Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  In Mesopotamia and Persia and Asia Minor, empire after empire came and went even in those early days. There was the Assyrian Empire, the Median, the Babylonian, and later the Persian. We need not go into the details of how these empires fought each other, or remained at peace for a while side by side, or destroyed each other. You will notice the difference between the Greek City-States and the empires of western Asia. From very early days there appears to have been a passion for a great State or empire in these countries. Perhaps it was due to their older civilization, or there may have been other causes.

  One name might interest you. It is that of Croesus of whom you must have heard. To be as rich as Croesus has become a well-known saying in English. You may also have read stories of this Croesus, of how rich and proud he was and how he was humbled. Croesus was the king of a country called Lydia, which was on the west coast of Asia, where Asia Minor is today. Being a country touching the sea, probably there was a great deal of trade there. In his time the Persian Empire under Cyrus was growing and becoming powerful. Cyrus and Croesus came into conflict and Cyrus defeated Croesus. The story of this defeat, and how in his misery wisdom and sense came to the proud Croesus, is told us by a Greek writer of history, Herodotus.

  Cyrus had a great empire probably extending right up to India in the east. But one of his successors, Darius, had an even greater empire. It included Egypt and a bit of Central Asia, and even a small part of India near the Indus river. It is said that a huge quantity of gold dust used to be sent to him from this Indian province of his as tribute. In those days there must have been gold dust near the Indus river. There is none to be found there now, and indeed the country is largely wasteland. This shows how the climate must have changed.

  As you will read history and think of past conditions and compare them with present conditions, one of the things that will interest you most is the change that has taken place in Central Asia. This was the place from where issued innumerable tribes, hordes of men and women, who spread out over distant continents. This was the place which had great and mighty cities in the past, rich and populous, comparable to the great European capitals of today, cities far bigger than Calcutta or Bombay today. There were gardens and greenery everywhere, and the climate was delightfully temperate, neither too cold nor too hot. All this it was. And now, for many hundreds of years, it has been a bare, inhospitable country, almost a desert. Some of the great cities of the past still linger on—Samarqand and Bokhara, their very names bring up hosts of memories—but they are ghosts of their former selves.

  But I am again anticipating. In the ancient days which we were considering there was no Samarqand or Bokhara. All this was to come. The veil of the future hid it, and the greatness and the fall of Central Asia were still to be.

  9

  The Burden of Old Tradition

  January 14, 1931

  I have developed strange habits in prison. One of these is the habit of getting up very early—earlier even than the dawn. I began this last summer, for I liked to watch the coming of the dawn and the way it gradually put out the stars. Have you ever seen the moonlight before the dawn and the slow change to day? Often I have watched this contest between the moonlight and the dawn, in which the dawn always wins. In the strange half-light it is difficult to say for some time whether it is the moonlight or the light of the coming day. And then almost suddenly there is no doubt of it and it is day, and the pale moon retires, beaten, from the contest. According to my habit, I got up today when the stars were still out, and one could only guess that the morning was coming by that strange something which is in the air just before the dawn. And as I sat reading, the calm of the early morning was broken by distant voices and rumblings, ever growing stronger. I remembered that it was the Sankranti day, the first big day of the Magh Mela, and the pilgrims were marching in their thousands for their morning dip at the Sangam, where the Ganga meets the Jumna and the invisible Sarasvati is also supposed to join them. And as they marched they sang and sometimes cheered mother Ganga—Ganga Mai ki Jai—and their voices reached me over the walls of Naini Prison. As I listened to them I thought of the power of faith which drew these vast numbers to the river and made them forget for a while their poverty and misery. And I thought how year after year, for how many hundreds or thousands of years, the pilgrims had marched to the Triveni. Men may come and men may go, and governments and empires may lord it awhile and then disappear into the past; but the old tradition continues, and generation after generation bows down to it. Tradition has much of good in it, but sometimes it becomes a terrible burden, which makes it difficult for us to move forward. It is fascinating to think of the unbroken chain which connects us with the dim and distant past, to read accounts of these melas written 1300 years ago—and the mela was an old tradition even then. But this chain has a way of clinging on to us when we want to move on, and of making us almost prisoners in the grip of this tradition. We shall have to keep many of the links with our past, but we shall also have to break through the prison of tradition wherever it prevents us from our onward march.

  In our last three letters we have been trying to form a picture of what the world was like between 3000 and 2500 years ago. I have not mentioned any dates. I do not like them, and I do not want you to trouble yourself much with them. It is also difficult to know the correct dates of happenings in these olden times. Later, it may be necessary occasionally to give and to remember a few dates to help us to keep the facts in proper order in our minds. For the present we are trying to form an idea of the ancient world.

  We have had a glimpse of Greece and the Mediterranean, of Egypt, of Asia Minor and Persia. Let us now come back to our own country. We have one great difficulty in studying the early history of India. The early Aryans here—or the Indo-Aryans as they are called—cared to write no histories. We have seen already in our earlier letters how great they were in many ways. The books they have produced—the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and other books—could only have been written by great men. These books and other material help us in studying past history. They tell us about the manners and customs, the ways of thinking and living of our ancestors. But they are not accurate history. The only real history in Sanskrit, but of a much later period, is a history of Kashmir. This is called the Rajatarangini, the chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, and was written by Kalhana. You will be interested to learn that as I am writing these letters to you, Ranjit Pupha1 is translating this great history of Kashmir from the Sanskrit. He has nearly finished half of it. It is a very big book. When the full translation appears we shall all, of course, read it eagerly, for unfortunately most of us do not know enough Sanskrit to read the original. We shall read it not only because it is a fine book, but also because it will tell us a great deal about the past, and especially about Kashmir, which, as you know, is our old homeland.

  When the Aryans entered India, India was already civilized. Indeed, it now appears certain from the remains at Mohenjo Daro in the northwest that a great civilization existed here for a long time before the Aryans came. But about this we do not know much yet. Probably within a few years we shall know more, when our archaeologists—the men who make a special study of old ruins—have dug out all that there is to be found there.

  Even apart from this, however, it is clear that the Dravidians had a rich civilization then in southern India, and perhaps also in northern India. Their languages, which are not the daughters of the Aryan Sanskrit, are very old and have fine literatures. These languages are Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese and Malayalam. All these languages still flourish in South India. Perhaps you know that the National Congress, unlike the British Government, has divided India on the basis of language. This is far better, as it brings one kind of people, speaking one language and generally having similar customs, into one provincial area. The Congress provinces in the south are the Andhra-desha or the Andhra province in northern Madras, where Telugu is spoken; the Tamil Nad, or the Tamil province where Tamil is spoken; the K
arnataka, which is south of Bombay, and where Kannada or Kanarese is spoken; and Kerala, which corresponds roughly with Malabar, where Malayalam is spoken. There can be no doubt that in future provincial divisions of India a great deal of attention will be paid to the language of the area.

  Here I might as well say a little more about the languages of India. Some people in Europe and elsewhere imagine that there are hundreds of languages in India. This is perfectly absurd, and anyone who says so only shows his own ignorance. In a big country like India there are, of course, numerous dialects—that is, local variations of a language. There are also many hill tribes and other small groups in various parts of the country with special languages. But all these are unimportant when you take India as a whole. Only from the point of view of the census are they important. The real languages of India, as I think I mentioned in one of my earlier letters, belong to two families, the Dravidian, to which we have referred above, and the Indo-Aryan. The principal Indo-Aryan language was Sanskrit, and all the Indo-Aryan languages of India are daughters of Sanskrit. These are Hindi, Bengali, Gujrati, and Marathi. There are also some other variations. In Assam there is Assamese, and in Orissa or Utkal the Uriya language is used. Urdu is a variation of Hindi. The word Hindustani is used to mean both Hindi and Urdu. Thus the principal languages of India are just ten. Hindustani, Bengali, Gujrati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese, Malayalam, Uriya and Assamese. Of these, Hindustani, which is our mother-tongue, is spoken all over northern India—in the Punjab, United Provinces, Bihar, Central Provinces, Rajputana, Delhi and central India. This is a huge area inhabited by about 150,000,000 people. So you see that already 150,000,000 speak Hindustani, with minor variations, and, as you know well, Hindustani is understood in most parts of India. It is likely to become the common language of India. But this of course does not mean that the other principal languages, which I have mentioned above, should disappear. They should certainly remain as provincial languages, for they have fine literatures, and one should never try to take away a well-developed language from a people. The only way for a people to grow, for their children to learn, is through their own language. In India today everything is topsy-turvy, and we use English a great deal even amongst ourselves. It is perfectly ridiculous for me to write to you in English—and yet I am doing so! We shall get out of the habit soon, I hope.

  10

  The Village Republics of Ancient India

  January 15, 1931

  How are we to make any progress with our review of past history? I am always leaving the main line and going along side-tracks. In my last letter, just when I was getting on to the subject, I started off on the languages of India.

  Let us go back to old India. You know that what is Afghanistan today was then, and for a long time afterwards, a part of India. The north-west of India was called Gandhara. All over the north, in the plains of the Indus and the Ganges, there were big settlements of the Aryans. These Aryan immigrants probably knew the art of building well, for many of them must have come from the Aryan settlements in Persia and Mesopotamia, where there were great cities even then. In between the Aryan settlements there were many forests and especially between North India and the south there was a great forest. It is unlikely that any large numbers of Aryans crossed this forest to settle down in the south. But many individuals must have gone to explore and to trade and to carry the Aryan culture and traditions to the south. The old tradition tells us that the first Aryan to go to the south was the Rishi Agastya who carried the message of Aryan religion and culture to the Deccan.

  A considerable trade already flourished between India and foreign countries. The pepper and gold and pearls of the south attracted foreign traders across the sea. Rice also was probably exported. Teakwood from Malabar has been found in ancient palaces in Babylonia.

  Gradually the Aryans evolved their village system in India. This was a mixture of the old Dravidian village and the new Aryan ideas. These villages were almost independent and were governed by their elected panchayats. A number of villages or small towns were joined together under a raja or chief, who was sometimes elected and sometimes hereditary. Often different village groups co-operated with each other in order to build roads, rest-houses, canals for irrigation, and such-like communal things, which were for the common good. It appears that the raja, although he was the chief man in his State, could not do just what he liked. He was himself subject to Aryan laws and customs, and he could be deposed or fined by his people. There was no such thing as L’état c’est moi, to which I referred in my earlier letters. Thus there was a kind of democracy in the Aryan settlements—that is to say, the Aryan inhabitants could to some extent control the government.

  Compare these Indo-Aryans to the Aryan Greeks. There were many differences, and yet there were many points in common. There was some kind of democracy in both places. But let us always remember that this democracy was more or less confined to the Aryans themselves. Their slaves, or those whom they placed in low castes, had no democracy or freedom. The caste system, with its innumerable divisions, as we know it, did not exist then. In those days there were, among the Indian Aryans, four divisions of society, or four castes. These were the Brahmans or learned men, priests, sages; the Kshattriyas or rulers; Vaishyas or merchants and the men engaged in commerce; and Shudras or the labourers and workers. These divisions were thus based on occupation. It is possible that the caste system was partly based on the desire of the Aryans to keep themselves aloof from the conquered race. The Aryans were sufficiently proud and conceited to look down upon all other races, and they did not want their people to get mixed up with them. The very word for caste in Sanskrit is varna or colour. This also shows that the Aryans who came were fairer in complexion than the original inhabitants of India.

  Thus we have to bear in mind that, on the one side, the Aryans kept down the working class and did not allow it any share in their democracy; on the other, they had a great deal of freedom among themselves. They would not allow their kings or rulers to misbehave; and if any ruler misbehaved, he was removed. The kings were usually Kshattriyas, but sometimes, during wars and times of difficulty, even a Shudra, or a member of the lowest class, could win a throne, if he were able enough. In later days the Aryans degenerated and their caste system became rigid. Too many divisions made the country weak, and it fell. They also forgot their old idea of freedom. For, in the old days it was said that never shall an Aryan be made a slave, and that for him death was preferable to dishonour of the Aryan name.

  The settlements of the Aryans, the towns and villages, did not grow up in a haphazard way. They were made according to plan; and geometry, you will be interested to know, had a good deal to do with these plans. Indeed, geometrical figures were also used then in Vedic pujas. Even now in many Hindu households some of these figures are used during various pujas. Now geometry is very closely connected with the building of houses and towns. The old Aryan village was at first probably a kind of fortified camp, for there was always fear of attack in those days. Even when there was no danger of hostile attacks, the same plan continued. The plan would be a rectangle, with walls all round, and four big gates and four small ones. Inside these walls were the streets in a special order and the houses. In the centre of the village there was the Panchayat ghar, where the village elders met. In small villages instead of this Panchayat ghar there would be just a big tree. Every year all the freemen of the village would meet to elect their panchayat.

  Many learned men used to retire into the forests, near the towns and villages, in order to lead simple lives, or to study and work in quiet. Pupils gathered round them, and gradually fresh settlements grew up of these teachers and their students. We can consider these settlements as universities. There were not many fine buildings there, but those who sought knowledge came from long distances to these places of learning.

  Opposite Anand Bhawan1 is Bharadwaj Ashram. You know it well. Perhaps you also know that Bharadwaj is supposed to have been a very learned man in the old day
s of the Ramayana, and Ramachandra is said to have visited him during his exile. It is stated that thousands of pupils and students lived with him. There must have been quite a university, with Bharadwaj as its head. In those days the Ashram was on the banks of the Ganga. This is very likely, although now the river is nearly a mile away. The soil of our garden is, in some places, very sandy, and may have been part of the bed of the Ganga in those days.

  Those early days were the great period of the Aryans in India. Unfortunately we have no history of this period, and can only rely on non-historical books for such facts as we know. Among the kingdoms and republics of those days were Magadha, in South Bihar; Videha, in North Bihar; Kashi, or Benares; Koshala, of which the capital was Ayodhya (the modern Fyzabad); and the Panchalas, between the Ganga and the Jumna. In the country of these Panchalas the two chief cities were Mathura and Kanyakubja. Both these cities were famous in later history also. Both exist still, Kanyakubja under the name Kanauj, near Cawnpore. Ujjain also existed in those early days; it is now a small town in Gwalior State.

  Near Pataliputra or Patna, there was the city of Vaisali. This was the capital city of a clan famous in early Indian history—the Lichchhavi clan. This State was a republic, and was governed by an assembly of notables with an elected president, who was called the Nayaka.

  As time passed, large towns and cities grew up. Trade increased and the arts and crafts of the artisan prospered. The cities became big trading centres. The ashrams in the forests, where the learned Brahmans lived with their pupils, also grew up into large university towns. And in these centres of learning every kind of subject that was then known was taught. The Brahmans even taught the science of war. You will remember that the great teacher of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata was Dronacharya, a Brahman, who taught them, among other things, the way to fight.