India (including Burma) has a total area of 1,766,597 sq. m., and a
population (1901) of 294,361,056. Of this total, 1,087,204 sq. m., with
a population of 231,899,515, consists of British territory, administered
directly by British officers; while the remaining 679,393 sq. m., with a
population of 62,461,549, is divided up among various native states, all
of which acknowledge the suzerainty of the paramount power, but are
directly administered by semi-independent rulers, usually assisted by a
British resident.
British India.
The British possessions are distributed into thirteen provinces of
varying size, each with a separate head, but all under the supreme
control of the governor-general in council. These thirteen provinces or
local governments are Ajmer-Merwara, Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
British Baluchistan, Bengal, Bombay, Burma, Central Provinces with
Berar, Coorg, Eastern Bengal and Assam, Madras, North-West Frontier
Province, Punjab, and the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Each of
these provinces is described under its separate name.
The native states.
The native states are governed, as a rule, by native princes with the
help of a political officer appointed by the British government and
residing at their courts. Some of them administer the internal affairs
of their states with almost complete independence; others require more
assistance or a stricter control. These feudatory rulers possess
revenues and armies of their own, and the more important exercise the
power of life and death over their subjects; but the authority of each
is limited by treaties or engagements, or recognized practice by which
their subordinate dependence on the British government is determined.
That government, as suzerain in India, does not allow its feudatories to
form alliances with each other or with foreign states. It interferes
when any chief misgoverns his people; rebukes, and if needful removes,
the oppressor; protects the weak; and firmly imposes peace upon all.
There are in all nearly 700 distinct units, which may be divided into
the following groups.
Major states.
The most important states are Hyderabad, Mysore, Baroda, Kashmir and
Jammu, the Rajputana Agency, and the Central India Agency. The first
four of these are single units, each under its separate ruler; but
Rajputana and Central India are political groups consisting of many
states, enjoying different degrees of autonomy. Rajputana is the name of
a great territorial circle, containing twenty states in all; while under
the Central India Agency there are grouped 148 states and petty chiefs.
Minor states.
Amongst the minor states, subordinate to the various provincial
governments, five are controlled by Madras; 354 by Bombay, many of them
being quite petty; 26 by Bengal, of which Kuch Behar is the chief; 34 by
the Punjab, amongst which the Phulkian Sikh states and Bhawalpur are the
most important; 2 under Eastern Bengal and Assam; 15 under the Central
Provinces; and 2 under the United Provinces. Burma contains a number of
Shan states, which technically form part of British India, but are
administered through their hereditary chiefs. All the most important of
these native states are separately described.
Frontier states.
In addition to the internal states, which have a fixed status, there are
several frontier tracts of India, whose status is fluctuating or not
strictly defined. In Baluchistan there are the native states of Kalat
and Las Bela, and also tribal areas belonging to the Marri and Bugti
tribes. On the north-west frontier, in addition to the chief ships of
Chitral and Dir, there are a number of independent tribes which reside
within the political frontier of British India, but over which effective
control has never been exercised. The territory belonging to these
tribes, of whom the chief are the Waziris, Afridis, Orakzais, Mohmands,
Swatis and Bajouris, is attached to, but is not strictly within, the
North-West Frontier Province. Kashmir possesses as feudatories Gilgit
and a number of petty states, of which the most important are
Hunza-Nagar and Chilas, but effective control over these outlying states
has only been asserted in comparatively recent years for political
reasons. Nepal and Bhutan, though independent, are under various
commercial and other agreements with the government of India. On the
north-east frontier, as on the north-west, semi-independent tribes
extend across the frontier into independent country. Similarly Karenni,
on the Burmese border, is not included in British territory, but the
superintendent of the Shan states exercises some judicial and other
powers over it.