INDIA. .1 region comprising the middle member of the three great southern peninsulas of Asia and a territory of nearly equal extent to the north, trepther with an extension eastward as far as the .Nlalay Peninsula. India in this sense constitutes the Empire of India, one of the members. and by far the most popubms, of the British Empire. India proper. however, does not extend farther east than the head of the Bay of Bengal: nor does it inelud• some of the northern or westernmost districts of the Empire. The Millie Hindu-tan was formerly frequently used instead t f it dia. but it belongs more properly to the Mirth-central portion of India, the land of the Hindus. The 11:11111• his been used in a very Inroad Sense, but improperly, so as to embrace the great southeastern peninsula of Asia. which is still sometimes spoken of as Farther India. This article will treat of the Empire of India. Since British influenee became predominant there no other country of the Asian mainland has been so diligently explored or is now so well known as India. In the form of a great triangle. the In dian Peninsula extends southward between the Bay of Renal, on the east, and the Arabian Sea. 011 the west, through 15° of latitude to Cape oinorin (latitude s 5' N.). (In the north the peninsula unites AN Oh the cunlinental 111 the of the t;anges Basin and the great plains east of the Indus, which connect it with the mighty highlands of the Ilintalayas. India, with in the official of the British possession (including the Native Stnies), stretches north and south through about l9 of latitude. Its east and west extension is nerc-..., !wady •10° of longitude. The Empire has nil area of about 1,stat.o0o square• miles, including the Native States and dependencies (Baluchistan. etc.). (See N,Ttvt: %ITS OF.) It. is thus about half as large as the United States (inclusive of .1laska 1. It is a world in itself, for the great barrier of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush, and the Suleiman 'Mountains shuts it off from lamd communications with the rest of .1sia, except through very difficult mountain passes; the sea is the only means of easy approach. Thus guarded, though by no means completely. by mountain bul warks and wide seas against intrusion, India was able to develop a civilization and social system peculiar to itself.
TO•tiGRACIIY. 'rite coasts of Italia a re eompara lively tittle indented except at the mouths of the larger rivers and along the northwest shores; and though there are many roadsteads and har bors for vessels, there are only a few good harbors for large vessels, and they are in the deltas of the rivers, or. as at Bombay, under the shelter of islands. The railroad system was, therefore. planned so as to einineet. all the leading trade centres of the interior with the largest sea ports.
Three distinctly defined physieal regions aro mountain districts of the Hima layas, the low plains of the three great rivers of North India. and the high plateau of the Dee eat. extending from the plain of the Canges to the south end of the peninsula. The colossal ranges of tile Himalayas, 1500 miles in length. extend along the north part of the country in several parallel chains seintratod by deep valleys and tableland;. The most northerly of these
ranges is the loftiest, and Mount Everest or the highest mountain in the world, rises to a hei•lit of 29.000 feet. In the west the Himalayan ranges are eontinued by the Hindu Kush. from which the Suleiman and Hata chains stretch to the south. along the western borders of India. barrier presented by the Hima layas is far more formidable than those of the other ranges. and can be crossed only by passes of 17.000 to 19.000 but in height, above which tower many snow-capped summits. It was through the less difficult but still formidable passes on the northwest border that India was long subjected to invasion; and Burma was the violin] of similar attacks through the passes on its northern frontier. The mountain rampart has the greatest influence on climate and fertility. for it wards off the freezing winter blasts front the north and eondenses the immense volume of water vapor brought by the summer monsoon to vivify the plain below. The barren mountain slopes fall to the south in suceessive terraces down to the fertile plain teeming with animal and vegetable life. But while the higher slopes of the mountains are devoid of vegetation, some of the wide, high mountain valleys are exeeeding ly beautiful. most notably that of Kashmir. unexcelled for healthful climate and fertile soil.
The great river plains cross India in a wide belt from east to west, south of the mountains; and at their ends the plain, are projected south ward. where the Indus and the Ganges-Brahma Nara have advanced their deltas far seaward. On the alluvial lands are the densest population and the richest cultivation; for density of popu lation is determined in India, not by the tempera ture, but by the supply ofewater available for the farms. But there are waste and almost unpeo pled districts also among these lowlands; and the rainless Desert of Thar or Indian Desert, to the of the Indus delta, extends north eastward almost to the base of the Himalayas.
The third topographic division of the country is the peninsula, the great triangular plateau of the Deccan, from I600 to :3000 feet above the sea. The northern boundary of the plateau is the Vindhya Mountains, which join the plateau to the low plain. The Deccan triangle is further defined by the Western Ghats rising above the fertile and accessible Malabar coast, and in the east by the Eastern Ghats overlooking the Coro mandel coast, which is difficult of for the harbors are few and very poor. No other part of the world testifies more eloquently than the Deccan tableland to the prodigious energy for merly displayed by plutonic forces. The greater part of this immense plateau was built up by outpouring's of lava and basalt (trap), which in places are 6000 feet thick.
The coast-line of Burma is not deeply indented except where the projecting delta of the Irra waddy forms the Gulf of Martaban. The low coast and the flooded valleys make Burma the greatest producer of export rice in the world. Farther inland, to the east of the Irrawaddy and on both sides of the river in its upper course, the country is hilly and heavily forested.