he Mohammedan population nearly all the women are
analphabet. In the educational system of India the government places
Mohammedans among the "backward classes," and every effort has been
made by the State, even to the doubling of educational grants, to
stimulate the members of this faith on educational lines.

It is one of the most discouraging facts connected with the Muslim
population that while they are brave in bearing arms and loyal to the
government, they have an apparent aversion to the schoolhouse, and can
with difficulty be induced to secure even an elementary education.
This bears very heavily against their prosperity and influence. Public
offices in India are wisely placed in charge of those who are
competent, by a thorough training and a broad education, to well fill
them. The consequence is that the Mohammedan has been gradually driven
out from nearly all public positions of trust by the intellectually
more alert Brahman, and even by lower-class Hindus, who are availing
themselves of the opportunities for higher education.

It is not strange that the political influence of this community has
correspondingly waned, so that only a very small number relatively of
Muslims is found to-day in the councils of the Empire.

A new ambition, however, seems to be taking possession of the
community. They have recently organized many schools under the
direction of "The Society for the Aid of Islam." These schools,
without neglecting the study of the Quran and their sacred language
and the tenets of their faith, give instruction on western lines, and
in the English language.

They have established, also, under the inspiration of the late Sir
Sayid Ahmed Khan, a college at Aligarh. Though the rationalistic
teaching of the founder causes the institution to be discredited by
orthodox leaders, the college has developed wonderfully, and is
beginning to assume the proportions of a Muslim University. Of this
institution a learned Mussulman remarked in an address:--

"We want Aligarh to be such a home of learning as to command the same
respect of scholars as Berlin or Oxford, Leipsic or Paris. And we want
those branches of learning relative to Islam which are fast falling
into decay to be added by Moslem scholars to the stock of the world's
knowledge. And, above all, we want to create for our people an
intellectual and moral capital--a city which shall be the home of
elevated ideas and pure ideals; a centre from which light