Introductory.-Of the provinces of India the Panj???b must always have a peculiar interest for Englishmen. Invasions by land from the west have perforce been launched across its great plains. The English were the first invaders who, possessing sea power, were able to outflank the mountain ranges which guard the north and west of India. Hence the Panj???b was the last, and not the first, of their Indian conquests, and the courage and efficiency of the Sikh soldiery, even after the guiding hand of the old Mah???r???ja Ranj???t ...
Read More
Introductory.-Of the provinces of India the Panj???b must always have a peculiar interest for Englishmen. Invasions by land from the west have perforce been launched across its great plains. The English were the first invaders who, possessing sea power, were able to outflank the mountain ranges which guard the north and west of India. Hence the Panj???b was the last, and not the first, of their Indian conquests, and the courage and efficiency of the Sikh soldiery, even after the guiding hand of the old Mah???r???ja Ranj???t Singh was withdrawn, made it also one of the hardest. The success of the early administration of the province, which a few years after annexation made it possible to use its resources in fighting men to help in the task of putting down the mutiny, has always been a matter of just pride, while the less familiar story of the conquests of peace in the first sixty years of British rule may well arouse similar feelings.Scope of work.-A geography of the Panj???b will fitly embrace an account also of the North-West Frontier Province, which in 1901 was severed from it and formed into a separate administration, of the small area recently placed directly under the government of India on the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, and of the native states in political dependence on the Panj???b Government. It will also be convenient to include Kashm???r and the tribal territory beyond the frontier of British India which is politically controlled from Pesh???war. The whole tract covers ten degrees of latitude and eleven of longitude. The furthest point of the Kashm???r frontier is in 37??? 2' N., which is much the same as the latitude of Syracuse. In the south-east the Panj???b ends at 27??? 4' N., corresponding roughly to the position of the southernmost of the Canary Islands. Lines drawn west from Pesh???war and Lahore would pass to the north of Beirut and Jerusalem respectively. Mult???n and Cairo are in the same latitude, and so are Delhi and Teneriffe. Kashm???r stretches eastwards to longitude 80??? 3' and the westernmost part of Waz???rist???n is in 69??? 2' E.Distribution of Area.-The area dealt with is roughly 253,000 square miles. This is but two-thirteenths of the area of the Indian Empire, and yet it is less by only 10,000 square miles than that of Austria-Hungary including Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Read Less
