476 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
actual state of aftairs among the ordinary Khas is certainly 
much different from that obtaining among those claiming des- 
cent from the pure Rajputs and Brahmans of the plains. The 
success of the plainsmen has been due as much to the adapta- 
bility shown by them in accommodating their rules of life to 
the requirement of the hill tribes as to the superiority of their 
culture and the consequent prestige. 
The varying degrees of influence that European culture 
has had in different parts of the world are in harmony with this 
view. As Rivers has pointed out,' it has been greatest among 
the rude tribes and least among cultured people. In the case 
of India, as Rivers has mentioned, the effect has been felt 
mainly among the people who are at a relatively lower stage 
of culture, especially among the depressed classes of the sou uth. 
This view is supported by a more detailed study of European 
influence in different parts of India. Thus it is found that 
among different tribes of the same race, speech and social 
organisation, those standing at a higher level of = 
oe have been much less affected than those at a low 
It is also well brought out in the varying degree of success, 
missionaries have had in converting primitive hill tribes, as 
for example in ae, and Chota Nagpore, and in the reasons 
admitted by the workers as mainly responsible for conversion.” 
It is acknowledged more or less frankly that conversion depends 
in a great degree on purely secular, in general economic, 
mo 
The progress of Christianity as well as Hinduism among the 
primitive tribes further illustrates what has been suggested 
about the dependence of harmony in interaction of cultures on 
the absence of irksome restrictions in daily life. ‘Thus it is 
admitted that in Assam, among Khasis as well as other hill 
tribes “ the stricter standard of se is a stumbling block ” 
and ‘‘if the missionaries were able to relax their moral code’ 
as regards drink, sex and rest days, “ the number bs their 
converts would in all probability be largely pcrepes 


1 W. H.R. Rivers: ‘* The Contact of peoples” in Basiiye iad Studies 
presented to William Ridpioing. p. 474, Cambridge 1918. 
e general theory of contact of peoples is further elaborat ted in his 
History of Melanesian Society, Vol. Il, Chap. XXVIII (Cambridae 1914). 
hs - almost su ectcoee to acknowledge my indebtedness for the gener ral 
2 CF. he different degree to which the Khasis and Syntengs have 
been affe ste. The latter with their superior material culture have 
Spacer the social rules better than the Khasis. See P. ion n: ‘* The 
asia "’, London 1914. This question will be dealt with in detail a ™m 
Ssay on ‘* Cultural influences in Assam.’’ I have pie grees: it 
preferable not to ee into further details h 
* E. Chatterton: Mission work - hots Nagpore, Chap. IX, London, 
190}. Census prigsn ssam : Report p. 38. 
+ Census of Assam: Report 190%. os 45. 

