The Henson Journals

[89]

Wednesday, August 3rd, 1921.

It rained in the rained in the earlier part of the morning, but cleared after breakfast. I wrote a number of letters, including one to William: then I walked into town with Arthur, who showed me the house which he had purchased. Minehead is certainly picturesquely situated, and commands beautiful prospects on sea and land, but the town itself is mainly modern & of no particular attractiveness. The parish church of S. Michael is a fine building finely placed on the hill–side above the town. We found it locked, and were limited to a view of the outside only, but this was impressive. The tower is particularly noteworthy.

Arthur is very insistent that the right policy in India is that which gratifies the Mohammedans. He points out that, though greatly inferior in numbers to the Hindoos, they are not broken up like them into castes, nor are they in the same degree tied to the locality. The Mohammedan is a member of the vast brotherhood of Islam, which is powerful on two continents, and not a negligible factor in a third. It follows that if the Indian Mohammedans be alienated or disgusted by our proceedings, they are a disturbing influence everywhere: conversely that our handling of Mohammedan interests anywhere is bound to tell on Mohammedan feeling in India. The Hindoo has no "dispersion" in other lands. Buddhism is, indeed, widely spread in other parts of Asia, but the Indian Buddhists are not dominant either in numbers or influence: nor is their religion one that lends itself to political excitement. Arthur admits, however, that Mohammedanism is everywhere a sterilizing power, under which no healthy social order can develope.

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