he cause of
the zenana system of this land. The seclusion of women began, they
say, on account of the licentiousness of the Arabs. However this may
be, it is true that the Mohammedan Purdah system, which separates so
thoroughly women from the other sex, found adoption, or at least
emphasis, among the Hindus. In ancient times, so far as we can learn,
the women of Brahmanism found considerable freedom and independence of
life. Probably the truth is that, as Hinduism developed certain types
of doctrine which bore heavily upon the weaker sex, the range of
privilege and opportunity which women enjoyed found gradual limitation
and curtailment which found marked impetus upon the advent of the Arab
hordes.

And it should be remembered that the persistent attitude of
Mohammedans toward slavery and toward polygamy has had a deleterious
effect upon the Hindu people.

Though Islam came to India uninvited, and though its pathway has been
marked with blood, it has not been without great opportunity to
impress the people of this land with its nobility. But, as we have
seen, the opportunity does not seem to have been improved. After
twelve centuries of active propagandism and some centuries of
political rule and religious oppression, this religion is still an
exotic, and finds, on the whole, small place in the affection of the
people. This is owing in part to its want of adaptation and inherent
lack of vital power. As Sir Monier William has said: "There is a
finality and a want of elasticity about Mohammedanism which precludes
its expanding beyond a certain fixed line of demarcation. Having once
reached this line, it appears to lapse backwards--to tend toward
mental and moral slavery, to contract with the narrower and narrower
circles of bigotry and exclusiveness."

Add again to this the fact, already mentioned, that its new
environment in India has been deleterious to the vitality of the
Mohammedan faith. "Mohammedanism, as a quiescent non-proselytizing
religion, could only become corrupt and rotten. The effect of all this
policy on the mass of Mohammedans was to deprive their religious
sentiment of that intolerance which constituted its strength. Its
moral power was gone when it ceased to be intolerant.... These two
religions have thus settled down beside each other on terms of mutual
charity and _toleration_. This does not imply any great change or
deterioration in Hinduism, for its principles admit every belief as
truth, and e