HAPPY INDIA 19 



world. But still it must be borne in mind that their 

 habits differ from ours to a great extent, perhaps 

 in consequence of the climate. Whilst they can 

 fight, they are not so desperately fond of fighting as 

 the Northerners, neither are they so energetic as 

 the Northerners, and the Briton coming fresh from 

 his northern climate brings a degree of energy which 

 is greater than that which is natural to the descend- 

 ants of men who have lived for generations in the 

 mild and warm climate of India. 



It is not certain that the climate of India is the same 

 now as it was two thousand years ago. The climate 

 of Central Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan 

 has changed it has become warmer and drier : this 

 is to be learnt from the writings of Elsworth 

 Huntingdon in his books The Pulse of Asia and 

 The Transformation of Palestine', and it may well 

 be that the climate of Northern and North- Western 

 India was more bracing in the days of Alexander 

 than it is now. 



There is one other respect in which the Northerners 

 have an advantage over the people of the South 

 that is in fighting. In the case of a fight between 

 two armies equally armed, equally well led and 

 equal numbers, one British, the other Indian, the 

 British would win, and would probably win though 

 outnumbered two to one. Indeed, they have been 

 frequently victorious against numbers five times 

 as great as their own. On the other hand, the 

 Indians have shown that with modern weapons and 

 modern discipline they can win victories, and have 



