India: Rough Draft -- Comments -- January 7, 2025

 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 / New Delhi: a union territory (need to check) squeezed in between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh
Calcutta: West Bengal
Bombay (Mumbai): Maharashtra
Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal

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
Ghandi
Surgical Procedures: 1948 - 1965
US post-WWII
US Civil Rights movement
India: massive reorganization
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