Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  All of us have our choice of living in the valleys below, with their unhealthy mists and fogs, but giving a measure of bodily security; or of climbing the high mountains, with risk and danger for companions, to breathe the pure air above, and take joy in the distant views, and welcome the rising sun.

  I have given you many quotations and extracts from poets and others in this letter. I shall finish up with one more. It is from the Gitanjali; it is a poem, or prayer, by Rabindra Nath Tagore:

  Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

  Where knowledge is free;

  Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

  Where words come out from the depth of truth;

  Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

  Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

  Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—

  Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

  We have finished, carissima, and this last letter ends. The last letter! Certainly not. I shall write you many more. But this series ends, and so Tamam Shud!

  Footnotes

  A Birthday Letter

  1. Indira’s birthday takes place, according to the Gregorian Calendar, on November 19. It was observed, however, on October 26, according to the Samvat era.

  2. Mahatma Gandhi.

  1

  A New Year’s Gift

  1. Indira’s grandfather, Pandit Motilal Nehru.

  3

  Inqilab Zindabad

  1. Inqilab zindabad means “long live revolution”.

  2. Priyadarshini is Indira’s second name and means “dear to the sight”.

  9

  The Burden of Old Tradition

  1. Ranjit S. Pandit, the author’s brother-in-law, who was in prison with him at the time.

  10

  The Village Republics of Ancient India

  1. The author’s house in Allahabad.

  14

  The Sixth Century before Christ, and Religion

  1. Zarathushtra probably lived in the eighth century BC.

  15

  Persia and Greece

  1. Indira’s little cousin, Chandralekha Pandit.

  21

  A Holiday and a Dream Journey

  1. Lanka is the old name for Ceylon.

  33

  The Roman Empire Splits up and Finally Becomes a Ghost

  1. Kemal Pasha died in 1939.

  43

  Harsha-Vardhana and Hiuen Tsang

  1. Hiuen Tsang’s name is also spelt Yuen Chang or Yuan Chwang or Hsuan tsang.

  2. Indira’s pet name is Indu.

  3. Prayag is the old name for Allahabad. Mela is a fair.

  56

  The Quest of Man

  1. People who live behind the veil.

  65

  The Afghans Invade India

  1. Indira’s grandmother.

  2. In ancient India it was a custom for a daughter of a king to choose her husband at a gathering to which all the eligible kings and princes were invited.

  97

  The Coming of the Big Machine

  1. Spinning wheel.

  100

  The Fall of the Bastille

  1. After me the deluge.

  125

  Imperialism and Nationalism in Persia

  1. A new agreement, very much more favourable to the Iran Government, had ultimately to be accepted by the British Government and the Oil Company.

  144

  The Russian Revolution of 1905 That Failed

  1. Gorki died in 1936.

  151

  The Bolsheviks Seize Power

  1. This story about November 7 being fixed by Lenin for the Bolshevik seizure of power has been given by Reed, the American journalist, who was present in Petrograd then. But other people who were present do not accept it. Lenin was in hiding and he was afraid that the other Bolshevik leaders might temporize and allow the right moment to pass. So he was continually urging them to action. Matters coming to a head on the 7th, this action took place then.

  161

  India in the Nineteen Twenties

  1. A rupee, at the present rate of exchange, is equal to one shilling and six pence.

  169

  Iraq and the Virtues of Aerial Bombing

  1. King Feisal died in September 1933 and was succeeded by his son Gazi I, who was killed in an accident in 1939, and who was succeeded by his baby son.

  170

  Afghanistan and Some Other Countries of Asia

  1. In November 1933 Nadir Shah was assassinated, and was succeeded by his young son, who became King Zahir Shah.

  2. In October 1933 there was a right-wing insurrection, but this was suppressed, and Luang Pradit continued to lead the government.

  171

  The Revolution That Did Not Come off

  1. This “anschluss” took place in March 1938.

  177

  Revolution and Counter-revolution in China

  1. The conflict between Chiang Kai-Shek and the Chinese Soviets, their joining together against Japanese aggression, and Japan’s invasion of China and the war that followed, are dealt with in the Postscript at the end of this book.

  178

  Japan Defies the World

  1. This trade war between England and Russia was brought to an end later by an agreement between the two countries.

  179

  The Union of Socialist Soviet Republics

  1. The Soviet Union was recognized by the United States in 1933, and diplomatic relations were established between the two countries.

  186

  The Struggle of America and England for Leadership

  1. During the next five years, from 1933 to 1938, no further payment of debt to the United States was made by England or France. Not even token payments were made. It seems to be taken for granted that the debt can be ignored and will not be paid.

  195

  The Shadow of War

  1. This is no longer so since German rearmament. After the Munich Pact of September 1938, France has almost become a second-class Power. Her group of alliances in Central Europe has also broken up.

  2. Austria was invaded and absorbed by Germany in March 1938. Mussolini was compelled by circumstances to agree to it, but Italy strongly disapproved of the change.

  196

  The Last Letter

  1. Swadeshi means made in one’s own country.

  Postscript

  Arabian Sea

  November 14, 1938

  Five and a quarter years ago I wrote to you the last letter of this series from my cell in the District Gaol of Dehra Dun. My two-year sentence of imprisonment was nearing its end, and I put away the huge pile of the letters that I had written to you during that long period of solitary living (but with you always as my companion in thought), and prepared my mind for my release to the outer world of movement and action. That discharge came soon afterwards, but five months later I was back again in the familiar surroundings of prison with another sentence of two years. Again I took the pen and wrote a story, a more personal one this time.

  I came out again, and we shared sorrow together, a sorrow that has shadowed my life ever since. But personal misfortune is of little account in this world of sorrow and strife, which demands from us all our strength in the struggles that convulse it. And so we parted, and you went to the sheltered paths of study, and I to the din and tumult of the struggle.

  Five years and more have passed with their burden of war and suffering, and ever the contrast grows between the world we live in and the world of our dreams. Hope itself sometimes gasps for breath, throttled by the evil that pursues us. And yet as I write, the Arabian Sea stretches out before me in all its strength and beauty, silent as a dream, shimmering in the silver of the moonlight.

  I am supposed to tell you in this Postsc
ript the story of these five years, for these Letters are going to appear in a new garb, and my publisher demands that they should be brought up to date. It is a difficult task, for so much has happened during this period that if I took to writing about it, and had the time for it, I would exceed all bounds and produce another book. Even a mere record of the principal events would be long and burdensome. I must therefore give you the barest outline of what has happened. I have added some notes to the Letters already written, giving additional facts, and now we shall have a brief survey of these years.

  In my concluding Letters I drew your attention to the tremendous contradictions and rivalries of the modern world, to the growth of fascism and naziism, and to the shadow of war. These five years have intensified these rivalries and conflicts, and though World War has so far been avoided, great and horrible wars have taken place in Africa, in Europe, and in the Far East of Asia. Every year, and sometimes every month, brings its tale of fresh aggression and horror. The world grows more and more disorganized, international relations become anarchical, and the League of Nations and the other attempts made at international co-operation have ended as dismal failures. Disarmament is a thing of the past, and each nation arms feverishly, night and day, to the utmost of its capacity. Fear grips the world, and Europe, lashed by aggressive and triumphant naziism and fascism, deteriorates rapidly and takes the road to barbarism.

  We examined at length in our previous letters the issues that lay behind the Great War of 1914-18. War came, and out of it emerged the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League. But the old problems were unsolved, and many new ones arose: reparations, war debts, disarmament, collective security, economic crisis, and unemployment on a vast scale. Behind the problems of the peace there still remained vital social problems which had upset the equilibrium of the world. In the Soviet Union the new social forces had proved victorious, and were trying to build up, in face of enormous difficulties and world opposition, a new kind of world. Elsewhere deep social changes went on, but found no outlet, and were held back by the existing political and economic structure. Abundance came to the world, a vast expansion of production; the dream of ages was realized. But the slave long used to his bondage is afraid of freedom, and foolish humanity has grown so used to scarcity that it cannot easily think in other terms. And so the new wealth is deliberately thrown away, restricted and confined, and actually there is more unemployment and misery.

  Conference after conference met and the nations of the world gathered together to solve this amazing paradox and to ensure peace. There were pacts and agreements and alliances—Washington, Locarno, the Kellogg Pact, non-aggression pacts—but the basic problems were not touched, and at the first touch of brutal reality these agreements and pacts vanished away, leaving the naked sword as the arbiter of Europe’s destiny. The Treaty of Versailles is dead, the map of Europe has changed again, and a new division of the world is taking place. The question of war debts has faded away and the richest nations have decided not to pay them.

  So we come back to the pre-war age of 1914 and before, with all its problems and conflicts, but intensified a hundredfold by what has happened since. The capitalist system in decay leads to economic nationalism as well as the growth of greater monopolies; it becomes aggressive and violent, and cannot even tolerate parliamentary democracy. Fascism and naziism arise in all their naked brutality, and make war the end and aim of all their policy. At the same time a great new Power arises in the Soviet areas, which is a continuing challenge to the old order and a powerful check to imperialism and fascism alike.

  We live in an age of revolution, a revolution which started when the War broke out in 1914, and continues from year to year with the world in the throes of conflict everywhere. The French Revolution of 150 years ago gradually ushered in an age of political equality, but the times have changed, and that by itself is not enough today. The boundaries of democracy have to be widened now so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing, the revolution to ensure economic equality, and thus to give democracy its full meaning, and to bring ourselves in line with the advance of science and technology.

  This equality does not fit in with imperialism or with capitalism, which are based on inequality and the exploitation of nation or class. Therefore it is resisted by those who profit by this exploitation, and when the conflict grows, even the conception of political equality and parliamentary democracy is repudiated. That is fascism, which in many ways takes us back to the Middle Ages. It exalts the domination of Race, and in place of the divine right of an autocratic king has the divine right of an all-powerful Leader. The growth of fascism during the last five years and its attack on every democratic principle and conception of freedom and civilization have made the defence of democracy the vital question today. The present world conflict is not between communism and socialism on the one hand and fascism on the other. It is between democracy and fascism, and all the real forces of democracy line up and become anti-fascists. Spain today is the supreme example of this.

  But behind that democracy lies inevitably the idea of an extension of democracy, and for fear of this, reactionaries everywhere, even though paying lip-service to democracy, give their sympathy or allegiance to fascism. The role of the fascist Powers is clear enough; there is no doubt about their aims or policy. But the governing factor of the situation has been the role of the so-called democratic Powers, more especially England. The British Government has throughout played a reactionary role in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and given every encouragement to fascism and naziism. It has done so, curiously enough, even at the cost of endangering the security of the British Empire, so great was its fear of the growth of real democracy and its class sympathy with the leaders of fascism. If fascism has grown and begun to dominate the world, the credit for this must largely go to the British Government. The United States of America, with a keener sense of democracy, more than once offered to co-operate with other Powers to check fascist aggression, but England refused that offer. France has become so utterly dependent on the City of London and on British foreign policy that it dare not adopt an independent policy.

  In Labour matters also Britain has been consistently reactionary at the International Labour Conferences. In June 1937 the I.L.O. adopted a convention of forty hours a week for the textile industry. It did so in spite of the opposition of Great Britain. Even the British Dominions deserted Britain and supported the United States. But of course the delegate for India, nominated by the British Government, sided with Britain. The members of the United States delegation, including employers and Government representatives, remarked that “until they came to Geneva they had no idea how reactionary the British Government was.” “Great Britain,” one of them further added, “has become the spear-head of reaction.”

  The League of Nations, with all its weaknesses, still embodied the international idea, and its covenant laid down penalties for aggression. It had failed to take any action (except for appointing a commission of inquiry and subsequent condemnation of aggression) when Japan invaded Manchuria. The British Government had indeed encouraged Japan in this adventure, and ever since then, with a few minor lapses in the right direction, it followed a policy of ignoring and weakening the League. The rise of naziism, with its avowed policy of aggression, was a direct challenge to the League, but England and, to a certain extent, France, submitted to this challenge and allowed the League to fade away. The fascist Powers left the League, Germany doing so in October 1933, and Japan and Italy later. In September 1934 the Soviet Union joined the League and put fresh blood into it. Fear of Nazi Germany led France to an alliance with the Soviets, but England preferred an alignment with Nazi Germany to co-operation with the Soviet Union even on the basis of the League Covenant. Each successful aggression emboldened the fascist Powers and convinced them that they could defy the League with impunity, for they realized that the British Government would not go against them.

  It
is this progressive alignment of the British Government with the fascist Powers that explains much that has happened in China, Abyssinia, Spain, and Central Europe. It makes us understand why the proud structure of the League of Nations, which represented so much the hope of peace and progress of mankind, lies in ruins today.

  We have seen how Japan successfully defied the League and the world in Manchuria and set up a puppet State, Manchukuo, there. Although there was actual military invasion, there was no declaration of war. Internal revolts were fomented, and these were made the excuse for intervention. This new technique was subsequently perfected by Italy and Nazi Germany, and to it was added false propaganda abroad on an unprecedented scale. There are no declarations of war now; they belong to a past age. As Hitler, speaking at Nuremburg in 1937, said: “If ever I wanted to attack an opponent, I would not negotiate and prepare for months, but would do as I always did: emerge out of the dark and with the swiftness of lightning throw myself upon my opponent.”