Imagine
A
tribal born in India – say, a Bhil or Toda
who raised
an army – not merely a tribal battalion
which defeated every rival kingdom in India
then
conquered Persia, Egypt, China, Russia
and
whose descendants ruled those nations as the Shah
of Iran, Pharaoh of Egypt, Emperor of China, Czar of Russia!
That
is what Genghis Khan accomplished. I used this metaphor or comparison, when I
reviewed Jack Weatherford’s book “Genghis
Khan and the Making of the Modern World,” for TieCon, a conference of
Entrepreneurs, in Chennai, in November 2016. Before I explain why I chose this
book, let us look at the author Weatherford’s metaphor.
Jack Weatherford’s metaphor
“If USA were created not by educated
merchants or rich plantation owners
but by an illiterate slave
who liberated his country from foreign rule
united the people
created an alphabet
wrote a constitution
established universal religious freedom
invented a new system of warfare
conquered all land from Canada to Brazil,
and,
established a contiguous free market zone
across continents…”
that person
– “illiterate slave” etc.. – would have equalled what Genghis Khan did!
It’s
not easy to grasp all that (or believe even some of that) after one reading. And
it clashes severely with our vague images of Genghis Khan or the Mongols of his
time. Most people equate them with the most terrifying warriors in human
history (which was probaly true), who beheaded thousands and razed cities (also
true), and were the most savagely brutal and cruel people (false – Weatherford argues
with examples, that so called civilized people of that time – Italians,
Persians, Germans, Chinese etc – were far more cruel and brutal).
But look at some elements of that list again –
1.
Created
an alphabet
2.
Wrote
a constitutuion
3.
Established
universal religious freedom
4.
Established
a free market zone
Genghis
Khan????!!! Really??? Alphabet, Constitution and free market are not usually
associated with marauding empire builders, leave alone Genghis. But that simply
shows the deep and historical bias that most historians have (and eagerly
jumped upon by believing readers and peoples, proud of their own heroes). Most Westerners
– Europeans - are quite eager to believe that Alexander the Great (whose record
of genocide and destruction of cultures is rarely matched in history) brought
civilization to the barbaric Asians. They also believe the same of the Roman
Empire, European Colonialism of Africa Asia and South America (but not Atilla
or Napoleon or Hitler or Stalin’s colonizations of Europe). Pakistani text
books teach that Islam brought culture to India. India’s own history books
while critical of earlier Islamic invasions, go into paroxysms of joy about the
delights of Mughal rule, while also painting European colonialism in pure vileness.
Twentieth century history according to Indian text books on history, is fifty
terrible years of British rule when Congress was a noble sacrificing heroic
opposition, followed by fifty glorious years of Congress rule overcoming all
the terrible opposition parties and “foreign powers.” For context, these three
perspectives on history may be of some interest.
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| My book review at TieCon Photo: Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy |
You
will have to read the book or at least, listen to the audio recording of my review
for further details on Genghis Khan’s accomplishments. Actually I was struck by
the subtitle of the book “and the Making of the Modern World.” Again, a phrase
that one does not associate with the Mongols or Genghis. But then Weatherford
is not the only historian who makes this claim regarding Genghis Khan.
Here
are some other interesting facts:
1. Did
you know that Genghis Khan built more bridges than any other ruler in history?
2. The
Mongols made pants and trousers globally popular (the Europeans were early
adopters, they used to wear togas and tunics and robes before that – Romans,
Greeks, Crusaders, Goths).
3. It
was the collapse of the Mongol empire and the resulting massive inflation in
Asian cottons, silks and spices, that prompted Columbus, Vasco da Gama,
Magellan to find a sea route to India.
4. The
longest tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” is about Genghis Khan!
5. Genghis
Khan exempted doctors, lawyers, scholars, teachers from tax. No democracy in
the world has done or will ever do that. (Most Hindu kingdoms in India exempted
doctors, teachers, barbers and priests from tax. There were no lawyers).
The Mongols
defy almost every standard pattern in history, in the eyes of John Green, who
did a marvelous series of ten minute videos on world history. “Except the
Mongols,” is a standard phrase he uses, quite justifiably.
Do I
agree with Weatherford that Genghis created the Modern World? No, I don’t. My
views are closer to those of Vaclav Smil, who mocked this claim in his book “Creatingthe Twentieth Century.” I believe the modern world is the result of the
Industrial Revolution, which was more important than all political and social
revolutions combined. But the book is a marvel, I respect his claim – given the
history of Genghis Khan before he conquered Mongolia, what he did after that was
utterly astounding. And unparalleled.
The
organizer of TieCon, V Chandrasekhar, an entrepreneur himself, is a friend who
liked my other book reviews, and asked me to review two books for TieCon. The
other book I reviewed was Alan Beattie’s
“False Economy.”
Genghis
Khan is an unusual person to interest entrepreneurs, I would have thought, but
my review of this book drew nearly twice the crowd of my review of Beattie’s
book about Economics. You can see Beattie’s video explaining his book here, the
video of my book review in Tamil here and the audio of my TieCon book review of Beattie’s book here.
In case you missed the links…
- Video of my Genghis Khan book review at TieCon
- Audio download of my book review of Genghis Khan
- Video of Jack Weatherford on Genghis Khan
- Video of my book review of False Economy (in Tamil, at Gandhi Center)
- John Green’s Crash Course – World History
My other book reviews (all in
Tamil)
Blog
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| Genghis Khan - book review banner |
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| Dinner at TieCon with V Chandrasekhar, family and friends |
Chingis seems to be an amalgam of Julius Caesar and Spartacus (rising from a slave to a revolution, rewriting the calendar, etc)
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