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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



their blood among the converts to so great an extent as to 

 materially alter their character. Small as this fusion of 

 blood must have been in the first instance, it would grow 

 weaker and weaker as each generation of descendants got 

 further and further removed from the original Arab or 

 Egyptian ancestor. Hence it is that the Choliyas continue to 

 be in point of language, features, physique, and social customs 

 still Tamils in all respects except religion. 



In a paper read by Sir William Hunter 1 before the 

 Society of Arts on the Religions of India, he refuted the idea 

 that " Islam in India is that of a conquering creed which set 

 up powerful dynasties, who in their turn converted, more or 

 less by force, the races under their sway," and pointed out 

 that the part of Northern India which is most strongly 

 Muhammadan is the part most remote from the great centres 

 of Muhammadan rule. " The explanation is," he said, " that 

 in Northern India Islam found itself hemmed in by strongly 

 organised forms of Hinduism of a high type, on which it 

 could make but slight impression. Indeed, Hinduism here 

 re-acted so powerfully on Islam that the greatest of the 

 Mughal sovereigns, Akbar, formally renounced the creed of 

 the Prophet and promulgated a new religion for the empire 

 constructed out of the rival faiths." He then described the 

 process of conversion as follows : the Muhammadan mission- 

 aries and adventurers penetrated into outlying districts far 

 removed from the influence of the higher forms of Hinduism, 

 and preached there to the masses who were socially of low 

 standing. And he continues : — " To these poor people, 

 fishermen, hunters, pirates, and low-caste tillers of the soil, 

 whom Hinduism had barely admitted within its pale, Islam 

 came as a revelation from on high. It was the creed of the 

 governing race ; its missionaries were men of zeal, who 

 brought the Gospel of the unity of God and the equality of 

 man in its sight to a despised and neglected population. 



! On February 24, 1888. 



