INDIA 



2942 



INDIA 



of the Bible by unauthorized persons, books 

 relating to magic and any book harmful to the 

 faith or morals of a Catholic, are included in 

 the Index. In 1607 the first volume of an In- 

 dex Expurgatorius was issued at Rome. Pope 

 Leo XIII revised the list and about 3,000 books 

 were taken from it. Books are placed under 



the ban by the Congregation oj the Index, 

 organized in 1586, which is composed of theo- 

 logians and cardinals. They exercise their 

 judgment as to whether the book is to be cor- 

 rected, to be read under certain conditions, or 

 merely by certain classes of people, or is to be 

 banned entirely. G.W.M. 



.NDIA, a country of Southern Asia which 

 constitutes a great empire under the rule of 

 Great Britain. Australia and the Dominion of 

 Canada among British dependencies surpass it 

 in size, but no other British possession com- 

 pares with it in population; for nearly three- 

 fourths of all the inhabitants of the British 

 Empire live in this one country of India, 

 which is, next to China, the most populous 

 section of the world. The whole of Europe 

 west of Russia those great countries which 

 have made a large proportion of the world's 

 history just about equals India in size and in 

 population. 



The Land of Romance. Few countries in 

 the world make a stronger appeal to the ro- 

 mantic instinct than does India. Far back in 

 ancient times it was celebrated for its fabulous 

 riches, its manufactures, the more than royal 

 splendor in which its rulers lived, and the high 

 state of civilization which prevailed. In the 

 Middle Ages wonderful tales were told of that 

 land beyond the sea and beyond the desert, and 

 it was the attempt to find a shorter route to its 

 treasures which led to many of those voyages 

 of discovery with which modern history may 

 justly be said to begin. For many years after 

 the British made their influence felt there it 

 remained a land of mystery ; and though to-day 

 it has been thoroughly explored and described; 

 though Kipling and various lesser writers have 

 discovered its value in "literary setting" and 

 have made readers everywhere familiar with 

 much of its life, it does not lose its interest for 

 us. Travelers say that it is one of the coun- 

 tries which does not disappoint the eager vis- 



itor ; despite the poverty and misery to be seen 

 on every hand it keeps its romantic aspect as a 

 land veiled, withdrawn, never to be wholly 

 understood by people of the West. Highways 

 teeming with crowded life, temples with wind- 

 swayed bells, grotesque idols, weird priests, 

 "coral strand" above all, a mind looking back 

 through thousands of years to a time long be- 

 fore the European nations came into being 

 all of these India means to the person who has 

 allowed himself to feel its spell. 



Location and Size. Asia has three great 

 peninsulas jutting southward; the central one 

 of these is India, but the Indian Empire, which 

 is meant by the term India in this article, 

 includes much more than the peninsula. There 

 is a great continental territory to the north, 

 while to the east, beyond the Bay of Bengal, 

 lies Burma, also a part of the Indian Empire. 

 Strictly speaking, however, Burma is not India, 

 and it is there- 

 fore given treat- 

 ment in these 

 volumes in a 

 separate article. 



To the north 

 India is shut off 

 from the rest of 

 Asia by the vast 

 ranges of the 

 Himalayas, far 



more effective barriers than the seas 

 wash its southern shores; and spurs of 

 mountains separate Burma on the east fr 

 Siam. The westward shores of the peninsula 

 are washed by the Arabian Sea, on the soutl 



