Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

---

Yesterday, 24 January, India celebrated the 57th anniversary of the Republic Day. On such an auspicious occasion I have nothing better to refer to than the three- volume work by the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography, The Discovery of India and Glimpses of World History.

The beautifully bound volumes are published by the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, and the edition I am presenting is the tenth impression of 1996. Each of the three volumes is a literary masterpiece in its own right, and together they present the outlook of a truly great statesman, a statesman not only of his own country but of the world at large.

Nehru was not just a leader of India, but a symbol of what we seek in life: freedom, independence and peace -- for he was, over and above, a man of peace of rare understanding and tolerance, and his outlook for peace covered the entire world rather than just his own country.

But where shall I begin?

Naturally, I feel, I should begin with the foreword by his daughter, Indira Gandhi. Out of the three volumes, Indira singles out Glimpses of World History as, in her own words "the best introduction to the story of man for young and growing people in India and all over the world". In fact this big volume was brought out in a shorter version entitled Letters to my Daughter for the benefit of a younger readership. Still, the order of publication is very significant.

Glimpses of World History was written in 1934, while Nehru was in Central Prison, Naini. Indeed in his preface to the original edition he wrote, "I don't know when or where these letters will be published, or whether they will be published at all." The letters were intended for his daughter Indira, he added: "The letters are personal, and there are many intimate touches in them which were meant for my daughter alone." In the book there are 196 letters, with 50 maps, with subjects ranging from the beginning of Chinese Civilisation to the war in Spain and the Berlin-Rome avis of the World War II.

With this great volume, one can begin to recognise the international outlook of Nehru. His letter of 11 March, 1933 is particularly memorable in that it deals with Egypt becoming "another victim of British imperialism". In this letter Nehru concedes that his references to Egypt are brief and fragmentary, because, he says, "of my own ignorance". He adds by way of justification that Egypt is an ancient nation whose historical periods progress not in centuries but in millennia. But in the end the whole confession is somewhat too modest, since Nehru turns out to know far more than it would suggest.

He goes on to say that "wonderful and awe- inspiring remains still remind us of this remote past". Egypt, he explains, was the earliest and greatest archaeological field; as they were dug out of the sand, the monuments told a fascinating tale of days long gone. Over 7,000 years ago there already existed along the Nile Valley a civilised people with hundreds of years of culture behind them. They wrote, Nehru says, in a language of pictures; they created beautiful pots and vases and vessels out of clay and precious metal.

Here again, I would like to quote Nehru about a subject which is very close to my heart, the role of women: "From out of this vast period of 4,000-5,000 years some wonderful figures of men and women stand out, and seem almost alive even today -- men and women of action, great builders, great dreamers and thinkers, warriors, despots and tyrants, proud and vain rulers, beautiful women..."

So much knowledge of the ancient world is but an indication of the depth and breadth of Nehru's knowledge of more recent epochs of Egyptian history -- a history he identified with so well he could pronounce on it with confidence.