1. Name: The Incredible History of India’s Geography
2. Author: Sanjeev Sanyal
3. Genre: Non Fiction/Geography
4. Book Post No. : 61
5. What is it about? India has some of the most unique features of geography in the world and this has shaped its rich and truly astonishing history. India is considered as one of the cradles of civilization and one of the world’s earliest urban cultures developed here in the Indus Valley Civilization. This book traces this relation between its geography and its impact on the people and the course of history. It starts from the Indus Valley Civilization and ends with the modern India.
6. How I came to read it? On my latest visit to my favorite place in all of downtown Vancouver, the Central Branch of Vancouver Public Library, I stumbled across this book while I was casually browsing the India section.
7. Did I like it? Absolutely. Its a breezy read which I found later is because its a children’s book. After reading around 30 pages I came across a sentence which said “Children like you would have played in its streets” and that’s when I realized I was reading a children’s book. I chuckled to myself but carried on. The book talks about rivers, mountains, deserts, forests, sea, navigation, maps and many other things and centers the events of history around these features.
Interestingly, the most important export of the period was the steel sword. Indians were famous at that time for the quality of their metal goods and the swords used by early Muslim armies were often of Indian origin. This remained true even at the time of the Christian Crusades. The famous ‘Damascus Sword’ was either imported from India or was made using Indian techniques.
There are many trivia and facts spread throughout the book. Of the many, two of them were my clear favorites. The first one is about the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India which took around 70 years to complete. And the second one is about the stories of two extraordinary yet unsung men who helped in the mapping of Himalayas and Tibet. The first is Nain Singh, who disguised himself as a pilgrim and trader and entered Tibet. He also visited the forbidden city of Lhasa and secretly made observations and took measurements (I acknowledge there is another way you can look at this; the Tibetans want of secrecy had to be respected and Nain Singh was simply breaking the local laws by doing what he was doing).
The second person is a Sikkimese man named Kinthup. Kinthup was sent by the Survey of India to confirm if the river Tsangpo in Tibet is indeed the Brahmaputra in India. Kinthup’s story is truly inspiring. He entered Tibet disguised as a monk along with another partner, a Chinese lama. The lama ended up selling Kinthup into slavery. Kinthup somehow escaped and as if nothing happened simply resumed his mission. Though he underwent a lot of hardships and unforeseen difficulties he persevered and did what he was asked to do. His job was to release around 50 logs everyday for 10 days into the Tsangpo river and some watchers posted at a point downstream around the River Brahmaputra would be waiting to observe. If they spot the logs then its confirmed that Tsangpo is Brahmaputra. Kinthup did release the logs but due to his capture earlier and delay, the watchers were removed. The logs must have passed the area where the watchers were posted.
There are many such fun and interesting trivia in the book. Also, the author stays clear of any biases and leaning towards any particular narrative which is good to see.
8. Positives: Breezy read, simple language, straightforward, good overview of India’s history and geography.
9. Negatives: Perhaps the only point I can mention is that it tries to cover a history and geography as rich and varied as India’s in 200+ pages, which is quite ambitious. This is not exactly a negative but something that works against the book.
10. Any other personal notes, observations, fun facts etc.
List of some of the books I have read related to India:
1. Hyderabad: A Biography by Narendra Luther
2. A Guide to the Heritage of Hyderabad by Madhu Vottery
3. White Mughals by William Dalrymple
4. The Last Nizam by John Zubrzycki
5. Forgotten Muslim Empires of South India by Ubaidur Rahman
- Ghost stories from the Raj compiled by Ruskin Bond
- Begums, Thugs and Englishmen: The Journals of Fanny Parkes (William Dalrymple)
- Sahibs who loved India by Khushwant Singh
- City of Djinns by William Dalrymple
- The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple
- The Raj on the move by Rajika Bhandari
- Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor (Fiction)
- Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor
- The Moonstone by Willkie Collins (Fiction)
- Man Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett
- Asif Jahs of Hyderabad by Rajendra Prasad
- Rajaraja Chola : King of Kings by Kamini Dandapani
- Lords of the Deccan by Anirudh Kanisetti