INDIA 



2948 



INDIA 



Oudh, the sugar. Opium, which is practically 

 restricted to the region about Benares, is a 

 government monopoly. 



Transportation and Commerce. India is 

 crossed and recrossed with railways; it is the 

 only part of Asia of which this can be said. 

 All the large cities are connected by railway 

 lines, which run also into the famine districts 

 and bind together regions not long ago sepa- 

 rated from each other almost as effectively as 

 pole from pole. In all, there is a total in India 

 of about 33,500 miles, fully three-fifths of the 

 mileage pf all Asia; and of this a large part is 

 under the control of the government, either 

 directly or through operating companies. 

 Canals, too, are numerous, connecting certain 

 of the rivers, and these, with the railways and 

 the rivers themselves, help to give India good 



transportation facilities, except in the interior 

 mountain region. 



Long before it came under European influ- 

 ence India had a flourishing trade, and it was 

 for commercial advantage that the European 

 peoples seized upon the country. To-day it has 

 a very large commerce, amounting to about a 

 billion and a half dollars annually. Of this 

 somewhat more than one-half is exports, which 

 consist largely of cotton, rice, indigo, wood, 

 opium, tea, coffee, wheat, hides and jute; 

 while the chief imports are cotton goods, hard- 

 ware and other manufactured articles and food- 

 stuffs. A large proportion of the trade is with 

 Great Britain, but the United States, China, 

 Japan, the Straits Settlements, Germany and 

 Austria-Hungary have been for some years well 

 represented in its trade. 



Government and History 



Government. Since 1858, after the close of 

 the Sepoy Rebellion, the ruler of Great Britain 

 has been sovereign also of India, and in 1877 

 Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. 

 There is in the British Cabinet a secretary of 

 state for India, and he, with his under secretary 

 and council, is at the head of the government of 

 the empire. The chief executive officer, how- 

 ever, is the Viceroy, or Governor-General, who 

 resides at Delhi. He is appointed by the Crown 

 for a term of five years, and has as his assist- 

 ants a council of six members. This council 

 may be enlarged by the addition of certain 

 British and certain native representatives, and 

 in its enlarged state serves as a legislative body. 

 The Viceroy is left to his discretion in most 

 matters concerning the internal administration 

 of the empire, but on questions of foreign 

 policy he is subject to the secretary for India. 

 Two presidencies, those of Madras and Bom- 

 bay, have as their chief administrative officers 

 governors appointed directly by the Crown, 

 but the other states of British India are under 

 lieutenant-governors or commissioners ap- 

 pointed by the Viceroy with approval of the 

 Crown. 



In addition to these states under direct Brit- 

 ish control there are in India a number of 

 native states in which the native rulers still 

 hold authority, though they are not allowed 

 to embark on enterprises of importance without 

 the consent of the Viceroy. Everywhere in 

 India it has been the policy of the British to 

 place local matters as much as possible in the 

 hands of the natives, with the object of train- 



ing them in self-government and of awak- 

 ening in them a feeling of nationality. The 

 details of local government are too complicated 

 for description here; they differ according to 

 the varied conditions throughout the Empire. 



Beginnings of History. Very hazy are the 

 earliest accounts of the history of India, the 

 Hindu writings claiming for the country an 

 antiquity of many thousands of years. Just 

 when the Hindus or Aryans came from the 

 northwest mountain region and conquered the 

 earliest inhabitants is not known, but it was 

 probably about 2000 B. c. In the sixth century 

 B. c. the Persians under Darius invaded the 

 country, and the next event of importance 

 was the expedition of Alexander the Great into 

 the country. The description of manners and 

 customs given by his historians shows that the 

 people changed remarkably little in the two 

 thousand years before the modern European 

 occupancy. 



The Troubled Middle Period. All during the 

 centuries known in European history as the 

 ancient and medieval periods, India was in a 

 constantly shifting condition. First one state, 

 then another, would gain supremacy, and occa- 

 sionally conquerors from the outside would 

 sweep over the country, leaving a strong im- 

 press. The Mohammedans came and set up an 

 empire; the Mongols under the great con- 

 queror Timur, or Tamerlane, gained a firm 

 hold; but never at any time was there any 

 feeling of nationality developed, and the break- 

 ing up of the strong empire of the Moguls left 

 the country an easy prey to the Europeans. 



