Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  11

  A Thousand Years of China

  January 16, 1931

  News has come from the outside world—news that disturbs and grieves, and yet that fills one with pride and joy. We have heard of the fate of the Sholapur people. We have also had some brief accounts of what happened all over the country when this sad news was known. It is difficult to sit here quietly when our young men are giving their lives and thousands of men and women are facing the brutal lathi. But it is good training for us. I suppose each one of us will have opportunities to test himself or herself to the utmost. Meanwhile it does one’s heart good to know how our people dare to go ahead to meet suffering, how each additional weapon and blow of the enemy makes them stronger and more determined to resist.

  It is difficult to think of other matters when the news of the day fills one’s mind. But empty musing does not help much, and if we have to do any solid work we must control our minds. Let us therefore go back to old times and live for a while far away from our present troubles.

  Let us go to India’s sister in ancient history—China. In China and in the other countries of eastern Asia, like Japan, Korea, Indo-China, Siam and Burma, we have not to deal with the Aryan people. We have here the Mongolian races.

  About 5000 years ago or more there was an invasion of China from the west. These invading tribes also came from Central Asia, and were fairly advanced in their civilization. They knew agriculture and kept large flocks and herds of cattle. They built good houses and had a well-developed society. They settled down near the Hoang Ho, which is also called the Yellow River, and organized their State. For many hundreds of years they continued spreading over China and improving their arts and crafts. The Chinese people were largely farmers, and their chiefs were really patriarchs of the kind I have described to you in my earlier letters. Six or seven hundred years later—that is, more than 4000 years ago from now—we find a man named Yao calling himself emperor. But in spite of this title he was more of a patriarch than an emperor of the kind Egypt or Mesopotamia had. The Chinese people continued to live as farmers, and there was not much of a central government.

  The Beginning of Chinese Civilization

  I have told you how the patriarchs used to be elected by their people, and later how they became hereditary. We see that happening in China. Yao was not succeeded by his son, but he nominated another person who was considered the most capable man in the country. Soon, however, the title became hereditary, and it is said that for more than 400 years the Hsia dynasty ruled China. The last Hsia ruler was very cruel and there was a revolution which overthrew him. Another dynasty, called the Shang or Yin dynasty, then came into power and this lasted for nearly 650 years.

  In a little paragraph, in two or three short sentences, I have disposed of China’s history for more than 1000 years. Wonderful, is it not, what one can do with these expanses of history? But you must realize that my little paragraph does not lessen the length of these 1000 or 1100 years. We are used to thinking in terms of days and months and years. It is difficult for you to have a clear idea of even 100 years. Your thirteen years seem a lot, do they not? And each additional year makes you so much bigger. How then can you get hold, in your mind, of 1000 years of history? It is a long time. Generation after generation comes and goes, and towns grow into great cities and then crumble away, and fresh cities take their place. Think of the last 1000 years of history, and then perhaps you will have some idea of this long period. What amazing changes have taken place in these 1000 years in the world!

  It is a wonderful thing, the history of China, with its long tradition of culture, and its dynasties, each lasting for 500 years or even 800 years or more.

  Think of the slow progress and development of China during these 1100 years I have disposed of in a paragraph. Gradually the patriarchal system gives way and the central government develops. A well-organized State appears. Even in these ancient times China knew the art of writing. But Chinese writing, as you know, is very different from our writing or from the writing of English and French. It has not got an alphabet. It is written in symbols or pictures.

  The Shang dynasty after 640 years of rule was upset by a revolution, and a new dynasty, the Chou dynasty, came into power. This had an even longer period of power than the Shang. It lasted for 867 years. It was under the Chou dynasty that a well-organized Chinese State appeared. It was also during this period that the two great philosophers of China, Confucius and Lao-Tse, lived. We shall have something to say about them later.

  When the Shang dynasty was driven out, one of its high officials named Ki-Tse preferred exile to serving the Chous. So he marched with 5000 followers out of China into Korea. He called the country Chosen or the “Land of the Morning Calm”. Korea, or Chosen, is east of China, so Ki-Tse went east towards the rising sun. Perhaps he then thought that he had reached the easternmost country, and therefore gave it this name. With Ki-Tse began the history of Korea from 1100 years before Christ. Ki-Tse brought to his new country Chinese arts and crafts, and house-building, and agriculture, and silk-making. More Chinese immigrants followed Ki-Tse. Ki-Tse’s descendants ruled Chosen for over 900 years.

  Chosen was not, of course, the most easterly country. East of it, as we know, is Japan. But we have no knowledge of what was happening in Japan when Ki-Tse went to Chosen. Japanese history is not nearly so old as that of China, or even Korea or Chosen. The Japanese say that their first emperor was named Jimmu Tenno and that he ruled 600 or 700 years before Christ. He is supposed by them to have been a descendant of the Sun Goddess, for the Sun was considered a goddess in Japan. The present Emperor of Japan is said to be a direct descendant of this Jimmu Tenno, and is thus also believed by many Japanese to be a descendant of the sun.

  You know that in our country the Rajputs also in the same way claim that they go back to the sun and the moon. Their two principal houses are the Suryavanshi, or the Race of the Sun, and the Chandravanshi, or the Race of the Moon. The Maharana of Udaipur is the head of the Suryavanshis, and he traces his pedigree far back into the past. Wonderful people are our Rajputs, and of the stories of their valour and chivalry there is no end.

  12

  The Call of the Past

  January 17, 1931

  We have now had a brief look at the ancient world as it probably was up to about 2500 years ago. Our survey has been very brief and very limited. We have only dealt with the countries which were fairly advanced or which have some kind of definite history. In Egypt, we have just mentioned the great civilization which produced the Pyramids and the Sphinx and many other things which we cannot go into now. This great civilization had had its day, and was on the decline even at this early period which we are considering. Knossos was also nearing its end. In China we have traced vast periods of time during which it grew into a great central empire and developed writing and silk-making and many beautiful things. We have had a glimpse of Korea and Japan. In India we have just hinted at the old civilization represented now by the ruins at Mohenjo Daro in the Indus valley; and the Dravidian civilization with its trade with foreign countries; and lastly the Aryans. We have referred to some of the famous books which the Aryans produced in those days, the Vedas and Upanishads, and the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. And we have followed them spreading out over northern India, and even penetrating to the south and, in contact with the old Dravidians, building up a new civilization and culture, which had something of the Dravidian in it and a great deal of the Aryan. Especially have we seen how their village communities grew up on a democratic basis and developed into towns and cities, and forest ashrams became universities. In Mesopotamia and Persia we have only briefly referred to the growth of empire after empire; one of these later empires, that of Darius, extending to the river Indus in India. In Palestine we have had a glimpse of the Hebrews, who, though few in number and living in a tiny corner of the world, have attracted a great deal of attention. Their kings, David and Solomon, are remembered when greater kings have been forg
otten, because they find mention in the Bible. In Greece we have seen the new Aryan civilization grow up on the ruins of the older civilization of Knossos. The City-States have grown up and Greek colonies have sprung up on the borders of the Mediterranean. Rome, which was to be great, and Carthage, its bitter rival, are just appearing on the horizon of history.

  All this we have barely glimpsed. I could have told you something of the countries which we have not mentioned—the countries of northern Europe and south-eastern Asia. Even in these early days Indian seamen from South India ventured across the Bay of Bengal to the Malay peninsula and to the islands south of it. But we must draw the line somewhere, or else we shall never get on.

  The countries we have dealt with are supposed to belong to the ancient world. But remember that in those days there was not much communication between distant countries. Adventurous sailors went across the seas, and some people undertook long land journeys for trade or other purposes. But this must have been rare, for the peril was great. Geography was little known. The earth was supposed to be flat, and not round. So that no one knew much about any countries except those which were near. Thus people in Greece knew practically nothing of China or India, and the Chinese or Indians knew very little about the countries of the Mediterranean.

  Have a look at a map of the ancient world, if you can find one. Some of the descriptions of the world and maps given by the old writers are amusing. In those maps the several countries assume extraordinary shapes. Maps of ancient times prepared now are much more helpful, and I hope you will often consult them when reading about these times. A map helps greatly. Without it, we can have no real idea of history. Indeed, to learn history one should have as many maps and as many pictures as possible; pictures of old buildings, ruins, and such other remains of those times as have come down. These pictures fill up the dry skeleton of history and make it live for us. History, if we are to learn anything from it, must be a succession of vivid images in our mind, so that when we read it, we can almost see events happening. It should be a fascinating play which grips us, a comedy sometimes, more often a tragedy, of which the stage is the world, and the players are the great men and women of the past.

  Pictures and maps help a little to open our eyes to this pageant of history. They should be within reach of every boy and girl. But better even than pictures is a personal visit to the ruins and remains of old history. It is not possible to see all of these, for they are spread out all over the world. But we can always find some remains of the past within easy reach of us, if we keep our eyes wide open. The big museums collect the smaller remains and relics. In India there are plenty of remains of past history, but of the very ancient days there are very few. Mohenjo Daro and Harappa are perhaps the only instances so far. It may be that many of the very old buildings crumbled to dust in the hot climate. It is much more likely, however, that many of them still lie under the surface of the soil, waiting to be dug up. And as we dig them up and find old relics and inscriptions, the past history of our country will gradually open its pages to us, and we shall read in these pages of stone and brick and mortar what our ancestors did in the old, old times.

  You have been to Delhi, and you have seen some of the ruins and old buildings round about the present city. When you see them again, think of the past, and they will carry you back and tell you more history than any book. Right from the days of the Mahabharata have people lived in Delhi city or near it, and they have called it by many names: Indraprastha, Hastinapur, Tughlaqabad, Shahjahanabad—I do not even know all these names. Tradition tells us that there have been seven cities of Delhi on seven different sites, always moving because of the vagaries of the river Jumna. And now we see an eighth city—Raisina or New Delhi—rising up at the command of the present rulers of this country. Empire after empire has flourished in Delhi and has gone.

  Go to Benares or Kashi, that most ancient of cities, and give ear to her murmuring. Does she not tell you of her immemorial past—of how she has gone on while empires have decayed, of Buddha who came to her with his new gospel, of the millions who have gone to her through the ages to find peace and solace? Old and hoary, decrepit, dirty, smelly, and yet much alive and full of the strength of ages, is Benares. Full of charm and wonder is Kashi, for in her eyes you can see the past of India, and in the murmur of her waters you can hear the voices of ages long gone by.

  Or, go nearer still, to the old Ashoka pillar in our city of Allahabad or Prayag. See the inscription carved on it at the bidding of Ashoka, and you can almost hear his voice across 2000 years.

  13

  Where Do Riches Go To?

  January 18, 1931

  In my letters to you which I sent to Mussoorie, I tried to show you how different classes of people developed as man advanced. The early men had a hard life even to find food. They hunted and gathered nuts and fruits from day to day, and wandered from place to place in search of food. Gradually tribes grew up. These were really large families living together and hunting together, because it was safer to be together than alone. Then came a great change—the discovery of agriculture, which made a tremendous difference. People found it much easier to grow food on the land by the methods of agriculture than to hunt all the time. And ploughing and sowing and harvesting meant living on the land. They could not just wander about as they used to, but had to remain near their fields. So grew up villages and towns.

  Agriculture also brought about other changes. The food that was produced by the land was much more than could be used up at once. This excess or surplus was stored up. Life became a little more complicated than it used to be in the old days of hunting, and different classes of people did the actual work in the fields and elsewhere, and some did the managing and organizing. The managers and organizers gradually became more powerful, and became patriarchs and rulers and kings and nobles. And, having the power to do so, they kept for themselves a great deal of the excess or surplus food that was produced. Thus they became richer, while those who worked in the fields got just enough food to live on. A time came later when these managers and organizers became too lazy or incompetent to do even the work of organizing. They did nothing, but they took good care to take a fat share of the food produced by the workers. And they began to think that they had every right to live in this way on the labour of others without doing anything themselves.

  So you will see that the coming of agriculture made a vast difference to life. By improving the method of getting food, by making it easier to get it, agriculture changed the whole basis of society. It gave people leisure. Different classes grew up. Everybody was not busy in getting food, and so some people could take to other work. Various kinds of crafts grew up and new professions were formed. Power, however, chiefly rested with the organizing class.

  You will find in later history also how great changes have been brought about by new ways of producing food and other necessaries. Man began to require many other things almost as much as food. So that any great change in the methods of production resulted in great changes in society. To give you one big instance of it: when steam was applied to working factories and moving railways and ships, a great change was made in the methods of production and distribution. The steam factories could make things far more quickly than the artisans and craftsmen could with their hands or simple tools. The big machine was really an enormous tool. And the railway and the steamship helped in taking food and the products of factories quickly to distant countries. You can well imagine what a difference this must have made all over the world.

  New and quicker ways of producing food and other things have been discovered in history from time to time. And you would, of course, think that if better methods were used for production, much more would be produced, and the world would be richer and every one would have more. You would be partly right and partly wrong. Better methods of production have certainly made the world richer. But which part of the world? It is obvious enough that there is great poverty and misery still in our country, of course, but even
in a rich country like England this is so. Why? Where do the riches go to? It is a strange thing that in spite of more and more wealth being produced, the poor have remained poor. They have made some little progress in certain countries, but it is very little compared to the new wealth produced. We can easily see, however, to whom this wealth largely goes. It goes to those who, usually being the managers or organizers, see to it that they get the lion’s share of everything good. And, stranger still, classes have grown up in society of people who do not even pretend to do any work, and yet who take this lion’s share of the work of others! And—would you believe it?—these classes are honoured; and some foolish people imagine that it is degrading to have to work for one’s living! Such is the topsy-turvy condition of our world. Is it surprising that the peasant in his field and the worker in his factory are poor, although they produce the food and wealth of the world? We talk of freedom for our country, but what will any freedom be worth unless it puts an end to this topsy-turvydom, and gives to the man who does the work the fruits of his toil? Big, fat books have been written on politics and the art of government, on economics and how the nation’s wealth should be distributed. Learned professors lecture on these subjects. But, while people talk and discuss, those who work suffer. Two hundred years ago a famous Frenchman, Voltaire, said of politicians and the like that “they have discovered in their fine politics the art of causing those to die of hunger who, cultivating the earth, give the means of life to others”.

  Still, ancient man advanced and gradually encroached upon wild Nature. He cut the forests and built the houses and tilled the land. Man is supposed to have conquered Nature to some extent. People talk of the conquest of Nature. This is loose talk and is not quite correct. It is far better to say that man has begun to understand Nature, and the more he has understood, the more he has been able to co-operate with Nature and to utilize it for his own purposes. In the old days men were afraid of Nature and of natural phenomena. Instead of trying to understand them, they tried to worship and offer peace offerings, as if Nature were a wild beast which had to be appeased and cajoled. Thus thunder and lightning and epidemic diseases frightened them, and they thought that these could be prevented only by offerings. Many simple people think that an eclipse of the sun or moon is a terrible calamity. Instead of trying to understand that it is a very simple natural occurrence, people needlessly excite themselves about it, and fast and bathe to protect the sun or the moon! The sun and the moon are quite capable of looking after themselves. We need not worry about them.