NCERT Solutions for Class 8th Social Science Chapter 4 Fig. 4.16 — LET’S EXPLORE
Book page 105 Updated on2026-09-19
Q1.
Examine the map. What are the main differences with the map of today’s India, in terms both of borders and of names?Fig. 4.16, page 105 — the British Indian Empire in 1909, rebuilt here at true latitude and longitude from the Imperial Gazetteer Atlas of India, Plate 20. It carries the same extent, the same divisions and the same names as the plate, and the plate’s own three-way key (British India, native states, outside the Empire). The exact internal boundaries of each division and the railway lines of the original are not reproduced: the princely states are marked by amber discs at their seats instead. Names are given as the plate spells them.
Answer
Start with the map’s own key, printed at the bottom left as a reference note, because everything else follows from it:
Red — British India, that is, territory administered directly by the British.
Pink — territories permanently administered by the Government of India.
Yellow — native states and territories, i.e. the princely states the chapter has already described.
Black lines — the railways.
The map is headed ‘Political Divisions of the Indian Empire’ and comes from the Imperial Gazetteer Atlas of India (Plate 20). Now the two sets of differences.
A. Differences of border
On the 1909 map
On the map of India today
Sind, Baluchistan Agency, Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province and Kashmir are all inside one ‘Indian Empire’
The western portion of this is Pakistan, a separate country since 1947
Eastern Bengal and Assam form one unit, with Dacca in it
That eastern portion is Bangladesh, and Dacca is Dhaka, its capital
Upper Burma, Lower Burma and the Shan States are coloured as part of the Empire, with Rangoon, Mandalay and Moulmein marked
Myanmar — a separate country, no longer joined to India at all
A patchwork of yellow princely states inside the red and pink provinces — Kashmir, Rajputana Agency, Central India Agency, Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, Baroda, Gwalior, Bhopal, Indore, Bastar and hundreds more
No princely states at all. India today has states and union territories with elected governments, and the map is a single continuous colour
Huge provinces: Bombay Presidency, Madras Presidency, Bengal, United Provinces, Central Provinces and Berar, Punjab
Many smaller states, mostly redrawn on the basis of language — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and others
Goa, Daman and Diu (Portuguese) and Pondicherry, Karikal and other small enclaves (French) are not part of British India
All of these are part of India today — Goa a state, Puducherry and Daman & Diu union territories
Ceylon appears separately at the bottom; Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Tibet and Afghanistan lie outside the coloured Empire
Ceylon is Sri Lanka; Nepal and Bhutan are independent neighbours; Sikkim is a state of India; Tibet is part of China
B. Differences of name — the map is full of colonial spellings that have since been restored or Indianised:
1909 map
Today
1909 map
Today
Calcutta
Kolkata
Calicut
Kozhikode
Bombay
Mumbai
Cochin
Kochi
Madras
Chennai
Trivandrum
Thiruvananthapuram
Bangalore
Bengaluru
Trichinopoly
Tiruchirappalli
Poona
Pune
Negapatam
Nagapattinam
Cawnpore
Kanpur
Masulipatam
Machilipatnam
Benares
Varanasi
Vizagapatam
Visakhapatnam
Jubbulpore
Jabalpur
Baroda
Vadodara
Simla
Shimla
Mysore (city)
Mysuru
Orissa
Odisha
Laccadive Islands
Lakshadweep
Pondicherry
Puducherry
Mangalore
Mangaluru
What the map tells you that the text cannot: look at the yellow patches scattered inside the red. That is the subsidiary-alliance system drawn as a picture — the British did not need to paint the whole map red, because a ruler tied by a Resident, paying for British troops and forbidden to deal with foreign powers, was already controlled. ‘An empire on the cheap’ is visible at a glance. And look at the black railway lines: they run from the interior to Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Karachi — the ports — exactly as the chapter says, “designed primarily to move raw materials from the interior to ports for export”.
Check it yourself: open an atlas at today’s political map of South Asia and lay the two side by side. Count how many countries occupy the area shown as one Empire in 1909. Then look for one thing that has not changed — the railway network is still largely the one drawn in black on that 1909 map.