India

a country of southern Asia. Roughly speaking, it consists of the great central peninsula of Hindustan, the provinces on the southern slope of the great mountain system, and a strip of land down the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal. A peculiar feature of Hindustan proper is a precipitous sea wall from 3,000 to 7,000 feet high, following the eastern and western shores like a capital V. It extends inland from forty to seventy miles, sloping gradually into the elevated interior of the peninsula. The two branches are known as the eastern and western ghats or ghauts respectively. The western ghauts are the higher. The entire peninsula tips toward the east.

The drainage of India is wholly into the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. Named from the west, the great rivers are three: the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra. The area of all India is 1,766,642 square miles. The population in 1901 was reported at 294,361,056, an average of 167 per square mile. Next to China, India contains the greatest mass of people under one government on the face of the globe. The number of people is beyond comprehension. With the exception of China, and possibly the Mississippi valley, India is the only region of the globe capable of sustaining so great a population. The valleys of its great rivers have enormous flood plains enriched by annual over-flows. Adjoining these are areas of abundant rainfall. In addition, 12,000,000 acres have been brought under cultivation by means of irrigation. A single canal leading out from the Ganges has 440 miles of a main channel and 2,703 miles of tributaries. It supplies water to over 1,000,000 acres. Of the vast population, nearly three-fourths are dependent on agriculture. The people live in hamlets and farm in a small way. Rice, wheat, millet, sugar-cane, tea, cotton, oil seeds, indigo, and tobacco are the principal field crops. There are 70,000,000 acres under rice alone. Jute, coffee, and poppies are also important crops. Garden patches produce household vegetables and melons. Potatoes thrive near the mountains. The orchard fruits are the mango, guava, olive, citron, pomegranate, tamarind, and custard apple. Irrigated and well watered lands produce two crops a year. Over 27,000,000 acres are under double crops.

Save well up in the Himalayas the climate is exceedingly hot. After a few years' service Europeans find it necessary to leave in order to recuperate. The amount of rainfall varies greatly. There are districts, especially in the west, little better than the Caspian region. Streams lose themselves in the sand. On the other hand, a certain region on the slope of the Himalayas has the heaviest rainfall known. It amounts at times to 120 inches or 10 feet per year.

Portions of India are densely covered with forests. The most valuable timber tree is the teak, found near Bombay, and along the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. The deodar is found in the valleys of the Himalayas. Forests of pines, cedars, and caoutchouc yield large revenues. Of late the government had undertaken to control the forests and to require permits for the cutting of timber. There are extensive tracts of bamboo. The jungles of India are celebrated for wild flowers, especially gorgeous orchids. The largest and fiercest wild animals known hide in these woody growths. The Indian tiger is a much more powerful animal than the lion. The elephant, rhinoceros, leopard, bear, hyena, jackal, wolf, deer, antelope, wild boar, and monkey are yet numerous. The eagle, vulture, falcon, kingfisher, quail, heron, and stork are native birds. Notwithstanding the dense population, considerable portions of the country are uninhabited.

There are thirty-one large cities,--Calcutta, the largest, having a population of over 1,000,000. Fifty-two others have a population exceeding 50,000 each.

The chief manufactures are cotton, woolen, jute, and paper goods. There are also breweries, sugar refineries, and ice plants. There are 329 coal mines. Many small industries, such as weaving and spinning, are carried on in the homes. There are also soap factories, tanneries, oil mills, factories of pottery and tile, cigar factories, glass works, dye works, and printing establishments.

The commerce of India is of ancient origin. The struggles of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks, of which we read in ancient history, were in part, at least, efforts to control the rich caravan trade of India. The discovery of America was but an incident in a methodical attempt to find a water route between western Europe and the valleys of the Indus and the Ganges. The commerce of India is open to the world, but a good half is controlled by British merchants. Accounts are kept in rupees. The rupee is worth about thirty-two cents. R X is the symbol for ten rupees. Rice, wheat, cotton, opium, oil seeds, hides and skins, jute both raw and manufactured, tea, indigo, dyes, coffee, wool, spices, lac, sugar, silk, oils, wood, and saltpetre are exported to Great Britain to the value of $150,000,000 annually. Cloth, hardware, cutlery, machinery, liquors, railway equipment, groceries, salt, glass, chemicals, paper umbrellas, to nearly twice the amount, are returned nearly all by way of the Suez Canal. The sale of Indian products to foreign countries has risen from $5,000,000 in 1700 to not less than $400,000,000 at the present time.

Nominally, India is an empire. King Edward of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is the emperor. Practically, India is a British possession. It is controlled by a member of the British cabinet, known as the Secretary for India. He is assisted by a council of ten members, who are required by law to have had actual experience in India. The Indian end of the government consists of a governor general resident at Calcutta. He receives a salary of $80,000 a year. Warren Hastings was the first to hold the position. The governor general is assisted by a local council of six secretaries, called the Home, Finance, Military, Public Works, Revenue and Agriculture, and Legislative secretaries respectively. There are sixteen additional members.

The department of foreign affairs is managed by the governor-general himself. This council is practically a parliament for India. India is divided into eight provinces, each administered by a governor or other high official. A number of minor districts are in charge of native chiefs, whose acts are controlled by resident British officials. The chief income of the government is derived from the rental of public lands. The government has also a monopoly of the opium business. Lands are rented for the purpose under proper instruction. Opium is bought, manufactured, and purified by the government only. It yields a considerable revenue. The chief expenditures are for salaries, for military supplies, and for a standing army of 230,000 men. One-third of these are European regiments stationed in India for a time.

The history of British influence reminds the reader of the camel that thrust in first its nose, then head, neck, shoulders, and finally took possession of the entire tent. British occupation began in 1639, with the opening of a trading station at Madras. The establishment of other stations, as Bombay, followed. Sides were taken in the quarrels between native princes. British soldiers made and unmade rulers. Nabobs and moguls were taken under protection; then their territory was taken under protection, until finally, after enormous expenditures of men and money, balanced, of course, by the profits of trade and the receipts of the treasury, India became British. Some writers are inclined to class the conquest of India with highway robbery. The rivals of England for the possession of these rich, vast, defenseless provinces were Portugal, Holland, and France. It was simply a choice of evils or blessings, as the case may be.

British rule has done much for India. Irrigation and the public hoarding of food supplies have rendered famines on a large scale, at least less likely to occur. Local wars between the various provinces have ceased. The thugs and other classes of criminals have been exterminated. Life and property have been made reasonably secure. Sutteeism, or the burning of widows with the bodies of their deceased husbands, as well as the practice of throwing infants into the sacred river, have been suppressed rigorously.

Twenty-five thousand miles of railroads have been built. Many times that mileage of public highways have been graded and covered with crushed stone or, in the low alluvial lands, paved with burned brick. The cities have been required to adopt sanitary methods of sewerage, and to clear up the filthy, pestilence-breathing suburbs with which they were surrounded. India is by no means a healthful country, but the death rate has been lowered by British rule.

The enormous population is still illiterate. Two hundred and forty-six million people are reported as unable to read and write, yet 148,000 schools have been established. Four million children are now in attendance. The government also maintains a normal school in each province. There are five universities with about 7,000 students enrolled. There are also medical colleges and universities. Of late the Indian government has given much attention to plans for the improvement of agriculture. Experiment farms and agricultural schools have been established. Attention has been directed to methods of rotating crops, enriching the soil, and to the introduction of improved implements and of machinery. Better breeds of cattle, horses, and ponies have been introduced.

In 1902 there were 42,747 postoffices and mail stations, as against 753 in 1856. In the year mentioned the postoffice department handled 574,053,065 pieces of mail. There are 710 newspapers, publishing in twenty-one languages or dialects. Over 2,000 printing presses are at work. The growth of business is but indicative of the advance that has taken place in other departments.

The problems of India are by no means solved. Millions of people are in ignorance and poverty. Entire villages do not possess as much property, let alone food and clothing, as is owned by the family of a single prosperous western farmer. There is a vast territory to be governed, and the wants of a diversified population to be provided for. The people of India are not of one blood and nationality. In fact, India is a museum of races. There are no less than twenty-five more or less distinct groups of languages. The great river plains are occupied in the main by a people of the white race. They are related, and not very distantly, to the nations of Europe. The mountain districts of the Himalayas and the great table land of southern Hindustan are occupied chiefly by tribes driven from their former homes in the fertile valleys. Primitive people from the plains are still hidden away in the recesses of the mountains. There are tribes in the jungles that live on mice and other small animals, wild fruits, etc. They have neither homes nor fire, but flee like monkeys on the approach of men. It is estimated that there are several million people in India whose methods of living are on a level with those of the lowest negro tribes in darkest Africa.

The situation with relation to religious matters is equally complicated. There are a dozen different religious beliefs. There are about 207,000,000 adherents of Hinduism in its various forms; 62,000,000 are Mohammedans. There are over 9,000,000 Buddhists, about 3,000,000 Christians, several million people whose religious belief it is difficult to classify, as well as a million or two each of Sikhs and Jains. There are about 18,000 Jews engaged in commerce or money lending. Of the Christians about half are Roman Catholics. The Church of England has half a million adherents. Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and others follow in the order named. In addition to diversity of race and religion, there is the problem of caste. Successive invasions of the country have resulted in the depression of the earlier inhabitants into an inferior social position. Until of late it was worse than leprosy to eat food, or even to touch the clothing of one of inferior caste. On the other hand, there is much in Indian literature and art of interest. The wealthy had magnificent palaces. The lace, the gems, the precious work, the monuments and decorations of India, are famous in the history of art. The Buddhist pagodas and the cave temples of India, the latter being vast rock-hewn places of worship, cut in the living rock, are the marvel of modern writers.

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources:

See East India Company; Opium; Rice; Cotton; Bamboo; Quinine; Bombay; Calcutta; Himalayas; Taj Mahal; Brahma; Buddha; Deodar; Teak; Tiger; Elephant; Gavial; Cobra; Irrigation; Hindu; Indus; Ganges; Thug; Suttee; Caste; Juggernaut