POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY 239

What the agricultural class of native does see and know
is his District Officer, and it is not too much to say that
he often believes in him and venerates him more than
his gods. The district is the unit of Indian administration,
 the head of the district is the District Officer.
He may be a Deputy Commissioner in a non-regulation
province, or he may be the magistrate and collector elsewhere
 ; in either case his functions are much the same,
and in both cases he is to the people for whom he lives
and slaves the incarnation of the Sirkar, which is dimly
recognisable in the distant background.
The magnitude of the areas and the numbers of the
people that are governed by young English gentlemen
who accept their responsibilities with a light heart in
India is often insisted on, but never too strongly. Who
knows what England as well as India owes to this
systematic education of Englishmen in habits of government
 and command? Possibly two centuries of such
practical education in India may have much to say to the
extent of British empire elsewhere,
It is true that in these days the District Commissioner
is more of a pilgrim in the land than he used to be.
He lives always in hopes of an occasional short leave
home, and he no longer looks to his life in India as the
real objective of his existence. His surroundings have
changed greatly within the last twenty-five years. He
lives in a well-built house with a well cared for garden
surrounding it, and his young wife (it is too often forgotten
 that official society in India is young) would be
ashamed if her drawing-room were not as tasteful, and
her receptions as well managed, as they would be in
good English society at home. His home influences in
fact are essentially English, and, so far, he is perhaps
a little further from intimate touch with the people than
was the case in those days when his domestic affinities
were not always English. But the change is not a
change for the worse. Intimate association in social
matters is not what the natives of India ask for any
more than they appreciate too subtle and too close an