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 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.