Bandar Baant: An Unfair Way to Share
Launch library · evergreen read
बंदर बाँट (bandar baant) means a monkey's division, referring to an old story where a monkey, asked to split something fairly between two parties, ends up keeping most of it for itself while appearing to mediate honestly. The phrase is used today for any unfair distribution disguised as fairness.
Where the person or party in charge of dividing something quietly benefits far more than the arrangement first appears to allow. Learners can use this idiom when discussing unfair arrangements or biased mediation. It is a compact, pointed proverb, useful shorthand for a pattern of unfairness that can otherwise take much longer to explain plainly.
Learners can use this idiom when discussing negotiations or arrangements where one party seems to be quietly controlling the outcome while appearing neutral. It is a useful, compact way to raise a concern about fairness without launching into a longer, more direct explanation. Siblings sometimes invoke it half jokingly when dividing something between themselves, a small, familiar way of teasing whoever ends up doing the actual dividing.