A Society of Dhritarashtras

A Society of Dhritarashtras
(by muralimohan m)

No society was born blind.
No land lacked eyes.
Yet everywhere,
people learned the skill
of looking away.

Dhritarashtra does not rule one nation.
He walks through every country,
every street,
every crowd
that knows the truth
and chooses silence.

Society sees loyalty crowned as virtue,
merit pushed aside quietly.
It hears anger praised as strength,
restraint mocked as weakness.
Still, it says,
“This is how the world works.”

Cities burn in one place,
streets riot in another,
homes turn into debris somewhere else—
and society sighs,
“That is far away.”

Distance becomes an excuse.
Silence becomes policy.

Dhritarashtra never ordered the war.
He only loved comfort
more than conscience.
So do societies today.

They say they want peace,
yet reward those who divide.
They say they want safety,
yet admire threats.
They say they want the future,
yet hand it over
to crowds without thought
and leaders without restraint.

Wars no longer shock.
Suffering becomes news.
Ruins become routine.

This is not cruelty.
It is fatigue of the soul.

When people stop asking
“What is right?”
and start asking
“What is convenient?”
Kurukshetra is already forming.

Blindness today is not fate.
It is choice.

To see injustice and stay quiet
is to become Dhritarashtra.
To know the cost and still applaud
is to dig trenches for tomorrow.

Societies do not collapse in one day.
They erode gently—
through excuses,
through silence,
through applause at the wrong moments.

Open your eyes, society—
not to shout,
not to hate,
but to stand
when silence feels easier.

Because when a society chooses
not to see,
the battlefield is no longer a place.

It becomes the future.

And history, always patient,
will not ask
who ruled—

only
who looked away.