Yesterday was a good day – the friendly postman dropped on my doorstep a very used but quite fine copy of Gordon Johnson’s Cultural Atlas of India, a 1996 book that will be indispensable for my work on the GreyWorld Project and that, from a cursory browsing as soon as I pulled it out of its package, is also a fine read.
Basically, Johnson’s book follows the twin tracks of India’s cultural unity and diversity while tracing a history of the sub-continent. It is a wonderful resource for my work: the volume is very thorough, with a lot of box-outs for special interest features, full of gorgeous pictures and a wealth of maps.
It will make for a fascinating read in the next few nights1.
I was a little worried – the package was due two weeks ago, and I considered it forever lost in Mail Office Limbo.
The main reason why I needed this book is, in GreyWorld I’ll rewrite world history starting in the 1840s2, India figures prominently in my setting, and therefore I need as precise a picture as possible of the state of affairs in India before the Indian Mutiny – that in my timeline will never take place3.
The history of India before the Mutiny is normally seen as the history of India under the East India Company – and indeed John Keay‘s The Honourable Company is another of my references.
And yet, what of those parts of India that were not under British rule?
Tracking books on the subject gets trickier. I have a few general histories of India on my shelf (including Keay’s excellent India, a History), but looks like the Mughals will be next on my to-read list4. And the Cultural Atlas will in the meantime help me get my bearings (maps! lots of maps!), fill the small spaces, and plan both my future reading and my writing.
I must admit it feels good, as I alternate history books, historical and adventure novels, a little Kipling here and there, and some movies: I never planned it this way, but 2015 will be my “Indian year” – and I like the idea very much.
And I have to repeat something I have said often in the past – one of the great side-effects of researching stories (or games!) is the opportunity of reading great books.
Time consuming? Sure.
Subtracts time to writing? That too.
But great fun.
- even if it’s big and heavy enough to be pretty hard to read in bed ↩
- rewriting history is one of the greatest joys of writing steampunk, or historical fantasy, or alternate histories ↩
- there will be another “Indian Mutiny”, but it will be something completely different, and it hopefully will take my readers by surprise. ↩
- I have here William Dalrymple‘s intriguing White Mughals, another book that is essential for my work… but I’ll need something more general about the Mughal dinasty. ↩
Karavansara 
7 March 2015 at 14:34
Nice! That’s going to be a lot of heavy research I think, since India before the Mutiny was made up of a lot of states plus the rump of the Mughal Empire. Very complex politics!
LikeLike
7 March 2015 at 16:28
Indeed the political map is a nightmare 😀
But the various different bits and pieces, under the right conditions, hopefully will brew a world worth exploring (and writing about!)
LikeLike