Lutfullah in London
Reginald and Jamila Massey trace the visit of an Indian to England during the eighteen-fifties, who opined the natives ‘are entirely submissive... to the commands of their superiors. Their sense of patriotism is greater than that of any nation in the world’.
Historically it was the European who pushed eastwards and recorded his impressions of strange lands and exotic peoples. The Easterner has always stayed at home, introverted and seemingly lacking in curiosity about the world around him.
So it is refreshing to come across the unusual case of Sheikh Lutfullah Khan, born in 1802 of a noble but impoverished family in Central India. His was indeed an eventful life, the classic story of a resourceful, hard-working lad who wanted to make good—an attitude of mind and an outlook on life more typical of Europe than of the East. His father died when he was only four, and he and his mother were looked after by an uncle.
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