CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



has wonderfully helped to benefit the working- 

 classes, who have secured and retained for their 

 own use the wages paid to them. 



The north-eastern part of India, or the Punjab, 

 belongs to the warm temperate zone, and in it the 

 chief products are wheat, flax, and hemp. Wheat 

 is the grain of the Upper Ganges. Where there 

 is too little moisture for its cultivation, as in the 

 southern basin of the Indus, millet and maize are 

 grown. Rice is cultivated in the irrigated parts of 

 the Punjab and in Bengal. Cotton is produced 

 in all parts of India, and opium in Oude and 

 Bahar. The commerce of India is chiefly with 

 the United Kingdom. In 1872, the value of the 

 imports was 42,651,560; of exports, 64,661,940. 

 The chief exports were: cotton, 12,862,500; 

 rice, 3,432,058 ; indigo, 1,905,132 ; tea, 

 1,398,106. The chief imports were : cotton 

 goods, 13,078,831 ; iron, raw and manufactured, 

 956,921. In 1872, the revenue of India amounted 

 to 50,110,215. Of this income, 20,520,337 was 

 derived from land revenue, 9,253,859 from 

 opium, and 5,966,595 from a tax on salt, and 

 .2,369, 109 from the excise on spirits and drugs. 

 The chief item of expenditure was the army, 

 156,781,121. In 1881, the imports were 

 62,105,000; the exports, 76,000,000; revenue, 

 72,560,000 ; expenditure, 76,604,000 ; debt 

 in India, 86,000,000 ; and in Great Britain, 

 71,400,000. The European army had 64,500 

 men ; the native army, 126,000. 



The government of India, in 1858, was trans- 

 ferred from the East India Company to the Eng- 

 lish crown, by an act passed in that year 'for 

 the better government of India.' The executive 

 authority of India is now exercised by a viceroy, 

 appointed by the crown, and acting under the 

 orders of the Secretary of State for India. A 

 supreme council sits at Calcutta, and consists of 

 six members, including the viceroy; an imperial 

 legislative council, consisting of the supreme 

 council and additional members ; and separate 

 councils for Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. The 

 chief officers of the crown after the governor- 

 general are governors in Madras and Bombay ; 

 lieutenant-governors in Bengal, the North-west 

 Provinces, and the Punjab ; and chief commis- 

 sioners in Assam, the Central Provinces, and 

 British Burmah. 



A census of India was taken during the years 

 1868-1872, and another in 1881. By the latter 

 the population under British administration was 

 198,755,993; in the native states, 55,150,456 



total 253,906,449. 

 the last census. 



The tables give the results of 



Hi 





There were 87 millions of Hindus, 50 millions of 

 Mohammedans, 3$ millions of Buddhists (mostly 

 in British Burmah), 85,000 Parsees, and 12,000 

 Jews ; and 89,798 British-born persons. 



India is inhabited by races in all stages of 

 human progress. Wild tribes, in the lowest state 

 of savagery, occupy the hills and forests, and 

 form a strange contrast with the civilised peoples 

 of the plains. The latter belong to three races : 

 (i) Mongols, resembling in all respects their 

 neighbours, the Burmese and the Tibetans ; (2) 

 Dravidians, a dark race, totally differing from 

 Mongols in appearance, and occupying the chief 

 part of the Deccan ; (3) Aryans, so called because 

 believed to be the result of an amalgamation of 

 the primitive inhabitants with Aryan invaders 

 who at a remote period entered India from the 

 north-west, just as the Saxons invaded England. 

 The chief language of the first group is the 



Tibetan of Bhotan. 

 are more important. 



The Dravidian languages 

 Tamil is spoken by 10 



millions of people south of Madras ; Telinga by 

 8 millions north of the same point; Canarese in 

 Mysore and Malayalam on the coast of Malabar. 

 Among the Aryan languages are (i) Hindi, the 

 vernacular of the North-western Provinces or 

 Hindustan Proper ; (2) Punjabi ; (3) Gujerati ; 

 (4) Maharati ; (5) Bengali the names of which 

 sufficiently explain the parts of India to which 

 they belong. It is the Hindus (by religion) who 

 speak the various Dravidian and Aryan languages 

 we have just enumerated ; and they in each prov- 

 ince differ not only in language, but in character 

 and habits, and even in dress. The Moham- 

 medans, on the other hand, speak only one lan- 

 guage, the Hindustani or Urdu, a modified Hindi 

 intermixed with Persian, which sprang up at the 

 court of Delhi, and which has become the spoken 

 and literary language of the Mohammedans all 

 over India. 



In 1879, there were 1391 publications received 

 in the Bengal Library, of which 983 were published 

 in the town of Calcutta. In the Bombay presi- 

 dency, 1097 native publications were issued ; in 

 Madras, 824 ; in the North-west Provinces, 541 ; 

 in the Punjab, 926. 



What is known or conjectured of the early his- 

 tory of Hindustan is to be gathered from the history 

 of the two dominant religions (see MOHAMMEDAN- 

 ISM HINDUISM BUDDHISM ; also HISTORY OF 

 ANCIENT NATIONS). In the nth and i2th cen- 

 turies, Buddhism had almost entirely disappeared 

 in Hindustan, or was confined only to the hilly 

 districts south of the Himalaya, to Ceylon, and 

 the countries of Indo-China and Malaya, in 

 which it had taken root and flourished. It was 



