The Ethnology of India, 13) 
are Arab, but at all events they are Arabs of an industrious money- 
getting stamp. They have most of the trade of the Coast in their 
hands, and they are rapidly acquiring a larger and larger share in 
the land, not only inferior rights by settlement and lease, but also 
superior rights by purchase and mortgage. As respects their religious 
fanaticism, I believe it will generally be found that fanaticism is 
most frequently used as an instrument of political warfare, and that 
in the most sincere it is but a symptom of political discontent. In 
spite of Mr. Palgrave, [ think that when Arabs beyond their own 
country are Mahommedans, they are pretty zealous, especially when 
they find themselves confronted with unbelievers. Probably the 
Moplahs are as good Mahommedans as are usually found, and in time 
of political discontent there is no lack of religious leaders from - 
Arabia; but in fact I understand that it is perfectly clear to those 
acquainted with the matter that the Moplah outrages of which we 
have heard so much, are really political, or perhaps I should rather 
say social, outbursts of a few individuals among an energetic people, 
directed not against the British Government or Christian rule, but 
against Hindu landlords. The land question is at the bottom of it 
all. It is the old story of an inferior race with the law in their 
favour, and a more energetic race who wish to progress somewhat more 
rapidly than a conservative law allows. The more serious attacks 
on Huropean officers have been made on them, not because they are 
Christians, but because they have not taken a view sufficiently 
favourable to the Moplahs in questions between them and the Hindu 
landlords. 
They are a sturdy and independent as well as an intelligent and 
educated race, and though they make, I believe, capital public servants 
when they enter our service, they do not much seek it, and circum- 
stances seem to have rendered them somewhat apart and over-indepen- 
dent. here is perhaps less intercourse and friendly feeling than is 
desirable between the governors and the governed. Still the Moplahs 
are an ethnological fact, and a strong and rapidly progressing fact ; 
we can’t get rid of them, and we must try to guide their energy in 
the right direction. After all, their outbreaks have been those of 
a very few individuals, and have only been serious on account of their 
extreme pluck and energy, with which only European soldiers can cope. 
