Glimpses of World History Read online

  Jawaharlal Nehru

  GLIMPSES OF WORLD HISTORY

  Being further letters to his daughter, written in prison, and containing a rambling account of history for young people

  with 50 maps by J.F. Horrabin

  Contents

  About the Author

  List of Maps

  Foreword to the 2004 Edition

  Foreword

  Preface to Original Edition

  A Chronology of World History

  From Central Prison, Naini

  A Birthday Letter

  1 A New Year’s Gift

  2 The Lesson of History

  3 Inqilab Zindabad

  4 Asia and Europe

  5 The Old Civilizations and Our Inheritance

  6 The Hellenes

  7 The Greek City-States

  8 Empires in Western Asia

  9 The Burden of Old Tradition

  10 The Village Republics of Ancient India

  11 A Thousand Years of China

  12 The Call of the Past

  13 Where Do Riches Go To?

  14 The Sixth Century before Christ, and Religion

  15 Persia and Greece

  16 The Glory That was Hellas

  17 A Famous Conqueror but a Conceited Young Man

  18 Chandragupta Maurya and the Arthashastra

  From on Board S.S. Cracovia in the Arabian Sea

  19 Three Months!

  20 The Arabian Sea

  From District Gaol, Bareilly

  21 A Holiday and a Dream Journey

  22 Man’s Struggle for a Living

  23 A Survey

  24 Ashoka, the Beloved of the Gods

  25 The World of Ashoka’s Time

  26 The Ch’ins and the Hans

  27 Rome against Carthage

  28 The Roman Republic Becomes an Empire

  29 South India Overshadows the North

  30 The Borderland Empire of the Kushans

  31 Jesus and Christianity

  32 The Roman Empire

  33 The Roman Empire Splits up and Finally Becomes a Ghost

  34 The Idea of the World State

  35 Parthia and the Sassanids

  36 South India Colonizes

  37 Hindu Imperialism under the Guptas

  38 The Huns Come to India

  39 India’s Control of Foreign Markets

  40 The Ups and Downs of Countries and Civilizations

  41 China Flourishes under the Tangs

  42 Chosen and Dai Nippon

  43 Harsha-Vardhana and Hiuen Tsang

  44 South India Produces Many Kings and Warriors and a Great Man

  45 India in the Middle Ages

  46 Angkor the Magnificent and Sri Vijaya

  47 Rome Relapses into Darkness

  48 The Coming of Islam

  49 The Arabs Conquer from Spain to Mongolia

  50 Baghdad and Harun-al-Rashid

  51 From Harsha to Mahmud in North India

  52 The Countries of Europe Take Shape

  53 The Feudal System

  54 China Pushes the Nomads to the West

  55 The Shogun Rules in Japan

  From District Gaol, Dehra Dun

  56 The Quest of Man

  57 The End of the First Millennium after Christ

  58 Another Look at Asia and Europe

  59 The Maya Civilization of America

  60 A Jump back to Mohenjo Daro

  61 Cordoba and Granada

  62 The Crusades

  63 Europe at the Time of the Crusades

  64 The Rise of European Cities

  65 The Afghans Invade India

  66 The Slave Kings of Delhi

  67 Chengiz Khan Shakes up Asia and Europe

  68 The Mongols Dominate the World

  69 Marco Polo, the Great Traveller

  70 The Roman Church Becomes Militant

  71 The Fight against Authoritarianism

  72 The Passing of the Middle Ages

  73 The Discovery of the Sea Routes

  74 The Break-up of the Mongol Empires

  75 India Begins to Tackle a Difficult Problem

  76 The Kingdoms of South India

  77 Vijayanagar

  78 The Malaysian Empires of Madjapahit and Malacca

  79 Europe Begins to Grab in Eastern Asia

  80 An Age of Peace and Prosperity in China

  81 Japan Shuts Herself up

  82 Europe in Turmoil

  83 The Renaissance

  84 The Protestant Revolt and the Peasants’ War

  85 Autocracy in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe

  86 The Netherlands Fight for Freedom

  87 England Cuts off the Head of Her King

  88 Babar

  89 Akbar

  90 The Decline and Fall of the Moghal Empire in India

  91 The Sikhs and the Marathas

  92 The English Triumph over Their Rivals in India

  93 A Great Manchu Ruler in China

  94 A Chinese Emperor Writes to an English King

  95 The War of Ideas in Eighteenth-Century Europe

  96 Europe on the Eve of Great Changes

  97 The Coming of the Big Machine

  98 The Industrial Revolution Begins in England

  99 America Breaks away from England

  100 The Fall of the Bastille

  101 The French Revolution

  102 Revolution and Counter-revolution

  103 The Ways of Governments

  104 Napoleon

  105 More about Napoleon

  106 A Survey of the World

  107 The Hundred Years before the World War

  108 The Nineteenth Century Continued

  109 Wars and Revolt in India

  110 The Indian Artisan Goes to the Wall

  111 The Village, the Peasant, and the Landlord in India

  112 How Britain Ruled India

  113 The Reawakening of India

  114 Britain Forces Opium on China

  115 China in Difficulties

  116 Japan Rushes Ahead

  117 Japan Defeats Russia

  118 China Becomes a Republic

  119 Farther India and the East Indies

  120 Another New Year’s Day

  121 The Philippines and the United States of America

  122 Where Three Continents Meet

  123 A Look Back

  124 The Persistence of Iran’s Old Traditions

  125 Imperialism and Nationalism in Persia

  126 About Revolutions Generally, and Especially Those of Eighteen Forty-Eight in Europe

  127 Italy Becomes a United and Free Nation

  128 The Rise of Germany

  129 Some Famous Writers

  130 Darwin and the Triumph of Science

  131 The Advance of Democracy

  132 The Coming of Socialism

  133 Karl Marx and the Growth of Workers’ Organizations

  134 Marxism

  135 The Victorian Age in England

  136 England Becomes the World’s Money-Lender

  137 Civil War in America

  138 The Invisible Empire of America

  139 Seven Hundred Years of Conflict between Ireland and England

  140 Home Rule and Sinn Fein in Ireland

  141 Britain Seizes and Holds on to Egypt

  142 Turkey Becomes the “Sick Man of Europe”

  143 The Russia of the Tsars

  144 The Russian Revolution of 1905 That Failed

  145 The End of an Epoch

  146 The World War Begins

  147 India on the Eve of the War

  148 War 1914–18

  149 The Course of the War

  150 The Passing away of Tsardom in Russia />
  151 The Bolsheviks Seize Power

  152 The Soviets Win through

  153 Japan Bullies China

  154 India during War-Time

  155 The New Map of Europe

  156 The Post-War World

  157 Ireland’s Fight for a Republic

  158 A New Turkey Rises from the Ashes

  159 Mustafa Kemal Breaks with the Past

  160 India Follows Gandhi

  161 India in the Nineteen Twenties

  162 Peaceful Rebellion in India

  163 Egypt’s Fight for Freedom

  164 What Independence under the British Means

  165 Western Asia Re-enters World Politics

  166 The Arab Countries—Syria

  167 Palestine and Trans-Jordan

  168 Arabia—A Jump from the Middle Ages

  169 Iraq and the Virtues of Aerial Bombing

  170 Afghanistan and Some Other Countries of Asia

  171 The Revolution That Did Not Come off

  172 A New Way of Paying Old Debts

  173 The Strange Behaviour of Money

  174 Move and Counter-move

  175 Mussolini and Fascism in Italy

  176 Democracy and Dictatorships

  177 Revolution and Counter-revolution in China

  178 Japan Defies the World

  179 The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics

  180 The Piatiletka, or Russia’s Five Year Plan

  181 The Soviet Union’s Difficulties, Failures and Successes

  182 Science Goes ahead

  183 The Good and Bad Applications of Science

  184 The Great Depression and World Crisis

  185 What Caused the Crisis

  186 The Struggle of America and England for Leadership

  187 The Dollar, the Pound, and the Rupee

  188 The Capitalist World Fails to Pull together

  189 Revolution in Spain

  190 The Nazi Triumph in Germany

  191 Disarmament

  192 President Roosevelt to the Rescue

  193 The Failure of Parliaments

  194 A Final Look Round the World

  195 The Shadow of War

  196 The Last Letter

  Footnotes

  Postscript

  Follow Penguin

  Copyright

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  GLIMPSES OF WORLD HISTORY

  Jawaharlal Nehru was born on 14 November 1889 at Allahabad and educated in England, at Harrow and Cambridge. In 1912, Nehru returned home to play a central role in India’s struggle for freedom from British colonial rule, and then, as prime minister of independent India for seventeen years, went on to shape the nation’s future as a modern, secular and democratic state. He died in office, on 27 May 1964. Visionary and idealist, scholar and statesman of international stature, Nehru was also an outstanding writer. His three most renowned books—An Autobiography, Glimpses of World History and The Discovery of India—have acquired the status of classics, and are all published by Penguin.

  List of Maps

  Civilizations of Western Asia and South-Eastern Europe

  The Beginning of Chinese Civilization

  The Greeks and the Persians

  Alexander’s Empire

  Ashoka 268–226 BC

  Rome Becomes an Empire

  India at the Time of the Kushan Empire

  India Colonizes

  The Tang Empire

  The Arabs Conquer

  Europe in the Ninth Century

  Asia and Europe about AD 1000

  The Maya Civilization

  Europe in the Thirteenth Century

  Chengiz—“The Scourge of God”

  The Discoveries

  The Revolt against Rome

  Akbar’s Empire

  The English and French Fight for India

  The Empire of Chien Lung

  America Breaks away

  Napoleon over Europe

  India at the Time of the Great Revolt, 1857

  Britain and China

  The Growth of Japan

  Farther India and the East Indies

  The Ottoman Empire in the Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries

  Russia and Persia

  Italy in 1815

  The Growth of Germany

  The Expansion of the USA

  Britain Seizes Egypt

  The Turk’s Last Foothold in Europe

  Europe 1914-15

  Europe 1918

  Soviet Russia 1918-19

  The Succession States

  New Countries of Europe

  Mustafa Kemal Saves Turkey

  Western Asia Re-awakened

  The Arab Countries

  Ibn Saud’s Arabia

  Afghanistan

  France over Europe

  Italy and the Mediterranean

  The Chinese Revolution

  Japan’s War on China

  The U.S.S.R. Opens up Central Asia

  The War in Spain

  The Berlin–Rome Axis

  Foreword to the 2004 Edition

  Jawaharlal Nehru’s three classics—Glimpses of World History, An Autobiography and The Discovery of India—remain essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the ideas and personalities that have shaped India through the ages, and moulded the character and special genius of her people.

  The three books deal with different subjects, yet through them runs the common thread of Pandit Nehru’s own vision and ideals—his passionate commitment to democracy and social justice, his intense aversion to authoritarianism and fundamentalism, and his exuberant celebration of India’s pluralistic culture. All three books were written while he was in prison during the freedom movement, yet they are remarkable for their absence of bitterness. This was characteristic of Panditji’s personality, as were the deep humanity and delightful joie de vivre which illuminate these pages.

  Though written more than fifty years ago, these books address issues that remain vitally relevant today—the choice between non-violence and terrorism to attain political goals, the perilous politics of caste and religion, the struggle to conquer hunger, disease and ignorance, the importance of cultivating a ‘scientific temper’. Through his views on these and other crucial questions emerges Panditji’s noble vision for the India of the future—a vision that is enshrined in our Constitution, that laid the firm foundations on which we have built our democratic, secular polity, and that has made us what we are today.

  Generations of readers have been moved and, indeed, enthralled by the three classics, which reflect the power and lucidity of Jawaharlal Nehru’s mind, the eloquence of his language, and the radiance of his spirit. I hope they will continue to educate, inspire and guide us for generations to come.

  New Delhi

  27 May 2004

  SONIA GANDHI

  Foreword

  My father’s three books—Glimpses of World History, An Autobiography and The Discovery of India—have been my companions through life. It is difficult to be detached about them.

  Indeed Glimpses was written for me. It remains the best introduction to the story of man for young and growing people in India and all over the world. The Autobiography has been acclaimed as not merely the quest of one individual for freedom, but as an insight into the making of the mind of new India. I had to correct the proofs of Discovery while my father was away, I think in Calcutta, and I was in Allahabad ill with mumps! The Discovery delves deep into the sources of India’s national personality. Together, these books have moulded a whole generation of Indians and inspired persons from many other countries.

  Books fascinated Jawaharlal Nehru. He sought out ideas. He was extraordinarily sensitive to literary beauty. In his writings he aimed at describing his motives and appraisals as meticulously as possible. The purpose was not self-justification or rationalization, but to show the rightness and inevitability of the actions and events in which he was a prime participant. He was a luminous man and his writings reflected the rad
iance of his spirit.

  New Delhi

  4 November 1980

  INDIRA GANDHI

  Preface to Original Edition

  I do not know when or where these letters will be published, or whether they will be published at all, for India is a strange land today and it is difficult to prophesy. But I am writing these lines while I have the chance to do so, before events forestall me.

  An apology and an explanation are needed for this historical series of letters. Those readers who take the trouble to go through them will perhaps find the apology and the explanation. In particular, I would refer the reader to the last letter, and perhaps it would be as well, in this topsy-turvy world, to begin at the end.

  The letters have grown. There was little of planning about them, and I never thought that they would grow to these dimensions. Nearly six years ago, when my daughter was ten years old, I wrote a number of letters to her containing a brief and simple account of the early days of the world. These early letters were subsequently published in book form and they had a generous reception. The idea of continuing them hovered in my mind, but a busy life full of political activity prevented it from taking shape. Prison gave me the chance I needed, and I seized it.

  Prison-life has its advantages; it brings both leisure and a measure of detachment. But the disadvantages are obvious. There are no libraries or reference books at the command of the prisoner, and, under these conditions, to write on any subject, and especially history, is a foolhardy undertaking. A number of books came to me, but they could not be kept. They came and went. Twelve years ago, however, when, in common with large numbers of my countrymen and countrywomen, I started my pilgrimages to prison, I developed the habit of making notes of the books I read. My note-books grew in number and they came to my rescue when I started writing. Other books of course helped me greatly, among them inevitably, H.G. Wells’s Outline of History. But the lack of good reference books was very real, and because of this the narrative had often to be slurred over, or particular periods skipped.

  The letters are personal and there are many intimate touches in them which were meant for my daughter alone. I do not know what to do about them, for it is not easy to take them out without considerable effort. I am therefore leaving them untouched.

  Physical inactivity leads to introspection and varying moods. I am afraid these changing moods are very apparent in the course of these letters, and the method of treatment is not the objective one of a historian. I do not claim to be a historian. There is an unfortunate mixture of elementary writing for the young and a discussion at times of the ideas of grown-ups. There are numerous repetitions. Indeed, of the faults that these letters contain there is no end. They are superficial sketches joined together by a thin thread. I have borrowed my facts and ideas from odd books, and many errors may have crept in. It was my intention to have these letters revised by a competent historian, but during my brief period out of prison I have not had the time to make any such arrangement.