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account of the famine of 1876-78. As soon as a person of 

 the lowest classes of the Hindu population is converted either 

 to the Christian or the Muharamadan religion, he emerges at 

 a bound from his position of social degradation, and is ac- 

 knowledged by persons belonging to the higher classes to have 

 doee so ; and he often turns the tables against the latter by 

 calling them " Kafirs" or "Heathens." It is also noteworthy 

 to what extent the removal of the social stigma of degradation 

 stimulates the industrial activity of the classes who have 

 been relieved of it. The Moplahs of Malabar, for instance, 

 are far more active, enterprising and well to do than the 

 classes of the Hindus from whom they have seceded. The 

 work of conversion, however, can only proceed pari passu 

 with the improvement in the material condition of the lower 

 classes of which it is both a consequence and a cause ; for, 

 convey.-ion implies a desire to live a more respectable life on 

 the paft of the degraded classes than what they have been 

 accustomed to, and the means for doing so must be within 

 reach before the desire is felt. As regards the further 

 amelioration of the condition of the Pariah population, which 

 has recently excited so much public attention, it seems to me 

 that it would be erroneous to assume that they are worse ofP 

 now than they were fifty years ago, or that they are oppressed 

 by the landholders. On the contrary, they are distinctly 

 better off than before in the sense that they have a great 

 many more opportunities of bettering their condition than 

 were available under the old regime, and of which an appreci- 

 able percentage of the class has actually availed itself. There 

 is, however, still a large class which, though somewhat better 

 than before, is in a deplorably miserable and degraded con- 

 dition, and its amelioration must, as already observed, be 

 brought about by educational agencies ; and it is in this 

 direction that the efforts of Government should be directed, 

 and not, as is sometimes advocated, to the procuring of bene- 

 fits to the labouring classes at the expense of the land-owning 

 classes which can only have the effect of introducing among 

 the two classes, so necessary to one another, a spirit of 

 mutual hostility similar to what is growing up in England 

 to the injury of both. There is one hopeful feature in the 

 situation, viz., that the Pariahs, notwithstanding centuries of 

 social degradation, are singularly docile, attached to their 

 masters, amenable to instruction and not unintelligent ; and 

 there can be little doubt but that a great deal may be made 

 of them and that their improvement is not such a difficult or 

 hopeless 'undertaking as one might be inclined to think when 

 one sees their present degraded condition in the rural parts, 



