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DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATION

GUYANESE REPRESENTATIVES IN OTHER
COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES
High Commissioner in the United Kingdom:
Sir Lionel Luckhoo, KCMG, CBE, QC
High Commissioner in Canada: Sir John
Carter, QC (resident in Washington)
High Commissioner in Barbados, Jamaica
and Trinidad, and Commissioner to the
Associated States: Mrs W. Gaskin
(resident in Kingston).

COMMONWEALTH HIGH COMMISSIONERS
IN GUYANA

Britain: K. G. Ritchie, CMG; Canada: J. A.
Dougan, MC; Trinidad and Tobago:

Eric Murray; India: John W. Santoshen;
Jamaica: Ivo S. De Souza, OBE (resident in
Port of Spain); Pakistan: S. M. A. Baig
(resident in Ottawa).

GUYANESE REPRESENTATIVES IN
NON-COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES
United States: Sir John Carter, QC
Germany; France; Netherlands: Sir Lionel
Luckhoo, KCMG, CBE, QC (resident in
London)

Venezuela: E. R. Braithwaite

Surinam (Consul-General): W. D. R. Kendall
United Nations: P. Thompson
Brazil: D'Am Jardim

INDIA

NDIA is bounded to the north-west by West Pakistan, to the north by Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, and to the north-east by East Pakistan, China and Burma; Ceylon lies off the south-east coast. India also includes the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Laccadive Islands off the south-west coast. The mainland can be divided into three well-defined regions: (a) the mountain zone of the Himalayas; (b) the Indo-Gangetic Plain and (c) the Southern Peninsula. The main mountain ranges are the Himalayas in the north (over 29,000 ft), the Aravallis and Vindhyas (up to 4,000 ft) in central India, and the Western and Eastern Ghats (over 8,000 ft). The most important rivers are the Ganges, Jumma, Brahmaputra, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi, Nerbudda and Cauvery which are all navigable in parts. For further information about India see India, a Reference Annual, published by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. An outline of the history and constitutional development of the Indian sub-continent prior to August 1947 may be found in the Commonwealth Office Year Book, 1967.

There are four distinct seasons: (i) the cold season (December-March); (ii) the hot season (April-May); (iii) the rainy season (June-September); and (iv) what is known as the season of the retreating S.W. monsoon (October-November). The mean temperatures range at Delhi from 50°F to 92°F, at Calcutta from 65°F to 86°F and at Madras from 75°F to 89°F Maximum temperatures of about 100°F. and 115°F. are reached during May in Madras and Delhi respectively. Annual rainfall varies widely; as little as four inches falls in the Thar desert, but parts of Assam experience more than 300 inches.

India is the world's second most populous country. A census is taken every ten years and at the time of the 1961 census the population was estimated to be 439 million, an increase of 20 per cent during the previous decade. The estimate for 1968 is 531 million, an increase of 21 per cent since 1961. The birth rate is about 39 per 1,000 (1968 figure), and the death rate about 12 per 1,000 (1967). The numbers of adherents to the main religions practised in India at the time of the census were: Hindus 366,500,000; Muslims 47,000,000; Christians 10,725,000; Sikhs 7,850,000; Buddhists 3,250,000 and Jains 2,000,000. Primary education is free but not yet universal. In the year 1964/65 there were 25,295,000 secondary school students. About 24 per cent of the population is literate.

Information about the division of the country into States and about the various languages used in India will be found in the sections dealing with Constitutional Development and the Constitution below. New Delhi is the capital of the country with an estimated population of 2.4 million. Other principal cities are Calcutta (5.4 million), Greater Bombay (4.1 million) and Madras (2.0 million). The States with the largest populations are Uttar Pradesh (about 85 million), Bihar (about 54 million) and Maharashtra (about 46 million).

Major ports, showing some of the available tonnage figures for the years 1965-66 are: Calcutta (12,400,000), Bombay (22,000,000), Madras (11,100,000), Cochin (8,080,000), Visakhapatnam, Kandla (Gujarat), Marmagoa and Paradip. The principal shipping lines are: Shipping Corporation of India and Scindia Steam Navigation Company. The main airports are: Palam, 6 miles S.W. of Delhi; Santa Cruz, 6.8 miles N.N.E. of Bombay; Dum Dum, 8 miles N.E. of Calcutta; and St Thomas' Mount, 10 miles S.W. of Madras City. The main airlines are: Indian Airlines (internal) and Air India (International). Main runway lengths are: Palam, 10,500 ft., Santa Cruz, 10,925 ft.; Dum Dum, 10,500 ft.; and St Thomas' Mount, 10,050 ft. In 1966 road mileage was 598,700. There are 59,560 kilometres of railway, of which 28,350 kilometres are of broad gauge (1.67 metres). Broadcasting service is provided for the entire country by All India Radio but the television service of All India Radio is at present confined to Delhi only.

India's main crops are rice and other cereals (jowar, bajra, wheat, maize etc.), gram, tur and other pulses, sugarcane, jute, cotton and tea. Other agricultural products include oil seeds, spices, groundnuts, tobacco rubber and coffee. Among principal manufactures are textiles, jute goods, sugar, cement, paper and industrial and consumer goods. Industries include iron and steel, heavy and light engineering, drugs and chemicals, fertilisers, oil and petroleum and their products, coal and lignite. Among other minerals produced are iron, manganese, copper, gold, limestone mica and salt. The revised budget estimates for 1968-69 give Government revenue as Rs. 3040 crores (£1,690 million) and expenditure as Rs. 3036 crores (£1,688 million). There are also substantial receipts and expenditures on capital account. The third Five-Year Development Plan,

completed in 1965-66, cost £5,953,000,000. A draft Fourth Plan was tabled in Parliament on 21st April, 1969; it envisages expenditure over the years 1969-74 to a total of Rs. 24,398 crores. Agricultural production in 1968/69 is expected to be of the order of £95 million tonnes, a similar figure to that published for 1967/68. The achievement of this total is largely due to the use of high yielding varieties of grain. Irrigation and power projects include the Rajasthan Canal and the Bhakra-Nangal Project. The former will be 425 miles long, from Harika in the Punjab to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan and will irrigate some 3 million acres of land. In about 18 years, 10,000 square miles of the area served by the canal will be transformed from desert into a settled and productive region. The latter project in the Punjab, is now nearing completion. It will be one of the largest multipurpose river valley schemes in Asia and will eventually irrigate some 10 million acres of land and build up an ultimate power potential of 1,204 Mw. The expansion of the steel industry is playing a fundamental part in India's industrial development. Steel production increased from under 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 6.5 million tonnes in the financial year 1968/69. Hindustan Steel Limited, a Government undertaking set up in 1954 to augment the country's steel production, now has three plants in production. These are at Durgapur, Rourkela and Bhilai. A fourth steel plant is under construction at Bokaro. The possibility of a fifth steel plant is at present being studied.

The production of oil is also playing an important part in India's programme of industrial development and reached about 5.85 million tonnes of crude oil and 16.1 million of refined products in 1969. Exploration is carried out by the Oil and Natural Gas Commission who have discovered promising fields in Gujarat and a recent survey suggests major deposits also in the Gulf of Cambay. In association with E.N.I. of Italy and Philips Petroleum of U.S.A., the Commission has offshore drilling rights in the Persian Gulf. India is also increasing her refinery capacity in order to save foreign exchange on imported petroleum products and broaden her industrial base. In addition to the four oil refineries maintained by private firms, a Government undertaking, the Indian Oil Corporation Limited, is now operating refineries at Barauni, Gauhati, Koyali and Cochin. One more is under construction, at Madras, and a sixth is planned at Haldia. In the engineering industry machine tool production is being developed. In 1953 a public sector company, Hindustan Machine Tools Limited, was set up in Bangalore. Production started in 1956 and the firm now has three more factories in production, at Pinjore (Haryana), Kalamassery (Kerala). and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). The manufacture of heavy electrical equipment is also being undertaken. At Bhopal the Heavy Electrical Industries (India) Ltd, a British-aided project, is manufacturing turbines, switchgear and generating equipment. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (a Public Sector undertaking) have three manufacturing units at Tiruchirappalli (Madras), Ramachandrapuram (Andhra Pradesh) and Harwar (Uttar Pradesh). The manufacturing programme includes steam turbo sets, hydro turbo sets, heavy and medium A.C. and D.C. electric motors, heavy boilers, steam turbines and turbo-alternators. India's National Day is 26th January (Republic Day).

CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Under the Indian Independence Act, power was transferred to the first government of the new Dominion of India on 15th August 1947: on that day Lord Mountbatten relinquished the office of Viceroy and was appointed, on the advice

of the Indian Government, first Governor-General of independent India. Since then, the principal constitutional developments in India have been the integration of the Indian Princely States, the adoption of a Republican Constitution and the reorganisation of State boundaries.

The Princely States. One of the major problems involved in the transfer of power was the future of the Indian Princely States which numbered about 560 and comprised two-fifths of the area of the sub-continent. During the period of British rule, the Princely States had preserved a large measure of internal autonomy subject only to the paramountcy of the British Crown expressed in the form of many separate treaties and agreements entered into with the Rulers concerned. Under the Indian Independence Act this paramountcy was declared to have lapsed and with it the existing treaties between the Rulers and the Crown.

During the final preparations for the transfer of power, the Rulers of the States were advised by the Viceroy to accede to one or other of the two successor Dominions. In the event nearly all the Rulers accepted this advice; and, by the date of the transfer, practically all the States whose territory lay within or contiguous to the boundaries of the new Dominion of India had signed Instruments of Accession, the only major exceptions being Kashmir and Hyderabad. In October 1947 the Maharajah of Kashmir signed an Instrument of Accession to India. Pakistan did not accept the validity of this accession and fighting broke out between the two countries after partition and again in the latter part of 1965. There is now a cease-fire line between the Indian and Pakistan forces in Kashmir. Hyderabad was occupied by Indian forces in September 1948 after a long dispute between the Government of India and the Nizam.

The Instruments which the Rulers signed provided for accession in a limited number of subjects only .The larger and more important States (about 140 in all) acceded in respect of External Affairs, Defence and Communications; but in the case of the smaller States (which had had less autonomy under British rule), other subjects were added to the list. During the two years following the transfer of power, the Indian Government energetically pursued a policy of persuading the Rulers to agree to the complete integration of their States with the body politic of India and the consequent surrender of their remaining Princely powers. This aim was successfully achieved, and by the end of 1949 all the 554 States which had acceded to India (with the exception of Jammu and Kashmir which retained a special status) had been integrated with India. The Rulers signed individual agreements under which, in return for giving up their States, the Indian Government agreed to pay them privy purses for life and to grant certain other personal privileges.

The constitutional arrangements for administering the Princely States after integration varied according to geographical and other circumstances. Some were incorporated in the former British Provinces; others were grouped into new composite political units (Rajasthan, Madhya Bharat, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, Saurashtra, Travancore-Cochin, Vindhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh); and others retained their separate identities (Mysore, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Kutch, Manipur, Tripura, and Bilaspur). The larger States or groups of States in the two latter categories (Rajasthan, Madhya Bharat, P.E.P.S.U., Saurashtra, Travancore-Cochin, Mysore and Hyderabad) eventually became, under the 1950 Constitution, Part B States, with parliamentary institutions on the same lines as those possessed by the former British Provinces (Part A States), except that they had at their head a senior Princely Ruler-a Rajpramukh—

rather than a Governor. The smaller units became Part C States and as such were placed under various forms of central administration.

The States Reorganisation Act, 1956. Soon after the Constitution (see below under 'Constitution') came into force in 1950 a movement gathered impetus for the redrawing of State boundaries on a more rational and in particular on a linguistic basis. (In several of the existing States the population was divided into two or three major language groups.) The first fruit of the linguistic campaign was the decision in 1953 to separate the Telugu-speaking areas of Madras to form a new State called Andhra: this came into being in October 1953. In December 1953 the first official move towards a more comprehensive reorganisation of the States was made with the appointment by the Government of a States Reorganisation Commission which was charged with a detailed examination of the whole problem. In its Report, submitted in September 1955, the Commission recommended a radical re-drawing of State boundaries. In September 1956, after prolonged public and parliamentary debate, the decisions of the Government on this Report, incorporated in the States Reorganisation Bill and the consequential Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Bill, were passed by the Indian Parliament, and the reorganisation of States became effective on 1st November 1956.

Under the new Acts, the former categories of States and with them the office of Rajpramukh were abolished, and the component parts of the Indian Union were reduced to 13 States (apart from Jammu and Kashmir) and 6 Union Territories, the revised division being mainly on a linguistic basis. Perhaps the most striking territorial change was the disappearance of Hyderabad and the incorporation of its parts in Andhra, Bombay and Mysore. Another major change was the re-shaping of Bombay which, as a bilingual Marathi-Gujarati-speaking State, lost its Kannada-speaking areas in the south to Mysore, but acquired Saurashtra, Kutch and extensive territories from Madhya Pradesh and Hyderabad. Travancore-Cochin, enlarged to include the Malabar District of Madras, was renamed Kerala. The union of former Punjab Princely States known as P.E.P.S.U. was merged with Punjab. Madhya Pradesh (the former Central Provinces) was extensively reshaped, losing a large area to Bombay, but incorporating Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal, all of which were former Princely States or unions of such States. Mysore was substantially enlarged to include Coorg and parts of Bombay and Hyderabad. Thus, under this comprehensive reorganisation, the political map of India was radically changed and in many places (with important exceptions like the States of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) the old boundaries of the major Princely States and provinces of British India were no longer recognisable. In March 1960, following persistent agitation against its bilingual structure, Bombay State was, by the terms of the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960, divided into the separate unilingual States of Maharashtra and Gujarat. In 1961 Nagaland (comprising the Naga Hills area of Assam and the Tuensang area of the North East Frontier Agency) was accorded the status of a separate State of the Indian Union.

One bilingual State which the States Reorganisation Commission had left untouched was the Punjab, where both Hindi and Punjabi were joint official languages. In 1966, following prolonged pressure from some Punjabi-speakers, the Indian Government decided to split the Punjab on a linguistic basis. Part of its territory has now been incorporated in Himachal Pradesh, and the remainder has been divided between a greatly contracted area which preserves the name 'Punjab', and a completely new Hindi-speaking State, Haryana.

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