He said, "There is no idea more misleading than that embodied in the phrase, ‘the changeless East'. Age-worn Asia is no more exempt from the laws of change than the rest of the world....."..Mowlana Sultan Mohamed Shah continued, ..." To begin with, no individual can observe 300 million of his fellow creatures; but even then, if any one makes it his business to mix with the poorer classes and listens to them patiently, he will come to the conclusion that most of what one reads in the vernacular Press is thought of and talked about by the public. Of course, here we must take the opinion of the observer on trust.

However, such are my own conclusion, drawn from observations in Bengal, the Bombay Presidency, and the Punjab, and I venture to prophesy that if a few independent Englishmen would come out and give to India for five or six years, (one in each province) the same amount of thought and patient observation, that Mr. Bodley gave to France, they would come to conclusions similar to mine - viz., that the vernacular Press does represent the feelings of the masses. Of course, we have all often heard the assertions about the dumb millions not having any sympathy with the Press, the discontent being in no way that of the masses. We must examine this assertion with care and patience. It is comforting, but is it like the opium-eater's paradise - an unwholesome dream, destined to end in a dreary headache, or is it like the North Sea breeze, an exhilarating reality?" (Aziz; 263)