Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  In this way Kemal Pasha created quite a little tempest over the joint letter which its authors, all unaware of its consequences, had sent from London, and he made the Aga Khan appear in a far from favourable light. The poor Istanbul editors who had printed the letter were dubbed traitors and agents of England, and were punished severely. Having raised strong feeling in this way, a Bill to abolish the Caliphate was presented to the National Assembly, and was passed the same day, in March 1924. Thus passed from the modern stage an ancient institution that had played a great role in history. There was to be no “Commander of the Faithful” now, at least so far as Turkey was concerned, for Turkey was now a secular State.

  A short while before, India had been greatly agitated over the Caliphate when this was threatened by the British after the war. “Khilafat Committees” sprang up all over the country, and large numbers of Hindus joined the Muslims in this agitation, feeling that the British Government was doing an injury to Islam. Now the Turks themselves had deliberately ended the Caliphate; Islam stood without a Caliph. Kemal Pasha was firmly of opinion that Turkey must have no religious entanglements with the Arabic countries or with India. He wanted no leadership of Islam for his country or for himself. He had refused to become Caliph himself when asked to do so by some people from India and Egypt. He looked westward to Europe, and wanted Turkey to become Westernized as soon as possible. He was entirely opposed to the Pan-Islamic idea. Pan-Turanianism was the new ideal, Turanian being the race of the Turks. That is, instead of the wider and looser international ideal of Islam, he preferred the stricter and more compact bond of pure nationalism.

  I have told you that Turkey had now become a very homogeneous country with few foreign elements. But there was still one non-Turkish race in eastern Turkey, near the Iraq and Persian borders. These were the Kurds, an ancient race speaking an Iranian language. Kurdistan, where these people lived, was split up into Turkey, Persia, Iraq, and the Mosul area. Out of altogether 3,000,000 Kurds, nearly half still lived in Turkey proper. A modern nationalist movement had begun there soon after the Young Turk revolution of 1908. Even at the Versailles Peace Conference, Kurdish representatives had demanded national independence.

  In 1925 a great rebellion broke out in the Kurdish area of Turkey. This was just the time when the Mosul dispute was creating friction between England and Turkey, and Mosul was itself a Kurdish area adjoining the part of Turkey that had rebelled. The Turks naturally concluded that England was behind the rebellion and that British agents had incited the more religious Kurds against the reforms of Kemal Pasha. It is not possible to say if British agents had anything to do with the rebellion, though it was obvious enough that Kurdish trouble in Turkey just then was welcome to the British Government. It is clear, however, that religious orthodoxy had much to do with the rising, and it is equally clear that Kurdish nationalism had also much to do with it. Probably the nationalistic motive was the strongest.

  Kemal Pasha immediately raised the cry that the Turkish nation was in danger, as England was behind the Kurds. He got the National Assembly to pass a law providing that the use of religion as a means of exciting popular sentiment, whether in speech or in print, should be deemed high treason, and as such should be subject to the most extreme penalties. The teaching of religious doctrines which might subvert loyalty to the Republic was also prohibited in mosques. He then crushed the Kurds without pity, and set up special Tribunals of Independence to try them by the thousand. The Kurdish leaders, Sheikh Said and Doctor Fuad and many others were executed. They died with the plea for the independence of Kurdistan on their lips.

  So the Turks, who had only recently been fighting for their own freedom, crushed the Kurds, who sought theirs. It is strange how a defensive nationalism develops into an aggressive one, and a fight for freedom becomes one for dominion over others. In 1929 there was another revolt of the Kurds, and again it was crushed, for the time being at least. But how can one crush forever a people who insist on freedom and are prepared to pay the price for it?

  Kemal Pasha then turned on all those who had opposed his policy in the National Assembly or outside. The appetite for power of a dictator always grows with its use; it is never satisfied; it cannot brook any opposition. So Mustafa Kemal resented all opposition, and an attempt to kill him by some fanatic brought matters to a head. The Tribunals of Independence now went all over Turkey trying and punishing heavily all who opposed the Ghazi Pasha. Even the biggest people in the Assembly, old nationalist colleagues of Kemal’s, were not spared if they were in the opposition. Rauf Beg, whom the British had deported to Malta, and who was later the prime minister of Turkey, was condemned in his absence. Many other important leaders and generals who had fought in the war for independence were disgraced and punished, and some were even executed. The charge against them was that they had conspired with the Kurds, and perhaps even with the old enemy, England, against the safety of the State.

  Having swept away all opposition, Mustafa Kemal was now the unchallenged dictator, and Ismet Pasha was his right-hand man. He now began to put into practice many of the ideas that had filled his head. He started with a small enough thing, and yet a typical one. He attacked the fez, the head-dress which had become the symbol of a Turk and to some extent of a Muslim. He began cautiously with the army. Then he himself appeared in a hat in public, to the vast astonishment of the crowd; and he finished up by making the wearing of a fez a criminal offence! It sounds rather silly to attach so much importance to a head-dress. What is much more important is what is inside the head, not what is on top of it. But little things sometimes become symbols of big things, and Kemal Pasha apparently attacked old custom and orthodoxy by means of the inoffensive fez. There were riots over this question. They were suppressed and heavy punishments awarded.

  Having won this first round, Mustafa Kemal went a step further. He closed and dissolved all the monasteries and religious houses and confiscated all their wealth for the State. The dervishes who lived in these houses were told to work for their living. Even their distinctive dress was prohibited.

  Even earlier than this the Muslim religious schools had been abolished and State secular (non-religious) schools started instead. There were many foreign schools and colleges in Turkey. These were also made to give up their religious teaching, and if they refused to do so, they were made to close up.

  A wholesale change was made in the law. So far, in many matters the law was based on the teachings of the Koran, the Shariat as it is called. Now the Swiss Civil Code and the Italian Penal Code and the German Commercial Code were bodily adopted. This meant a complete change in the personal law which governed marriage, inheritance, etc. The old Islamic law was changed in regard to these matters. Polygamy was abolished.

  Another change which went against old religious custom was the encouragement of drawing, painting, and sculpture of the human form. This practice is not approved of in Islam. Mustafa Kemal opened schools of art for this purpose for boys and girls.

  Turkish women had played quite an important part in the struggle for freedom ever since the days of the Young Turks. Kemal Pasha was particularly keen on their emancipation from all kinds of bonds. A “Society for the Defence of the Rights of Women” was formed and professions were thrown open to them. The veil was the first to be attacked vigorously, and it disappeared with remarkable rapidity. Women have only to be given a chance to tear this veil aside. Kemal Pasha gave them this chance, and off they came. He encouraged European dancing very much. Not only was he fond of it himself, but it came to represent in his mind the emancipation of women and Western civilization. The hat and dancing became the slogans of progress and civilization! Rather poor symbols of the West, but at least they worked on the surface, and Turkey changed its headgear and its clothes and its way of life. A generation of women, brought up in seclusion, was suddenly turned in the course of a few years into lawyers, teachers, doctors, and judges. There are even women police in the streets of Istanbul! It is interesting to find how one th
ing reacts on another. The adoption of the Latin alphabet led to a great increase in the use of typewriters in Turkey, and this meant more shorthand typists, which led to the greater employment of women.

  Children were also encouraged in various ways to develop themselves fully as self-reliant and capable citizens, instead of the old learn-by-heart type of the religious schools. One remarkable institution was the “Children’s Week”. For one week in each year, it is said, each government official was nominally replaced by a child and the whole State was administered by children. I do not know how this works, but it is a fascinating idea, and I am sure that, however silly and inexperienced some of the children may be, they cannot behave in a more foolish way than many of our grown-up and staid and solemn-looking rulers and officials do.

  A small change, but still an important indication of the new viewpoint of Turkey’s rulers was the discouragement of “salaaming”. It was made clear by them that hand-shaking was a more civilized form of greeting and should be indulged in future.

  Kemal Pasha then launched a great attack on the Turkish language, or rather what he considered the foreign elements in it. Turkish was written in the Arabic script, and Kemal Pasha considered this both difficult and foreign. The Soviets had been faced by a similar problem in Central Asia, as many of the Tartar peoples had scripts derived from the Arabic or Persian. In 1924 the Soviets held a Conference at Baku to consider this question, and it was decided there to adopt the Latin script for the various Tartar languages of Central Asia. That is to say, the languages remained unchanged, but they were written in the Latin or Roman letters. A special system of notation was devised to give expression to the special sounds of these languages. Mustafa Kemal was attracted to this system, and he learnt it. He applied it to the Turkish language, and personally started a vigorous campaign in its favour. After a couple of years of propaganda and teaching, a date was fixed by law after which the use of the Arabic script was forbidden and the Latin script made compulsory. Newspapers, books, everything, had to appear in the Latin script. Everyone between the ages of sixteen and forty was made to attend school to learn the Latin alphabet. Officials who did not know it were liable to be dismissed. Prisoners would not be released even at the end of their sentences unless they could read and write in the new script! A dictator can be very thorough, especially if he happens to be popular. Few other governments would dare to interfere so much with people’s lives.

  The Latin script was thus established in Turkey, but soon another change followed. It was found that Arabic and Persian words could not be easily written in this script; their special sounds and nuances could not be expressed in it. Pure Turkish words were not so fine; they were rougher, more direct and vigorous, and could be written easily in the new script. The decision was therefore taken to drop Arabic and Persian words from the Turkish language and replace them with pure Turkish words. At the back of this decision was, of course, a nationalist reason. Kemal Pasha, as I have told you, wanted to cut Turkey off as far as possible from Arabian and other Eastern influences. The old Turkish language, full of Arabic and Persian words and phrases, might have been suitable enough for the ornate and pompous life of the imperial Ottoman Court. It was considered unsuitable for the new, vigorous, republican Turkey. So the fine words were given up, and learned professors and others went to the villages to learn the language of the peasants and hunt for words of good old Turkish stock. This change is going on now. Such a change for us in northern India would mean our giving up to a large extent our ornate and rather artificial Hindustani of Lucknow and Delhi—a relic of old court life—and adopting instead many of the rustic ganvaru words of the village.

  These changes in the language have meant changes in the names of towns and persons also. Constantinople, as you know, is now Istanbul, Angora is Ankara, Smyrna is Ismir. People’s names in Turkey have been usually taken from the Arabic—Mustafa Kemal itself is an Arabic name. The new tendency is to give pure Turkish names.

  A change which has caused trouble has been the law that Islamic prayers and the azan, the call to prayer, must also be in Turkish. These prayers have always been recited by Muslims in the original Arabic; this is done even now in India. It was felt therefore by many moulvis and people in charge of mosques that this was an improper innovation, and they continued prayers in Arabic. There were, and there still are sometimes, riots over this question. But the Turkish Government under Kemal Pasha has crushed this as all other opposition.

  All these vast social upsets of the past ten years have completely changed the life of the people, and a new generation, cut off from the old customs and religious associations, is growing up. But important as these changes are, they have not affected the economic life of the country greatly. With some minor changes at the top, the basis of this remains the same as it was. Kemal Pasha is no economist, nor is he in favour of such radical changes as have taken place in Soviet Russia. So that although politically he is on terms of alliance with the Soviets, economically he keeps far from communism. His political and social ideas seem to be derived from a study of the great French Revolution.

  There is no strong middle class in Turkey yet, apart from the professional class. The sending away of the Greek and other foreign elements has weakened commercial life. But the Turkish Government definitely prefers national poverty and slow industrial growth to the sacrifice of its economic independence. And because it fears that if foreign capital came into Turkey on a large scale it would mean such a sacrifice, and a consequent exploitation of the country by the foreigner, it has discouraged foreign enterprises. Heavy duties have been put on foreign goods. Many of the industries have been nationalized—that is the government owns and controls them on behalf of the people. Railway construction is going on at a fair pace.

  Kemal Pasha is more interested in agriculture, for the Turkish peasant has been the backbone of the Turkish nation and army. Model farms have been made and tractors introduced, and farmers’ co-operative societies encouraged.

  Turkey, like the rest of the world, was involved in the great depression and found it difficult to make both ends meet. But she goes ahead slowly and steadily under Mustafa Kemal, who continues to be the supreme leader and dictator of the country. He has been given the title of Ataturk, the Father of the Country, and by this he is now known.

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  India Follows Gandhi

  May 11, 1933

  I must tell you now something about recent events in India. We are naturally interested in them far more than in outside happenings, and I have to keep guard on myself so that I do not enter into too many details. Apart from our personal interest, however, India is today, as I have told you, one of the major problems of the world. It is the typical and classical country of imperialist domination. The whole structure of British imperialism has rested on it, and other countries have been lured on to the paths of imperialist adventure by this successful British example.

  I have told you in my last letter on India of the war-time changes that occurred here; of the growth of Indian industry and the Indian capitalist class, and of the change in British policy towards Indian industry. The industrial and commercial pressure from India on England was increasing, so also was the political pressure. All over the East there was a political awakening, all over the world there was ferment and a malaise after the war. In India there was occasional evidence of violent revolutionary activity. The expectations of the people ran high. The British Government itself had felt that something must be done, and it had taken steps in the political field by an inquiry, followed by certain proposals for changes contained in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report, and in the economic field by throwing out many sops to the rising bourgeoisie, while taking care to keep the citadels of power and exploitation in its own hands.

  For a short while after the war trade prospered and there was quite a boom period, during which enormous profits were made, especially in jute in Bengal. The dividends often amounted to over 100 per cent. Prices went up, and to some exten
t, but comparatively little, wages increased also. With the prices rose the rent to be paid by tenants to their zamindars. Then came a slump, and trade began to languish. The condition of the industrial workers and the agriculturists became worse and discontent grew rapidly. There were many strikes in the factories owing to increasingly hard conditions. In Oudh, where the condition of the tenantry was particularly bad under the taluqdari system, a mighty agrarian movement grew almost spontaneously. Among the educated lower middle classes unemployment increased, and resulted in much suffering.

  This was the economic background in the early days of the postwar period, and if you keep this in view, it will help you to understand the political developments. There was a militant spirit in the country which was manifesting itself in a variety of ways. Industrial labour was organizing itself into trade unions and later building up an All-India Trade Union Congress; small zamindars and peasant proprietors were dissatisfied with the Government and were looking favourably towards political action; even tenants, like the proverbial worm, were trying to turn; and the middle classes, especially the unemployed, were definitely turning to politics, and a handful of them to revolutionary activities. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and others were all equally affected by these conditions, for economic conditions pay little heed to religious cleavages. But Muslims had been, in addition, greatly shaken up by the war against Turkey and the expectation that the British Government would take possession of the jazirat-ul-Arab, the islands of Arabia, as they are called, the holy cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem (for Jerusalem is a holy city for the Jews, Christians and Muslims).