The People Who Changed The World
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Is Human History simply a description of wars, important events, kings and great personalities and their life styles , great monuments and buildings constructed by them or something more? Did the events occur in the past were independent of each other or there exist a correlation among them? Does there exist a common thread during the ages which depicts a certain law of motion in human history since its inception? And if there is any, what is the characteristic of that common thread? These are the questions which have been endeavoured to take care of in this book by highlighting a constant elevation of human civilization emerging from conflicts and wars. Man’s rationality of behavior compelled him to search and innovate some thing better and this characteristic of his keeps the wheels of civilization moving. His struggle for existence and then in order to protect his life-securities, humans needed to organize themselves and aspired to invent and discover new means of production and more efficient weapons. This process of innovation inevitably led to constant elevation of human civilization to newer heights during the ages. But different human civilizations did not pursue the same degree of elevation and their pace too varied remarkably. Some developed initially very fast, then slowed down and finally became stagnant to be taken over by others, while some were stagnant initially and after lapse of some time started moving upward with accelerated pace never to look back. Some were in-between. African settlements did not demonstrate any development worth the name. The author has characterized all human civilizations of the world into seven broad categories and tried to demonstrate graphically their pace of development during the ages. It has been the only Anglo-Saxon civilization which demonstrated a regular all round development since 1000A.D. when it began to move from its primitive existence, and then slowly attained a leadership position. All others were compelled to follow them willingly or out of compulsion to survive and today none can ignore them. India has been the most impacted country by the Anglo-Saxon civilization owing to her 200 Years domination by the British. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India and a committed freedom fighter, was the most influenced statesman of innovative and dynamic British culture, but he could not translate his vision of modern and innovative India during his life time owing to the turmoil of partition on communal lines which vitiated the whole atmosphere for innovative thinking. Nehru’s selection of Polity framework for independent India was not in tune with the needs of the country, according to the author. Further, the author has tried to analyze the movement of Indian civilization objectively during the ages and demonstrated its glory at the dawn of human history and then its stagnation and decline after 1000A.D. with factors responsible for it. He underlined the socio-economic backwardness of Indian civilization in modern era and sought remedies in the light of Anglo-Saxon advancement. He also propounded a new theory of social development and change christened by him as ‘Pendulum Theory’ of Social Change. Man’s desires and aspirations are unlimited and he never stops at a particular level of satisfaction, according to the author. He always seeks more and this keeps the wheels of civilization in constant motion and change. There is no room for the ‘End of History’ doctrine as long as human existence is there on the earth. It is expected that a new stir of thinking would be created by this book among the intellectual circles all over the world.
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About the Book
This book portrays the world history in an entirely new landscape which highlights the pace of development of all the major civilizations of the world since the dawn of human history. Man’s rational behavior compelled him to search and innovate new things in order to emerge victorious in his struggle for existence, and in the process, he elevated human civilization. But different civilizations developed on different lines. Some were fast initially but later turned static, and some were static initially but later gained momentum to become world leaders, while some were in between. The author has broadly categorizes all the world civilizations into seven segments and demonstrated their behavior of development graphically. Indian civilization has been evaluated as initially glorious and highly developed, but later it turned static due to several inherent factors. Anglo-Saxon civilization has been adjudged as initially primitive and after AD 1000 it began to move slowly and later gained pace to become world leader. It has been suggested in the book that Indians should learn from the Anglo-Saxons and should follow their road to development, which has been heavily propitiated with scientific and technological innovations and rational thinking since AD 1000.
About the Author
The author is an ex-banker of a nationalized bank named Allahabad Bank, served as senior manager. He has been a keen student of history since his boyhood and took active interest in student movements during the turbulent period from 1971 to 1977. He also participated in trade union movements during his service days. He was attracted toward Marxism in his youth days and read a lot of Marxian as well as Marxist literature. He saw the collapse of the Soviet Union along with its East European Allies and drifting of Chinese polity toward market mechanism. This induced him to contemplate further about the veracity of Marxian theory and its implementation by the socialist world. This book is the outcome of his revised thinking.