614th ORDINAEY GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd, 1920, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



E. J. SEtVELL, Esq., took the Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed and signed. 



The Hon. Secretary announced the Election of the following Associ- 

 ates : — Colonel Hope Biddulph, Miss Georgiana Biddulph, Colonel C. W. R. 

 St. John, Mrs. Annie C. Bill, Miss Theodora Cazalet and Mrs. Howard 

 Hooke. 



The Chairman then called on Sir Andrew Wirgate, K.C.I.E., to read 

 his paper on " India." 



INDIA. By Sir Andrew Wingate, K.C.I.E. 



FIFTY years ago the young civilian had to collect his informa- 

 tion about India with considerable difficulty. Now books 

 in abundance are available, and among these a special 

 debt of gratitude is due to Dr. Vincent Smith for his admirable 

 Oxford History of India, which I have used as the most accurate 

 authority for my facts. 



India, as distinguished from the larger area known as our 

 Indian Empire, has been described as a figure composed of two 

 triangles on a common base drawn from Karachi to Calcutta. 

 We shall think more correctly, both geographically and his- 

 torically, if we draw the dividing line from Broach along the line 

 of the Narbada River to the mouth of the Hugli. South of 

 such a line the Peninsula, with its coast line of about 3500 miles, 

 becomes the Deccan, meaning vaguely the South Country — 

 while all to the north constitutes Hindustan, the location of the 

 Hindus, the Indus country. 



Some place the northern mountain ranges in a third division, 

 but the Himalayas — the Abode of Snow — are bound as a turban, 

 slantwise, upon the head of India by two mighty rivers, the 

 Indus and the Brahmaputra, each 1800 miles long, while the 

 people, though Mongolian in type, have mostly accepted 

 Hinduism. 



Awed by the majesty of Nature, the Hindus lift up their eyes 

 to the hills in worship and crowd to the rivers to cleanse their 

 hearts from sin. Possibly the Indus came to be thought unclean, 

 because they knew not whence it came, whereas the Ganges 



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