In 1901 the Muslims of the Madras Presidency, excluding the Mapillas of Malabar and South Kanara, were not a single community but rather were divided into three distinctive groups defined by language and history. Apart from their shared religion, interaction between the groups was limited, but after 1901 increasing interchange led to the emergence of a broadly based Muslim political identity in southern India by the 1930s. But the mix of differences and commonalities between the various Muslim groups that existed in 1901 determined the nature of the political compact that emerged in succeeding years.