The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-11-16

F=7HE vast peninsula contains
1,750,000 square miles-as
much as Europe west of
Russia; it is 5000 miles from north
to south, and in it are 300,000,0 600
people, each a soul that sees the
universe revolving about it as the
center of all movement and mean
ing.
It Is q continent rather than a
country, with every variety Of cli-
mate and physical feature. In the
north the snow crowned HimalayaS,
Hottest mountains in the world, run
across from east to west for 1900
miles.
On those heights great river sys-
TENS form; the Indus, the Brahma-
putra and the Ganges. Among the
mountains dwell Mongol tribes that
form an ethnic transition to Tibet
and China; in the river valleys
nearly 200,0OO0OO "Aryans" dwell;
and in the Deccarl, or lower half OF
the great triangle, are the black
skinned Dravidians, remnants OF
the race which the invading Aryans
drove down from the north.
Here and there Constituting one
fifth Of the land) the primitive jun
gle remains, breeding place OF lions,
tigers, leopards, wolves and snakes
that make life as dangerous in In
Ola as in the streets Of Chicago and
New York. Every year the lords OF
the Jungle soothe their hunger with
$4,000 HinduS.
South Of the river valleys the sun
rules like an unchecked despot; and
heat makes the religion, the history
and the, character Of the Hindu.
One traveller assures us that "the
heat is quite tolerable in the winter
months"
Englishmen cannot stay there
much more than five years at a
time, and If 100000 Of them rule
3OO,O0,00O Hindus it is because they
have not remained there long
enough. Let them stay, and they
will take on the quietude of the
Hindu, as they tend to take on his
superstitions.
THE history of India is far
d more obscure than that of
China. The Hindus love
poetry much more than history,
and before Buddha we have hardly
anything but legend.
The Rig-Veda is a vast collection
of folklore dating from 1400 B. c.,
and telling with Oriental color and
imagination the story Of the Aryan
conquest of India. We know Moth
ing of these origins except that, they
were a fair-Skinned, warlike and
nomadic people who came from
Central Asia over the Himalayas
into India, conquered the. Ora
vidians, and established themselves
as the ruling caste of the land.
Their high birth rate forced them
to seek new pastures; their word for
war meant "a desire for more COWS"
which is sincerer name than our
idealistic phrase for incorporated
homicide.
Their language, Sanskrit, became
the speech of most Of the people of
India, and formed the origin Of those
Undo European" tongues to which
our own English, like Greek and
Latin and their derivatives, belongs.
That process Of the north sweep
ing down upon the, settled and easy
going south has been the main
stream of history, on which civili-
zation has risen and fallen like
epochal undulations.
THE Mongols poured down
upon Pekin, the Aryans upon
- Dravidians, the Achaeans
and Dorians upon the Cretans and
Aegeans, the Latins upon the
aborigines of italy, the Romans up
on the Carthaginians, the Germans
upon the Romans, the Lombards
upon the Italians, the French upon
the Spanish, the English upon the
world. Forever the North produces
warriors and the South produces
saints and the weak inherit -
heaven.
So the conquered natives re-
treated into the Deccan and titled