disposition to identify their interest with those of the British government. In 1872 Sir Sayed Ahmed, the influence of whose life and teaching is becoming more and more ascendant in Moslem thought in India, published a series of letters to show that under British rule, which permits freedom in religious matters, the duty of waging religious war does not hold. Not only did the Mohammedans as a class observe a "correct" attitude during the ebullition of discontent and unrest, developing in places into anarchism, but the Anjumans or Associations in all parts of India have declared their loyalty to the British Crown. Whether the Hindus are right in accusing the government of adopting a policy towards Mohammedans fitted to gain their attachment at the expense of Indian nationality, is a question for politicians; the fact is that so far as protestations go, there is no lack of loyalty to the British Raj.

Whatever opinion may exist among the ignorant masses that the British government is bent on making the people of India converts to Christianity, all intelligent Mohammedans are satisfied that the government of India entertains no such purpose. It was hardly necessary for Lord Curzon, in replying to an address from the students of Aligarh College, to say, "Adhere to your own religion." The government cannot be accused of doing anything to awaken suspicions that it desires to displace their faith by Christianity. The fact that so many Mohammedans are now actively associated in the administration ought to do much to make the devout Moslem loyal to the established rule, even though it has deposed his religion to a place of equality with the other religions of the land.

And yet we must remember that in Islam religion and politics are so closely interwoven that all accession of political power and influence will assuredly lead to a de

velopment of religious zeal, for religious interests according to the faith must be dominant. The conviction lies deep in the heart of every orthodox Moslem that his religion is true, the only one that is true, and in the end is destined to prevail. It is his creed that where he rules he must use his power to propagate his faith. He is still sanguine of the ultimate triumph of Islam. The Koran is still the inspiration of his faith, and the interests of his religion will determine the character of his politics.

The policy of partiality to the Mohammedans has been the occasion of great demonstrations of loyalty, it is true, yet should the relations between the recognized head of Mohammedanism in Turkey and the Imperial Government ever be dangerously strained, or the interests of the faith threatened, their sympathy with their co-religionists may prove stronger than their loyalty, and the bonds that bind them to their present rulers may not stand the strain.

However that may be, the fact, with all that it involves, confronts us, that the sixty-two and a half millions of Mohammedans in India, now as never before, have a selfconsciousness as a people with their own interests and outlook, and are in a new position to make their will known and felt in the affairs of the country.

Unless the influence of Western culture and ideals has done more than to create a demand for political privileges and to awaken aspirations for place and power in the state, we may have ground for viewing the future with some misgiving. It is maintained by the Moslem that "the recent reforms do not touch the religion of Islam at all."

There are, however, elements in the situation fitted to encourage the hope that the outcome will not be a regression to the tyranny of fanaticism, but a development of freedom and intellectual independence which will favour

the growth of religious toleration and open the mind for the reception of the truth which Christianity proffers.

Among these is the rapidly growing disposition to take advantage of education of the Western type. The Mohammedans are admitting that their back ward condition politically, as compared with that of the Hindus, is due mainly to the fact that they have declined to qualify for the positions in the government service which fell to the lot of the Hindu. Refusing to take advantage of an education which did not embrace instruction in the Koran, they found themselves unfit for any but the most subordinate positions in the service of the state. They now realize that if they are to reach higher grades than soldiers or policemen they must qualify themselves by means of the education they have so much shunned.

Though, according to Islam, the knowledge of Mohammed and of his religion is of first importance, and science and non-Moslem literature are regarded as dangerous to the faith, yet much stress is now being laid on a reputed saying of Mohammed,-"Go forth in search of learning, even if you have to go as far as China," and there is a marked movement in the more advanced section of the community in favour of combining the subjects of religion with those of a liberal education.

The late Sir Sayed Ahmed was among the first to realize that without education the Mohammedan people must lag behind, and he devoted himself earnestly to the work of stimulating his co-religionists to a new policy. At first he was suspected and opposed. Agents, it is said, were sent from Constantinople to kill him. But his cause prospered, and his influence widened, till to-day the new Islam, as it is called, largely moulds Mohammedan thought and ambition. Some twenty-four years ago he wrote, "It is the interest and duty of Mohammedans to devote their energies to education, and to leave

their political interests in the safe-keeping of the government." Two years later, in 1878, having obtained assistance from the government he founded the Mohammedan college at Aligarh, and a few years later he inaugurated the annual conference for the Mohammedans of India. It is claimed that the object of the college is "to reconcile Oriental with Western literature and science, and to make the Mussulmans of India worthy and useful subjects of the British Crown." This college has contributed in no small degree to the development of the spirit of progress now manifested among them.

Political successes have in turn given a great stimulus to this spirit, and plans for broadening the basis and extending the facilities of education are discussed and advocated in conferences, meetings of leagues, and in the Moslem press throughout the country. Though the large proportion of Mohammedan children are still taught the Koran prior to all other subjects, in schools attached to mosques where they do little else than learn it by rote without any understanding of its Arabic tongue, still in increasing numbers, madrasas are being established where education more in accord with Western ideas is given, and advantage is more largely taken of mission schools and colleges.

In North India, increasingly, provision has been made for giving religious instruction to the lower classes. The Koran has been translated into the local vernaculars, cheaply published and widely circulated. Among the higher classes the desire for European learning is manifested by the larger numbers in government and mission colleges, and especially in the Mohammedan college at Aligarh, where the attendance has risen from two hundred and sixty-nine in 1904 to over eight hundred in 1910, comprising students from all parts of India and beyond.