lions of Hindu converts who embraced Islam.

For many generations the Moslem hold on India was confined to the north.
Then, early in the sixteenth century, the great Turko-Mongol leader
Baber entered India and founded the "Mogul" Empire. Baber and his
successors overran even the south, and united India politically as it
had never been united before. But even this conquest was superficial.
The Brahmins, threatened with destruction, preached a Hindu revival; the
Mogul dynasty petered out; and at the beginning of the eighteenth
century the Mogul Empire collapsed, leaving India a welter of warring
principalities, Mohammedan and Hindu, fighting each other for religion,
for politics, or for sheer lust of plunder.

Out of this anarchy the British rose to power. The British were at first
merely one of several other European elements--Portuguese, Dutch, and
French--who established small settlements along the Indian coasts. The
Europeans never dreamed of conquering India while the Mogul power
endured. In fact, the British connection with India began as a purely
trading venture--the East India Company. But when India collapsed into
anarchy the Europeans were first obliged to acquire local authority to
protect their "factories," and later were lured into more ambitious
schemes by the impotence of petty rulers. Gradually the British ousted
their European rivals and established a solid political foothold in
India. The one stable element in a seething chaos, the British
inevitably extended their authority. At first they did so reluctantly.
The East India Company long remained primarily a trading venture, aiming
at dividends rather than dominion. However, it later evolved into a real
government with an ambitious policy of annexation. This in turn awakened
the fears of many Indians and brought on the "Mutiny" of 1857. The
mutiny was quelled, the East India Company abolished, and India came
directly under the British Crown, Queen Victoria being later proclaimed
Empress of India. These events in turn resulted not only in a
strengthening of British political authority but also in an increased
penetration of Western influences of every description. Roads, railways,
and canals opened up and unified India as never before; the piercing of
the Isthmus of Suez facilitated communication with Europe; while
education on European lines spread Western ideas.

Over this rapidly changing India stood the British "Raj"--a system of
government unique in