Old Political Map of India & Southeast Asia by Bartholomew, 1922: Bombay, Delhi, Rangoon, Bangkok, Colombo

2026-04-11T04:14:36+01:00

Price: 0.00 - 1975.00 (42 variants)

India & Farther India – political presents John George Bartholomew at the height of his authoritative clarity, capturing South and Southeast Asia as they stood in 1922. Issued by the Edinburgh Geographical Institute and John Bartholomew & Co., this edition forms the second issue of the series to replace Richard Andree’s 1895 cartography, signaling a definitive shift to Bartholomew’s modern, data-rich style. Hand-colored political tints and finely calibrated relief shading distill a sprawling region—India, Burma (Myanmar), Siam (Thailand), and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)—into a legible, deeply informed portrait of power, terrain, and movement. The map also incorporates a new page of corrections introduced after the 1920 edition, reinforcing its meticulous standards and updating nomenclature, alignments, and route information to reflect the postwar geopolitical moment.

Bartholomew’s political treatment is both panoramic and precise. The British Indian administrative mosaic unfolds through the great Presidencies and Provinces—Bombay, Bengal, Madras, Punjab, the United Provinces, Bihar & Orissa, Assam, the Central Provinces & Berar—interlaced with the intricate patchwork of princely states such as Hyderabad, Mysore, Rajputana, and Jammu & Kashmir. Burma appears as a vast province oriented along the coast and uplands toward Siam, which stands as a sovereign counterpoint in the region. Ceylon is set apart as a distinct colonial polity. Borders are crisply drawn, with careful attention to frontiers along the Himalaya and the littoral arc of the Bay of Bengal. The cumulative effect is a lucid index to imperial governance at a turning point in the early twentieth century.

Topography is conveyed with Bartholomew’s hallmark restraint: spot heights and measured shading produce a tactile sense of the land without overwhelming the political story. The Himalaya surge along the northern rim, feeding the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra systems whose broad alluvia shape the subcontinent’s human geography. The Western and Eastern Ghats frame the Deccan plateau, while the Vindhya and Satpura ranges articulate central India. Eastward, the Arakan Yoma and Tenasserim ranges march down Burma toward the Isthmus, projecting into the Andaman Sea. Great rivers—the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri in the south—anchor agrarian basins and portage routes, with deltas etching their way to Madras (Chennai), Calcutta (Kolkata), and Colombo.

Maritime intelligence is a defining feature of the sheet. Shipping routes, with their annotated distances, stitch Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta, Madras, Colombo, Rangoon (Yangon), and Bangkok into a web of imperial logistics. The lines sweep across the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, converging toward the world-artery of the Suez route and radiating along monsoon-tested corridors to the Straits and the South China Sea. These plotted rhumb lines succinctly express the commercial and strategic logic of the era: coal bunkers, cable stations, and monsoon windows translating geography into time and tonnage, and underscoring how ports and hinterlands were synchronized for trade and governance.

Two analytical insets deepen the map’s explanatory power. An ethnographic sketch, characteristic of British atlases of the period, aggregates populations across linguistic and cultural zones, offering a schematic—if necessarily reductive—overview of diversity from the Gangetic plain to Burma’s coastal lowlands and upland tracts. A companion density-of-population map highlights the demographic weight of the Indo-Gangetic heartland and Bengal delta, contrasted with the sparser Deccan interior, the Thar margins, and Burma’s high country. Together, these visual essays bridge politics, land, and people, clarifying why cities like Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore, Rangoon, Bangkok, and Colombo emerge as nodal points in Bartholomew’s enduring cartographic vision.

Cities and towns on this map

Mumbai (Bombay)

Delhi

Chennai (Madras)

Kolkata (Calcutta)

Bangalore

Yangon (Rangoon)

Bangkok

Colombo

Notable Features & Landmarks

Political boundaries of various regions and provinces.

Spot heights indicating topographical relief.

Shipping routes and maritime boundaries.

Ethnographic sketch inset indicating demographic distributions.

Density of population map inset showing demographic data.

Major rivers and mountain ranges.

Labels for administrative divisions and key geographical features.

Historical and design context

Created by J.G. John George Bartholomew; published by the Edinburgh Geographical Institute and John Bartholomew & Co.

Year of creation: 1922.

Second issue in the series, replacing earlier editions that used Andree’s 1895 work.

Includes a page of corrections from the original 1920 edition to enhance accuracy.

Hand-colored with relief shading highlighting topography.

High-quality cartography that marks a significant point in a series still in circulation.

Focuses on India and parts of Southeast Asia, including modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Offers insights into early 20th-century political and demographic landscapes, reflecting the British colonial perspective and geopolitical interests.

Please double check the images to make sure that a specific town or place is shown on this map. You can also get in touch and ask us to check the map for you.

This map looks great at every size, but I always recommend going for a larger size if you have space. That way you can easily make out all of the details.

This map looks amazing at sizes all the way up to 70in (180cm). If you are looking for a larger map, please get in touch.

Please note: the labels on this map are hard to read if you order a map that is 16in (40cm) or smaller. The map is still very attractive, but if you would like to read the map easily, please buy a larger size.

The model in the listing images is holding the 16x20in (40x50cm) version of this map.