Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “History Never Repeats Itself” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

History Never Repeats Itself

History has its own course; times have their own tides, periods have their own currents and epochs have their own irresistibility’s. History has its unbroken and unbreakable march; it follows its course. It leaves behind what outgrows its utility and it forges new traits as the circumstances necessitate. These can be termed as implicit but irresistible movements of history.

Although there is a unity in history, there is so much diversity too that history is never said to repeat itself. After taking place, any incident or accident becomes a thing of the past. It becomes history. Although a similar incident or accident may take place again, the characteristics of the repeated incident or accident will be quite different from the one that took place earlier. Just as no two human beings are exactly similar, although all human beings may be classified by their typical traits, similarities and. characteristics, similarly no two incidents or accidents in history are exactly similar or a repetition of exact nature. 

History is full of wars and battles fought among nations. Whereas in a war there is recurrence of battles, it is repetition of the history in so far as the general incidents of history are concerned. But while going into details of such wars and battles, there are innumerable variations to differentiate between one war and another, one battle and another.

Society has undergone evolution from Stone Age to the present nuclear age. The evolution has been full of developments in various branches of human society. A number of civilizations came to the world in various countries, had their impact on the people and cast their influences in various directions. A number of religions have had their growth and guided the thinking of the communities and peoples. Races, tribes and nations have come into being and grown up to various stages. There have been wars among nations and rivalry for power. Various civilizations have criss-crossed each other and intermingled in various ways. Some of the civilizations survived for short periods, while others have continued to thrive defying all suppressions and obstacles. Whatever the advancement of human beings of a country in the world during the course of history, it can be stated without any hesitation that every incident or accident had been different from any incident or accident that may have taken place anywhere earlier in history.

No doubt, some factors which led to the rise and fall of a certain empire may be traced to be responsible for the rise and fall of another empire. But exception does not prove the rule. Changragupta Maurya rose to the pinnacle of his glory because he followed what Chanakya advised. But Ashoka rose to a greater glory because he followed the ‘Eight-fold Path’ of the Buddha, after the bloody War of Kalinga. Akbar, too, became great but he never. followed Buddha.

The trouble with those who vociferously hold that history repeats itself is that they forget that man learns from the experiences of others. Had it not been so, we would have had another world war over the Cuba issue, instead of the hot line between Washington and Kremlin. Not only that America’s intervention in Gulf War would have since long conflagration into another world war. We are yet to find an event in history which would show that the people who had acquired a homeland after centuries of molestation and suppression would emerge to command such power within such a short span of time.

Had history repeated itself, Renaissance in England would have preceded Reformation as it did in the rest of European countries. Apart from that the democratic forces in the world would have followed the chain of events which led to the growth of democracy in England after the Magna Carta. Again, Industrial Revolution, which led to Robert Owen’s fight for the rights of the working class, would have called for similar evolution in other countries and taken as long as it took in England. Now we need not repeat the `Tolpuddle Martyrs’ episode for having a trade union.

Some say defeat in war demoralizes the vanquished people. In support of their point of view they would come forward with innumerable instances with the spontaneity of a computer. But we may wish they could tell also that the economic status which the two vanquished people—Germany and Japan—enjoy today had ever been enjoyed by any other nation who had suffered so heavily in a war, though not so destructive as World War II. Let them say what they will. But Iran today is not what it was when Alexander defeated Darius. Nor is Greece what it was before the Turks over-ran it.

Another vital point for serious deliberation is that nations do take a cue from the failures and successes of other nations. Realising that the well-being of the people at large is the well-being of the State, they do not tell the people what Antoinete told the hungry French before the Revolution. So old order changeth, yielding place to new. Laissez-faire is spurned and replaced by more State interference and State ownership of industries. Welfare State takes the place of callous indifference of the lords. Universal adult franchise reduces the importance of money bags. And such developments do not reverberate from any corridor of the distant past. Apart from that, what is being done in highly developed countries like America for the well-being of the under-privileged people is difficult to find in any period of any country’s history. As such it would be absurd to say in this atomic era that ‘History repeats itself.

Mankind has will and they are no dry leaves which would be swept by current of water or wind and speed up. the growth of the trees, the seeds of which are carried in the course of natural phenomena. If changed gene and environment can change human beings, and if drugs can change human behaviour, should we not say that history of the past is a fascinating story of follies and frolics of the people who lived wrapped in ignorance thinking that there was no land other than what they had been told about? We wonder how history would repeat itself when famine-stricken people receive succor from all corners of the world, when underdeveloped countries are not left to continue to remain underdeveloped and when world organizations are fighting to cope with such threats to human civilization as illiteracy, ignorance and over-population which in the past had been responsible for much distress for mankind. The manner in which barriers between countries and knowledge are crumbling down, there is hardly any chance for history to repeat itself even in the times to come.