THE PEOPLE OF INDIA 271

tion of India. Throughout the country are scattered
between 57,000,000 and 58,000,000 Muhammadans, a
number sufficient to justify the expression that the
empire of India is the greatest Mussulman power in
the world. As compared with the Hindu population, the
comparatively small number of Muhammadans in India
affords but little indication of their political importance.
The strictly orthodox Muhammadan is only to be found on
the frontier, or in the great cities of the plains. Although
we hear much of Muhammadan
 factions and of the
constant recurrence of
civil conflicts between
Mussulman and Hindu,
such outbreaks are almost
 entirely confined to
large towns, where the
creed of Islam is upheld
with something approaching
 to fanatical fervour. The great majority of Muhammadans
 in India are descendants of but half-converted
Hindus ; and they are still in effect as much Hindus as
‘heir progenitors. Six million or seven million Muhammadans
 are to be found on the north-west frontier who
partake more or less (for even on the frontier there are
many half-hearted professors of the creed of Islam) of the
‘anaticism which is kept alive by the zeal of those upholders
of the faith who dwell beyond our borders ; and if we add
to the Mussulman strength of the frontier those descendants
 of former invaders or immigrants who live in the
towns of India, we shall include the whole body of the
faithful who uphold the orthodox tenets of Islam.
“One-third of the inhabitants of the large towns of the
North-West Provinces is Muhammadan, and it is the
religious animosity which exists between them and the
Hindus that arouses such constant attention to the power
of the Muhammadan faith in India. As for the great
Muhammadan agricultural population (18,000,000 of whom
exist in Bengal alone), it is remarkable for an absolutely