The remaining four months consti-
tute the rainy season, when the temperature is moderated by the presence
of cloud.
tute the rainy season, when the temperature is moderated by the presence
of cloud.
Cambridge History of India - v1
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.
. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
613
614
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616
617
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619
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621
::
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623
625
. . .
:
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626
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CHAPTER I
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
The great continent of Asia falls naturally into four parts or sub-
continents. The east drains to the Pacific, and is mainly Buddhist. ' The
,
north and west centre lie open in an arctic direction, and during the past
century were united under Russian rule. The south-west, or Lower Asia,
is the land of passage from Asia into Africa, and from the Indian ocean' to
the Atlantic. It is the homeland of Islām. In the middle south is the
Indian sub-continent.
The inhabitants of the United States describe their vast land as a sub-
As regards everything but mere area the expression is more
appropriate to India. A single race and a single religion are overwhel.
mingly dominant in the United States, but in India a long history lives
to-day in the most striking contrasts, presenting all 'manner of problems
which it will take generations to solve.
In the past there have been great empires in India, but it is a new
thing that the entire region from the Hindu Kush to Ceylon, and from
Seistān to the Irrawaddy should be united in a single political system. The
one clear unity which India has possessed throughout history has been
geographical. -. In no other part of the world, unless perhaps in South
America, are the physical features on a grander scale. Yet nowhere else are
they more simply combined into a single natural region. ''
The object of this chapter is to give a geographical description of
India, as the foundation upon which to build the historical chapters which
follow. We will make an imaginary journey through the country, noting
the salient features of each part, and will then consider it as a whole, in
order to set the facts in perspective.
The most convenient point at which to begin is Colombo, the strategi-
cal centre of British sea-power in the Indian ocean. Four streams of
traffic, India-bound, converge upon Colombo from Aden and the Medi-
terranean, from the Cape, from Australia, and from Singapore and the Far
East. From Cape Comorin, in the immediate neighbourhood of Colombo,
the Indian coasts diverge to Bombay and Karāchi on the one hand and to
Madras, Calcutta, and Rangoon on the other.
## p. 2 (#32) ###############################################
2
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
Colombo is not, however, in a technical sense Indian. It is the chief
city of the luxuriant and beautiful islands of Ceylon, which is about as
large as Ireland. Neither to-day nor in the past has Ceylon been a mere
appendage of India. The Buddhist religion of half its population, and the
Dutch basis of its legal code are the embodiment of chapters in its history ;
it is for good historical reasons that the Governor of Ceylon writes his des-
patches home to the Secretary for the Colonies and not to the Secretary
for India.
The passage by steamer across the Gulf of Manaar from Colombo to
Tuticorin on the mainland occupies a night. Midway on the voyage the
mountains of Ceylon lie a hundred miles to the east, and Cape Comorin a
hundred miles to the west. The gulf narrows northward to Palk Strait,
which is almost closed by a chain of islands and shoals, so that the course
of ships from Aden into the Bay of Bengal is outside Ceylon.
Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of India, lies eight degrees
north of the equator, a distance nearly equivalent to the length of Great
Britain. From Comorin the Malabar and Coromandel coasts extend for a
thousand miles, the one north-westward, and the other northward and
then north-eastward. The surf of the Arabian sea beats on the Malabar
coast, that of the Bay of Bengal on the Coromandel coast. Both the
Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal open broadly southward to the Indian
ocean, for the Indian peninsula narrows between them to a point.
The interior of the Indian peninsula is for the most part a low plateau,
known as the Deccan, whose western edge is a steep brink overlooking the
Malabar coast. From the top of this brink, called the Western Ghāts, the
surface of the plateau falls gently eastward to a lower brink, which bears
the name of Eastern Ghāts. Between the Eastern Ghāts and the Coro.
mandel coast there is a belt of lowland, the Carnatic. Thus India presents
a lofty front to the ship approaching from the west, but a featureless plain
along the Bay of Bengal, where the trees of the coastline appear to rise out
of a water horizon when seen from a short distance seaward.
As the steamer approaches Tuticorin the land becomes visible some
miles to the west as a low dark line along the horizon. Gradually the
detail of the coast separates into a rich vegetation of trees and a white
city, whose most prominent object is a cotton factory. India is a land of
cotton. Its people have grown cotton, woven cotton, and worn cotton
from time immemorial. The name calico is derived from Calicut, a town
on the Malabar coast which was a centre of trade when Europeans first
came over the ocean.
On leaving Tuticorin we travel northward over the Carnatic plain. It
is a barren looking country and dry, though at certain seasons there are
plentiful rains, and crops enough are produced to maintain a dense popu-
lation. Far down on the western horizon are the mountains of the Malabar
a
## p. 3 (#33) ###############################################
I]
CARNATIC : NILGIRIS : COIMBATORE
3
2
>
coast, for in this extremity of India the Western and Eastern Ghāts have
come together and there is no plateau between them. The mountains rise
from the western sea and from the eastern plain into a ridge along the
west coast, with summits about as high as the summits of Ceylon, that is
to say some eight thousand feet. The westward slopes of these mountains,
usually known as the Cardamon hills, belong to the little native states of
Travancore and Cochin.
A group of hills, isolated on the plain, marks the position of Madura,
a hundred miles from Tuticorin. Madura is one of three southern cities
with superb Hindu temples. The other two are Trichinopoly and Tanjore,
standing not far from one another, a second hundred miles on the road from
Tuticorin to Madras.
A hundred and fifty miles west of Trichinopoly is Ootacamund, high
on the Nilgiri hills. 'Ooty,' as it is familiarly called, stands some seven
thousand feet above the sea in the midst of a country of rolling downs, ris-
ing at highest to nearly nine thousand feet. This lofty district forms the
aouthern point of the Deccan plateau, where the Eastern and Western Ghāts
draw together.
South of the Nilgiris is one of the most important features in the geo.
graphy of Southern India. The western mountains are here breached by the
broad Gap of Coimbatore or Pālghāt, giving lowland access from the
Carnatic plain to the Malabar coast. The Cardamon hills face the Nilgiris
across this passage, which is about twenty miles broad from north to south,
and only a thousand feet above the sea.
The significance of the Gap of Coimbatore becomes evident when we
consider the distribution of population in Southern India. For two hundred
miles south of Madras, as far as Trichinopoly and Tanjore, the Carnatic
plain is densely peopled. There are more than 400 inhabitants to the square
mile. A second district of equal density of population extends from Coim-
batore through the Gap to the Malabar coast between the ancient ports of
Cochin and Calicut. There are many natural harbours along the Malabar
coast all the way from Bombay southward, but the precipitous and forest-
ed Western Ghāts impede communication with the interior. Only from Cali-
cut and Cochin is there an easy road to the Carnatic markets, and this is
the more important because the Coromandel coast is beaten with a great
surf and has no natural harbours.
To-day there is a railway from Madras through the Gap of Coimbatore
to Cochin and Calicut, and from this railway a rack and pinion line has
been constructed up into the Nilgiri heights to give access to the hill station
of Ootacamund. There are magnificent landscapes at the edge of the Nilgiris
where the mountains descend abruptly to the plains. On the slopes are
great forests in which large game abound, such as sāmbar and tiger. On the
>
a
>
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4
[ch.
· THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
9
heights the vegetation is naturally different from the lowland. The culti-
vation of the Nīlgiris is chiefly of tea and cinchona.
Northward of the Nilgiris, on the plateau between the Ghāts, is the
large native state of Mysore. The Cauvery river rises in the Western Ghāts,
almost within sight of the western sea, and flows eastward across Mysore.
As it descends the Eastern Ghāts it makes great falls. Then it traverses the
Carnatic lowland past Trichinopoly and Tanjore to the Bay of Bengal. The
falls have been harnessed and made to supply power, which is carried elec-
trically for nearly a hundred miles to the Kolār goldfield.
Around the sources of the Cauvery, high in the Western Ghāts, is the
little territory of Coorg, no larger than the county of Essex in England.
The best of the Indian coffee plantations are in Coorg, which is directly
under the British Raj, although administered apart from Madras. Mysore
is separated from both coasts by the British Province or Presidency of
Madras, which extends through the Gap of Coimbatore.
All the southern extremity of India, except the greater heights, is
warm at all times of the year, though the heat is never so great as in the
hot season of northern India. There is no cool season in the south compar-
able with that of the north. In most parts of India there are five cool
months, October, November, December, January, and February. March,
April, and May are the hot season.
The remaining four months consti-
tute the rainy season, when the temperature is moderated by the presence
of cloud. In the south, almost girt by the sea, some rain falls at all seasons,
but along the Malabar coast the west winds of the summer bring great
rains. These winds strike the Western Ghāts and the Nilgiri hills, and
drench them with moisture, so that they are thickly forested. At this
season great waterfalls leap down the westward ravines and feed torrents
which rush in short valleys to the ocean. One of the grandest falls in the
world is at Gersoppa in the north-west corner of Mysore.
The city of Madras lies low on the coast four hundred miles north
of Tuticorin, but the chief military station of southern India is Bangalore
on the plateau within Mysore. A hundred years ago, when Sultān Tipū of
Mysore had been defeated by the British, Colonel Wellesley, afterwards the
great Duke of Wellington, was appointed to command 'the troops above
the Ghāts. ' The expression is a picture of the contrast between the low. ·
land Presidency and the upland Feudal State.
Madras city, like the other seaports of modern India, has grown from
the smallest beginnings within the European period. It has now a popula-
tion of more than half a million. Until within recent years, however, Madras
had no harbour. Communication was maintained with ships in the open
roadstead by means of surf boats. Two piers have now been built out into
the sea at right angles to the shore. At their extremities they bend inward
## p. 5 (#35) ###############################################
Il
a
.
a
,
I MADRAS : BURMA TIP
15
towards one another so as to include a quadrangularspace. None the less
there are times when the mighty waves sweep in through the open mouth,
rendering the harbour unsafe, so that the shipping must stand out to sea.
Almost
every summer half a dozen cyclones strike the east coast of India
from the Bay of Bengal. When the Madras harbour was half com.
pleted the works were overwhelmed by a storm, and the undertaking had
to be recommenced. If we consider the surf of the Coromandel coast, and
the barrier presented by the Western Ghāts behind the Malabar coast, we
have some measure of the comparative isolation of southern India.
From the far south we cross the Bay of Bengal to the far east of
India. Burma is the newest province of the Indian Empire, if we except
sub-divisions of older units. In race, language, religion, and social customs
it is nearer to China than it is to India. In these respects it may be consi-
dered rather the first land of the Far East than the last of India, the Middle
East. Geographically, however, Burma is in relation with the Indian world
across the Bay of Bengal, for it has a great navigable river which drains
into the Indian ocean, and not into the Pacific as do the rivers of the
neighbouring countries, Siam and Annam. Commercially it is coming every
day into closer relation with the remainder of the Indian Empire, for it
is a fruitful land of sparse population, which may perhaps be developed in
the future by the surplus labour of the Indian plains.
The approach from the sea is unimpressive, for the shore is formed by
the delta of the Irrawaddy river. The easternmost of the channels by which
that great stream enters the sea is the Kangoon river. The city of Rangoon
stands some thirty miles up this channel. The golden spire of its great
pagoda rises from among the trees on the first low hill at the edge of the
deltaic plain.
Fifty years ago Rangoon was a 'village. To-day it has a quarter of
a million people. Like the other coast towns of India and Ceylon, it owes
its greatness to the Europeans who have come over the ocean. In all the
earlier
ages
India looked inward, not outward.
Rangoon is placed where the river makes a bend eastward. The city
lies along the north bank for some miles, to the point where the Pegu tribu-
tary enters. Black smoke hangs over the Pegu river, for there are many
rice mills with tall chimneys along its banks. Rangoon harbour is always
busy with shipping. Along its quays are great timber yards und oil mills,
for the products of Burma are first and foremost rice, and then timber,
especially great logs of teak, harder than oak, and then petroleum. The
work of the port and mills is largely in the hands of Indians and Chinese.
The Burmese are chiefly occupied with work in the fields.
The geography of Burma is of a simple design. It consists of four
parallel ranges of mountain striking southward, and three long intervening
9
## p. 6 (#36) ###############################################
6
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
ocean, and
valleys. The easternmost range separates Burma and the drainage to the
Indian ocean from Siam and the drainage to the Pacific ocean. This great
divide is continued through the Malay peninsula almost to Singapore, only
one degree north of the equator. The westernmost range divides Burma
from India proper, and then follows the west coast of Burma to Cape
Negrais. This range is continued over the bed of the
reappears
in the long chain of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In its entirety it
has a graceful waving lie upon the map, curving first to the west, then to
the east, and then again to the west. The two intervening ranges separate
the Salween, Sittang, and Irrawaddy valleys.
The valley of the Salween is less deeply trenched between its bound-
ing ranges than are the other two, and therefore has a steeply descending
course broken by rapids, and is of small value for navigation. At its mouth
is the port of Moulmein. The valley of the Sittang, which is a relatively
short river, prolongs the upper valley of the Irrawaddy, for the latter
stream makes a westward bend at Mandalay, and passes by a transverse
gap through one of the parallel ridges. Beyond this gap it bends southward
again, accepting the direction of its tributary, the Chindwin. The railway
from Rangoon to Mandalay runs through the Sittang valley and does not
follow the Irrawaddy.
The delta of the Irrawaddy bears the name of Pegu or Lower Burma.
The region round Mandalay is Upper Burma. The coast land beyond the
westernmost of the mountain ranges is known as Arakan. The coast land
south of the mouth of the Salween, beset with an archipelago of beautiful
islands, is known as Tenasserim.
The train from Rangoon to Mandalay crosses the broad levels of the
delta, passing through endless rice or 'paddy' fields. Only the ears of the
grain are lopped off ; the straw is burnt as it stands. The Burmans are
mostly yeomen, each owning his cattle and doing his own work in the
fields. Beyond the delta the railway follows the Sittang river, with hill
ranges low on the eastern and western horizons. At Mandalay it comes
through to the Irrawaddy again.
There is a bill in the northern suburbs of Mandalay, several hundred
feet high, from which you may look over the city. Even when seen from
this height the houses are so buried in foliage that the place appears like a
wood of green trees. It has a population of about two hundred thousand,
so that it is now smaller than upstart Rangoon. Mandalay is the last of
three capitals a few miles apart, which at different times in the past century
were the seat of the Burmese kings. Amarapura, a few miles to the south,
was the capital until 1822. Ava, a few miles to the west, was the capital
from 1822 to 1837.
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I]
BHAMO: PAGAN
7
The navigation of the Irrawaddy extends for nine hundred miles from
the sea to Bhamo, near the border of the Chinese Empire. As the steamer
goes northward from Mandalay the banks are at first flat, with here and
there a group of white pagodas. Great rafts of bamboo and teak logs float
down the river. At Kathā the flat country is left, for the river there comes
from the east through grand defiles, with wooded fronts descending to the
water's edge. Bhamo lies low along the river bank beyond the narrows.
It is only twenty miles from the Chinese frontier. Many of its houses are
raised high upon piles, because of the river floods. Until recently the
Kachin billmen often raided the caravans passing from Bhamo into China.
To realise the antiquity and the splendour of early Burmese civilisa-
tion we must descend the Irrawaddy below Mandalay to Pagan. There
for some ten miles beside the river, and for three miles back from its bank,
are the ruins of a great capital, which flourished about the time of the
Norman Conquest of England. From the centre of the ruined city there
are pagodas and temples in every direction.
Pagan is situated in what is knɔwn as the dry belt of Burma, the
typical vegetation of which is a tall growth of cactus. In Burma the winds
of summer and autumn blow from the south-west, as they do in southern
India. They bring moisture from the sea, which falls in heavy rain on the
west side of the mountains and over the delta. At Rangoon there is an
annual rainfall of more than one hundred inches, or more than three times
the rainfall of London. At Pagan, however, lying deep in the Irrawaddy
valley under the lee of the continuous Arakan range, the rainfall is small,
as little as twenty inches in the year, and the climate is hot and evapora-
tion rapid.
Elsewhere in Burma are either rich crops, or the most luxuriant
forests of tall leafy trees, full of game and haunted by poisonous snakes.
Wild peacocks come from the woods to feed on the rice when it is ripe, and
tigers are not unknown in the villages. Only a few years ago a tiger was
shot on one of the ledges of the great pagoda in Rangoon. Notwithstanding
the age of its civilisation Burma is still subject to a masterful nature.
Moreover civilisation is confined to the immediate valleys and delta of the
Irrawaddy and Salween. On the forested hills are wild tribes, akin to the
Burmese in speech and physique—the Shans in the east, the Kachins in the
north, and the Chips in the west. Burma contains but twelve million
people – Burmese, Chinese, Hindus, and the hill tribes.
From Burma the passage to Bengal is by steamer, for the Burmese
and Indian railway systems have not yet been connected. The heart of
Bengal is one of the largest deltas in the world, a great plain of moist silt
brought down by the rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra from the Himālaya
mountains. But hill country is included along the borders of the province.
## p. 8 (#38) ###############################################
8
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
,
. .
>
* To the north the map shows the high tableland of Tibet, edged by the
Himalaya range, whose southern slopes descend steeply, but with many
foothills, to the level low-lying plains of the great rivers. Eastward of
Bengal there is a mountainous belt, rising to heights of more than six
thousand feet and densely forested, which separates the Irrawaddy valley
of Burma from the plains of India. These mountains throw out a spúr
westward, which rises a little near its end into the Gāro hills. The deeply
trenched, relatively narrow valley of the Brahmaputra, known as Assam,
lies between the Gāro hills and the Himalayas. The southward drainage
from the Gāro hills forms a delta io plain, extending nearly to the port of
Chittagong. This plain, traversed by the Meghna river which gathers water
from the Gāro and Khāsi range, is continuous with the delta of Bengal
proper.
To the west of Bengal is another hill spur, bearing the name of Rāj.
mahāl, which is the 'north-eastern point of the plateau of central and
southern India. A broad lowland gateway is left between the Gāro and
Rājmahāl bills, and through this opening the Brahmaputra and Ganges
rivers turn, southward and converge gradually until they join with the
Meghnā to form a vast estuary. The country west of this estuary is the
Bengal delta, traversed by many minor ehannels, which branch from the
right bank of the Ganges before the confluence with the Meghnă. East of
the estuary is that other deltaic land whose silt is derived from the south
front of the Gāro hills. It is said that the highest rainfall in the world
occurs in those hills, when the monsoon sweeps northward from the Bay of
Bengal, and blows against their face. The rainfall on a single day in the
rainy season is sometimes as great as the whole annual rainfall of London.
Little wonder that there is abundance of silt for the formation of the fertile
plains below!
The approach to the coast of Bengal, as may be concluded from this
geographical description, presents little of interest. At the entrance to the
Hooghly river, the westernmost of the deltaic channels, are broad
grey
mud
banks, with here and there a palm tree. From time to time, as the ship
passes some more solid ground, there are villages of thatched huts, sur-
rounded by tall green banana plantations.
Calcutta, the chief port and largest town of modern India, is placed
no less than eighty, miles up the Hooghly on its eastern bank.
The large
industrial town of Howrah stands opposite on the western bank. Not a
hill is in sight round all the horizon. Only, the great dome of the post
office rises white in the sunshine. Calcutta is connected with the jute mills
and engineering works of Howrah by a single bridge. Below this bridge is
the port, always thronged with shipping. . .
Calcutta has grown round Fort William as a nucleus. The present
Fort, with its outworks, occupies a space of nearly a thousand acres on the
::. .
## p. 9 (#39) ###############################################
I]
BENGAL
9
east bank of the Hooghly below the Howrah Bridge. To the north, east,
and south, forming a glacis for the fort, is a wide green plain, the Maidān,
and beyond this is the city. The European quarter lies to the east of the
Maidān. The government offices, and beyond them the great native city,
lie to the north. Calcutta with more than a million inhabitants exceeds
Glasgow in size, and is the second city of the British Empire.
Three hundred miles away to the north, approached from Calcutta by
the East Bengal Railway, is Darjeeling, the hill station of Calcutta, as Oota-
camund is of Madras. The railway traverses the dead level of the plain,
with its thickly set villages and tropical vegetation. There are some seven
hundred and fifty thousand villages in India, and they contain about ninety
per cent. of the total population. The Province of Bengal has a population
equal to that of Great Britain and Ireland, but concentrated on an area less
than that of Great Britain without Ireland. Yet it contains only one great
city, as greatness of cities is measured in the British Islands.
Midway from Calcutta to Darjeeling the Ganges is crossed.
passage occupies about twenty minutes from one low-lying bank to the
other. Then the journey is resumed through the rice fields, with their
.
clumps of graceful bamboo, until at last the hills become visible across the
northern horizon. The train runs into a belt of jungle at the foot of the
first ascent. Passengers change to a mountain railway, which carries them
up the steep front, with many a turn and twist. On the lower slopes is
tall forest of teak and other great trees, hung thickly with creepers. Pres.
ently the timber becomes smaller, and tea plantations are passed with
trim rows of green bushes. Far below, at the foot of the steep forest,
spreads to the southern horizon the vast cultivated plain. Finally trees of
the fir tribe take the place of leafy trees, and the train attains to the sharp
ridge top on which is placed Darjeeling, a settlement of detached villas in
compounds, hanging on the slopes.
Darjeeling is about seven thousand feet above sea-level, on an east
and west ridge, with the plains to the south and the gorge of the Rangīt
river to the north. In the early morning, in fortunate weather, the visitor
may gaze northward upon one of the most glorious scenes in the world.
Over the deep valley at his feet, still dark in the shade, and over successive
ridge tops beyond, rises the mighty snow range of the Himālayas, fifty miles
away, with the peak of Kinchinjunga, more than five miles high, dominating
the landscape. Behind Kinchinjunga, a little to the west, and visible from
Tiger hill, near Darjeeling, though not from Darjeeling itself, is Mount
Everest, the highest mountain in the world, more than five and a half miles
high. Across the vast chasm and bare granite summits 'in the foreground,
the glittering wall of white mountains seems to hang in the sky as though
belonging to another world. The broad distance, and the sudden leap to
>
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10
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
eur.
supreme height, give to the scene a mysterious and almost visionary grand.
It is, however, only occasionally that the culminating peaks can be
seen, for they are often veiled in cloud.
The people of Sikkim, the native state in the hills beyond Darjeeling,
are highlanders of Mongolian stock and not Indian. They are of Buddhist
religion like the Burmans, and not Hindu or Muhammadan like the inhabi-
tants of the plains. They are small sturdy folk, with oblique cut eyes and
a Chinese expression, and they have the easy-going humorous character of
the Burmans, though not the delicacy and civilisation of those inhabitants
of the sunny lowland.
It is an interesting fact that these hill people should belong to the
race which spreads over the vast Chinese Empire. That race here advan-
ces to the last hill brinks which overlook the Indian lowland. The politi-
cal map of this part of India illustrates a parallel fact. While the plains
are administered directly by British officials, the mountain slopes descend-
ing to them are ruled by native princes, whose territories form a strip along
the northern boundary of India. North of Assam and Bengal we have in
succession, from east to west in the belt of hill country, the lands of Bhu.
tān, Sikkim, and Nepāl. From Nepāl are recruited the Gurkha regiments
of the Indian army, the Gurkhas being a race of the same small and sturdy
hill men as the people of Sikkim. In other words, they are of a Mongoloid
stock, though of Hindu religion.
The Ranjit river drains from the hills of Darjeeling, and from the
snow mountains beyond, into a tributary of the Ganges. Several hundred
such torrents burst in long succession through deep portals in the Himāla.
yan foot-hills and feed the great rivers of the plain. These torrents are
perennial, for they originate in the melting of the glaciers, and the Himāla.
yan glaciers cover a vast area, being fed by the monsoon snows. Nearly all
the agricultural wealth of northern India owes its origin to the summer or
oceanic monsoon, which beats against the Himālayan mountain edge. That
edge, gracefully curving upon the map, extends through fifteen hundred
miles. The streams which descend from it in long series gather into the
rivers Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus.
The valley of the Brabmaputra forms the province of Assam. Not-
withstanding its vast natural resources, Assam is a country which, at most
periods of its history, has remained outside the Indian civilisation. Even
to-day it has but a sparse population and a relatively small commercial
development, for it lies on the through road no whither. High and difficult
mountains close in the eastern end of its great valley.
The geography of Assam, though very simple, is on a very grand
scale. The Tsan-po river rises high on the plateau of Tibet northward of
Lucknow. For more than seven hundred miles it flows eastward over the
## p. 11 (#41) ##############################################
)
I]
HINDUSTAN
11
>
plateau in rear of the Himalayan peaks. Then it turns sharply southward,
and descends from a great height steeply through a deep gorge, until it
emerges from the mountains at a level not a thousand feet above the sea.
At this point, turning westward, it forms the Brahmaputra, 'the son of
Brahmā, the Creator. ' The Brahmaputra flows for four hundred and fifty
miles westward through the valley of Assam, deeply trenched between the
snowy wall of the Himālayas on the one hand and the forested mountains
of the Burmese border and the Khāsi and Gāro hills on the other hand.
The river rolls down the valley in a vast sheet of water, depositing banks of
silt at the smallest obstruction. Islands form and reform, and broad chan-
nels break away from the main river in time of flood, and there is no attempt
to control them. The swamps on either hand are flooded in the rainy
season, till the lower valley is one broad shining sea, from which the hills
slope up on either side. The traffic on the river is maintained chiefly by
exports of tea and timber, and imports of rice for the labourers on the tea
estates. Some day, when great sums of money are available for capital
expenditure, the Brahmaputra will be controlled, and Assam will become
the seat of teeming production and a dense population. The Indian Empire
contains three hundred and fifteen million people, but it also contains some
of the chief virgin resources of the world.
. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
613
614
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
616
617
. . . . . . . . . . . .
619
. . . . . .
. . .
621
::
::
623
625
. . .
:
. . .
. . .
626
. . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . .
629
631
. . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
634
## p. xxii (#29) ############################################
1
## p. xxii (#30) ############################################
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1
!
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## p. 1 (#31) ###############################################
CHAPTER I
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
The great continent of Asia falls naturally into four parts or sub-
continents. The east drains to the Pacific, and is mainly Buddhist. ' The
,
north and west centre lie open in an arctic direction, and during the past
century were united under Russian rule. The south-west, or Lower Asia,
is the land of passage from Asia into Africa, and from the Indian ocean' to
the Atlantic. It is the homeland of Islām. In the middle south is the
Indian sub-continent.
The inhabitants of the United States describe their vast land as a sub-
As regards everything but mere area the expression is more
appropriate to India. A single race and a single religion are overwhel.
mingly dominant in the United States, but in India a long history lives
to-day in the most striking contrasts, presenting all 'manner of problems
which it will take generations to solve.
In the past there have been great empires in India, but it is a new
thing that the entire region from the Hindu Kush to Ceylon, and from
Seistān to the Irrawaddy should be united in a single political system. The
one clear unity which India has possessed throughout history has been
geographical. -. In no other part of the world, unless perhaps in South
America, are the physical features on a grander scale. Yet nowhere else are
they more simply combined into a single natural region. ''
The object of this chapter is to give a geographical description of
India, as the foundation upon which to build the historical chapters which
follow. We will make an imaginary journey through the country, noting
the salient features of each part, and will then consider it as a whole, in
order to set the facts in perspective.
The most convenient point at which to begin is Colombo, the strategi-
cal centre of British sea-power in the Indian ocean. Four streams of
traffic, India-bound, converge upon Colombo from Aden and the Medi-
terranean, from the Cape, from Australia, and from Singapore and the Far
East. From Cape Comorin, in the immediate neighbourhood of Colombo,
the Indian coasts diverge to Bombay and Karāchi on the one hand and to
Madras, Calcutta, and Rangoon on the other.
## p. 2 (#32) ###############################################
2
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
Colombo is not, however, in a technical sense Indian. It is the chief
city of the luxuriant and beautiful islands of Ceylon, which is about as
large as Ireland. Neither to-day nor in the past has Ceylon been a mere
appendage of India. The Buddhist religion of half its population, and the
Dutch basis of its legal code are the embodiment of chapters in its history ;
it is for good historical reasons that the Governor of Ceylon writes his des-
patches home to the Secretary for the Colonies and not to the Secretary
for India.
The passage by steamer across the Gulf of Manaar from Colombo to
Tuticorin on the mainland occupies a night. Midway on the voyage the
mountains of Ceylon lie a hundred miles to the east, and Cape Comorin a
hundred miles to the west. The gulf narrows northward to Palk Strait,
which is almost closed by a chain of islands and shoals, so that the course
of ships from Aden into the Bay of Bengal is outside Ceylon.
Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of India, lies eight degrees
north of the equator, a distance nearly equivalent to the length of Great
Britain. From Comorin the Malabar and Coromandel coasts extend for a
thousand miles, the one north-westward, and the other northward and
then north-eastward. The surf of the Arabian sea beats on the Malabar
coast, that of the Bay of Bengal on the Coromandel coast. Both the
Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal open broadly southward to the Indian
ocean, for the Indian peninsula narrows between them to a point.
The interior of the Indian peninsula is for the most part a low plateau,
known as the Deccan, whose western edge is a steep brink overlooking the
Malabar coast. From the top of this brink, called the Western Ghāts, the
surface of the plateau falls gently eastward to a lower brink, which bears
the name of Eastern Ghāts. Between the Eastern Ghāts and the Coro.
mandel coast there is a belt of lowland, the Carnatic. Thus India presents
a lofty front to the ship approaching from the west, but a featureless plain
along the Bay of Bengal, where the trees of the coastline appear to rise out
of a water horizon when seen from a short distance seaward.
As the steamer approaches Tuticorin the land becomes visible some
miles to the west as a low dark line along the horizon. Gradually the
detail of the coast separates into a rich vegetation of trees and a white
city, whose most prominent object is a cotton factory. India is a land of
cotton. Its people have grown cotton, woven cotton, and worn cotton
from time immemorial. The name calico is derived from Calicut, a town
on the Malabar coast which was a centre of trade when Europeans first
came over the ocean.
On leaving Tuticorin we travel northward over the Carnatic plain. It
is a barren looking country and dry, though at certain seasons there are
plentiful rains, and crops enough are produced to maintain a dense popu-
lation. Far down on the western horizon are the mountains of the Malabar
a
## p. 3 (#33) ###############################################
I]
CARNATIC : NILGIRIS : COIMBATORE
3
2
>
coast, for in this extremity of India the Western and Eastern Ghāts have
come together and there is no plateau between them. The mountains rise
from the western sea and from the eastern plain into a ridge along the
west coast, with summits about as high as the summits of Ceylon, that is
to say some eight thousand feet. The westward slopes of these mountains,
usually known as the Cardamon hills, belong to the little native states of
Travancore and Cochin.
A group of hills, isolated on the plain, marks the position of Madura,
a hundred miles from Tuticorin. Madura is one of three southern cities
with superb Hindu temples. The other two are Trichinopoly and Tanjore,
standing not far from one another, a second hundred miles on the road from
Tuticorin to Madras.
A hundred and fifty miles west of Trichinopoly is Ootacamund, high
on the Nilgiri hills. 'Ooty,' as it is familiarly called, stands some seven
thousand feet above the sea in the midst of a country of rolling downs, ris-
ing at highest to nearly nine thousand feet. This lofty district forms the
aouthern point of the Deccan plateau, where the Eastern and Western Ghāts
draw together.
South of the Nilgiris is one of the most important features in the geo.
graphy of Southern India. The western mountains are here breached by the
broad Gap of Coimbatore or Pālghāt, giving lowland access from the
Carnatic plain to the Malabar coast. The Cardamon hills face the Nilgiris
across this passage, which is about twenty miles broad from north to south,
and only a thousand feet above the sea.
The significance of the Gap of Coimbatore becomes evident when we
consider the distribution of population in Southern India. For two hundred
miles south of Madras, as far as Trichinopoly and Tanjore, the Carnatic
plain is densely peopled. There are more than 400 inhabitants to the square
mile. A second district of equal density of population extends from Coim-
batore through the Gap to the Malabar coast between the ancient ports of
Cochin and Calicut. There are many natural harbours along the Malabar
coast all the way from Bombay southward, but the precipitous and forest-
ed Western Ghāts impede communication with the interior. Only from Cali-
cut and Cochin is there an easy road to the Carnatic markets, and this is
the more important because the Coromandel coast is beaten with a great
surf and has no natural harbours.
To-day there is a railway from Madras through the Gap of Coimbatore
to Cochin and Calicut, and from this railway a rack and pinion line has
been constructed up into the Nilgiri heights to give access to the hill station
of Ootacamund. There are magnificent landscapes at the edge of the Nilgiris
where the mountains descend abruptly to the plains. On the slopes are
great forests in which large game abound, such as sāmbar and tiger. On the
>
a
>
## p. 4 (#34) ###############################################
4
[ch.
· THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
9
heights the vegetation is naturally different from the lowland. The culti-
vation of the Nīlgiris is chiefly of tea and cinchona.
Northward of the Nilgiris, on the plateau between the Ghāts, is the
large native state of Mysore. The Cauvery river rises in the Western Ghāts,
almost within sight of the western sea, and flows eastward across Mysore.
As it descends the Eastern Ghāts it makes great falls. Then it traverses the
Carnatic lowland past Trichinopoly and Tanjore to the Bay of Bengal. The
falls have been harnessed and made to supply power, which is carried elec-
trically for nearly a hundred miles to the Kolār goldfield.
Around the sources of the Cauvery, high in the Western Ghāts, is the
little territory of Coorg, no larger than the county of Essex in England.
The best of the Indian coffee plantations are in Coorg, which is directly
under the British Raj, although administered apart from Madras. Mysore
is separated from both coasts by the British Province or Presidency of
Madras, which extends through the Gap of Coimbatore.
All the southern extremity of India, except the greater heights, is
warm at all times of the year, though the heat is never so great as in the
hot season of northern India. There is no cool season in the south compar-
able with that of the north. In most parts of India there are five cool
months, October, November, December, January, and February. March,
April, and May are the hot season.
The remaining four months consti-
tute the rainy season, when the temperature is moderated by the presence
of cloud. In the south, almost girt by the sea, some rain falls at all seasons,
but along the Malabar coast the west winds of the summer bring great
rains. These winds strike the Western Ghāts and the Nilgiri hills, and
drench them with moisture, so that they are thickly forested. At this
season great waterfalls leap down the westward ravines and feed torrents
which rush in short valleys to the ocean. One of the grandest falls in the
world is at Gersoppa in the north-west corner of Mysore.
The city of Madras lies low on the coast four hundred miles north
of Tuticorin, but the chief military station of southern India is Bangalore
on the plateau within Mysore. A hundred years ago, when Sultān Tipū of
Mysore had been defeated by the British, Colonel Wellesley, afterwards the
great Duke of Wellington, was appointed to command 'the troops above
the Ghāts. ' The expression is a picture of the contrast between the low. ·
land Presidency and the upland Feudal State.
Madras city, like the other seaports of modern India, has grown from
the smallest beginnings within the European period. It has now a popula-
tion of more than half a million. Until within recent years, however, Madras
had no harbour. Communication was maintained with ships in the open
roadstead by means of surf boats. Two piers have now been built out into
the sea at right angles to the shore. At their extremities they bend inward
## p. 5 (#35) ###############################################
Il
a
.
a
,
I MADRAS : BURMA TIP
15
towards one another so as to include a quadrangularspace. None the less
there are times when the mighty waves sweep in through the open mouth,
rendering the harbour unsafe, so that the shipping must stand out to sea.
Almost
every summer half a dozen cyclones strike the east coast of India
from the Bay of Bengal. When the Madras harbour was half com.
pleted the works were overwhelmed by a storm, and the undertaking had
to be recommenced. If we consider the surf of the Coromandel coast, and
the barrier presented by the Western Ghāts behind the Malabar coast, we
have some measure of the comparative isolation of southern India.
From the far south we cross the Bay of Bengal to the far east of
India. Burma is the newest province of the Indian Empire, if we except
sub-divisions of older units. In race, language, religion, and social customs
it is nearer to China than it is to India. In these respects it may be consi-
dered rather the first land of the Far East than the last of India, the Middle
East. Geographically, however, Burma is in relation with the Indian world
across the Bay of Bengal, for it has a great navigable river which drains
into the Indian ocean, and not into the Pacific as do the rivers of the
neighbouring countries, Siam and Annam. Commercially it is coming every
day into closer relation with the remainder of the Indian Empire, for it
is a fruitful land of sparse population, which may perhaps be developed in
the future by the surplus labour of the Indian plains.
The approach from the sea is unimpressive, for the shore is formed by
the delta of the Irrawaddy river. The easternmost of the channels by which
that great stream enters the sea is the Kangoon river. The city of Rangoon
stands some thirty miles up this channel. The golden spire of its great
pagoda rises from among the trees on the first low hill at the edge of the
deltaic plain.
Fifty years ago Rangoon was a 'village. To-day it has a quarter of
a million people. Like the other coast towns of India and Ceylon, it owes
its greatness to the Europeans who have come over the ocean. In all the
earlier
ages
India looked inward, not outward.
Rangoon is placed where the river makes a bend eastward. The city
lies along the north bank for some miles, to the point where the Pegu tribu-
tary enters. Black smoke hangs over the Pegu river, for there are many
rice mills with tall chimneys along its banks. Rangoon harbour is always
busy with shipping. Along its quays are great timber yards und oil mills,
for the products of Burma are first and foremost rice, and then timber,
especially great logs of teak, harder than oak, and then petroleum. The
work of the port and mills is largely in the hands of Indians and Chinese.
The Burmese are chiefly occupied with work in the fields.
The geography of Burma is of a simple design. It consists of four
parallel ranges of mountain striking southward, and three long intervening
9
## p. 6 (#36) ###############################################
6
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
ocean, and
valleys. The easternmost range separates Burma and the drainage to the
Indian ocean from Siam and the drainage to the Pacific ocean. This great
divide is continued through the Malay peninsula almost to Singapore, only
one degree north of the equator. The westernmost range divides Burma
from India proper, and then follows the west coast of Burma to Cape
Negrais. This range is continued over the bed of the
reappears
in the long chain of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In its entirety it
has a graceful waving lie upon the map, curving first to the west, then to
the east, and then again to the west. The two intervening ranges separate
the Salween, Sittang, and Irrawaddy valleys.
The valley of the Salween is less deeply trenched between its bound-
ing ranges than are the other two, and therefore has a steeply descending
course broken by rapids, and is of small value for navigation. At its mouth
is the port of Moulmein. The valley of the Sittang, which is a relatively
short river, prolongs the upper valley of the Irrawaddy, for the latter
stream makes a westward bend at Mandalay, and passes by a transverse
gap through one of the parallel ridges. Beyond this gap it bends southward
again, accepting the direction of its tributary, the Chindwin. The railway
from Rangoon to Mandalay runs through the Sittang valley and does not
follow the Irrawaddy.
The delta of the Irrawaddy bears the name of Pegu or Lower Burma.
The region round Mandalay is Upper Burma. The coast land beyond the
westernmost of the mountain ranges is known as Arakan. The coast land
south of the mouth of the Salween, beset with an archipelago of beautiful
islands, is known as Tenasserim.
The train from Rangoon to Mandalay crosses the broad levels of the
delta, passing through endless rice or 'paddy' fields. Only the ears of the
grain are lopped off ; the straw is burnt as it stands. The Burmans are
mostly yeomen, each owning his cattle and doing his own work in the
fields. Beyond the delta the railway follows the Sittang river, with hill
ranges low on the eastern and western horizons. At Mandalay it comes
through to the Irrawaddy again.
There is a bill in the northern suburbs of Mandalay, several hundred
feet high, from which you may look over the city. Even when seen from
this height the houses are so buried in foliage that the place appears like a
wood of green trees. It has a population of about two hundred thousand,
so that it is now smaller than upstart Rangoon. Mandalay is the last of
three capitals a few miles apart, which at different times in the past century
were the seat of the Burmese kings. Amarapura, a few miles to the south,
was the capital until 1822. Ava, a few miles to the west, was the capital
from 1822 to 1837.
## p. 7 (#37) ###############################################
I]
BHAMO: PAGAN
7
The navigation of the Irrawaddy extends for nine hundred miles from
the sea to Bhamo, near the border of the Chinese Empire. As the steamer
goes northward from Mandalay the banks are at first flat, with here and
there a group of white pagodas. Great rafts of bamboo and teak logs float
down the river. At Kathā the flat country is left, for the river there comes
from the east through grand defiles, with wooded fronts descending to the
water's edge. Bhamo lies low along the river bank beyond the narrows.
It is only twenty miles from the Chinese frontier. Many of its houses are
raised high upon piles, because of the river floods. Until recently the
Kachin billmen often raided the caravans passing from Bhamo into China.
To realise the antiquity and the splendour of early Burmese civilisa-
tion we must descend the Irrawaddy below Mandalay to Pagan. There
for some ten miles beside the river, and for three miles back from its bank,
are the ruins of a great capital, which flourished about the time of the
Norman Conquest of England. From the centre of the ruined city there
are pagodas and temples in every direction.
Pagan is situated in what is knɔwn as the dry belt of Burma, the
typical vegetation of which is a tall growth of cactus. In Burma the winds
of summer and autumn blow from the south-west, as they do in southern
India. They bring moisture from the sea, which falls in heavy rain on the
west side of the mountains and over the delta. At Rangoon there is an
annual rainfall of more than one hundred inches, or more than three times
the rainfall of London. At Pagan, however, lying deep in the Irrawaddy
valley under the lee of the continuous Arakan range, the rainfall is small,
as little as twenty inches in the year, and the climate is hot and evapora-
tion rapid.
Elsewhere in Burma are either rich crops, or the most luxuriant
forests of tall leafy trees, full of game and haunted by poisonous snakes.
Wild peacocks come from the woods to feed on the rice when it is ripe, and
tigers are not unknown in the villages. Only a few years ago a tiger was
shot on one of the ledges of the great pagoda in Rangoon. Notwithstanding
the age of its civilisation Burma is still subject to a masterful nature.
Moreover civilisation is confined to the immediate valleys and delta of the
Irrawaddy and Salween. On the forested hills are wild tribes, akin to the
Burmese in speech and physique—the Shans in the east, the Kachins in the
north, and the Chips in the west. Burma contains but twelve million
people – Burmese, Chinese, Hindus, and the hill tribes.
From Burma the passage to Bengal is by steamer, for the Burmese
and Indian railway systems have not yet been connected. The heart of
Bengal is one of the largest deltas in the world, a great plain of moist silt
brought down by the rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra from the Himālaya
mountains. But hill country is included along the borders of the province.
## p. 8 (#38) ###############################################
8
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
,
. .
>
* To the north the map shows the high tableland of Tibet, edged by the
Himalaya range, whose southern slopes descend steeply, but with many
foothills, to the level low-lying plains of the great rivers. Eastward of
Bengal there is a mountainous belt, rising to heights of more than six
thousand feet and densely forested, which separates the Irrawaddy valley
of Burma from the plains of India. These mountains throw out a spúr
westward, which rises a little near its end into the Gāro hills. The deeply
trenched, relatively narrow valley of the Brahmaputra, known as Assam,
lies between the Gāro hills and the Himalayas. The southward drainage
from the Gāro hills forms a delta io plain, extending nearly to the port of
Chittagong. This plain, traversed by the Meghna river which gathers water
from the Gāro and Khāsi range, is continuous with the delta of Bengal
proper.
To the west of Bengal is another hill spur, bearing the name of Rāj.
mahāl, which is the 'north-eastern point of the plateau of central and
southern India. A broad lowland gateway is left between the Gāro and
Rājmahāl bills, and through this opening the Brahmaputra and Ganges
rivers turn, southward and converge gradually until they join with the
Meghnā to form a vast estuary. The country west of this estuary is the
Bengal delta, traversed by many minor ehannels, which branch from the
right bank of the Ganges before the confluence with the Meghnă. East of
the estuary is that other deltaic land whose silt is derived from the south
front of the Gāro hills. It is said that the highest rainfall in the world
occurs in those hills, when the monsoon sweeps northward from the Bay of
Bengal, and blows against their face. The rainfall on a single day in the
rainy season is sometimes as great as the whole annual rainfall of London.
Little wonder that there is abundance of silt for the formation of the fertile
plains below!
The approach to the coast of Bengal, as may be concluded from this
geographical description, presents little of interest. At the entrance to the
Hooghly river, the westernmost of the deltaic channels, are broad
grey
mud
banks, with here and there a palm tree. From time to time, as the ship
passes some more solid ground, there are villages of thatched huts, sur-
rounded by tall green banana plantations.
Calcutta, the chief port and largest town of modern India, is placed
no less than eighty, miles up the Hooghly on its eastern bank.
The large
industrial town of Howrah stands opposite on the western bank. Not a
hill is in sight round all the horizon. Only, the great dome of the post
office rises white in the sunshine. Calcutta is connected with the jute mills
and engineering works of Howrah by a single bridge. Below this bridge is
the port, always thronged with shipping. . .
Calcutta has grown round Fort William as a nucleus. The present
Fort, with its outworks, occupies a space of nearly a thousand acres on the
::. .
## p. 9 (#39) ###############################################
I]
BENGAL
9
east bank of the Hooghly below the Howrah Bridge. To the north, east,
and south, forming a glacis for the fort, is a wide green plain, the Maidān,
and beyond this is the city. The European quarter lies to the east of the
Maidān. The government offices, and beyond them the great native city,
lie to the north. Calcutta with more than a million inhabitants exceeds
Glasgow in size, and is the second city of the British Empire.
Three hundred miles away to the north, approached from Calcutta by
the East Bengal Railway, is Darjeeling, the hill station of Calcutta, as Oota-
camund is of Madras. The railway traverses the dead level of the plain,
with its thickly set villages and tropical vegetation. There are some seven
hundred and fifty thousand villages in India, and they contain about ninety
per cent. of the total population. The Province of Bengal has a population
equal to that of Great Britain and Ireland, but concentrated on an area less
than that of Great Britain without Ireland. Yet it contains only one great
city, as greatness of cities is measured in the British Islands.
Midway from Calcutta to Darjeeling the Ganges is crossed.
passage occupies about twenty minutes from one low-lying bank to the
other. Then the journey is resumed through the rice fields, with their
.
clumps of graceful bamboo, until at last the hills become visible across the
northern horizon. The train runs into a belt of jungle at the foot of the
first ascent. Passengers change to a mountain railway, which carries them
up the steep front, with many a turn and twist. On the lower slopes is
tall forest of teak and other great trees, hung thickly with creepers. Pres.
ently the timber becomes smaller, and tea plantations are passed with
trim rows of green bushes. Far below, at the foot of the steep forest,
spreads to the southern horizon the vast cultivated plain. Finally trees of
the fir tribe take the place of leafy trees, and the train attains to the sharp
ridge top on which is placed Darjeeling, a settlement of detached villas in
compounds, hanging on the slopes.
Darjeeling is about seven thousand feet above sea-level, on an east
and west ridge, with the plains to the south and the gorge of the Rangīt
river to the north. In the early morning, in fortunate weather, the visitor
may gaze northward upon one of the most glorious scenes in the world.
Over the deep valley at his feet, still dark in the shade, and over successive
ridge tops beyond, rises the mighty snow range of the Himālayas, fifty miles
away, with the peak of Kinchinjunga, more than five miles high, dominating
the landscape. Behind Kinchinjunga, a little to the west, and visible from
Tiger hill, near Darjeeling, though not from Darjeeling itself, is Mount
Everest, the highest mountain in the world, more than five and a half miles
high. Across the vast chasm and bare granite summits 'in the foreground,
the glittering wall of white mountains seems to hang in the sky as though
belonging to another world. The broad distance, and the sudden leap to
>
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10
[CH.
THE SUB-CONTINENT OF INDIA
eur.
supreme height, give to the scene a mysterious and almost visionary grand.
It is, however, only occasionally that the culminating peaks can be
seen, for they are often veiled in cloud.
The people of Sikkim, the native state in the hills beyond Darjeeling,
are highlanders of Mongolian stock and not Indian. They are of Buddhist
religion like the Burmans, and not Hindu or Muhammadan like the inhabi-
tants of the plains. They are small sturdy folk, with oblique cut eyes and
a Chinese expression, and they have the easy-going humorous character of
the Burmans, though not the delicacy and civilisation of those inhabitants
of the sunny lowland.
It is an interesting fact that these hill people should belong to the
race which spreads over the vast Chinese Empire. That race here advan-
ces to the last hill brinks which overlook the Indian lowland. The politi-
cal map of this part of India illustrates a parallel fact. While the plains
are administered directly by British officials, the mountain slopes descend-
ing to them are ruled by native princes, whose territories form a strip along
the northern boundary of India. North of Assam and Bengal we have in
succession, from east to west in the belt of hill country, the lands of Bhu.
tān, Sikkim, and Nepāl. From Nepāl are recruited the Gurkha regiments
of the Indian army, the Gurkhas being a race of the same small and sturdy
hill men as the people of Sikkim. In other words, they are of a Mongoloid
stock, though of Hindu religion.
The Ranjit river drains from the hills of Darjeeling, and from the
snow mountains beyond, into a tributary of the Ganges. Several hundred
such torrents burst in long succession through deep portals in the Himāla.
yan foot-hills and feed the great rivers of the plain. These torrents are
perennial, for they originate in the melting of the glaciers, and the Himāla.
yan glaciers cover a vast area, being fed by the monsoon snows. Nearly all
the agricultural wealth of northern India owes its origin to the summer or
oceanic monsoon, which beats against the Himālayan mountain edge. That
edge, gracefully curving upon the map, extends through fifteen hundred
miles. The streams which descend from it in long series gather into the
rivers Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Indus.
The valley of the Brabmaputra forms the province of Assam. Not-
withstanding its vast natural resources, Assam is a country which, at most
periods of its history, has remained outside the Indian civilisation. Even
to-day it has but a sparse population and a relatively small commercial
development, for it lies on the through road no whither. High and difficult
mountains close in the eastern end of its great valley.
The geography of Assam, though very simple, is on a very grand
scale. The Tsan-po river rises high on the plateau of Tibet northward of
Lucknow. For more than seven hundred miles it flows eastward over the
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plateau in rear of the Himalayan peaks. Then it turns sharply southward,
and descends from a great height steeply through a deep gorge, until it
emerges from the mountains at a level not a thousand feet above the sea.
At this point, turning westward, it forms the Brahmaputra, 'the son of
Brahmā, the Creator. ' The Brahmaputra flows for four hundred and fifty
miles westward through the valley of Assam, deeply trenched between the
snowy wall of the Himālayas on the one hand and the forested mountains
of the Burmese border and the Khāsi and Gāro hills on the other hand.
The river rolls down the valley in a vast sheet of water, depositing banks of
silt at the smallest obstruction. Islands form and reform, and broad chan-
nels break away from the main river in time of flood, and there is no attempt
to control them. The swamps on either hand are flooded in the rainy
season, till the lower valley is one broad shining sea, from which the hills
slope up on either side. The traffic on the river is maintained chiefly by
exports of tea and timber, and imports of rice for the labourers on the tea
estates. Some day, when great sums of money are available for capital
expenditure, the Brahmaputra will be controlled, and Assam will become
the seat of teeming production and a dense population. The Indian Empire
contains three hundred and fifteen million people, but it also contains some
of the chief virgin resources of the world.
