CALCUTTA (862,000) is the capital of the empire of India and the
second city in the British Empire. Although situated on an arm of the
delta of the Ganges, eighty miles inland, Calcutta is an immense
seaport, but its sea-going privileges can be maintained only by great
engineering works, because of the silt which the Ganges is constantly
bringing down and depositing in its seaward channels. Calcutta enjoys
almost a monopoly of the whole trade of the Ganges and Brahmapootra
valleys, and until the building of the Suez Canal it had almost a
monopoly of the outward trade of the whole Hindustan peninsula. Its
total trade is even yet very large, aggregating for outward and inward
business together about $700,000,000 per annum, a sum which can be
appreciated from the fact that it is about equal to the total import
trade of the whole of the United States. BOMBAY (822,000), the second
city of the Indian Empire, owes its eminence to three things: (1) the
opening of the Suez Canal, which has made it the port of India nearest
England; (2) the starting of the cotton-growing industry in India,
owing to the American civil war (the cotton-growing district of India
is adjacent to Bombay); and (3) the development of the railway system
of India, which is making Bombay rather than Calcutta the natural
ocean outlet for the trade of the country. MADRAS (453,000), the
third city of India, is also the third seaport. But it has no natural
harbour, and its shore is surf-beaten and for months together exposed
to the full fury of the northeast monsoons. An artificial harbour,
however, has recently been built. Besides the cities above mentioned
there is one (HYDERABAD) with a population of over 400,000; there are
two (LUCKNOW and BENARES) with a population of over 150,000 each, and
eleven more with a population of over 100,000 each. There are besides
forty-seven towns with a population more than 50,000 each, and over a
thousand towns with a population of about 10,000 each.