Show knitting bitting together that crazy quilt called calle d india mixture of many Langua languages jes races and religions washington ones one s sixth ixta of all the pe people aple on the globe divided among mani many rices races speaking languages and devotees of a dozen different religions li are gathered under a single unified government tor for the first time by the new indian constitution recently approve dby king george V perhaps tho the most complicated conglomerate glom erato of states anywhere india through its new constitution becomes the worlds largest population unit under a single government with the possible exception of china says the national geographic society india accounts for more than two thirds third of the population of the british empire and has nearly three times as many people as the united states although its area Is only a little more than half as large but the indians crowded into the triangular peninsula that juts out from the bottom of asia probably are the least unified culturally religiously and politically of any group of similar size in the world A crazy quilt india Is a veritable brilz crazy y quilt of pr presidencies cies native states provinces protectorates protect orates tribal areas and even a few foreign owned patches some parts have been governed by modern british law others by native princes ruling with arabian nights splendor holding power over life and death maintaining their own armies an and subject indirectly to the british king em geror all now will be more closely united under the new constitution india Is usually thought of as mi eni en i british in its allegiance but france and portugal still keep tiny toe holds on the edges of the huge british domain of these remnants of the days when all three powers were competing for indian trade and riches france has about square miles of colonies along the east and west coasts while there are 1401 1461 square miles of portuguese territory on the western side of the peninsula broadly speaking india Is divided into two classes for purposes of government british india ko governed verned dl directly by the british crown and the native states under their own rulers who are s subject u abject to british influence five hundred native states great britain came into possession of the territory that makes up british lin indea dIff iff 1 various ways the nir nucleus cleus was taken over from the british east india company to tills this has been added territory gained by force of arms by purchase and by cession there are more than feudatory native states in which every shade of sovereignty exists britain interferes little with the local government oft of the pe roost most powerful of these and is re represented at t their courts only by residents who are little more than diplomatic envoys a tho the british government has treaty arrangements with the rulers of the states whereby they agree not to send representatives to each other or to enter into alliances except with great britain in or out of india they carry on all foreign affairs through grent great britain there Is a greater measure of control over some of the less important states and some pay an a annual inua cash tribute to the central government to c complexities that arise in indian life ilfe from its intricate governmental fabric are added still more bewildering tangles of religion and caste for example in some of the provinces representatives senta tives are elected to the legislatures in proportion to the numbers of various religious groups with some moslems in dla dia has more followers of mohammed momammed than turkey ever ruled and ranks as the leading moslem nation overwhelming wh elming in number however are the lie hindus who total approximately 11 |