of the East. The ubiquitous impact of Westernism is
modifying not merely the Islamic world but all non-Moslem Asia and
Africa,[72] and in subsequent pages we shall examine the effects of
Western influence upon the non-Moslem elements of India. Of course
Western influence does not entirely account for Islam's recent
evolution. We have already seen that, for the last hundred years, Islam
itself has been engendering forces which, however quickened by external
Western stimuli, are essentially internal in their nature, arising
spontaneously and working toward distinctive, original goals. It is not
a mere copying of the West that is to-day going on in the Moslem world,
but an attempt at a new synthesis--an assimilation of Western methods to
Eastern ends. We must always remember that the Asiatic stocks which
constitute the bulk of Islam's followers are not primitive savages like
the African negroes or the Australoids, but are mainly peoples with
genuine civilizations built up by their own efforts from the remote
past. In view of their historic achievements, therefore, it seems safe
to conclude that in the great ferment now stirring the Moslem world we
behold a real _Renaissance_, whose genuineness is best attested by the
fact that there have been similar movements in former times.

The modern influence of the West on the East is quite unprecedented in
both intensity and scope. The far more local, partial influence of
Greece and Rome cannot be compared to it. Another point to be noted is
that this modern influence of the West upon the East is a very recent
thing. The full impact of Westernism upon the Orient as a whole dates
only from about the middle of the nineteenth century. Since then,
however, the process has been going on by leaps and bounds. Roads and
railways, posts and telegraphs, books and papers, methods and ideas,
have penetrated, or are in process of penetrating, every nook and cranny
of the East. Steamships sail the remotest seas. Commerce drives forth
and scatters the multitudinous products of Western industry among the
remotest peoples. Nations which only half a century ago lived the life
of thirty centuries ago, to-day read newspapers and go to business in
electric tram-cars. Both the habits and thoughts of Orientals are being
revolutionized. To a discussion of the influence of the West upon the
Moslem world the remainder of this book will be devoted. The chief
elements will be separately analysed in subsequent