India is a much larger and more populous country than most people
think it to be. In shape it is somewhat like a huge kite, each of
whose diameters is over 2000 miles long, or more than the distance
across the Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland. Its TERRITORY is
about 1,700,000 square miles. Of this area, over 1,000,000 square
miles, a territory considerably greater than the territory of all the
states of Europe (including the British Isles) except Russia, is
directly under British control. The remainder is indirectly under
British control. The POPULATION is 308,000,000, of which 236,000,000
are directly under British control and 72,000,000 indirectly so. This
population is made up of people who speak seventy-eight different
languages, of which twenty languages are spoken by not less than
1,000,000 persons each.