68 THE TURKS IN DELHI adventurers, free from the lethargy of self-indulgence that too often etiolates the exotic in the Indian forcing- house. The very bigotry of their creed was an instru- ment of self-preservation; in mere self-defence they must hold together as God's elect in the face of the heathen, and they were forced to win over proselytes from the Hindus, whether by persuasion or by the sword, to swell their isolated minority. Hence the soli- darity and the zeal which, added to their greater energy and versatility, gave the Moslems their superiority over natives who were sometimes their equals in courage, though never in unity, in enthusiasm, or in persistence. The clannishness of the Hindus, their devotion to local chiefs, and their ineradicable jealousies of each other, prevented anything approaching national patriotism; and their religious system, which rested upon birth and race and class, whilst precluding the very idea of proselytism, deprived them of the zeal of the mission- ary. Moreover they were always on the defensive, and except behind ramparts the defensive position is the weaker part. The Moslems, inspired by the spirit of ad- venture, of militant propaganda, of spreading the King- dom of God upon earth, as well as seizing the goods of this world, had every advantage over the native Hin- dus, and when the invaders were led by kings who em- bodied these masterful qualities, their triumph was assured. The example of such a warrior king as Mohammad Ghori bred heroic followers. Whatever may be said against the slave system, it tends in the East to the
