Abstract

The international Import of India

Now that Germany is knocking at the doors of Asia, it is well to consider the international importance of India, not only for maintaining the balance of power in the great Eastern continent, but also for establishing the basis of a durable peace. Racially India is white as well as brown. The vast bulk of her population come of Aryan stock, being thus racially related to the Europeans. There is, however, enough mixture of the Semitic and the Mongolian stock to make her people cosmopolitan, of the former race there are many among India's seventy million of Mohammedan, and of the latter there are large numbers in the populations of Bengal, Burma, Nepal, and the Himalayas. There is also some Negroid blood in the south. Thus India's racial composition is a guarantee against the exclusive predominance of one race over others. The languages of India can, for all practical purposes, be reduced to two groups. Sanskrit and the vernaculars spoken in the North, the West, and the Centre, all belong to the Indo-European class, the vernaculars of the South to the Dravidian group. The Hindustani has a great many Arabic words in it, due to Mohammedan influences. So in the matter of languages as well as race India is the connecting link between Europe and Asia. Coming to religions, we find that as the birthplace of Buddhism, India exacts respect and homage from the whole of the Far East, and as the home of seventy millions of Moslems, she exercises a unique influence on Western Asia.