it for purposes of enjoyment or display for fear of being
plundered by the classes above them; the agricultural classes
as a whole had few wants beyond those imposed by the
necessity for bare subsistence, no ambition or enterprise to
try untrodden ways, and no example to stimulate them to
endeavour to better their condition, while the rigid usages
of castes and communities in which society was organized
repressed all freedom of action and restricted the scope for
individual initiative. To understand the full significance
of the change which has come over the country one has to
contrast what he sees at present, unsatisfactory as it may
appear from some points of view, with the state of things
described above.... Remembering that methods of
progress calculated to evoke national feeling and religious
enthusiasm are unavailable under the conditions of the case,
the progress that has been made ... is little short of
marvellous.

It was from Madras that the British power set forth on its
unpremeditated course of conquest which was destined ultimately to
reach from Tuticorin to the Himalayas. Since the beginning of the
nineteenth century the Madras Presidency has been in the fortunate
position of having no history. Its northern rivals call it despitefully
the "benighted" Presidency. No epithet, however, could be more
undeserved, for if its annals for the last hundred years have been
unsensational, its record in respect of education, intelligent
administration, material prosperity, and all that goes with peaceful
continuous progress would entitle it rather to be called the "Model"
Presidency. The Native States of Southern India, and above all Mysore,
which was for many years under direct British administration, will
equally bear favourable comparison with any of the Native States of
Central or Northern India. From the standpoint of education, Southern
India has long held and probably still holds the lead, thanks in a great
measure to the large Christian communities which comprise more than
two-thirds of the whole Christian population of India. But in the
statistics of literacy based on the last census, the Brahmans figure at
the head of all the Hindu castes with the very creditable proportion of
578 males and 40 females per mille. The Western-educated classes in
Southern India, whilst as progressive as in any other part, show greater
mental balance than in Bengal, and less react