Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  Greece in her ancient days was great indeed, and people read even now of her glory with wonder. We stand awed and wonder-struck before the beauty of her marble statuary, and read the fragments of her old literature that have come down to us with reverence and amazement. It is said, and rightly, that modern Europe is in some ways the child of ancient Greece, so much has Europe been influenced by Greek thought and Greek ways. But the glory that was Greece, where is it now? For ages past, the old civilization has been no more, and other ways have taken its place, and Greece today is but a petty country in the south-east of Europe.

  Egypt, Knossos, Iraq, and Greece—they have all gone. Their old civilizations, even as Babylon and Nineveh, have ceased to exist. What, then, of the two other ancients in this company of old civilizations? What of China and India? As in other countries, they too have had empire after empire. There have been invasions and destructions and loot on a vast scale. Dynasties of kings have ruled for hundreds of years and then been replaced by others. All this has happened in India and China, as elsewhere. But nowhere else, apart from India and China, has there been a real continuity of civilization. In spite of all the changes and battles and invasions, the thread of the ancient civilizations has continued to run on in both these countries. It is true that both of them have fallen greatly from their old estate, and that the ancient cultures are covered up with a heap of dust, and sometimes filth, which the long ages have accumulated. But still they endure and the old Indian civilization is the basis of Indian life even today. New conditions have arisen in the world now; and the coming of the steamship and the railway and the great factory has changed the face of the world. It may be, it is indeed probable, that they will change as they are already changing, the face of India also. But it is interesting and rather wonderful to think of this long range and continuity of Indian culture and civilization, right from the dawn of history, through long ages, down to us. In a sense, we in India are the heirs of these thousands of years. We are in the direct line it may be, with the ancients, who came down through the north-western mountain passes into the smiling plains of what was to be known as Brahmavarta and Aryavarta and Bharatavarsha and Hindustan. Can you not see them trekking down the mountain passes into the unknown land below? Brave and full of the spirit of adventure, they dared to go ahead without fear of the consequences. If death came, they did not mind, they met it laughing. But they loved life and knew that the only way to enjoy life was to be fearless, and not to worry about defeat and disaster. For defeat and disaster have a way of keeping away from those who are not afraid. Think of them, those distant ancestors of ours, marching on and on, and suddenly reaching the banks of the noble Ganga flowing majestically down to the sea. How the sight must have filled them with joy! And is it any wonder that they bowed down to her and praised her in their rich and melodious language?

  It is indeed wonderful to think that we are the heirs of all these ages. But let us not become conceited, for if we are the heirs of the ages, we are the heirs of both the good and the bad. And there is a great deal of evil in our present inheritance in India, a great deal that has kept us down in the world, and reduced our noble country to great poverty, and made her a plaything in the hands of others. But have we not decided that this must no longer continue?

  6

  The Hellenes

  January 10, 1931

  None of you came today to interview us, and the mulaqat ka din has been rather a blank day. It was a disappointment. And what was worse was the reason given for the postponement of the interview. We were told that Dadu was not well. More we could not find out. Well, when I found that the interview was not taking place today, I went to my charkha and did some spinning. I find that spinning on the charkha and weaving niwar are delightfully soothing. So, when in doubt, spin!

  We compared and contrasted Europe and Asia in my last letter. Let us have a brief look at old Europe, as it is supposed to have been. For a long time, Europe meant the countries round about the Mediterranean Sea. We have no records of the northern countries of Europe in those days. Germany and England and France were supposed by the people of the Mediterranean to be inhabited by wild and barbarous tribes. Indeed, to begin with, civilization is supposed to have been confined to the eastern Mediterranean. As you know, Egypt (which, of course, is in Africa and not in Europe) and Knossos were the first countries to go ahead. Gradually the Aryans poured westwards from Asia, and invaded Greece and the neighbouring countries. These were the Aryan Greeks whom we now know and admire as the ancient Greeks. To begin with, I suppose, they were not very different from the Aryans who, perhaps earlier, had descended into India. But changes must have crept in, and gradually the two branches of the Aryan race became more and more different. The Indian Aryans were influenced greatly by the still older civilization of India—that of the Dravidians, and perhaps the remains of the civilization whose ruins we see at Mohenjo Daro. The Aryans and the Dravidians gave much to each other and took much from each other also, and thus built up a common culture for India.

  In the same way the Aryan Greeks must have been greatly influenced by the older civilization of Knossos which they found flourishing in the Grecian homelands. But though influenced by it, they destroyed Knossos and much of its outer civilization also, and on its ruins they built their own civilization. We must remember that the Aryan Greeks as well as the Aryan Indians were, in those early days, rough and hard fighters. They were vigorous, and they destroyed or absorbed the softer and more civilized people they came across.

  So Knossos was destroyed nearly 1000 years before Christ was born. And the new Greeks established themselves in Greece and the islands round about. They went by sea to the west coast of Asia Minor, to southern Italy and Sicily, and even to the south of France. Marseilles in France was founded by them; but perhaps even before they went, there was a Phoenician settlement there. You will remember that the Phoenicians were a great seafaring people of Asia Minor who went far and wide in search of trade. They even managed to reach England in those early days when England was a barbarous country, and the long sea voyage through the straits of Gibraltar must have been a perilous one.

  In the mainland of Greece famous cities grew up: Athens and Sparta and Thebes and Corinth. The early days of the Greeks, or the Hellenes as they were called, were celebrated in two famous epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. You know something about these two epics, which in a way correspond to our own epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. They are said to have been written by Homer, who was blind. The Iliad tells us how Paris carried away the beautiful Helen to his town of Troy, and how the Greek kings and chiefs then laid siege to Troy to recover her. The Odyssey is the story of the wanderings of Odysseus or Ulysses on his way back from the siege of Troy. In Asia Minor, not far from the coast, stood this little town of Troy. It exists no more, and for ages past it has ceased to be; but the genius of a poet has made it immortal.

  As the Hellenes or Greeks were growing rapidly to their brief but splendid manhood, it is interesting to notice the quiet birth of another Power, which was later to conquer and supplant Greece. Rome is said to have been founded about this time. For several hundred years it was not to play an important part on the world’s stage. But the birth of a great city which was to tower over the European world for centuries, and which was to be called the “mistress of the world” and the “Eternal City”, is worth mentioning. There are curious stories about the founding of Rome and of how Remus and Romulus, who founded it, were taken away and kept by a she-wolf. Perhaps you know the story.

  About the time that Rome was founded, or a little before it, another great city of the ancient world was built. This was Carthage, on the northern coast of Africa, which was founded by the Phoenicians. It grew into a great sea-Power, and between it and Rome there was bitter rivalry and many wars. Rome won in the end, and destroyed Carthage utterly.

  Civilizations of Western Asia and South-Eastern Europe

  Let us have just one brief look at Palestine before we finish
for the day. Palestine is, of course, not in Europe, nor has it much historical importance. But many people are interested in its ancient history because it is given in the Old Testament. It is the story of some tribes of the Jews, who lived in this little land, and of the troubles they had with their big neighbours on either side—Babylonia and Assyria and Egypt. If the story had not become part of the religion of the Jews and of Christianity, few persons would probably know of it.

  About the time that Knossos was destroyed, Saul was king of Israel, which was part of Palestine. Later came David, and then Solomon, who had a great reputation for wisdom. I mention these three names because you must have heard of them or read about them.

  7

  The Greek City-States

  January 11, 1931

  In my last letter I said something about the Greeks or Hellenes. Let us have another look at them and try to form some idea of what they were like. It is very difficult, of course, for us to form a real and truthful idea of something or some people whom we have never seen. We are so used to our present conditions and ways of living that we can hardly imagine an utterly different world. Yet the ancient world, whether in India or China or Greece, was utterly different from the present world. All we can do is to guess, with the help of their books and buildings and other remains, what the people in those days were like.

  There is one very interesting fact about Greece. The Greeks apparently did not like big kingdoms or empires. They liked little City-States—that is to say, each city was an independent State.

  They were little republics, with the city in the centre and some fields round about from which the food of the city came. A republic, as you know, has no king. These Greek City-States had no kings, but were governed by the rich citizens. The average man there had little or no say in the government. There were many slaves who had no rights in the government, and women also had no rights. So that only a part of the population of the City-States were citizens, and as such could vote on public questions. It was not difficult for these citizens to vote, as all of them could be gathered together in one place. This could only be done because it was a small City-State and not a great big country under one government. Imagine all the voters of India, or even of a province like Bengal or Agra, meeting together! It simply can’t be done. This difficulty had to be faced later in other countries, and a solution was found in what is called “representative government”. This means that instead of all the voters of a country meeting together to decide on a question, they elect their “representatives”, who meet together and consider public questions relating to the country and make laws for it. In this way the ordinary voter is supposed to help indirectly in the government of his country.

  But this has nothing to do with Greece. Greece avoided this difficult question by not having anything bigger than a City-State. Although the Greeks spread out, as I have told you, all over Greece and southern Italy and Sicily and other coasts of the Mediterranean, they did not try to have an empire or one government for all these places under their control. Everywhere they went they formed their separate City-State.

  In India also you will find that in the early days there were small republics or kingdoms rather like the Greek City-State. But apparently they did not last long, and they were absorbed into larger kingdoms. Even so, however, for a very long time our village panchayats had a great deal of power. Perhaps the first impulse of the old Aryans was to have small City-States wherever they went. But geographical conditions and contact with older civilizations gradually made them give up this idea in many of the countries they inhabited. In Persia especially, we find large States and empires grew up; in India also there was a tendency for larger kingdoms to grow up. But in Greece the City-State continued for long, till a Greek, famous in history, made the first attempt we know of to conquer the world. This was Alexander the Great. We shall have something to say of him later.

  So the Greeks refused to join their little City-States together to form a large State, kingdom or republic. Not only did they keep separate and independent, but they were almost always fighting each other. There was great rivalry between them, often resulting in war.

  And yet there were many common links joining these City-States together. They had a common language, a common culture and the same religion. Their religion was one of many gods and goddesses, and they had a rich and beautiful mythology like the old Hindu mythology. They worshipped the beautiful. Even now we have a few of their old statues in marble and stone, and they are wondrously beautiful. They believed in having healthy and beautiful bodies, and for this purpose organized games and races. These games used to take place from time to time on a big scale at Olympia, in Greece, and people from all over Greece gathered together there. You must have heard of the Olympic games that take place even now. The name has been taken from the old Greek games at Olympia and applied to games and championships between different countries.

  So the Greek City-States lived separately, meeting each other at their games and fighting each other frequently. When a great danger came from outside, however, they united to resist it. This was the Persian invasion, about which we shall have something to say at a later stage.

  8

  Empires in Western Asia

  January 13, 1931

  It was good to see you all yesterday. But I had a shock when I saw Dadu. He was looking so weak and ill. Look after him well and make him fit and strong again. I could hardly speak to you yesterday. What can one do in a short interview? I try to make up for all the interviews and talks we have not had by writing these letters. But they are poor substitutes, and the make-believe does not last long! Still it is good sometimes to play at make-believe.

  Let us go back to the ancients. We have been with the old Greeks lately. What were the other countries like about this time? We need not trouble ourselves much about the other countries of Europe. We do not, or at any rate I do not, know anything very interesting about them. The climate of northern Europe had probably been changing, and this must have resulted in new conditions. Long, long ago, you may perhaps remember, it was very cold all over northern Europe and northern Asia. This was called the Ice Age, and huge glaciers came right down to Central Europe. Man did not exist then probably, or even if he did he was more animal than human. You may wonder how we can say now that there were glaciers in those days. There can, of course, be no record of them in any books, for there were no books or writers of books in those days. But you have not forgotten the book of Nature, I hope. Nature has a way of writing her own history in her rocks and stones, and all who wish to may read it there. It is a kind of auto-biography— that is, one’s own history. Now, glaciers have a way of leaving very peculiar marks of their existence. You can hardly mistake them once you get to recognize them. And if you want to study these marks, all you have to do is to go to any of our present glaciers in the Himalayas or the Alps or elsewhere. You have yourself seen the glaciers round about Mont Blanc in the Alps, but perhaps no one pointed out to you then these special marks. There are plenty of fine glaciers in Kashmir and in other parts of the Himalayas. The nearest glacier for us is the Pindari glacier, which is about a week’s march from Almora. I went there once when I was a small boy—much younger than you are now—and I still remember it vividly.

  Instead of history and the past, I have drifted into glaciers and the Pindari! That comes of the game of make-believe. I want, if possible, to talk to you as if you were here, and if I do so we must surely have little excursions occasionally to glaciers and the like.

  We started discussing glaciers because of my reference to the Ice Age. We can say that glaciers came down to Central Europe and to England, because we can still find the peculiar marks of glaciers in these countries. They are to be found on the old rocks, and this makes us think that it must have been very cold all over central and northern Europe then. Later it became warmer and the glaciers gradually shrank. Geologists—the people who study the history of the earth—tell us that this cold spell was succeeded by
a warm spell when it was even warmer than it is today in Europe. Owing to this warmth, dense forests grew up in Europe.

  The Aryans in their wanderings reached central Europe also. They do not appear to have done anything very remarkable there at this period, so we can for the moment ignore them. The civilized peoples of Greece and the Mediterranean probably looked upon these people of central and northern Europe as barbarians. But these “barbarians” were living a healthy and warlike life in their forests and villages, and unconsciously preparing themselves for the day when they were to swoop down and topple over the governments of the more civilized peoples of the south. But this happened long afterwards and we need not anticipate.

  If we know little about northern Europe, we know nothing at all about great continents and tracts of country. America is supposed to have been discovered by Columbus, but that does not mean, as we are finding out now, that civilized people did not exist there before Columbus went there. But anyhow, we know nothing of America in those early days of which we are speaking. Nor do we know anything about the continent of Africa, Egypt of course being excepted, and also the coast of the Mediterranean. Egypt was at this period probably at the decline of her great and ancient civilization. But, even so, it was a very advanced country in those days.

  We have now to consider what was happening in Asia. Here, as you know, there were three centres of ancient civilization: the Mesopotamian, the Indian, and the Chinese.