the articles of the site. And admire rationale behind every article. i became a member but unable to post my article. Well this is my blog
http://nagaarjjun.blogspot.com/
I had to give kudos to ‘AT_korvus’. i have read all his comments on various posts. This man/ girl should take writing seriously. He has knowledge, logical thinking, rational approach, and command over language. i really like to read an article of his. If you have time…..read my blog.