A Secret in the Oxford Sense: Thieves and the Rhetoric of Mystification in Western India

TLDR: A secret is a secret in the Oxford sense: you may tell it to only one person at a time as discussed by the authors. But a secret perfectly kept dies in its circle of initiates, since their seduction lies precisely in their revelation.

Abstract: It is a secret in the Oxford sense: you may tell it to only one person at a time. ———Oliver Franks (Sunday Telegraph 1977) Common sense commodifies the secret, alienating the value of its content from its social context. But a secret perfectly kept dies in its circle of initiates. Few secrets, however, are dead on arrival, since their seduction lies precisely in their revelation. Most things said to be hidden are in fact nurtured through the processes of calculated concealment, allusion, and revelation, the secrets propagating themselves through circles of conspiracy, rumor, and gossip. As Tim Jenkins observed, “What is concealed, and the reasons for its concealment, serve to distract attention from the dynamic of the secret: what at first sight appears to be static and indeed dead, possessed by and known to only a few, kept in some dark place, in fact has a life and movement of its own; the secret propagates itself through a structure of secret and betrayal” (1999: 225–26).