India: A History, John Keay, c. 2000, 2010

October 26, 2024

I'm currently in my "India" phase -- the subcontinent. The history, the politics, to compare and contrast Indo-American relationships with Sino-American relationships. There's so much personal "background" that led me to this Indian phase. 

I look forward to meeting with my Indian friends and compare notes. 

My two sources:

• India: A History, John Keay, c. 2000, 2010. 
• Vishnu's Crowded Temple: India Since The Great Rebellion, Maria Misra, c. 2007

Absolutely fascinating how many dots connect.  

The first is the better of the two if one wants the entire history of India. The second is really a "poli-sci" book focused on the British colonization and subsequent revolution and independence of India.

Original Post

India: A History, John Keay, c. 2000, 2010.

For the blog: a reader asked his followers what book they planned to read by the end of this year, 2024.

My response: India: A History, John Keay, c. 2000, 2010.

“John Keay’s India: A History earned wide acclaim as the greatest single-volume book about India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh when it was [first] published in 2000. It has now (2010) been fully revised with four new chapters that the reader up to the region’s present day.

“India: A History spans five millennia in a sweeping narrative that tells the story of the peoples of the subcontinent, from their ancient beginnings in the valley of the Indus to current events in the region.

“In charting the evolution of the rich tapestry of cultures, religions, and peoples that comprise the modern nations of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, Keay weaves together insights from a variety of scholarly fields to create a rich historical narrative. Wide-ranging and authoritative, India: A History is a compelling epic portrait of one of the world’s oldest and most richly diverse civilizations.”

I would assume that somewhere along the line Steve Jobs and Tim Cook (metonyms for the entire C-suite of the Apple corporation) were given intense briefings on the history of China and  India.

Of the two, the India briefing would be the most interesting, the most complicated and the most challenging for the presenter to put together.

The US is one country: politically, economically, culturally, socially.

China is one country: politically, economically, culturally, socially.

India is not one country. India is a land mass with 36 Indian countries (28 states and 8 union territories). The 28 states have their own governing body; the eight union territories are administered by the central government (think District of Columbia in the US).

In the US one can move from Boston to Los Angeles to Dallas to Spokane and “fit in” immediately. No new language; no new religion; no new nothing. At most, politically from red to purple to blue or vice versa.

I assume it is quite similar in China. I could be wrong. Probably am.

But India: 36 Indian countries. Moving from one Indian country to another Indian country means a new language, a new culture, a new religion, and  unless it’s a union territory, a new political system.

Do not take this out of context.

Instead of one Chinese country with one party, the Communist Party with one clear-cut leader, or one American country with one president “straddling” two political parties, India has 36 countries gerrymandered based on language.

The Indian subcontinent has 18 official languages. Most Indian states / territories have a single official language. Some have two or a few more. One state has one official language and sixteen additional unofficial languages. Another state has a corresponding two and eleven; and a third state has a corresponding four official languages and eight unofficial languages.

Five states and one territory have English as an official language. English is the only official language in one state and in one territory.

The second bullet for the brief for Tim Cook: there are only two important dates in Indian history —


• 1947: independence of the Indian subcontinent; and,
• 1956: the Indian subcontinent completely reorganized into states and territories based on the language used in that locale.

A third date is, perhaps, also important: separation dates of Bangladesh and Pakistan from “India.”

So, two initial bullets:


• India does not exist as a country (as Americans would define a country),

• the Indian subcontinent has 28 states and eight union territories “organized" by language.
• 
there are only two important dates in the Indian subcontinent for outsiders to know: 1947 and 1956

The third bullet: geographically —

• the Indian subcontinent is the size of Europe with none of the geographic diversity of Europe

• the Indian subcontinent is boring with the same relatively dry, flat land north to south, east to west
• think of the United States from, perhaps, Indiana to Utah, without the rivers and the lushness, or Americans would say, “fly-over country."

The fourth bullet: know the state / union territory in which you plan to do business


• the major urban center(s)
language
• religion
• politics
• economic system
• what that “country” (state or union territory) brings to the table

And that’s it.

Geographically, the map:

Although the size differences are entirely different, overlay a map of the US island of Manhattan over the entire Indian subcontinent.

• mountains separate Manhattan from Canada (Himalayas — northeast; and, Kirthar Range — northwest)
the Hudson River is the Arabian Sea
• the East River is the Bay of Bengal
• there is no counterpart to Long Island 
Delhi / New Delhi is in the Bronx — perhaps close to where the NY Mets call home
• Bombai (Mumbai) is on the Hudson across from New Jersey
• Tamil Nadu is the Manhattan Battery
Sri Lanka would have the Statue of Liberty
• West Bengal (and Bangladesh)  would be Westchester on the way to Connecticut, Yale, and Rhode Island
• Calcutta: West Bengal (the far northeast)
• Bhopal: geographic center of subcontinent India; perhaps Harlem?
• Pakistan: Pennsylvania
Afghanistan: upstate New York
• Nepal: north of the Bronx
• Tibet: north of Nepal

Next: where does Apple plan to place its factories?

The states / union territories of note:


• Delhi: a union territory (need to check) squeezed in between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh
• New Delhi: national capital of India
  
• Calcutta: Indian state of West Bengal

• Bombay (Mumbai): state of Maharashtra; third largest state by area
  
• Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh, second largest Indian state


History:  history as John Keay divides the chapters of his book

• 
“no" history until fairly recently

• Pre-1750; pre-British colonization
• 13th century AD, Islamic conquest but very biased and often unhelpful
• The British Conquest, 1750 - 1820
• US Civil War - War of 1812
• Pax Britannia: 1820 - 1880

• American expansionism
 Awake the Nation: 1880 - 1930
American railroads
US Labor Movement
• At the stroke of the Midnight Hour: 1930 - 1948

• WWII
• Gandhi
• Surgical Procedures: 1948 - 1965

• US post-WWII

• US Civil Rights movement

• India: massive reorganization(1956)
• The Spectra of Separatism: 1962 - 1972
• Vietnam, 
Bangladesh, Pakistan
• Demockery (sic): 1972 - 1984

• Bangladesh
• Pakistan
• Midnight’s Grandchildren: 1984 —
• the end of the Cold War
• immense changes in global alliances