Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c51.s2.1

v4.c51.s2.1

The superiority of the campoo over the indigenous troops in the actual clash of arms is obvious; but the new system had serious defects, which ultimately led to its failure in India. Many of these defects were noted by contemporary observers, like Thomas Munro and Arthur Wellesley. The root of the matter has been thus briefly put by Sir Alfred Lyall in his *Rise of the British Dominion in India*: “The armament and tactics of civilized nations imply high proficiency in the art of war, abundant supply of costly material, and a strong reserve of well-trained officers; they cannot be hurriedly adopted by an Indian chief whose people are totally unaccustomed to such inventions. Moreover, in proportion as the Marathas adopted the armament and tactics of European warfare, they lost the advantage that comes out of unanimity of national, religious, or tribal sentiment. The new system required professional soldiers, who must be enlisted wherever they could be found; and especially it needed foreign officers.” (2nd ed. p. 198.)