THE PEOPLE OF INDIA 223

But the variety of nationalities is great in India, and
-thnographic distinctions are as varied as the differences
of social manners and customs. From the princely and
arrogant Afghan to the artificial tail-wearing Naga (of
the Tibeto-Burman group), who dances his war-dance on
the top of a hill, and wags his tail as a symbol of defiance ;
from the highly-educated Bengali sceptic of Calcutta to
the provincial landowner (not far removed from him) who
will sacrifice a human victim in order to secure a favour-.ble
 decision of the High Court, humanity may be found
and studied in India in all its aspects and phases both of
physical and moral eccentricity. It is impossible to refer
to even a tithe of the ethnographic interests that will be
found contained in the continent between the Indian
Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. But we may well ask,
Which of all the races of India have shown. the highest
aptitudes for upward development ?— which of them can be
claimed as affording really satisfactory evidence that the
sivilisation of England has had any decided effect in
raising the moral standard of the people, or of securing a
strong and intelligent body of political adherents ? The
most cultured races, and indisputably the most intellectually
 advanced, are the Bengalis (with whom may be
associated the Mahratta Brahmans of Bombay) and the
Parsis. But education so far has apparently conduced
far more to political agitation and discontent than it has
to social and moral improvement or material strength,
One hears far more of the screams of agitators than of
any satisfactory witness to a full and just appreciation of
the advantages of British rule in India. Yet the appreciation
 undoubtedly exists, and exists widely, and with most
strong vitality, but it does not advertise its existence in the
native Press, nor air itself in the British Parliament. The
fact is that political discontent is a profession in India just
as it is elsewhere—men live by it, and advertisement is
1ecessary to provide for its support.
Thus it happens that of all the many peoples of India
the Parsi and the Bengali are perhaps the best known
and the least understood in England, for individuals