Tlie Ethnology of India. 139 



.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, I 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 arc 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 European 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. There 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. 



