India has only relatively recently become a single country. Ashoka's Mauryan dynasty consolidated a large proportion of it around 260 BCE and the Mogul emperors did the same some two thousand years later, but neither ruled over the south, and neither kept central control for very long. British rule was originally based on three presidencies, each separately reporting to the East India Co. in London. After the uprising of 1857‐1858, control was centralised in a Viceroy, but he was never fully responsible for the princely states, which retained varying levels of independence from Britain, and he was also in charge of Burma and various other territories as well. This system lasted until 1947, so, curiously, these three very different empires kept central control for roughly equal times – a century of conquest and about a century of consolidation before collapsing. In 1947 the predominantly Muslim areas of East Bengal and the North‐West split off as Pakistan, amid much bloodshed and upheaval. Ceylon separated off as Sri Lanka, but the rest of the subcontinent was consolidated into a single republic. Most of the princely states were incorporated fairly early on, though the protected monarchy of Sikkim hung on until 1975. The French finally reluctantly handed over their colonial enclaves in 1961, and the Portuguese territory of Goa was forcibly incorporated in the same year. With these minor additions, the republic has now lasted about 60 years. It will be interesting to see, in another forty years or so, whether it will still be a centralised federal state or whether the fissiparous tendencies in Indian culture will have been too much for it too.
India is much more divided than, say, Europe. Its peoples speak a wide variety of languages much more different from each other than English, Swedish and Italian are – there can be few other countries in the world where the elected president cannot speak a word of the “national” language. A majority of the population are Hindus, but Hinduism, as we pointed out when looking at the Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism (RR 2010/201 and RR 2011/150), is an artificial umbrella term covering religious groups very much more different from each other than, say, Quakers, Unitarians and Roman Catholics. It has one of the world's largest Muslim populations, most of the world's surviving Zoroastrian Parsees, Sikhs, Jains, substantial numbers of Buddhists and a surprising number of Christians of various sorts. Its peoples, of very different racial origins, have very different histories and cultural practices, often sharply in conflict with each other – one group's idea of a line of benevolent landlords will be another group's memory of generations of oppressive robber barons who stole their rightful lands. Broadcasting the media obviously had a centralizing effect: if there is only one television channel and making films is expensive, then every user will have to learn a central language. We are moving, however, to a worldwide narrowcasting of the media, where people can choose their channels, stream selected videos and pick their friends from Facebook. This is already showing itself in a resurgence of local cultures in India. A proper understanding of India means an understanding of its federal nature.
India is a federal republic currently made up of 28 states and seven territories. These vary enormously in size and economic strength – if Uttar Pradesh was independent it would be one of the most populous countries in the world, and one of the poorest. At the other extreme Lakshadweep (the Laccadive Islands) covers about 13 square miles and has 60,000 people, who currently live in relative affluence but are likely to find their homes disappearing from under them if sea levels rise.
This book, part of the respected Europa Territories of the World series, is a guide to India as a federal state. The first edition was published in 2002, but changes since then have been drastic enough to render it seriously out of date, so this new edition is very timely. I suspect that this, in turn, will need updating before very long, as the pressures for change are so great: several states still contain substantial ethnic or linguistic minorities campaigning, sometimes quite violently, for separate status, the balance of the Indian economy is changing very rapidly, and climate change is already beginning to have an effect – a large proportion of the water supply of the Punjab, for example, actually falls in Himachal Pradesh, which has its own dam‐building projects in hand.
This book consists of an introductory section on India as a whole – a historical essay; a chronology starting in 3102 BCE and running up to September 2010; a page of national statistics, and a list of the current federal government and its ministries. The bulk of the book consists of descriptions of the individual states and territories. Each one has an inadequate sketch‐map: I cannot see the point of an entry describing the line of control between the Pakistani and Indian held portions of Jammu and Kashmir as “… heading up through Poonch … continuing in an easterly direction just north of Kargil … ” if neither Poonch nor Kargil are shown on the map. Each entry has a page or two of geographical description; a history running from mythical times onwards but concentrating mainly on political events of the last few years; a few pages on its economy, with figures for population, GDP, etc; and a directory of governors, chief ministers, resident commissioners etc. Finally there is a Select Bibliography (books) on India as a whole.
This is a useful book on an important topic. It could, however, have been so very much better. I am concerned that there is no editor/author statement on the title page: descriptions of modern politics are bound to be contentious and we ought to know who is making them. No source is given for most of the economic statistics quoted. The bibliography is entirely concerned with India as a whole – a book on states and territories ought to have bibliographies for each of them where such publications exist, and should include websites: most states have official websites but there are all sorts of others run by dissident groups, economic organizations, etc. Much of the information will inevitably date very quickly – it might be useful to know now who the chief minister of a state was in 2010 and who would be competing with him in the election due in 2011, but it would be more useful to be given a quick link to a source which could reliably tell us who won.
I do not know of any single information source which covers this topic better than this. I would therefore, somewhat reluctantly, recommend this book to business, academic and public reference libraries with an interest in India's history and its role in modern world affairs.
