Kautilya or also known as Acharya Chanakya in his widely acclaimed text – Chanakya Neeti, talks about the four ways to make someone to do a task i.e. Saam, Daam, Danda and bhed respectively. Instead, with the passage of time, the similar approach has proved itself as an excellent weapon for destruction and dissimilation of nations and kingdoms, let alone meagre men.
To get one familiar; Operation Barbarossa was the massive siege led by Hitler towards humongous USSR in 1941 which was also the lynchpin for beginning of the conclusion of WWII. Both the superpowers were miraculously humbled due to their own flesh namely, Hitler and Stalin.
Saam: suggestive plays – Hitler barbarically attacked the Baltic and Slavic regions like Ukraine in spite of repeated warning from his general staff about the economic repercussions which would cause nothing but, drain of resources. Also, their also the ‘brain’ drain which was caused due to the clashes between his ideologies and those of renowned intellectuals like Albert Einstein himself. On the other hand, Russian inability to retaliate in time for the directive number 1 was because of Stalin’s overconfidence over his armory and his distrust for the British in spite of their repeated warnings.
Daam: precursive persuasions – Breaking the order, the profits of not having the war were observed way before 1940s when there were several economic pacts and peace treaties between the two nations. The Molotov-Ribbentropp pact and the division of “spheres of influence” in-between them were tantamount to the façade they were maintaining for the rest of the world even though, it was highly beneficial for the Germans to effectively maintain their blockade against the British.
Danda: anhilation – Fredrick Barbarossa was The Holy Roman Emperor who led the Third Crusade to acquiesce Jerusalem and later drowned in 1190 in Anatolia; not even in the vicinity of the Holy city. The dictator on the other hand, being more advanced and strategic, as they say, ended having similar fates as of convent bully. As the Marcks plan (1940), the Wehmacht was supposed to cross the A-A line i.e. past Leningard, Donbass and Moscow while, the Red Army held them at Moscow.
Bhed: Cavitation – After the crushing defeat in the Battle of Moscow, in 1942, Hitler took the charge of Wehrmacht while ‘purging’ nearly every general leaving him taking all the military-related decisions since, he was surrounded with people with little or no experience of the same. Déjà vu was the phrase used by a lot of historians when they realized the reoccurrence of The Great Purge by Stalin in 1930s.
Nearly 1 million soldiers were lost along with half as civilian lives which gives Adolf’s lines, “To conquer a nation fist disarm its citizens…” a whole new meaning.Or, as The New York Times Reviewer quoted for the documentary film, “Moscow strikes back” – “The savagery of that retreat is a spectacle to stun the mind.”