248 ENGLISH EXCLUSHTINESS IN INDIA. 



from ourselves in society. Here our Indian 

 friends A., B., and C, are as well pleased to join 

 our family circles at any meal as we are to 

 receive them, but those very gentlemen would 

 not venture to do the same in India, through 

 apprehension alone of offending the prejudices 

 of their own countrymen, most of whom 

 would, I believe, be shocked to learn that they 

 had eaten at the table of Europeans, and I am 

 mistaken if their doing so would not lead to 

 a case of '' HooTcah, pmvnee, hundj^ in plain Eng- 

 lish, that our friends would be excluded from 

 the society of their own people and relatives. 

 An Indian gentleman, Hafiz Sudr ool Islam 

 Khan Bahader, however, declares that I am 

 wrong in my assertion '' that if the English 

 had been as cordial in their reception of native 

 gentlemen in India as they are in London, the 

 social barrier complained of would long ere this 

 have been broken down ; but that they are not 

 so, and, moreover, says he, another difficulty 

 exists. We Moslems do not object to eat food 

 prepared by a Christian cook, but we do object 

 to eat that prepared by a Pariah, who is gener- 

 ally dirty both in person and habits, and has 

 no religion, Avhilst Christians have the book." 



