Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c59.s4.1

v4.c59.s4.1

The Indian Renaissance was possible only because a principle was discovered by which India could throw herself into the full current of modern civilisation in the outer world without totally discarding her past. She could approach the temple of modern art and science not as a naked beggar, not as an utter alien, but as a backward and at present impoverished country cousin of Europe. She had a spiritual and intellectual heritage of which she need not be ashamed before the world. In fact, India was not called upon to plume herself in the borrowed feathers of European civilisation, she had only to assimilate modern thought and modern arts into her inner life without any loss of what she had so long possessed.