Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c59.s4.4

v4.c59.s4.4

The mere copying of the externals of European civilisation, without undergoing a new birth of the spirit, cannot produce a renaissance. It led only to the growth of the Anglo-Muslim culture of the Oudh Nawab’s Court, which was a bastard sprout producing no flower or fruit. In it the inner spirit of modern civilisation was wanting, and only the outer trappings of European life were borrowed and put on the persons of Indians who then looked like idiots or buffoons. No modern literature took its birth at the Lucknow royal court; the pictures and poetry it produced were mostly pornographic; Asaf-ud-daula used to eat 64 grains of the strongest Turkish opium every day. His successor, Sadat Ali knew English and a little French too, but turned out on the throne to be such a drunkard that he had to be assisted to his bed almost every night.