BALUCHISTAN

25

daries shown therein. Thus, by the Indian peninsula
we mean that continent which is bounded by the Bay
of Bengal and the Indian Ocean on the east and west
respectively, and which lies south of the Himalaya
mountains, including both the region of depression and
the southern table-land within the limits of the red line
which denotes British India. This red line includes the
Punjab on the north-west, the boundaries of which are
generally those which we inherited by right of conquest
from the Sikhs, but which have been considerably
modified by our occupation of various posts on the main
lines of routes connecting India with trans-frontier
Countries. To the north of the Punjab we exclude
Kashmir (which is a “native ” state), but we include the
hill districts of Kumaon (which are part of the North-West
 Provinces), and thence carry the boundary of
British India eastwards, south of Nipal, Bhutan, and other
independent hill states, till we touch the extreme north.
east corner of the province of Assam. Here the Indian
frontier, as generally recognised, takes an abrupt bend
to the south, and thenceforward runs with a south-Westerly
 trend to the Bay of Bengal, parting British
India from British Burma. For all political and administrative
 purposes Burma has become an integral
part of the Indian empire, but it is geographically dissociated
 from the peninsula of India, and it will be
convenient to regard it as distinct. There is not really
more actual distinction in topographical or ethnographical
characteristics between Burma and Southern India than
there is between Southern India and the North-West,
but Burma and South India are divided by a great
natural barrier of mountain and sea such as nowhere
divides the provinces of the Indian peninsula, and Burina
may well remain apart for purposes of geographical
Consideration.
But the political and commercial interests of the
India of the future, no less than the history of the India
of the past, are so intimately associated with these transfrontier
 countries which extend along her northern border.