Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Sikkim

Abstract

THE present volume is a valuable addition to this useful series, already represented by Mr. Thurstons account of Madras, and that of the Panjab by Sir J. Douie. Special difficulties prevented the earlier issue of Mr. OMalleys volume. While the book was under preparation the re-shuffling of boundary-lines in 1912 resulted in the obliteration of the artificial partition set up in 1905; Assam was again made independent, while Eastern and Western Bengal were constituted into a governorship, and Bihar and Orissa became a new province. The general reader, with his attention concentrated on Calcutta and Dacca, thinks of Bengal as a land of rice and jute swamps built up by the action of the rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra, occupied by an effeminate race best known to us in Macaulays classical description. But all Bengal, as now constituted, is not confined to the Sundarbans and the eastern districts. There are a hilly region on the south-east and the great Himalayan chain to the north, while Bihar, with its stalwart peasantry and its wide tracts of rice, maize, wheat, and barley, presents a startling contrast to the conditions of the Delta.

Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Sikkim.

By L. S. S. OMalley. (Provincial Geographies of India ). Pp. xii + 317. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1917.) Price 6s. net.