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Today’s Canute


“Intolerance! Insults! Lynching! It’s getting bad… What’s happening?” wondered Ravi, carefully folding back the morning’s newspaper.

“’Magnanimous’ is confined to dictionary only and ‘liberal’ is a cuss word today! How do you judge a person so quickly? How do you determine someone’s ‘character’? Mostly, without even knowing a person… Tell us Daju...”

Daju (the know-all – for introduction, please see ‘Beyond The Crash!’ Or ‘The Ubiquitous Potato’) sighed, “Reminds me of King Canute… The Danish King and great warrior, who conquered parts of Europe and even ruled England from 1016… for close to two decades. His is one story how a person can be interpreted differently...”

“And what was that?” I was eager to know more since the name rang a bell.

“King Canute’s achievements are well chronicled in various English texts. There is a famous poem too by William Makepeace Thackeray – a great novelist in the Victorian Age – better known for writing ‘Vanity Fair’.

“The rendition goes that despite the fame, the King was feeling kind of depressed when advancing in age and while walking by the sea, he complained to his courtiers about feeling it in his bones. His companions, being the sycophants they were, started comparing him with God thinking it will please him.

“And to test his own power, King Canute ordered the tide to turn back which, of course, isn’t possible...

“Now comes the part of judging! Some say Canute was so vain that he actually believed himself to be omnipotent. Statements like ‘you think yourself to be King Canute?’ or ‘stop being King Canute’ are popular expressions of scorn.”

I interrupted, “Now I remember! There is a street play in his name where he is depicted as a despot and a tyrant.”

“Yes, but you know… William Makepeace Thackeray’s poem ends saying that the king is dead but sycophants and ‘courtiers’ are still out there. He says so because there is another belief that when he could not turn the tide Canute pointed out to his courtiers that a King is mortal and thus possesses limited powers against God’s eternal powers.”

“The King is dead… Long live the King!”

Daju ignored Babu’s interruption, “That is how you start believing what you think is right and scorn… loathe… any other school of thought. Sometimes the faith and trust is so strong that it leads to violence. There is no rationale, no reason…"


(This post is the musings of Jayanta Bhattacharya. It has nothing to do with where he works or what he does to earn his bread. In case of any criticism or suggestion, write to @Jayantab15 on Twitter / Facebook or jayantab15@gmail.com on email)

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