भारत में अंग्रेजी राज (पण्डित सुन्दरलाल - ब्रिटिश औपनिवेशिक लूट व षड्यन्त्रों का प्रामाणिक इतिहास)

वे और हम २६
उस समय के भारत से तुलना
ऊपर के लम्बे बयान से उस ज़माने के इङ्गलिस्तान के गांवों और
शहरों की हालत, मकानों, सड़कों, रहन सहन, धन्धों, कचहरियों, धार्मिक
विचारों, शिक्षा और सदाचार इत्यादि का पूरा पूरा पता चलता है। हमें यह
भी याद रखना चाहिए कि यह वह ज़माना था, जब कि हिन्दोस्तान में
कबीर और दादू के उदार धार्मिक विचार, अकबर का विश्वप्रेम, जहाँगीर का
न्यायशासन, शाहजहाँ के समय की ख़ुशहाली और आश्चर्यजनक कलाकौशल
संसार भर के यात्रियों को चकाचौंध कर रहे थे, जब कि भारत में दर्जनों
नगर सुन्दर से सुन्दर इमारतों से सुसज्जित और अत्यन्त घने बसे हुए थे,
जब कि दिल्ली और आगरे के क़िले और ताजमहल जैसी इमारतें बन
with mud. His fire was chimney-less—often it was made of peat. In the
objects and manner of his existence he was but a step above the industrious
beaver who was building his dam in the adjacent stream. There were high-
waymen on the roads, pirates on the rivers, vermin in abundance in the
clothing and beds. The common food was peas, vetches, fern roots and
even the bark of trees. There was no commerce to put off famine. Man
was altogether at the mercy of the seasons. The population, sparse as it
was, was perpetually thinned by pestilence and want. Nor was the state of
the townsman better than that of the rustic; his bed was a bag of straw,
with a hard round log for his pillow. If he was in easy circumstances, his
clothing was of leather, if poor, a wisp of straw wrapped round his limbs
kept off the cold. . . . . As to the mechanic, how was it possible that he
could exist where there were no windows made of glass, not even of oiled
paper, no workshop warmed by a fire. For the poor there was no physician
. . . Sanitary provisions there were none. . . the rapidity of its
(syphilis') spread all over Europe is a significant illustration of the fearful
immorality of the times. If contemporary authors are to be trusted, there
was not a class, married or unmarried, clergy or laity, from the holy father,
Leo X, to the begger by the wayside, free from it. . . . Its (England's)