ABSTRACT
The lands which until August 15th, 1947, formed the Indian Empire, and are divided into the Commonwealth Republics of India and Pakistan, were never one country until welded together by British power. Geographically also India is an intelligible isolate. The huge salient of the Peninsula strikes the eye at once; and on the inland borders are the ramparts and fosses of the giant ranges which in large measure wall off the sub-continent from the rest of Asia. The human heterogeneity is seconded by more purely geographical factors, which give some colour to the generally accepted description of India as a 'subcontinent'. The amount of specifically geographical writing about India is relatively small, though Indian and Pakistani geographers are rapidly increasing it. But the amount of literature with a geographical bearing is vast. On all fronts, progress depends on real co-operation between India and Pakistan and on a refashioning of social relationships, which too often, imperil social order.
