Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber's notes:

(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. Letter subscripts are preceded by an
underscore, like C_n.

(2) Characters following a carat (^) were printed in superscript.

(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.

(4) Macrons and breves above letters and dots below letters were not
inserted.

(5) [root] stands for the root symbol; [alpha], [beta], etc. for greek
letters.

(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:

ARTICLE INDIA: "In a meteorological point of view it is of
considerable importance." 'meteorological' amended from
'meteorolgical'.

ARTICLE INDIA: "... the government of India accordingly agreed in
1908 that the export of opium from India should be reduced year by
year ..." 'opium' amended from 'opum'.

ARTICLE INDIA: "At the head of a small band of horsemen, he had
ridden as far south as Deogiri (Daulatabad) in the Deccan (q.v.),
and plundered the Yadava capital." 'band' amended from 'ban'.

ARTICLE INDIAN MUTINY, THE: "The mutineers were completely cowed;
the king of Delhi was taken and reserved for trial; and his sons
were shot by Captain Hodson ..." 'Captain' amended from 'Catain'.

ARTICLE INDIAN MUTINY, THE: "was advancing with 10,000 Gurkhas to
aid in the operations against Lucknow; but the lateness of his
arrival delayed the opening of the siege until the 2nd of March
1858." 'against' amended from 'againt'.

ARTICLE INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN: "Somewhere between the lower St
Lawrence and Hudson's Bay (Brinton, Hale); in S. Ohio and Kentucky
(Boyle, Thomas)." 'Hudson's' amended from 'Hubson's'.

ARTICLE INDIGO: "... resulting no doubt in the retention of a
portion of the industry, the synthetic product has gained the upper
hand and is likely to retain it." 'retention' amended from
'retension'.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

VOLUME XIV, SLICE IV

Independence, Declaration of to
Indo-European Languages

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

INDEPENDENCE, DECLARATION OF, INDIANOLA
INDEPENDENTS INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN
INDEX INDICATOR
INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM INDICTMENT
INDIA "INDIES, LAWS OF THE,"
INDIA, FRENCH INDIGO
INDIANA INDIUM
INDIANAPOLIS INDIVIDUALISM
INDIAN ARCHITECTURE INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES
INDIAN LAW INDO-CHINA, FRENCH
DIAN MUTINY, THE INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
INDIAN OCEAN

INDEPENDENCE, DECLARATION OF, in United States history, the act (or document) by which the thirteen original states of the Union broke their colonial allegiance to Great Britain in 1776. The controversy preceding the war (see AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, WAR OF) gradually shifted from one primarily upon economic policy to one upon issues of pure politics and sovereignty, and the acts of Congress, as viewed to-day, seem to have been carrying it, from the beginning, inevitably into revolution; but there was apparently no general and conscious drift toward independence until near the close of 1775. The first colony to give official countenance to separation as a solution of colonial grievances was North Carolina, which, on the 12th of April 1776, authorized its delegates in Congress to join with others in a declaration to that end. The first colony to instruct its delegates to take the actual initiative was Virginia, in accordance with whose instructions--voted on the 15th of May--Richard Henry Lee, on the 7th of June, moved a resolution "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." John Adams of Massachusetts seconded the motion. The conservatives could only plead the unpreparedness of public opinion, and the radicals conceded delay on condition that a committee be meanwhile at work on a declaration "to the effect of the said ... resolution," to serve as a preamble thereto when adopted. This committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. To Jefferson the committee entrusted the actual preparation of the paper. On the 2nd of July, by a vote of 12 states--10 voting unanimously, New York not voting, and Pennsylvania and Delaware casting divided ballots (3 votes in the negative)--Congress adopted the resolution of independence; and on the 4th, Jefferson's "Declaration." The 4th has always been the day celebrated;[1] the decisive act of the 2nd being quite forgotten in the memory of the day on which that act was published to the world. It should also be noted that as Congress had already, on the 6th of December 1775, formally disavowed allegiance to parliament, the Declaration recites its array of grievances against the crown, and breaks allegiance to the crown. Moreover, on the 10th of May 1776, Congress had recommended to the people of the colonies that they form such new governments as their representatives should deem desirable; and in the accompanying statement of causes, formulated on the 15th of May, had declared it to be "absolutely irreconcilable to reason and good conscience for the people of these colonies now to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of any government under the crown of Great Britain," whose authority ought to be "totally suppressed" and taken over by the people--a determination which, as John Adams said, inevitably involved a struggle for absolute independence, involving as it did the extinguishment of all authority, whether of crown, parliament or nation.

Though the Declaration reads as "In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America," New York's adhesion was in fact not voted until the 9th, nor announced to Congress until the 15th--the Declaration being unanimous, however, when it was ordered, on the 19th, to be engrossed and signed under the above title.[2] Contrary to the inference naturally to be drawn from the form of the document, no signatures were attached on the 4th. As adopted by Congress, the Declaration differs only in details from the draft prepared by Jefferson; censures of the British _people_ and a noble denunciation of slavery were omitted, appeals to Providence were inserted, and verbal improvements made in the interest of terseness and measured statement. The document is full of Jefferson's fervent spirit and personality, and its ideals were those to which his life was consecrated. It is the best known and the noblest of American state papers. Though open to controversy on some issues of historical fact, not flawless in logic, necessarily partisan in tone and purpose, it is a justificatory preamble, a party manifesto and appeal, reasoned enough to carry conviction, fervent enough to inspire enthusiasm. It mingles--as in all the controversy of the time, but with a literary skill and political address elsewhere unrivalled--stale disputation with philosophy. The rights of man lend dignity to the rights of Englishmen, and the broad outlook of a world-wide appeal, and the elevation of noble principles, relieve minute criticisms of an administrative system.

Jefferson's political theory was that of Locke, whose words the Declaration echoes. Uncritical critics have repeated John Adams's assertion that its arguments were hackneyed: so they undoubtedly were--in Congress, and probably little less so without,--but that is certainly pre-eminent among its great merits. As Madison said, "The object was to assert, not to discover truths." Others have echoed Rufus Choate's phrase, that the Declaration is made up of "glittering and sounding generalities of natural right." In truth, its long array of "facts ... submitted to a candid world" had its basis in the whole development of the relations between England and the colonies; every charge had point in a definite reference to historical events, and appealed primarily to men's reason; but the history is to-day forgotten, while the fanciful basis of the "compact" theory does not appeal to a later age. It should be judged, however, by its purpose and success in its own time. The "compact" theory was always primarily a theory of political ethics, a revolutionary theory, and from the early middle ages to the French Revolution it worked with revolutionary power. It held up an ideal. Its ideal of "equality" was not realized in America in 1776--nor in England in 1688--but no man knew this better than Jefferson. Locke disclaimed for him in 1690[3] the shallower misunderstandings still daily put upon his words. Both Locke and Jefferson wrote simply of political equality, political freedom. Even within this limitation, the idealistic formulas of both were at variance with the actual conditions of their time. The variance would have been greater had their phrases been applied as humanitarian formulas to industrial and social conditions. The Lockian theory fitted beautifully the question of colonial dependence, and was applied to that by America with inexorable logic; it fitted the question of individual political rights, and was applied to them in 1776, but not in 1690; it did not apply to non-political conditions of individual liberty, a fact realized by many at the time--and it is true that such an application would have been more inconsistent in America in 1776 as regards the negroes than in England in 1690 as regarded freemen. Beyond this, there is no pertinence in the stricture that the Declaration is made up of glittering generalities of natural right. Its influence upon American legal and constitutional development has been profound. Locke, says Leslie Stephen, popularized "a convenient formula for enforcing the responsibility of governors"--but his theories were those of an individual philosopher--while by the Declaration a state, for the first time in history, founded its life on democratic idealism, pronouncing governments to exist for securing the happiness of the people, and to derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. It was a democratic instrument, and the revolution a democratic movement; in South Carolina and the Middle Colonies particularly, the cause of independence was bound up with popular movements against aristocratic elements. Congress was fond of appealing to "the purest maxims of representation"; it sedulously measured public opinion; took no great step without an explanatory address to the country; cast its influence with the people in local struggles as far as it could; appealed to them directly over the heads of conservative assemblies; and in general stirred up democracy. The Declaration gave the people recognition equivalent to promises, which, as fast as new governments were instituted, were converted by written constitutions into rights, which have since then steadily extended.

The original parchment of the Declaration, preserved in the Department of State (from 1841 to 1877 in the Patent Office, once a part of the Department of State), was injured--the injury was almost wholly to the signatures--in 1823 by the preparation of a facsimile copper-plate, and since 1894, when it was already partly illegible, it has been jealously guarded from light and air. The signers were as follows: John Hancock (1737-1792), of Massachusetts, president; Button Gwinnett (c. 1732-1777), Lyman Hall (1725-1790), George Walton (1740-1804), of Georgia; William Hooper (1742-1790), Joseph Hewes (1730-1779), John Penn (1741-1788), of North Carolina; Edward Rutledge (1749-1800), Thomas Heyward, Jr. (1746-1809), Thomas Lynch, Jr. (1749-1779), Arthur Middleton (1742-1787), of South Carolina; Samuel Chase (1741-1811), William Paca (1740-1799), Thomas Stone (1743-1787), Charles Carroll (1737-1832) of Carrollton, of Maryland; George Wythe (1726-1806), Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Benjamin Harrison (1740-1791), Thomas Nelson, Jr.(1738-1789), Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797), Carter Braxton (1736-1797), of Virginia; Robert Morris (1734-1806), Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), John Morton (1724-1777), George Clymer (1739-1813), James Smith (c. 1719-1806), George Taylor (1716-1781), James Wilson (1742-1798), George Ross (1730-1779), of Pennsylvania; Caesar Rodney (1728-1784), George Read (1733-1798), Thomas McKean (1734-1817), of Delaware; William Floyd (1734-1821), Philip Livingston (1716-1778), Francis Lewis (1713-1803), Lewis Morris (1726-1798), of New York; Richard Stockton (1730-1781), John Witherspoon (1722-1794), Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791), John Hart (1708-1780), Abraham Clark (1726-1794), of New Jersey; Josiah Bartlett (1729-1795), William Whipple (1730-1785), Matthew Thornton (1714-1803), of New Hampshire; Samuel Adams (1722-1803), John Adams (1735-1826), Robert Treat Paine (1731-1814), Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), of Massachusetts; Stephen Hopkins (1707-1785), William Ellery (1727-1820), of Rhode Island; Roger Sherman (1721-1793), Samuel Huntington (1732-1796), William Williams (1731-1811), Oliver Wolcott (1726-1797), of Connecticut. Not all the men who rendered the greatest services to independence were in Congress in July 1776; not all who voted for the Declaration ever signed it; not all who signed it were members when it was adopted. The greater part of the signatures were certainly attached on the 2nd of August; but at least six were attached later. With one exception--that of Thomas McKean, present on the 4th of July but not on the 2nd of August, and permitted to sign in 1781--all were added before printed copies with names attached were first authorized by Congress for public circulation in January 1777.

See H. Friedenwald, _The Declaration of Independence, An
Interpretation and an Analysis_ (New York, 1904); J. H. Hazleton, _The
Declaration of Independence: its History_ (New York, 1906); M.
Chamberlain, _John Adams ... with other Essays and Addresses_ (Boston,
1898), containing, "The Authentication of the Declaration of
Independence" (same in Massachusetts Historical Society,
_Proceedings_, Nov. 1884); M. C. Tyler, _Literary History of the
American Revolution_, vol. i. (New York, 1897), or same material in
_North American Review_, vol. 163, 1896, p. 1; W. F. Dana in _Harvard
Law Review_, vol. 13, 1900, p. 319; G. E. Ellis in J. Winsor,
_Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. vi. (Boston, 1888);
R. Frothingham, _Rise of the Republic_, ch. ii. (Boston, 1872). There
are various collected editions of biographies of the signers; probably
the best are John Sanderson's _Biography of the Signers of the
Declaration of Independence_ (7 vols., Philadelphia, 1823-1827), and
William Brotherhead's _Book of the Signers_ (Philadelphia, 1860, new
ed., 1875). The Declaration itself is available in the _Revised
Statutes_ of the United States (1878), and many other places. A
facsimile of the original parchment in uninjured condition is inserted
in P. Force's _American Archives_, 5th series, vol. i. at p. 1595
(Washington, 1848). The reader will find it interesting to compare a
study of the French Declaration: G. Jellinek, _The Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of Citizens_ (New York, 1901; German edition,
Leipzig, 1895; French translation preferable because of preface of
Professor Larnande). (F. S. P.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Independence Day" is a holiday in all the states and territories
of the United States.

[2] As read before the army meanwhile, it was headed "In Congress,
July 4, 1776. A Declaration by the representatives of the United
States of America in General Congress assembled."

[3] _Two Treatises of Government_, No. ii. § 54, as to age,
abilities, virtue, &c.

INDEPENDENTS, in religion, a name used in the 17th century for those holding to the autonomy of each several church or congregation, hence otherwise known as Congregationalists. Down to the end of the 18th century the former title prevailed in England, though not in America; while since then "Congregationalist" has obtained generally in both. (See CONGREGATIONALISM.)

INDEX, a word that may be understood either specially as a table of references to a book or, more generally, as an indicator of the position of required information on any given subject. According to classical usage, the Latin word _index_ denoted a discoverer, discloser or informer; a catalogue or list; an inscription; the title of a book; and the fore or index-finger. Cicero also used the word to express the table of contents to a book, and explained his meaning by the Greek form _syllabus_. Shakespeare uses the word with the general meaning of a table of contents or preface--thus Nestor says (_Troilus and Cressida_, i. 3):--

"And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass."

Table was the usual English word, and index was not thoroughly naturalized until the beginning of the 17th century, and even then it was usual to explain it as "index or table." By the present English usage, according to which the word "table" is reserved for the summary of the contents as they occur in a book, and the word "index" for the arranged analysis of the contents for the purpose of detailed reference, we obtain an advantage not enjoyed in other languages; for the French _table_ is used for both kinds, as is _indice_ in Italian and Spanish. There is a group of words each of which has its distinct meaning but finds its respective place under the general heading of index work; these are calendar, catalogue, digest, inventory, register, summary, syllabus and table.[1] The value of indexes was recognized in the earliest times, and many old books have full and admirably constructed ones. A good index has sometimes kept a dull book alive by reason of the value or amusing character of its contents. Carlyle referred to Prynne's _Histrio-Mastix_ as "a book still extant, but never more to be read by mortal"; but the index must have given amusement to many from the curious character of its entries, and Attorney-General Noy particularly alluded to it in his speech at Prynne's trial. Indexes have sometimes been used as vehicles of satire, and the witty Dr William King was the first to use them as a weapon of attack. His earliest essay in this field was the index added to the second edition of the Hon. Charles Boyle's attack upon Bentley's _Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris_ (1698).

To serve its purpose well, an index to a book must be compiled with care, the references being placed under the heading that the reader is most likely to seek. An index should be one and indivisible, and not broken up into several alphabets; thus every work, whether in one or more volumes, ought to have its complete index. The mode of arrangement calls for special attention; this may be either chronological, alphabetical or according to classes, but great confusion will be caused by uniting the three systems. The alphabetical arrangement is so simple, convenient and easily understood that it has naturally superseded the other forms, save in some exceptional cases. Much of the value of an index depends upon the mode in which it is printed, and every endeavour should be made to set it out with clearness. In old indexes the indexed word was not brought to the front, but was left in its place in the sentence, so that the alphabetical order was not made perceptible to the eye. There are few points in which the printer is more likely to go wrong than in the use of marks of repetition, and many otherwise good indexes are full of the most perplexing cases of misapplication in this respect. The oft-quoted instance,

Mill on Liberty
----on the Floss

actually occurred in a catalogue. But in modern times there has been a great advance in the art of indexing, especially since the foundation in 1877 in England of the Index Society; and the growth of great libraries has given a stimulus to this method of making it easy for readers and researchers to find a ready reference to the facts or discussions they require. Not only has it become almost a _sine qua non_ that any good book must have its own index, but the art of indexing has been applied to those books which are really collections of books (such as the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_), to a great newspaper like the London _Times_, and to the cataloguing of great libraries themselves. The work in these more elaborate cases has been enormously facilitated by the modern devices by means of which separate cards are used, arranged in drawers and cases, American enterprise in this direction having led the way. And the value of the work done in this respect by the Congressional Library at Washington, the British Museum and the London Library (notably by its Subject Index published in 1909) cannot well be exaggerated. (See also BIBLIOGRAPHY).

There are numerous books on Indexing, but the best for any one who
wants to get a general idea is H. B. Wheatley's _How to make an Index_
(1902).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Another old word occasionally used in the sense of an index is
"pye." Sir T. Duffus Hardy, in some observations on the derivation of
the word "Pye-Book" (which most probably comes from the Latin
_pica_), remarks that the earliest use he had noted of pye in this
sense is dated 1547--"a Pye of all the names of such Balives as been
to accompte pro anno regni regis Edwardi Sexti primo."

INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM, the title of the official list of those books which on doctrinal or moral grounds the Roman Catholic Church authoritatively forbids the members of her communion to read or to possess, irrespective of works forbidden by the general rules on the subject. Most governments, whether civil or ecclesiastical, have at all times in one way or another acted on the general principle that some control may and ought to be exercised over the literature circulated among those under their jurisdiction. If we set aside the heretical books condemned by the early councils, the earliest known instance of a list of proscribed books being issued with the authority of a bishop of Rome is the _Notitia librorum apocryphorum qui non recipiuntur_, the first redaction of which, by Pope Gelasius (494), was subsequently amplified on several occasions. The document is for the most part an enumeration of such apocryphal works as by their titles might be supposed to be part of Holy Scripture (the "Acts" of Philip, Thomas and Peter, and the Gospels of Thaddaeus, Matthias, Peter, James the Less and others).[1] Subsequent pontiffs continued to exhort the episcopate and the whole body of the faithful to be on their guard against heretical writings, whether old or new; and one of the functions of the Inquisition when it was established was to exercise a rigid censorship over books put in circulation. The majority of the condemnations were at that time of a specially theological character. With the discovery of the art of printing, and the wide and cheap diffusion of all sorts of books which ensued, the need for new precautions against heresy and immorality in literature made itself felt, and more than one pope (Sixtus IV. in 1479 and Alexander VI. in 1501) gave special directions to the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, Trier and Magdeburg regarding the growing abuses of the printing press; in 1515 the Lateran council formulated the decree _De Impressione Librorum_, which required that no work should be printed without previous examination by the proper ecclesiastical authority, the penalty of unlicensed printing being excommunication of the culprit, and confiscation and destruction of the books. The council of Trent in its fourth session, 8th April 1546, forbade the sale or possession of any anonymous religious book which had not previously been seen and approved by the ordinary; in the same year the university of Louvain, at the command of Charles V., prepared an "Index" of pernicious and forbidden books, a second edition of which appeared in 1550. In 1557, and again in 1559, Pope Paul IV., through the Inquisition at Rome, published what may be regarded as the first Roman Index in the modern ecclesiastical use of that term (_Index auctorum et librorum qui tanquam haeretici aut suspecti aut perversi ab Officio S. R. Inquisitionis reprobantur et in universa Christiana republica interdicuntur_). In this we find the three classes which were to be maintained in the Trent Index: authors condemned with all their writings; prohibited books, the authors of which are known; pernicious books by anonymous authors. An excessively severe general condemnation was applied to all anonymous books published since 1519; and a list of sixty-two printers of heretical books was appended. This excessive rigour was mitigated in 1561. At the 18th session of the council of Trent (26th February 1562), in consideration of the great increase in the number of suspect and pernicious books, and also of the inefficacy of the many previous "censures" which had proceeded from the provinces and from Rome itself, eighteen fathers with a certain number of theologians were appointed to inquire into these "censures," and to consider what ought to be done in the circumstances. At the 25th session (4th December 1563) this committee of the council was reported to have completed its work, but as the subject did not seem (on account of the great number and variety of the books) to admit of being properly discussed by the council, the result of its labours was handed over to the pope (Pius IV.) to deal with as he should think proper. In the following March accordingly were published, with papal approval, the _Index librorum prohibitorum_, which continued to be reprinted and brought down to date, and the "Ten Rules" which, supplemented and explained by Clement VIII., Sixtus V., Alexander VII., and finally by Benedict XIV. (10th July 1753), regulated the matter until the pontificate of Leo XIII. The business of condemning pernicious books and of correcting the Index to date has been since the time of Pope Sixtus V. in the hands of the "Congregation of the Index," which consists of several cardinals, one of whom is the prefect, and more or less numerous "consultors" and "examiners of books." An attempt has been made to publish separately the _Index Librorum Expurgandorum or Expurgatorius_, a catalogue of the works which may be read after the deletion or amending of specified passages; but this was soon abandoned.

With the alteration of social conditions, however, the Rules of Trent ceased to be entirely applicable. Their application to publications which had no concern with morals or religion was no longer conceivable; and, finally, the penalties called for modification. Already, at the Vatican Council, several bishops had submitted requests for a reform of the Index, but the Council was not able to deal with the question. The reform was accomplished by Leo XIII., who, on the 25th of January 1897, published the constitution _Officiorum_, in 49 articles. In this constitution, although the writings of heretics in support of heresy are condemned as before (No. 1), those of their books which contain nothing against Catholic doctrine or which treat other subjects are permitted (Nos. 2-3). Editions of the text of the Scriptures are permitted for purposes of study; translations of the Bible into the vulgar tongue have to be approved, while those published by non-Catholics are permitted for the use of scholars (Nos. 5-8). Obscene books are forbidden; the classics, however, are authorized for educational purposes (Nos. 9-10). Articles 11-14 forbid books which outrage God and sacred things, books which propagate magic and superstition, and books which are pernicious to society. The ecclesiastical laws relating to sacred images, to indulgences, and to liturgical books and books of devotion are maintained (Nos. 15-20). Articles 21-22 condemn immoral and irreligious newspapers, and forbid writers to contribute to them. Articles 23-26 deal with permissions to read prohibited books; these are given by the bishop in particular cases, and in the ordinary course by the Congregation of the Index. In the second part of the constitution the pope deals with the censorship of books. After indicating the official publications for which the authorization of the divers Roman congregations is required, he goes on to say that the others are amenable to the ordinary of the editor and, in the case of regulars, to their superior (Nos. 30-37). The examination of the books is entrusted to censors, who have to study them without prejudice; if their report is favourable, the bishop gives the _imprimatur_ (Nos. 38-40). All books concerned with the religious sciences and with ethics are submitted to preliminary censorship, and in addition to this ecclesiastics have to obtain a personal authorization for all their books and for the acceptance of the editorship of a periodical (Nos. 41-42). The penalty of excommunication _ipso facto_ is only maintained for reading books written by heretics or apostates in defence of heresy, or books condemned by name under pain of excommunication by pontifical letters (not by decrees of the Index). By the same constitution Leo XIII. ordered the revision of the catalogue of the Index. The new Index, which omits works anterior to 1600 as well as a great number of others included in the old catalogue, appeared in 1900. The encyclical _Pascendi_ of Pius X. (8th September 1907) made it obligatory for periodicals amenable to the ecclesiastical authority to be submitted to a censor, who subsequently makes useful observations. The legislation of Leo XIII. resulted in the better observance of the rules for the publication of books, but apparently did not modify the practice as regards the reading of prohibited books. It is to be regretted that the catalogue does not discriminate among the prohibited works according to the motive of their condemnation and the danger ascribed to reading them. The tendency of the practice among Catholics at large is to reduce these condemnations to the proportions of the moral law.

See H. Reusch, _Der Index der verbotenen Bücher_ (Bonn, 1883); A.
Arndt, _De Libris prohibitis commentarii_ (Ratisbon, 1895); A.
Boudinhon, _La Nouvelle Législation de l'index_ (Paris, 1899); J.
Hilgers, _Der Index der verbotenen Bücher_ (Freiburg in B., 1904); A.
Vermeersch, _De prohibitione et censura librorum_ (Tournai, 1907); T.
Hurley, _Commentary on the Present Index Legislation_ (Dublin, 1908).
(A. Bo.*)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Hardouin, _Conc._ ii. 940; Labbé, _Conc._ ii. 938-941. The whole
document has also been reprinted in Smith's _Dict. of Chr. Antiq._,
art. "Prohibited Books."

INDIA,[1] a great country and empire of Asia under British rule, inhabited by a congeries of different races, speaking upwards of fifty different languages. The whole Indian empire, including Burma, has an area of 1,766,000 sq. m., and a population of 294 million inhabitants, being about equal to the area and population of the whole of Europe without Russia. The population more than doubles Gibbon's estimate of 120 millions for all the races and nations which obeyed imperial Rome.

The natives of India can scarcely be said to have a word of their own by which to express their common country. In Sanskrit, it would be called "Bharata-varsha," from Bharata, a legendary monarch of the Lunar line; but Sanskrit is no more the vernacular of India than Latin is of Europe. The name "Hindustan," which was at one time adopted by European geographers, is of Persian origin, meaning "the land of the Hindus," as Afghanistan means "the land of the Afghans." According to native usage, however, "Hindustan" is limited either to that portion of the peninsula lying north of the Vindhya mountains, or yet more strictly to the upper basin of the Ganges where Hindi is the spoken language. The "East Indies," as opposed to the "West Indies," is an old-fashioned and inaccurate phrase, dating from the dawn of maritime discovery, and still lingering in certain parliamentary papers. "India," the abstract form of a word derived through the Greeks from the Persicized form of the Sanskrit _sindhu_, a "river," pre-eminently the Indus, has become familiar since the British acquired the country, and is now officially recognized in the imperial title of the sovereign.

THE COUNTRY

Position and shape.

India, as thus defined, is the middle of the three irregularly shaped peninsulas which jut out southwards from the mainland of Asia, thus corresponding roughly to the peninsula of Italy in the map of Europe. Its form is that of a great triangle, with its base resting upon the Himalayan range and its apex running far into the ocean. The chief part of its western side is washed by the Arabian Sea, and the chief part of its eastern side by the Bay of Bengal. It extends from the 8th to the 37th degree of north latitude, that is to say, from the hottest regions of the equator to far within the temperate zone. The capital, Calcutta, lies in 88° E., so that when the sun sets at six o'clock there, it is just past mid-day in England and early morning in New York. The length of India from north to south, and its greatest breadth from east to west, are both about 1900 m.; but the triangle tapers with a pear-shaped curve to a point at Cape Comorin, its southern extremity. To this compact dominion the British have added Burma, the strip of country on the eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. But on the other hand the adjacent island of Ceylon has been administratively severed and placed under the Colonial Office. Two groups of islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Andamans and the Nicobars; one group in the Arabian Sea, the Laccadives; and the outlying station of Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, with Perim, and protectorates over the island of Sokotra, along the southern coast of Arabia and in the Persian Gulf, are all politically included within the Indian empire; while on the coast of the peninsula itself, Portuguese and French settlements break at intervals the continuous line of British territory.

Boundaries.

India is shut off from the rest of Asia on the north by a vast
mountainous region, known in the aggregate as the Himalayas, amid
which lie the independent states of Nepal and Bhutan, with the great
table-land of Tibet behind. The native principality of Kashmir
occupies the north-western angle of India. At this north-western angle
(in 35° N., 74° E.) the mountains curve southwards, and India is
separated by the well-marked ranges of the Safed Koh and Suliman from
Afghanistan; and by a southern continuation of lower hills from
Baluchistan. Still farther southwards, India is bounded along the W.
and S.W. by the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Turning northwards from
the southern extremity at Cape Comorin (8° 4´ 20´´ N., 77° 35´ 35´´
E.), the long sea-line of the Bay of Bengal forms the main part of its
eastern boundary. But on the north-east, as on the north-west, India
has again a land frontier. The Himalayan ranges at the north-eastern
angle (in about 28° N., 97° E.) throw off spurs and chains to the
south-east, which separate Eastern Bengal from Assam and Burma.
Stretching south-eastwards from the delta of the Irrawaddy, a confused
succession of little explored ranges separates the Burmese division of
Tenasserim from the native kingdom of Siam. The boundary line runs
down to Point Victoria at the extremity of Tenasserim (9° 59´ N., 98°
32´ E.), following in a somewhat rough manner the watershed between
the rivers of the British territory on the west and of Siam on the
east.

Three regions.

The empire included within these boundaries is rich in varieties of
scenery and climate, from the highest mountains in the world to vast
river deltas raised only a few inches above the level of the sea. It
practically forms a continent rather than a country. But if we could
look down on the whole from a balloon, we should find that India
(apart from Burma, for which see the separate article) consists of
three separate and well-defined tracts.

Himalayas.

The first of the three regions is the Himalaya (q.v.) mountains and
their offshoots to the southward, comprising a system of stupendous
ranges, the loftiest in the world. They are the _Emodus_ of Ptolemy
(among other names), and extend in the shape of a scimitar, with its
edge facing southwards, for a distance of 1500 m. along the northern
frontier of India. At the north-eastern angle of that frontier, the
Dihang river, the connecting link between the Tsanpo of Tibet and the
Brahmaputra of Assam, bursts through the main axis of the range. At
the opposite or north-western angle, the Indus in like manner pierces
the Himalayas, and turns southwards on its course through the Punjab.
This wild region is in many parts impenetrable to man, and nowhere
yields a passage for a modern army. Ancient and well-known trade
routes exist, by means of which merchandise from the Punjab finds its
way over heights of 18,000 ft. into Eastern Turkestan and Tibet. The
Muztagh (Snowy Mountain), the Karakoram (Black Mountain), and the
Changchenmo are the most famous of these passes.

The Himalayas not only form a double wall along the north of India,
but at both their eastern and western extremities send out ranges to
the south, which protect its north-eastern and north-western
frontiers. On the north-east, those offshoots, under the name of the
Naga and Patkoi mountains, &c., form a barrier between the civilized
districts of Assam and the wild tribes of Upper Burma. On the opposite
or north-western frontier of India, the mountainous offshoots run down
the entire length of the British boundaries from the Himalayas to the
sea. As they proceed southwards, their best marked ranges are in turn
known as the Safed Koh, the Suliman and the Hala mountains. These
massive barriers have peaks of great height, culminating in the
Takht-i-Suliman or Throne of Solomon, 11,317 ft. above the level of
the sea. But the mountain wall is pierced at the corner where it
strikes southwards from the Himalayas by an opening through which the
Kabul river flows into India. An adjacent opening, the Khyber Pass,
the Kurram Pass to the south of it, the Gomal Pass near Dera Ismail
Khan, the Tochi Pass between the two last-named, and the famous Bolan
Pass still farther south, furnish the gateways between India and
Afghanistan. The Hala, Brahui and Pab mountains, forming the southern
hilly offshoots between India and Baluchistan, have a much less
elevation.

River plains.

The wide plains watered by the Himalayan rivers form the second of the
three regions into which we have divided India. They extend from the
Bay of Bengal on the east to the Afghan frontier and the Arabian Sea
on the west, and contain the richest and most densely crowded
provinces of the empire. One set of invaders after another has from
prehistoric times entered by the passes at their eastern and
north-western frontiers. They followed the courses of the rivers, and
pushed the earlier comers southwards before them towards the sea.
About 167 millions of people now live on and around these river
plains, in the provinces known as the lieutenant-governorship of
Bengal, Eastern Bengal and Assam, the United Provinces, the Punjab,
Sind, Rajputana and other native states.

River systems.

The vast level tract which thus covers northern India is watered by
three distinct river systems. One of these systems takes its rise in
the hollow trough beyond the Himalayas, and issues through their
western ranges upon the Punjab as the Sutlej and Indus. The second of
the three river systems also takes its rise beyond the double wall of
the Himalayas, not very far from the sources of the Indus and the
Sutlej. It turns, however, almost due east instead of west, enters
India at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas, and becomes the
Brahmaputra of Eastern Bengal and Assam. These rivers collect the
drainage of the northern slopes of the Himalayas, and convey it, by
long and tortuous although opposite routes, into India. Indeed, the
special feature of the Himalayas is that they send down the rainfall
from their northern as well as from their southern slopes to the
Indian plains. The third river system of northern India receives the
drainage of their southern slopes, and eventually unites into the
mighty stream of the Ganges. In this way the rainfall, alike from the
northern and southern slopes of the Himalayas, pours down into the
river plains of Bengal.

Northern table-land.

The third division of India comprises the three-sided table-land which
covers the southern half or more strictly peninsular portion of India.
This tract, known in ancient times as the Deccan (Dakshin), literally
"the right hand or south," comprises the Central Provinces and Berar,
the presidencies of Madras and Bombay, and the territories of
Hyderabad, Mysore and other feudatory states. It had in 1901 an
aggregate population of about 100 millions.

The northern side rests on confused ranges, running with a general
direction of east to west, and known in the aggregate as the Vindhya
mountains. The Vindhyas, however, are made up of several distinct hill
systems. Two sacred peaks guard the flanks in the extreme east and
west, with a succession of ranges stretching 800 m. between. At the
western extremity, Mount Abu, famous for its exquisite Jain temples,
rises, as a solitary outpost of the Aravalli hills 5650 ft. above the
Rajputana plain, like an island out of the sea. On the extreme east,
Mount Parasnath--like Mount Abu on the extreme west, sacred to Jain
rites--rises to 4400 ft. above the level of the Gangetic plains. The
various ranges of the Vindhyas, from 1500 to over 4000 ft. high, form,
as it were, the northern wall and buttresses which support the central
table-land. Though now pierced by road and railway, they stood in
former times as a barrier of mountain and jungle between northern and
southern India, and formed one of the main obstructions to welding the
whole into an empire. They consist of vast masses of forests, ridges
and peaks, broken by cultivated valleys and broad high-lying plains.

Ghats.

The other two sides of the elevated southern triangle are known as the
Eastern and Western Ghats. These start southwards from the eastern and
western extremities of the Vindhya system, and run along the eastern
and western coasts of India. The Eastern Ghats stretch in fragmentary
spurs and ranges down the Madras presidency, here and there receding
inland and leaving broad level tracts between their base and the
coast. The Western Ghats form the great sea-wall of the Bombay
presidency, with only a narrow strip between them and the shore. In
many parts they rise in magnificent precipices and headlands out of
the ocean, and truly look like colossal "passes or landing-stairs"
(_gháts_) from the sea. The Eastern Ghats have an average elevation of
1500 ft. The Western Ghats ascend more abruptly from the sea to an
average height of about 3000 ft. with peaks up to 4700, along the
Bombay coast, rising to 7000 and even 8760 in the upheaved angle which
they unite to form with the Eastern Ghats, towards their southern
extremity.

The inner triangular plateau thus enclosed lies from 1000 to 3000 ft.
above the level of the sea. But it is dotted with peaks and seamed
with ranges exceeding 4000 ft. in height. Its best known hills are the
Nilgiris, with the summer capital of Madras, Ootacamund, 7000 ft.
above the sea. The highest point is Dodabetta Peak (8760 ft.), at the
upheaved southern angle.

Eastern Ghats.

On the eastern side of India, the Ghats form a series of spurs and
buttresses for the elevated inner plateau, rather than a continuous
mountain wall. They are traversed by a number of broad and easy
passages from the Madras coast. Through these openings the rainfall of
the southern half of the inner plateau reaches the sea. The drainage
from the northern or Vindhyan edge of the three-sided table-land
falls into the Ganges. The Nerbudda and Tapti carry the rainfall of
the southern slopes of the Vindhyas and of the Satpura hills, in
almost parallel lines, into the Gulf of Cambay. But from Surat, in 21°
9´, to Cape Comorin, in 8° 4´, no large river succeeds in reaching the
western coast from the interior table-land. The Western Ghats form, in
fact, a lofty unbroken barrier between the waters of the central
plateau and the Indian Ocean. The drainage has therefore to make its
way across India to the eastwards, now turning sharply round
projecting ranges, now tumbling down ravines, or rushing along the
valleys, until the rain which the Bombay sea-breeze has dropped upon
the Western Ghats finally falls into the Bay of Bengal. In this way
the three great rivers of the Madras Presidency, viz., the Godavari,
the Kistna and the Cauvery, rise in the mountains overhanging the
western coast, and traverse the whole breadth of the central
table-land before they reach the sea on the eastern shores of India.

Of the three regions of India thus briefly surveyed, the first, or the
Himalayas, lies for the most part beyond the British frontier, but a
knowledge of it supplies the key to the ethnology and history of
India. The second region, or the great river plains in the north,
formed the theatre of the ancient race-movements which shaped the
civilization and the political destinies of the whole Indian
peninsula. The third region, or the triangular table-land in the
south, has a character quite distinct from either of the other two
divisions, and a population which is now working out a separate
development of its own. Broadly speaking, the Himalayas are peopled by
Mongoloid tribes; the great river plains of Hindustan are still the
home of the Aryan race; the triangular table-land has formed an arena
for a long struggle between that gifted race from the north and what
is known as the Dravidian stock in the south.

_Geology._

Geologically, as well as physically, India consists of three distinct
regions, the Himalayas, the Peninsula, and--between these two--the
Indo-Gangetic plain with its covering of alluvium and wind-blown
sands. The contrast between the Himalayas and the Peninsula is one of
fundamental importance. The former, from the Tertiary period even to
the present day, has been a region of compression; the latter, since
the Carboniferous period at least, has been a region of equilibrium or
of tension. In the former even the Pliocene beds are crumpled and
folded, overfolded and overthrust in the most violent fashion; in the
latter none but the oldest beds, certainly none so late as the
Permian, have been crumpled or crushed--occasionally they are bent and
frequently they are faulted, but the faults, though sometimes of
considerable magnitude, are simple dislocations, unaccompanied by any
serious disturbance of the strata. The greater part of the Himalayan
region lay beneath the sea from early Palaeozoic times to the Eocene
period, and the deposits are accordingly marine; the Peninsula, on the
other hand, has been land since the Permian period at least--there is,
indeed, no evidence that it was ever beneath the sea--only on its
margins are any marine deposits to be found. It should, however, be
mentioned that in the eastern part of the Himalayas some of the beds
resemble those of the Peninsula, and it appears that a part of the old
Indian continent has here been involved in the folds of the mountain
chain.

The geology of the Himalayas being described elsewhere (see
HIMALAYAS), the following account deals only with the Indo-Gangetic
plain and the Peninsula.

The _Indo-Gangetic Plain_ covers an area of about 300,000 sq. m., and
varies in width from 90 to nearly 300 m. It rises very gradually from
the sea at either end; the lowest point of the watershed between the
Punjab rivers and the Ganges is about 924 ft. above the sea. This
point, by a line measured down the valley, but not following the
winding of the river, is about 1050 m. from the mouth of the Ganges
and 850 m. from the mouth of the Indus, so that the average
inclination of the plain, from the central watershed to the sea, is
only about 1 ft. per mile. It is less near the sea, where for long
distances there is no fall at all. Near the watershed it is generally
more; but there is here no ridge of high ground between the Indus and
the Ganges, and a very trifling change of level would often turn the
upper waters of one river into the other. It is not unlikely that such
changes have in past time occurred; and if so an explanation is
afforded of the occurrence of allied forms of freshwater dolphins
(_Platanista_) and of many other animals in the two rivers and in the
Brahmaputra.

The alluvial deposits of the plain, as made known by the boring at
Calcutta, prove a gradual depression of the area in recent times.
There are peat and forest beds, which must have grown quietly at the
surface, alternating with deposits of gravel, sand and clay. The
thickness of the delta deposit is unknown; 481 ft. was proved at the
bore hole, but probably this represents only a small part of the
deposit. Outside the delta, in the Bay of Bengal, is a deep depression
known as the "swatch of no ground"; all around it the soundings are
only of 5 to 10 fathoms, but they very rapidly deepen to over 300
fathoms. Mr J. Ferguson has shown that the sediment is carried away
from this area by the set of the currents; probably then it has
remained free from sediment whilst the neighbouring sea bottom has
gradually been filled up. If so, the thickness of the alluvium is at
least 1800 ft., and may be much more. At Lucknow a boring was driven
through the Gangetic alluvium to a depth of 1336 ft. from the surface,
or nearly 1000 ft. below sea-level. Even at this depth there was no
indication of an approach to the base of the alluvial deposits.

Scale 1:7,500,000]

The deposits of the Indo-Gangetic plain are of modern date and the
formation of the depression which they fill is almost certainly
connected with the elevation of the Himalayas. Both movements are
probably still going on. The alluvial deposits prove depression in
quite recent geological times; and within the Himalayan region
earthquakes are still common, whilst in Peninsular India they are
rare.

_Peninsular India._--The oldest rocks of this region consist of
gneiss, granite and other crystalline rocks. They cover a large area
in Bengal and Madras and extend into Ceylon; and they are found also
in Bundelkhand and in Gujarat. Upon them rest the unfossiliferous
strata known to Indian geologists as the Transition and Vindhyan
series. The Transition rocks are often violently folded and are
frequently converted into schists. In the south, where they are known
as the Dharwar series, they form long and narrow bands running from
north-north-west to south-south-east across the ancient gneiss; and it
is interesting to note that all the quartz-reefs which contain gold in
paying quantities occur in the Dharwar series. The Transition rocks
are of great but unknown age. The Vindhyan rocks which succeed them
are also of ancient date. But long before the earliest Vindhyan rocks
were laid down the Transition rocks had been altered and contorted.
Occasionally the Vindhyan beds themselves are strongly folded, as in
the east of the Cuddapah basin; but this was the last folding of any
violence which has occurred in the Peninsula. In more recent times
there have been local disturbances, and large faults have in places
been formed; but the greater part of the Peninsula rocks are only
slightly disturbed. The Vindhyan series is generally sharply marked
off from older rocks; but in the Godavari valley there is no
well-defined line between them and the Transition rocks. The Vindhyan
beds are divided into two groups. The lower, with an estimated
thickness of only 2000 ft., or slightly more, cover a large
area--extending, with but little change of character, from the Sone
valley in one direction to Cuddapah, and in a diverging line to near
Bijapur--in each case a distance of over 700 m. The upper Vindhyans
cover a much smaller area, but attain a thickness of about 12,000 ft.
The Vindhyans are well-stratified beds of sandstone and shale, with
some limestones. As yet they have yielded no trace of fossils, and
their exact age is consequently unknown. They are however certainly
Pre-Permian, and it is most probable that they belong to the early
part of the Palaeozoic era. The total absence of fossils is a
remarkable fact, and one for which it is difficult to account, as the
beds are for the most part quite unaltered. Even if they are entirely
of freshwater origin, we should expect that some traces of life from
the waters or neighbouring land would be found.

The Gondwana series is in many respects the most interesting and
important series of the Indian Peninsula. The beds are almost entirely
of freshwater origin. Many subdivisions have been made, but here we
need only note the main division into two great groups: Lower
Gondwanas, 13,000 ft. thick; Upper Gondwanas, 11,000 ft. thick. The
series is mainly confined to the area of country between the Nerbudda
and the Sone on the north, and the Kistna on the south; but the
western part of this region is in great part covered by newer beds.
The lowest Gondwanas are very constant in character, wherever they are
found; the upper members of the lower division show more variation,
and this divergence of character in different districts becomes more
marked in the Upper Gondwana series. Disturbances have occurred in the
lower series before the formation of the upper.

The Gondwana beds contain fossils which are of very great interest. In
large part these consist of plants which grew near the margins of the
old rivers, and which were carried down by floods, and deposited in
the alluvial plains, deltas and estuarine areas of the old Gondwana
period. The plants of the Lower Gondwanas consist chiefly of acrogens
(_Equisetaceae_ and ferns) and gymnogens (cycads and conifers), the
former being the more abundant. The same classes of plants occur in
the Upper Gondwanas; but there the proportions are reversed, the
conifers, and still more the cycads, being more numerous than the
ferns, whilst the _Equisetaceae_ are but sparingly found. But even
within the limits of the Lower Gondwana series there are great
diversities of vegetation, three distinct floras occurring in the
three great divisions of that formation. In many respects the flora of
the highest of these three divisions (the Panchet group) is more
nearly related to that of the Upper Gondwanas than it is to the other
Lower Gondwana floras. Although during the Gondwana period the flora
of India differed greatly from that of Europe, it was strikingly
similar to the contemporaneous floras of South America, South Africa
and Australia. It is somewhat remarkable that this characteristically
southern flora, known as the Glossopteris Flora (from the name of one
of the most characteristic genera), has also been found in the north
of Russia.