Political relations.—Chiefly either English or Independent. Partially French, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese.
Religions.—Brahminism, Buddism, with a variety of eclectic and intermediate creeds, Parsi fireworship, Mahometanism, with creeds intermediate to it and Brahminism or Buddhism, Paganism, fragments or rudiments of Judaism and Christianity.
Physical condition of country.—Chiefly intertropical, with a. Fluviatile alluvia (deltas of the Indus and Ganges). b. Mountain and forest ranges (the Ghants, &c.). c. Sandy steppes (Ajmeer and the Punjaub). d. Portions of the Himalayan range (Cashmere).
Social and civilizational influences.—a. Ante-Mahometan; Persian, and Greek. b. Mahometan; Arabic, Persian, Turk, Mongol. c. Recent; Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish, British.
Physical conformation.—The two extreme forms.—a. Colour dark, or even black, skin coarse, nasal profile flattened, cheek-bones prominent, lips thick, hair coarse and generally straight, beard scanty, limbs oftener slender than massive, stature oftener short than tall.
b. Colour brunette, sometimes of great clearness and delicacy, skin delicate, nose aquiline, eyebrows arched and delicate, frontal profile perpendicular, cranium dolikhokephalic, zygomatic development moderate, lips thin, stature sometimes tall, limbs often powerful, the whole body being well-formed, even when not muscular, and the face oval, with regular and expressive features.
Habits.—Agricultural and industrial. More rarely pastoral. Sometimes predatory.
Nutrition.—Varied. Sometimes nearly wholly vegetable; sometimes almost exclusively animal.
Social constitution.—Castes; the higher the caste, the more predominant the second type of physical conformation.
Intermixture.—Arabs on the western, Malays, Indo-Chinese, on the eastern coast. In earlier time, Turanian Turks, Mongols, Scythians(?), Persians.