Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 231

NOVEMBER, 1980)
RACE DRIFT IN SOUTH INDIA
213
always, food. The continuance of the human race depends on breeding, and breeding is impossible without feeding. Civilisation, in its crudest forms, is the art of adjusting birth rate and food supply, of feeding the maximum number of people in any given area, of mitigating the pressure of population on the soil. This eternal problem is the mainspring of human migrations and human wars.
"Nothing succeeds like success." The best test of the suitability of an area for humar habitation is the number of people per square mile that it actually supports. In other words, the relative Density of Population is the key to "human geography."
A word of caution is here needed. Density fluctuates from age to age. Areas once crowded become depopulated, empty areas get filled. For this there are definite causes, 6.g., physioal changes, such as desiocation, the silting of rivers or harbours, or the ravages of disease, or economic changes, such as the development of coal and iron industries, a gold boom, or political convulsions, such as the devastations of an Attila or a Tamerlane. Nevertheless two facts remain : (1) the areas of high density in any partioular epoch are the areas best suited to the maintenance of human life in the cultural conditions prevailing in that area at that epoch, and (2) with few exoeptions the present areas of maximum density have been areas of bigh density throughout History. 1
B. REGIONAL TYPES. The first duty then of the student of human geography is to plot out areas of different density. The standards of high and low density must for obvious reasons vary in different regions; the standards of Baluchistan, for instanoe, would be meaningless if applied to Bengal. For South India the following standards will, I think, be suitable :
Low Density : 200 persons or less per square mile. Medium Density : 200 to 500 persons per square mile. High Density : 500 persons or more per square mile. Maximum Density : 1,000 persons or more per square mile.
In the light of the perspeotive thus gained it should be easy to examine the areas in detail, and classify them further according to (i) movement and (ii) position.
(i) Of movement there are four types :
(1) movement inwards or centripetal; areas of oonoentration ; (2) movement outwards or centrifugal ; areas of dispersion; (3) movement across or transitional;
(4) abgenoe of movement; areas of stagnation or isolation! (1) Areas of high density or concentration are usually centripetal fooi. Humanity moves from one to other of these fooi or impinges on a foous from some area of relatively low density. It is the fooi that determine the routes and not vice versa.
Culturally a centripetal area is of course complex. Its blood is blended with the blood of countless races. From the play of cultural currents it is never free. Its social and economio life, viewed as a whole, is rich and varied, and, in spite of tremendous olase inequalities, its oomponent elements are closely knit together; usually it evolves a literature of its own, and literature, as a language medium, is a powerful solvent of cultural barriers. Diversity is pervaded with a subtle unity of character and thought. Such is the type of London, Paris or Rome.
(2) The true centrifugal area, or area of dispersion, is a barren land which cannot feed its folk, but whose folk are sufficiently virile, numerous and aggressive to win their way in more favoured tracts. Of this type are North Germany, Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan. 1 E.g., Deltaíc Egypt, the country round Nineveh and Babylon, Bengal, the Valley of the Yangtae-Kiang.
A centripetal area is not necessarily based on agricultural fertility. Rome and London, for instance, owe their being to their maritime position. The Empire of Rome was erected to feed Rome. Destroy the British Empire, and Britain'must starve. This does not convert a centripetal focus into a centrifugal one.