INDIA 



2943 



INDIA 



is the Indian Ocean, and on the east the great 

 curve of the Bay of Bengal. 



India proper, without Burma, is a fairly com- 

 pact, though irregular, region, with a north 

 and south length of 1,900 miles and a breadth 

 at the north approximately the same. Differ- 

 ing estimates are given of its area according as 

 the British territory, including Burma, is meant, 

 or the British territory and the native states, 



which are only partially under British control. 

 The total area, in this latter sense, is 1,802,657 

 square miles, of which the native states make 

 up somewhat more than 700,000 square miles, 

 and the total population is a little over 315,- 

 000,000. India is therefore a little more than 

 half as large as the Dominion of Canada, with 

 nearly forty times as many people as dwell in 

 British America. 



The People of India 



This vast body of people does not comprise 

 one nationality with one name. Four stocks 

 are found among the people of India. The 

 oldest, though not the most important, are such 

 wild hill tribes of the interior as the Gonds and 

 the Bhils, descendants, probably, of the earliest 

 inhabitants of the country. Nothing can give 

 a better idea as to the state of civilization 

 which exists among these tribes than Kipling's 

 striking tale, The Tomb of His Ancestors. 

 Then there are the Dravidians, curious dark- 

 skinned people of the south; the Mohamme- 

 dans, who are in part descendants of invaders 

 who came from Arabia during the early cen- 

 turies of Islam and in part later converts; and, 

 most numerous of all, the Hindus, Aryan peo- 

 ples of pure or mixed race who live in that 

 north central portion of the country properly 

 known as Hindustan. 



Characteristics. These are the peoples of 

 India; and how can any general characteristics 

 be asserted of a nation which is in reality 

 many nations? There are, however, a few gen- 

 eral statements which may be made. There is 

 no patriotism, for there is no feeling of nation- 

 ality, but in a sense its place is taken by devo- 

 tion to the ancestral religion, whether it be 

 Hinduism or Mohammedanism. Totally devoid 

 of any desire or ability to organize, these peo- 

 ples are far more easily ruled than any Western 

 races which possess the instinct for self-organ- 

 ization. For the most part, the people of all 

 races and faiths are industrious, temperate and 

 patient, make slight demands on life and en- 

 dure .hardship with an unmurmuring fortitude 

 entirely strange to Western character. Super- 

 stition is rife, and is connected with every 

 phase of the religion, which in its turn is con- 

 nected with practically every phase of life. 

 Like most Orientals, these people of India have 

 a fondness for meditation upon mystic subjects 

 which makes it possible for them to grasp 

 easily ideas which the Western world does not 

 understand. Missionaries find no difficulty in 



convincing them of the incarnation of God in 

 Christ; that to them is a perfectly simple fact, 

 for they have been taught to look upon almost 

 every natural object as the incarnation of some 

 god. 



Caste. There can be no understanding of 

 life in India without a study of the caste sys- 

 tem, that barrier to democracy and progress 

 which for so long seemed practically insupera- 

 ble. For all the people of the country are 

 divided into four great castes, and nothing 

 neither intelligence, nor money, nor achieve- 

 ment has heretofore been able to change a 

 man from the caste (which see) into which he 

 was born. A man belongs either to the Brah- 

 man or priestly class; to the warrior class; to 

 the husbandman class; or to the serving class. 

 To the third of these belongs the great bulk of 

 the people, not only the tillers of the soil but 

 the manufacturing and commercial class, and 

 upon them the other groups are dependent for 

 support. The condition of the servile class is 

 pitiable, for they are looked upon as so low in 

 the scale of humanity that their touch means 

 pollution; and the Brahman draws his chaste 

 robes away when he passes one of them. The 

 British government, however, has been able to 

 better their position considerably, and the in- 

 troduction of Christianity has done much to 

 lessen the barriers between the various castes. 



Social Customs. These are in large measure 

 the result of the caste system, or of some other 

 phase of religion. One of the outstanding fea- 

 tures is the seclusion of the women, those of 

 the higher classes scarcely being allowed on 

 the streets. This restriction is not, in practice 

 at least, binding upon the women of the lower 

 social orders, who engage in outdoor work as 

 freely as the men. Then there is the custom 

 of infant marriage, after the age of ten or 

 twelve, and, among the upper classes at least, 

 prohibition of remarriage for women or girls, 

 the widows becoming servants in the house- 

 holds of their husbands' families. When the 



