THE PEOPLE OF INDIA 225

capacity, added to the material wealth which is possessed
 by this community, have given it abnormal prominence,
 the measure of which may be estimated by the
fact that out of a total of 287,000,000 inhabitants of India,
the Parsis do not number even one-tenth of a million.
Equal to the Parsi in intellectual capacity, but
distinctly inferior in physique and the manlier attributes
of the Asiatic races, is his Aryan brother, the Bengali.
Like the Parsi, the modern Bengali is the result of the
English occupation of India. Without that occupation
his effeminate, indolent, and cowardly nature would long
ago have led to his disappearance before the stronger
races of the north. It is, of course, dangerous to deal
in generalities, and notable exceptions may certainly be
found to this general estimate of the Bengali character ;
but in a work like this it is only possible to deal in generalities,
 and no one acquainted with the Bengali will deny
that nationally he belongs to a comparatively contemptible
race.
Sir John Strachey, after quoting Lord Macaulay's
judgment on the Bengali character, which marks him
as “feeble, even to effeminacy,” possessing a mind which
bears “a singular analogy to his body,” whilst, at the
same time he is possessed of a certain “suppleness and
tact,” adds that what was true in the days of Macaulay is
true still. « His (Macaulay's) description may be applied
without exaggeration to the majority of the people of
Western Bengal, and especially to those with whom Englishmen
 come most into communication in Calcutta and
the neighbouring districts. The Muhammadan peasantry
of the eastern. portion of the province are men of robuster
character. It has often been said, and it is probably true,
that Bengal is the only country in the world where you
can find a great population amongst whom personal
cowardice is looked upon as in no way disgraceful.
This is no invention of their enemies; the Bengalis
themselves have no shame or scruple in declaring it to
be a fact. Although it cannot be said that English
aducation which has taken so deep a root has made

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