ABSTRACT
The first chapter of The Cambridge History of India: Volume I, Ancient India, published in 1922 by Cambridge University Press, is written by the geographer Halford Mackinder. His purpose is to draw attention to those elements of the geography of South Asia which have had a significant impact on its history. He draws attention to the northwest by saying bluntly and simply:
In all the British Empire there is but one land frontier on which war-like preparation must ever be ready. It is the north-west frontier of India. (1922: 26)
