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I am informed that forty or fifty years ago, in some parts of 

 the country, landholders used to have two measures, one of 

 the usual capacity for ordinary transactions, and the other, 

 a somewhat smaller one, for measuring out wages to the 

 labourers who were thus cheated out of a part of their 

 customary dues. This infamous practice has now, I believe, 

 been completely discontinued. Further amelioration of the 

 condition of this class must be the outcome of educational 

 agencies employed in connection with missionary enterprise ; 

 and indeed, the best thing that can happen to them is con- 

 version to either the Christian or the Muhammadan religion, 

 for there is no hope for them within the pale '''^ of Hinduism, 

 the ordinances of which originated in a state of things in 

 which it was necessary for a small minority of colonists of 

 a superior race, with a view to prevent their civilization from 

 becoming swamped by the surrounding barbarism, to con- 

 struct " moral barriers," which would absolutely prevent 

 fusion of races. The lower classes themselves are finding 

 out this and the work of conversion is proceeding apace in 

 some parts of the Presidency, for instance, in Tinnevelly, 

 Nellore, Kistna and Malabar. Mr. Mclver, in the census 

 report of 1881, writes : " The extensive conversion to 

 Muhammadanism of the lower castes of Hindus in Malabar 

 has, for some years, been a matter of notoriety. The social 

 distinctions created by caste are very marked in parts of the 

 West Coast districts, and some of the lower castes occupy a 

 very degraded position. The advantages which Moplahs or 

 Hindu-sprung Mussulmans enjoy in this respect are obvious 

 enough, and this seems at last to have dawned on the lower 

 caste Hindus. The Moplahs were willing to receive them, 

 and the work has of late years thriven." The increase of 

 the Muhammadan population of Malabar in the decade ending 

 1881 was 12 "3, while the increase in the total population 

 was only 3'4 per cent. The Anglican missionaries in Tinne- 

 velly, and the Baptists in Kistna and Nellore, made large 

 additions to their followers in the ten years ending 1881, the 

 increase in the Christian population in the three districts in 

 that decade being 37*4, 371*9 and 590*4 per cent., res- 

 pectively, while there was an increase in the total population 

 of Tinnevelly and Kistna of only 0*34 and 662 per cent., 

 respectively, and a decrease in Nellore of 11*4 per cent, on 



'^ An attempt wag mafle by certain philanthropic Hindu gentlemen in Mysore, under 

 the inspiration of the late Mr. C. Runga Gharlu, to organize a system of teaching for 

 the Pariah population, in order that some impression might be made o» the dense 

 ignorance and grpvelling superstition of this class. The attempt, however, altogether 

 failed, _ 



