469 16 Progress in The Cultural Geograp

Singh, Rana P.B.
(2000-04, 2004-08, 2008-12, & 2012-16): INSA IGC Reports- in Cultural Geography, INDIA 1
[469.16]. Reports on the

Progress in the Cultural Geography and Historical
Geography of India, 2000 – 2016.
Prepared through the INSA Committee on Geography on the occasion of – IGU
Congresses for the period:- 2000-04 (30-IGC Glasgow, U.K.), 2004-08 (31-IGC Tunis,
Tunisia), 2008-12 (32-IGC Cologne, Germany), & 2012-16 (33-IGC Beijing, PR China)
(size: 55,428 words, 92 pp.).
Reports presented:
[460.16]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2016. Cultural Geography, India, 2012-16; in, Singh, R.B. (ed.)
Progress in Indian Geography. A Country Report, 2012-2016. The 33rd International
Geographical Congress, Beijing, China (August 21-25, 2016). Indian National Science
Academy, New Delhi: pp. 123-139.
[379-12]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2012. Cultural Geography, India, 2008-12; in, Singh, R.B. (ed.)
Progress in Indian Geography. A Country Report, 2008-2012. The 32nd International
Geographical Congress, Cologne, Germany (August 26-30, 2012). Indian National
Science Academy, New Delhi: pp. 81-96.
[170.08]. Singh, Rana P. B. and Singh Ravi S. 2008. Historical Geography, India, 2004-08; in,
Nayak, Debendra Kumar (ed.) Progress in Indian Geography. A Country Report, 2004-
2008. For the 31st International Geographical Congress, Tunis, Tunisia, 12-15 August
2008. Indian National Science Academy, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110
002: pp. 57-65, & refs. 152-159.
[171.08]. Singh, Rana P. B. and Singh Ravi S. 2008. Cultural Geography, India: 2004-08; in,
2008. Indian National Science Academy, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110
002: pp. 70-76, & refs. 128-133.
[148-04]. Singh, Rana P.B. and Singh, Ravi S. 2004 h. Cultural Geography of India, 2000-04; in
Sharma, H. N. (ed.) Progress in Indian Geography, 2000-2004 (A Country Report).
Presented to the 30th International Geography Congress, Glasgow, UK (August 15-20,
2004). INSA National Committee of Geography, New Delhi: pp. 139-146.
[149-04]. Singh, Rana P.B. and Singh, Ravi S. 2004 i. Historical Geography of India, 2000-04; in
2004). INSA National Committee of Geography, New Delhi: pp. 147-154.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Also see (attached at the end)
[315-09]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2009. Cultural Geography of India: Trends in the 21st Century; in,
his: Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the 21st Century.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne. U.K.: pp. 162-195. <Chapter 5>
Hb, ISBN (10): 978-1-4438-1119-X.
For all of the papers and others see, http://banaras.academia.edu/RanaPBSINGH/Papers/
Summary - Highlights:
These seven reports-papers presents critical appraisal and synoptic reviews of the works done by
geographers and scholars from sister disciplines (both insider India, and oursiders Abroad) on the
progress of Cultural and Historical Geography of India in the 21st century at the period of 4-years
phases. The papers cover a wide variety of topics, methodology, approaches and the reflections.
Singh, Rana P.B. (2000-04, 2004-08, 2008-12, & 2012-16): INSA IGC Reports- in Cultural Geography, INDIA 2
[460.16]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2016. Cultural Geography, India, 2012-16; in, Singh, R.B. (ed.)
Progress in Indian Geography. A Country Report, 2012-2016. The 33rd International
Geographical Congress, Beijing, China (August 21-25, 2016). Indian National Science
Academy, New Delhi: pp. 123-139. << in this file pp. 2 – 14 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Progress in Cultural Geography, India (2012-16)
Rana P. B. Singh
Department of Geography, Institute of Science,
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP 221 005, India
E-mail: ranapbs@gmail.com
1. Cultural Geography studies in India: Purview

The diversities, distinctions and varieties of landscapes and regional/ sub-regional traditions
scattered and rooted in different parts of India and overall their interconnectedness by the
historical-cultural bonds converge into the mosaic of landscapes – a complex web of cultural
whole. That is how many disciplines in their own ways and also with interfaces and interaction
with others too worked in the broad realm of ‘cultural geography’ (see Singh 2012a). That is how
cultural studies using historical, archival, ecological, literary, travelogue, ethnographic and
associated methods to investigate localised patterns of religion, language, diet, arts, customs and
any associated attributes are concerned with some of the aspects of cultural geography. Idea of
place-based ecoliteracy and visioning India has open a new dimension of cultural understanding
(Singh 2014 c). Taking the Brand India initiative—promoted by the Indian state to produce
positive images of the nation for global publicity—as a case study, it is argued that in this shift
from nation building to nation branding, the very idea of prosperity and equity has now become
first and foremost a matter of image (Kaur 2012). In promotion of tourism image making is an
important means for promotion and also cultural politics of branding (Geary 2013).
Sacrality, symbolism and formation of landscapes in ancient India were the nexus of Nature-
divine-Man interaction, which has been now taken as emerging philosophy of nature conservation
(Singh and Rana 2016 e). This idea is comparable to deep sense of ecospirituality and cosmology
(Singh 2013 e and f; Singh 2016 c ; also Singh 2013 a) that ultimately will help in harmonizing
global order (Singh 2012 c), and also comparable to the geographical thoughts in ancient India
(Singh 2016 d), and searching similarities and archetypal relationship in the works of Leonardo
da Vinci (Singh 2014 b). The historical perspective and geographic imprints on the sacred
landscapes of India has also drawn attention to the historians and also in the interdisciplinary
debate (cf. Singh and Rana 2016 g; also Singh 2016 a), especially in the context of cosmic
integrity (Singh 2012 d). Being a Hindu exposition of lifeworld and the landscape in a literary
narration has attracted the West to understand the root (Singh 2015 k). Also, study of Hindu
family in the formation of Indian society in terms of space and time illustrates the example of
geographical vision (Singh 2013 c). The study of rural landscapes and the village unit is also an
example of uniqueness and distinction (Singh 2013 d).
Exploring the cultural changes and innovations relating a number of contexts in
contemporary India, emphasising the foundation, India and the world, society and class, religion
and diversity, and Cultural change and innovations, the Routledge Handbook provides the
contemporary cultural scenario of India (Jacobsen 2016 a). The analysis of Hindu tradition what
called as Hinduism, has explored the notion that spirituality is expressed in materiality in the
form of material exchanges of foods, liquids, money, festivities and pilgrimages on daily basis
(Narayanan, Vasudha 2016), and their rules that further exchanged with technological and
information growth (Jacobsen 2016 b). Of course one has also to keep in mind that sacred
geography, represented with sacred space, time and functions (cf. Singh 2013 g). It is argued that
existence of caste system is mostly due to India’s electoral politics, in addition with its
synonymity with inequality, identity, purity-pollution hierarchy and value that ranks the
belongingness (Jodhka 2016). The study of Hindu family and related marriages indicate that
feminist understanding is still at margin (Sinha Roy 2016). In spite of all the modernized age of
society, adivasis (tribal/indigenous) people are treated subaltern individual (Chandra 2016).
Ambedkar’s role in establishing and spread of newly revived Buddhism, Navayana Buddhism,
has not yet elaborated (Zelliot 2016); and to project Ravidas as separate dalit identity is a
question of threat (Ram 2016). Garhwal Himalaya (Uttarakhand), recently enriched with a study
that emphasizes socio-religious background, pilgrimage places, environmental and economic
impacts, and prospects for the betterment and further development (Sati and Mansoori 2012).
A review of the current focal areas and infrastructure for ecological research and education
in India, along with the surrounding legal and policy aspects of related socio-economic issues,
concludes that biodiversity crisis needs Greater integration and alignment among the mandates of
government agencies, scientists, policymakers and educators are needed to meet contemporary
environmental issues (Singh and Bagchi 2013).
Over the past five decades, the field of religion-and-science scholarship has experienced a
considerable expansion, and a recent anthology explores the historical and contemporary
perspectives of the relationship between religion, technology and science with a focus on South
and East Asia, with four case studies from India. Cosmology has been a significant part of
Jainism, but scientization and academinization are the contemporary concerns by using
entertainment technology and supporting recreational outings and pilgrimages that promote a new
religious landscape (Auckland 2015). Critical example of scientization of literature shows parallel
cosmological interpretation between religious literature and scientific perspective, especially
interfaces among Vedic science, modern science and the reasoning approaches (King 2015).
There also appears illusion of conciliation, religion and science in the writings of Devendranath
and Rabindranath Tagore that needs to be critically examined in terms of contemporary debates
(Brown 2015). The impact of internet has played a significant role in the understanding historical
perspective at the ways in which the use of new communication technologies has brought about
processes of transformation on different levels (Scheifinger 2015). Ritual too has been in the
process of becoming technology, as in case of producing deities; this helps reconceptualise ritual
combining theoretical approaches from ritual studies and the anthropology of technology (Keul
2015).
In contrast to theologically-determined conversations Christianity’s interactions with India’s
cultural and religious traditions conforms to the descriptive practices of ethnography, resulting to
the acceptance of the notion of ‘acculturation’ instead of ‘inculturation’, however an under-
recognised linkage between the current debate over Indian Christianity’s claims to Indianness and
a concurrent debate going on in the background, has been long-stoked by Hindu nationalists —
whether Indians or Americans or residents of other countries (cf. Bauman and Young 2014);
nevertheless one has to keep in mind that India has maintained the ‘tolerance’ landscapes in all
the spheres, while several times scholars from abroad tried to see the seen in the narrow lenses
portraying India as a religiously-singular ‘Hindu’ nation.
2. Indian Cultural Landscape (ICL)

The concept of Indian Cultural Landscape refers to a complex cultural mosaic and network
of spatiality of time, temporality of space, sacrality of nature and overall the encompassing
manifestation of transcendence of man who since time immemorial is trying to make a strong
bridge between conscious mind and super-conscious divine (Singh 2013 f). The ICL is envisioned
as amalgamated mosaic of mental construction, visual exposition, memorial repositories,
monumental structures, physical existence, ritual happenings, cultural traditions, and several of
their associates and auxiliaries that result into a complex web of a collection of religious, cultural
and physical meanings ascribed to geographical components through collective memory, planted
on the ground (shaped in the landscape) in active engagement with communities over generations
(cf. Thakur 2012: 154-155). The Hindu literature, both the classical and modern, is full of
reverence for ‘Mother India’ (Bharat Mata) and ‘Mother Earth’ (Bhudevi). The ‘land (and earth)’
is a personified goddess. This image, as described in literary tradition, is conceptualised by
relating all geographical features, viz. mountains, hills, rivers, etc. to the mother earth and in that
sense the goddess automatically becomes part of the sacred geography of the country (cf. Eck
2012; Singh 2013 g: 134-140).
In Indian life and landscape the water pool and ponds have integral part, serving spatial
activities at multiple scales, thus forming the deep sense of liminality (Nawre 2013). Moreover in
urban development, water plays a special role in making ‘greenfield’ developments (Nawre
2015). The Indian Landscape encompasses historical, social and cultural ensembles of the
development of the rural-urban landscape from the era of the Indus Civilization to contemporary
post-colonial times; the recent most magnum opus from a geographer’s pen tends to focus
particularly on colonial and postcolonial urban development, including issues of urbanization
down the ages, the multifaceted concepts of urban space in Indian cities, whether sacred, public,
commercial or practical and the socio-economic and socio-cultural dimensions of postmodernism,
globalization, expanding urbanization, town planning, conservation, heritage, race, class,
ethnicity, poverty, gender, public health, the natural and built environment and other related
aspects of urban India and also focusing the evolution of the natural and rural landscape of the
country (Chatterji 2014).
3. Religion - Urban Landscape Interfaces

A pioneer book paved the path to link Hindu religion, heritage, urban development, women
and the environment in a way that responds to the realities of Indian cities, illustrated with
detailed field study of Jaipur, and successfully narrated the religious influence on the urban
experience that has resonances for all aspects of urban sustainability in India, however yet it
remains a radiant path for articulating sustainable urban policy, while focussing on three key
aspects: spatial segregation and ghettoisation; gender-inclusive urban development; and the nexus
between religion, nature and urban development (Narayanan 2015). This study has further
encouraged researchers to take cases from other parts of South Asia. A recent anthology dealing
with religion and urbanism discussing the sustainable cities discourse in South Asia, emphasises
the intersections of religion and urban heritage, and religion and various aspects of informality,
while demonstrating the multiple, and often conflicting ways in which religion enables or
challenges socially equitable and ecologically sustainable urbanisation in the region (Narayanan
2016). A case study of Amritsar establishes religion as a key determinant for urban planning
through the case of pilgrim city, specifically purveying the role of the state at various points in
the city’s history and its actual growth and transformation linked to religious associations (Jain
2016). With the notion that informality can be understood usefully as a produced condition rather
in terms of absence of characteristics of formality, with case study of the phenomenon of
religious structures being found on traffic lanes on the streets in Delhi, it is concluded that such
sites become the sites for political contest and citizenship claims must strive to re-imagine cities
and everyday life in terms of reference that are grounded in local realities (Chakravarty 2016).
The critical analysis of ground rooted realities helps to realise the interfacing states of religion
and development that are vital force (Narayanan 2016 a).
With case studies of a holy city of Ayodhya, studies highlighted role of waterfront in the
formation of sacredscapes together with development of culture-heritage tourism, and also the
pilgrimages routes and the interlinking scenario of the agricultural landscapes (Kumar and Singh
2013, 2015 a and b). As cultural resource, heritagescapes represent the sacredscapes of
mystic-religious sites, built-structures, historical monuments, the perceived natural scenarios and
landscapes, and intangible resources. The UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites enlists 1031 such
sites based on their criteria of which 32 fall in India. And, in India eight are representative of
Hindu Religious Heritage Sites (Singh and Rana 2016 h). The religious values and symbolism are
closely linked to the sacredscapes and the related built-up structures, especially in Hindu
sacredscapes in India and the Southeast Asia, and represented through the divine images (Singh
2015 g). The site study at Hampi, and similarly to other such sites there is a need of preservation,
but due to lack of priority, non-participation of local people, lack of promoting heritage tourism
and ecological awakening, such sites are neglected and are victim of illegal encroachment and
inhabitation (Fritz and Michell 2012).
In the framework of colonial governmentality studies, a book presents a scalar study of the
tolerated brothel and a temporal examination of the turn from segregation to suppression in the
interwar years in Delhi, and also continues a broader attempt to critically examine the excesses
and neglects of colonial power relations, and thus extends Foucault’s antiessentialist project to
that of scale, arguing that: scales do not have natural processes, whether economic, social or
political; that scales are networked into existence; and that they also operate through the awesome
power of naming (Legg 2014).
4. Pilgrimage and Sacredscapes

The ‘land (and the earth)’ is personified goddess. This image, as described in literary
tradition, is conceptualised by relating all geographical features as lived and imagined landscapes,
viz. mountains, hills, rivers, caves, unique sites, etc. to the mother earth and in that sense those
sites and places automatically becomes part of the sacred geography of ancient India (cf. Eck
2012: 11). Within the purview of the text (ancient) and context (especially pilgrimage and
tourism today), the pilgrimage places are conceived and methodized as salvific places (Jacobsen
2013).
After a gap of over decades of publication of Bhardwaj’s classic (1973), the followed up
book, Hindu Tradition of Pilgrimage (Singh 2013 g) provides a wide range of faith-based and
scientific perspectives on Hindu sacred centres and spaces, also dealing with cosmology,
contestations, interdisciplinary research and re-appraisal of researches from an insider’s view.
The study of sacrality has been extended in pilgrimage studies, as India having the longest
tradition of pilgrimage routes and pilgrimages; even in the contemporary time it has its strong and
influential base (Singh 2012 k and l; Singh and Haigh 2015 d; also Singh and Rana 2016 g). The
feminine divine and formation of 51 Shakti Pithas has converged into making whole India as
mother (Singh 2012 j). Sacred geography of Gaya forms the manescape, a complex combination
of sites and rituals related to ancestors (Singh 2012 b). Goddess site and temple of Vaishno Devi
(in Jammu, Tirkuta Hills ) being one of the most popular shrine is visited by millions of devotees
every year that helps to promote the local economy and also harmonious understanding of human
interaction (Ashfaq and Parveen 2014). The study of Puri (Shrikshetra, Odisha) reveals the facts
of merging sacred geography and ritualscapes, and justified the forces of ritualscapes in shaping
the morphology of the entire town (Kar 2015).
Hindu theology views rivers as goddesses who confer blessings and spiritual purification.
The release of celestial waters from the grip of ‘Vritra’, the demon dragon, to flow down from the
heavens and relieve drought on the earth is a recurring theme in Hindu mythology (Warrier
2014). Similarly the Ganga river itself symbolizes the body of Shiva and representation of India
as ‘Bharat Mata’ (Singh 2012 m). The River Ganga has drawn attention from a vast array of
scholars, including hydrology, tributaries, water uses, and environmental features such as river
water quality, aquatic and terrestrial flora/fauna, natural resources, ecological characteristics,
sensitive environmental components and other related aspects; altogether helps for better
understanding of the national river of India (Sanghi 2014). A recent book orchestrates a
magnificent portrait of the Ganga River Basin, and its continuous reinvention as a test-bed for
infrastructural innovation, presented with the hybrid genre of the Atlas-Almanac-Travelogue,
thus it unfolds the many nested spatial and temporal scales that characterize this highly contested
territory (Acciavatti 2015).
Conceptualising pilgrimage and tourism as two separate domains, it is argued that tourist
guides and their guided tours have become an integral part of Hindu pilgrimage and its operation
in contemporary India, as illustrated in case studies of in Rishikesh and Haridwar, two pilgrimage
towns in Northern India (Aukland 2016). The most popular ritual at any temple is offering food to
the god and taking it back as prasāda (offered food to Gods) as blessing; presenting some general
principles of contemporary prasāda illustrated by examples from four Hindu pilgrimage sites,
while analysing prasāda’s usage in well-known Sanskrit scriptures (especially the Purāṇas), it is
argued that it should also to be conceived as a foundational concept for making sense of Hindu
religious life in South Asian terms (Pinkney 2013).
A study examines the consolidation of a ‘political Hinduism’ in British colonial India
through the study of the material culture of the pilgrimage town of Brindaban (Vrindavan) in
north India, and challenged prior assumptions of timelessness with their troubling Orientalizing
overtones, alerting us, instead, to the inherently provisional, mutable, and incremental nature of
survival, resistance, and innovation (Ray 2012). Assessment of the cultural heritage of the sacred
Braj region within the framework of phenomenology of place experience in ritual enactments
involving visual and haptic engagement with the landscape, recommends remediation approach
seeks to promote environmental values through restoration of water bodies and groves on the
Yamuna Riverfront and Govardhan Hill (Sinha 2014). In another study the oracle landscape of
Orchha, the authors highlighted the architectural grandeurs and aesthetics beauties manifested
there in that in span of time turn to be issue of devastation that needs project for renovation and
conservation of the heritage (Sinha and Valderrama 2014). The study of the heritage landscape of
Burhanpur describes the town as an architectural and horticultural composition, consisting of
many historic gardens, a unique water management system, a sustainable planning and design
framework, where the use of landscape and topography with numerous heritage components and
historical monuments, temples, tombs and mosques are locally, regionally and nationally
significant (Wahurwagh and Dongre 2015).
The repeated renovation of south Indian temples over the past millennium and the
conception of the Tamil temple-city indicate the widespread temple “renovations” by the devout
Nakarattar (Nattukottai Chettiar) community in the early twentieth century, and the consequent
dismay of colonial archaeologists at the perceived destruction of South India's monumental
heritage (Branfoot 2013). The claims of the colonial state and local Hindu devotees were
separated by different precepts about religiosity and alternate orders of aesthetics, time, and
history, is examined on the line of an exploration of the principles of archaeological conservation,
as they were formed in the European bourgeois imagination, and then traces their transfer, though
imperial administration, to case-studies of specific temples (Sutton 2013).
An interdisciplinary study in the Kailash Sacred Landscape region in north-western Nepal,
aims to explore opportunities for, and barriers to, sustainable tourism as an adaptation strategy,
not only for reducing community vulnerability to climate change but also as a poverty-alleviation
measure, recommends incorporating and legitimising local traditional knowledge (Adler, et al.
2013).
5. The otherness in Indian culture: Muslims’ lifeworld

The study of other side of Muslim with reference to theological and organizational schools
and reformist orientation, projects the question of Muslim citizenship in the context of present
political scenario becomes crucial with increase of religious polarization, communal violence and
Hindu national movement (Santhosh 2016). A recent study that remarks that under-representation
of Indian Muslim in India’s administration and security institutions contributes to religious
violence and unreliability (Vicziany 2016: 410-411), is a narrow and naïve conclusion and lacks
several other associated aspects, especially political positions and minority protection. Similarly
blaming Sangh Parivar and such cultural materialism for conversion of vast masses of low caste
Hindus and Christianity are serious questions of naïve ideas and biasness (cf. Webster 2016: 421-
423). The study of interfaces between Hindu and Muslim landscapes in Varanasi reveals the areas
of transition and mutual cohesiveness (Singh 2013 b).
Using Hyderabad as a “central empirical touchstone” to demonstrate “the enduring
fragmentation of sovereignty across imperial terrain”, Beverley (2015) presents copious materials
about other “zones of anomaly”; probably few would question this main point about varying and
contested degrees of sovereignty in the context of Muslimness that can refer to an expansive
range of political, social, and cultural practices, and understandings. Critical among these were
solidarities and alliances with other Muslim states and populations. Hyderabad provides a
historical example that helps us think outside stereotypes of the Muslim (or 'Islamic') state as
ultra-conservative, exclusivist, and scripturally-oriented (Beverley 2015).
6. Varanasi, the Holy city & Symbol of Indian Culture

In continuation of earlier studies (see Singh 2012a: p. 89), studies continued taking various
aspects of Varanasi. Surveying, exposition and narrating historical-heritage perspective of
Varanasi continued. Based on an International Seminar on Banaras (7 - 8 October 2011, NTNU,
Trondheim Norway), that exposed more than decadal experiences of Varanasi, the studies
presented expositions based on literary travelogues, critique to ancient literature and mythologies,
images perceived in the West, encountering experiences, aesthetics and space perception,
pilgrimages sites and role of sacred waterfront, festivities and performances, rituals and sacred
iconography, and memorial reconstruction (Keul 2014).
Various issues, from historical-cultural aspects of pilgrimages and performances that
responsible of emergence of religious landscapes have been concerned of a notable monograph
(Rana 2014). The symbolic expression of place, the set of symbols that gives the people a culture
orientation in space and time, is pervasive in Hindu culture and explicitly manifested in Banāras.
This is reflected and exposed in its religious landscape, landscape geometry, and several affiliated
and auxiliary supporting attributes that make this city a mosaic of sacredscapes which are
eulogised in Hindu mythology, or oral epics, with divine connotation and spatial manifestation –
there intersects myth and terra firma; experiencing and exposing Varanasi during last over three-
decades is itself a deeply rooted pilgrimage and co-sharing (Singh 2014 a). To justify city of
Varanasi as cultural capital of India and its present scenario for cultural heritage and planning has
taken a serious turn (Singh and Rana 2016 f). While addressing the local pilgrimages in Varanasi
and the ongoing changes and disputes, it is debated that use of religious heritage by urban
authorities will be crucial for re-conceptualizing sustainable cities, especially old holy cities
(Lazzaretti 2016). Examining the role of Master Plan (2011-2031) in terms of planning
heritagescapes the importance of sacred sites and related vision for future has been realized
(Singh and Pal 2012 e; Singh 2015 a and b; Singh 2016 b). The expanding impact of the city has
influences its surrounding peri-urban areas (Singh and Pal 2012 f; Singh and Chaturvedi 2012 h;
Singh 2012 g; Singh and Singh 2012 i).
Representation of the landscape through sacred art, symbolism and signs have been codified
to understand the inherent meanings (Singh 2015 j); this is earlier examine in a book by
Gengnagel (2011), however its review further incorporate the whole gamut of representation
(Singh 2015 h). The study of various pilgrimage routes and related symbolism and experiences
provide a distinct image to this city (Singh and Rana 2016 i). Flowing water has been an
archetypal representation the city. The riverfront of Varanasi represents a form of sacredscapes
where also created and re-created amusescapes and awfulness (Singh 2015 c). Washer men and
their territorial segmentation generate caste politics in the City (Bunn, Kumar and Virchow
2015). The basic architectural plan of Banaras Hindu University has archetypal representation
and result of the vision of its founder Madan Mohan Malaviya (Singh 2015 i).
Intending to reconceptualize ritual combining theoretical approaches from ritual studies and
the anthropology of technology, using one ethnographical instance of ritual – a consecration of an
image of the Hindu deity Hanuman in Varanasi, the complex issue of ritual efficacy is analyzed
taking in view important Sanskrit ‘ritual’ that shows the changing tendency of the traditional
ritual systems and its power (Keul 2015). A doctoral dissertation deals with tourist
representations and practices in India, exemplified with Varanasi, adopted an ethnographic
approach, combining participant observation, interviews and questionnaires, visual methods, and
textual analysis of popular tourist literature, and examined their role as to how tourist practices
(re)produce and make sense of the city’s ‘sacredscape’ (Zara 2012). The Shivlingas in Varanasi
also have the spatial connotation that installed here in the frame of spatial transposition, thus
representing in abbreviated forms different sites of India (Aktor 2015).
Within a critique of the politics of peace and place, a book explores everyday peace in
Varanasi as it is experienced by the Hindu-Muslim community, while challenges normative
understandings of Hindu-Muslim relations as relentlessly violent and the notion of peace as a
romantic endpoint occurring only after violence and political maneuverings the work examines
the ways in which geographical concepts such as space, place, and scale can inform and
problematize understandings of peace as well as concepts of citizenship, agency, secular politics,
and democracy (Williams 2015).
From the other perspective to envision Varanasi at professions and locations that provide
opportunities for making a meagre living by hard work was the issue for geographical
development expedition, representing certain trades and professions, groups and communities,
individuals and office-bearers, etc. that make the city as mosaic of living conditions Schütte and
Kreutzmann (2015)
The importance of Muslims (about one-third of its total population, i.e. 1.65 millions in
2015) in Banaras is noticed by existence of their 1388 shrines and sacred sites, in contrast to
Hindus’ recording over 3300 shrines and sacred sites. At the neighbourhood such fourteen
popular places attract even the Hindus who especially visit such places for healing, exorcism and
spiritual merits, and they maintain multi-religious characteristics that result into making Hindu-
Muslim communal harmony and peacemaking. At these places during religious ceremonies like
the urs (anniversaries) or melas (religious fairs), occasionally developed bazaars to support the
needs of visitors, Hindus and Muslims both (Singh 2013 b).
A leading study on eighteenth century North India concludes that the ‘decline’ in the
political scenario of eighteenth-century India did not imply an all-round decay and stagnation of
society, especially in its religious and cultural realms. The emergence of regional forces,
following the disintegration of the Mughal empire, greatly aided the promotion of regional
centres which provided the grounds for a religious and cultural efflorescence (Kalam 2013).
The study of Khrist Bhaktas (‘devotees of Christ’) in Varanasi refers to the unregulated
messiness of on-the-ground acculturation often looms ominously over Christian elites
(theologians, priests and pastors, etc.) as a threat to their authority, and also raises the issue of
fuzzy identities of the Khrist Bhaktas — are they ‘Hindu’ or ‘Christian’ or ‘Hindu-Christian’ or
‘Christian-Hindu’ or something else? — this also poses a definitional problem for scholars of
religion (Chirico 2014).
The study of political history of the ruling dynasty of Banaras, 1740-1950, narrates the story
of emergence of the state that emerged into being in 1911, which has its linkages to the British
rule which gradually encroached the political rights and influences of the rulers (Pathak 2014).
With a view to analyzing population shifts within spatio-temporal frame of growth, distribution,
and characteristics, a recent study has considered city’s socio-economic, cultural structure, and
role of heritagescapes and Master Plans in the evolution and expansion of the cityscapes and
surrounding rural landscapes (Pal 2015).
7. Conclusion
Geography, like other social sciences, is in a state of flux. Geography matters because it
affects human life and the natural environment, and serves as force in the formation of landscape.
With increasing pace for critical examination of the varieties, distinctions and uniqueness, and the
linkages that bind and apart interrelations and interactions among the attributes of the cultural
landscapes through the re-examining and re-assessing the paths of post-structuralism, post-
modernism, post-traditionalism and post-colonialism, a fresh framework of cultural geography of
India has started its turn, quite close to humanism (cf. Singh 2012 a: 89). The turning of
geography towards interdisciplinarity has paved the path for broadening the horizon of cultural
geography in India (Singh 2015 f). Hinduism and globalization reciprocity has also drawn the
attention (Singh and Aktor 2015 e).
The present, or past, mosaic of Indian landscape and its regional variations and their
maintenance are not the product of simple result of ‘natural’ consequences, rather product of
complex process reflecting the historical movements and cultural formations as a whole that
always passed through the process of acculturation, transformation and continuity of traditions
that possessed the ancient roots but also provide bases of flourishing the new or even imposed
cultural notions. The study of cultural ecology with its basic attributes of subsistence, work,
reproduction, and resources and their interrelationships as embedded in the rules and ethics of
Indian society also need consideration for future research. The image of ‘incredible’ India is
further shines into the mirror of ‘make in India’, ‘shining India’, ‘skilful India, and above all
‘harmonising India’. The studies in cultural geography of India will take these issues in coming
future. We have to realise and reveal for changing the mind setup, and mass awakening in making
our culture harmonious, peaceful and happy; remember the core concern of geographical practice
is to make happy places and spiritual landscapes.
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of Chamaon Gram Sabha; in, Jafri, Syed S.A. and Bajpai, B.K. (eds.) Rural Urban Fringe:
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125.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2013 f. Indian Cultural Landscape vis-à-vis Ecological Cosmology: A Vision for the
21st Century. Annals, National Association of Geographers of India, Annals- NAGI, 33 (2): pp.
36-62.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2013 g. Hindu Tradition of Pilgrimage: Sacred Space and System. Planet Earth &
Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 9. Dev Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2014 a. Banaras: Encountering the Experiences and Expositions of the Spirit of
Place; in, Keul, István (ed.) Banaras Revisited – Scholarly Pilgrimages to the City of Light.
Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, Germany: pp. 77- 93.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2014 b. Interfaces between Hindu Cosmology and Leonardo da Vinci. Sthapatyam,
Journal of Indian Architecture and Art, vol. 1 (1), March: pp. 80-94.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2014 c. Place-Based Ecoliteracy and Education for Sustainable Development:
Visioning India; in, Tanaka, Kuniko (ed.) The Education in the Cultures and Societies of Asia/
L’educazione nelle culture e nelle società dell’Asia. Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana - Milano,
Italy], nr. 6: pp. 297-318.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 a. Banaras: Visioning Urban Heritage and Planning; in, Singh, N.K. and
Gupta, Aman, et al. (eds.) Vision for Varanasi: A Creative approach to City Management. Bharti
Publications, New Delhi: pp. 01-29.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 b. Banaras, the Cultural Capital of India: Visioning Cultural Heritage and
Planning. SANDHI, A Journal of Interfacing Science-Heritage and Technology-Tradition of
India (IIT Kharagpur, WB India) 1 (1), February: pp. 100-122.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 c. Waterfront Cityscapes of Banaras: Evolving Sacredscapes, Amusescapes
and Awfulness; in, Jinnai, Hidenobu and Takamura, Masahiko (eds.): Suitogaku: A Theory for
the study of Water Cities. Hosei University Press, Tokyo: pp. 31-46. [in Japanese].
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 f. Practicing Geography: Some Interdisciplinary Reflections on Research; in,
De, Deepak and Jirli, Basavaprabhu (ed.) Research Methods in Extension Science. Agrotech
Publishing Academy, Udaipur: pp. 319-339.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 g. Heritage Value of Religious Sites and Built Archetypes: The Scenario of
Hinduism, and illustrating the Riverfront Varanasi. [based on a special address in the ICOMOS-
UNESCO Conference, Seoul, Korea: 24 April 2015]. Aatmbodh, the Journal of Knowledge of
Self, 12 (1), Spring: pp. 1 - 23.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 h. Book Review Essay on ‘Gengnagel, Jörg: Visualized Texts. Sacred Spaces,
Spatial Texts and the Religious Cartography of Banaras (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011)
Orientalistische Literaturzeitung (DE GRUYTER, Berlin), Bd. 110 (3): pp. 1–4.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 i. Mahamana Malaviya’s vision of Banaras Hindu University: A frame of
Archetypal Architecture and Cosmic Plan. Kashi Journal of Social Sciences, 5 (nos. 1-2), June-
December: pp. 301-315.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 j. Kashi: Representation in the Sacred Cartographic Art in the 19th Century;
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Singh, Rana P.B. 2015 k. Hinduism: A Pilgrimage without Destination/ Hindoeïsme: Pelgrimstocht
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wereld getuigen/ BELIEVE - Spiritual Thinkers from around the World Testify. Lannoo
Uitgeverij, Tielt, Belgium & Ten Have Publ. Amsterdam: pp. 193-198. [in Dutch, f.c. in German
and French].
Singh, Rana P.B. 2016 a. Understanding Place and Envisioning the Cosmos; in, Rodrigue, Barry;
Grinin, Leonid and Korotayev, Andrey (eds.) From Big Bang to Galactic Civilization: A Big
History Anthology, vol. 2, Education & Understanding: Big History around the World. Primus
Publications, New Delhi: pp. 117-126.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2016 b. Urban Heritage and Planning in India: A Study of Banaras; in, Dutt, Ashok
K.; Noble, Allen G.; Costa, Frank G.; Thakur Rajiv R. and Thakur, S.K. (eds.) Spatial Diversity
and Dynamics in Resources and Urban Development (vol. II), Springer Science+Business
Media, Dordrecht and New York: pp. 423-449.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2016 c. Ecospirituality and Sustainability: Vision of Swami Vivekananda;
Annapurnananda, Swami (ed.) Contributions of Swami Vivekananda to India. Ramkrishna
Mission Ashram, New Delhi and Varanasi: ca. 195-208.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2016 d. Geographical Thoughts in Ancient India: Envisioning Cosmology and
Nature; in, Chakrabarti, Dilip K. and Lal, Makhan (eds.) History of Ancient India, vol. 10.
‘Science and Technology’. Aryan Books International, New Delhi (for Vivekanand International
Foundation, New Delhi): ca. pp. 101-110.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Aktor, Mikael 2015 e. Hinduism and Globalization; in, Brunn, Stanley D. (ed.)
The Changing World Religion Map: Sacred Places, Identities, Practices and Politics. Springer
Science + Business Media B.V., Dordrecht & New York. Vol. 3: pp. 1916-1932.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Chaturvedi, R.K. 2012 h. Changing scenario of peri-urban landscape around
Ballia city; in, Jafri, Syed S.A. and Bajpai, B.K. (eds.) Problems and Management of Rural
Urban Fringe. For Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow by Concept Publ. Co., New
Delhi: pp. 180-192.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Haigh, Martin J. 2015 d. Hindu Pilgrimages and Contemporary Scenario; in,
Brunn, Stanley D. (ed.) The Changing World Religion Map: Sacred Places, Identities, Practices
and Politics. Springer Science + Business Media B.V., Dordrecht & New York. Vol. 2: pp. 783-
802.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Pal, Neelam 2012 e. Varanasi: Master Plans and Perspectives of
Heritagescapes; in, Singh, K.N. and Rana, N.K. (eds.) Holistic Development: A Regional
Perspective. Radha Publications, New Delhi: pp. 97-115.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Pal, Neelam 2012 e. Varanasi: Master Plans and Perspectives of
Heritagescapes; in, Singh, K.N. and Rana, N.K. (eds.) Holistic Development: A Regional
Perspective. Radha Publications, New Delhi: 97-115.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Pal, Neelam 2012 f. Changing Environs and its Impact on Peri-urban Zone of
Varanasi; in, Jafri, Syed S.A. and Bajpai, B.K. (eds.) Rural Urban Fringe: Problems and
Management. For Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow by Concept Publ. Co., New
Delhi: pp. 131-153.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2016 e. Indian Sacred Natural Sites: Ancient traditions of
reverence and conservation explained from a Hindu perspective; in, Verschuuren, Bas (ed.):
Asian Sacred Natural Sites: Ancient Philosophy and Practice in Conservation and Protected
Areas. Routledge, Taylor and Francis, London and New York: ca. pp. 301-312.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2016 f. Banaras, the Cultural Capital of India: Visioning
Cultural Heritage and Planning; in, Bharne, Vinayak (eds.), Routledge Companion of Global
Heritage Conservation. Routledge - Taylor & Francis, London/New York/New Delhi: ca. pp.
45-56.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2016 g. Sacred Geography of Hindu Holy Places; in;
Chakrabarti, Dilip K. and Lal, Makkhan (eds.) History of Ancient India, vol. 11. ‘Religion,
Philosophy, Literature’. Aryan Books International, New Delhi (for Vivekanand International
Foundation, New Delhi): ca. pp. 125-156.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2016 h. Heritagescapes of India: Contemporary Scenario and
Programmes for Conservation; in, Sardella, Ferdinando; Larsson, Göran, and Enstedt, Daniel
(eds.) Images and the Cognitive Worlds: Festschrift to Prof. Åke Sander. LIR Gothenburg
University Press, Gothenburg.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2016 i. Kashi & Cosmos, India: Pilgrimage Circuit of the
Panchakroshi Yatra; in Olsen, Daniel and Trono, Anna (eds.) Religious Pilgrimage Routes and
Trails. CABI, Oxfordshire, UK.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Singh, Pankaj K. 2012 i. Changing pattern of peri-urban scenario surrounding
the Varanasi city; in, Jafri, Syed S.A. and Bajpai, B.K. (eds.) Problems and Management of
Rural Urban Fringe. For Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow by Concept Publ. Co.,
New Delhi: pp. 208-221.
Sinha Roy, Mallarika 2016. Intimate Spaces of Struggle: Rethinking Family and Marriage in
Contemporary India; in, Jacobsen, K.A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India.
Routledge, Oxford: 243-296.
Sinha, Amita 2014. The Sacred Landscape of Braj, India: Imagined, Enacted, and Reclaimed.
Landscape Journal, 33, (1), Jan.: 59-75.
Sinha, Amita and Valderrama, Ana 2014. The Oracle Landscape of Orchha, India: Reclaiming the
Lost Heritage. Journal of Cultural Geography [ISSN 0887-3631], 31 (3), Oct.: 304-325.
Sutton, Deborah 2013. Devotion, Antiquity, and Colonial Custody of the Hindu Temple in British
India. Modern Asian Studies, 47 (1), Jan.: 135-166.
Thakur, Nalini 2012. The Indian Cultural Landscape: Protecting and Managing the Physical to the
Metaphysical Values; in, Taylor, Ken and Lennon, Jane L. (eds.) Managing Cultural
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Quality for Sustainable Regeneration. Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050), 7: 932-946.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Author
§ Rana P.B. Singh [b. 15 Dec. 1950], PhD, FJF (Japan), FAAI (Italy), FACLA (Korea), ‘Ganga-Ratna’ (G-MaS, India);
(retired) Professor of Geography (spel. Cultural Landscapes & Heritage Studies), and ex-Head
(2012-2015) at Banaras Hindu University, has been involved in studying and promoting the
heritage planning and sacred landscapes in Varanasi region. On these topics he has given lectures
and seminars at various centres in almost all parts of the world. His publications include 260
papers and 41 books, including Environmental Ethics (1993), The Spirit and Power of Place
(1994), Cosmic Order & Cultural Astronomy (2009), Heritagescapes and Cultural Landscapes
(2011), Sacredscapes and Pilgrimage Systems (2011), Indo-Kyosei Global Ordering (2011), and
Hindu Tradition of Pilgrimage (2013).
Mobile: 0-9838119474. Email: ranapbs@gmail.com
[379-12]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2012. Cultural Geography, India, 2008-12; in, Singh, R.B. (ed.)
Progress in Indian Geography. A Country Report, 2008-2012. The 32nd International
Geographical Congress, Cologne, Germany (August 26-30, 2012). Indian National
Science Academy, New Delhi: pp. 81-96. << in this file pp. 15 – 25 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Progress in Cultural Geography, India: 2008-12

Rana P. B. Singh
Professor, Department of Geography
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP 221005.
Email: ranapbs@gmail.com
1. Introduction: Overview of India’s Culture

The diversities, distinctions and desperateness scattered all over India and at the other end
unifying forces of traditions made this country a web of cultural whole. It is with these
characteristics in studying cultural geography of India emerges a variety of topics. In the present
review emphasis is placed on research that has been conducted in or about India. The first attempt
to review the literature on cultural geography of India was presented by Wescoat et al. (2003),
and further assessment under the aegis of the NCG-INSA (cf. Singh and Singh 2008a, 2008b).
Cultural geographers have tended to use historical, archival, ecological, literary,
travelogue, ethnographic and associated methods to investigate localised patterns of religion,
language, diet, arts, and customs. Among such themes the disparateness and distinctness of
‘cultural landscape’ has been a core concern of studies by cultural geographers. Geography is also
considered as a discipline whose ‘milk is flowing’ – suggesting ways that the discipline can
acknowledge its global interconnectedness to produce a mutually responsible academic agency
(Noxolo, et al. 2008). In the emerging literature on cultural geography discourses in the West,
critique of representational and non-representational context, expression and exposition are given
more emphasis; however in India still emphasis is laid on the descriptive-narrative and
ethnological interpretation (cf. Singh 2009a, 2009b, and 2009h).
India has its own history of contrasts ― ecological, religious, linguistic, historical,
political and eco-psychological. The diversities, distinctions and desperateness scattered all over
India (embracing 190 religious groups with 1,652 languages and dialects in twelve language
families with twenty-four different scripts, and 3,742 castes and sub-castes further grouped into
4,635 communities into thirty-six states), and at the other end unifying forces of traditions made
this country a web of cultural whole (cf. Singh 2009b: 19). It is with these characteristics in
studying cultural geography of India emerges a variety of topics. Issues like Indian culture,
gender issues politics, economy and technology, as well as population and environmental issues
are examined in the contemporary situation, especially since 1990s in the light of anthropological
research on kinship, gender issues, politics, class and caste, population issues and the
appropriation of information technology (Tenhunes and Saavala 2012). Another volume critically
examines the notion of a ‘new’ India by recognizing that India is changing remarkably and by
exposing the many economic, social, and political contradictions that are integral to
contemporary India (D’Costa 2010). In the 21st century Mahatma Gandhi has been considered as
‘icon’ of India and as a way to make this world more humane, peaceful and harmonious; that is
how in geographical debate emphasis has been laid on his contribution to understand
development, human development, ecological and political practices (Singh 2011f).
The examination of the sense of ‘Indianness’ in the geographical debate is also an issue of
self-retrospection and re-assessment (Singh 2009b: 18-23). Presently in the arena of cultural
studies in India, the issues of conversation and contestation have received more attention, like
fluidity and dynamics of tradition, lineages of art, inter-culturalism and the question of body,
dimensions of woman power in India, legacy of Gandhian politics, the humanist perspective and
the civilizing role of history, and the debate on science in post independence India. The long-
standing and continuing debate on Indian culture and on what constitutes ‘Indianness’ manifests
itself in many ways, some more subtle than others. The acceptance of regional and territorial use
of geographic skill in social sciences is now a common practice, yet in cultural context
territoriality is a prominent tool (Delage and Headley 2008b).
2. Culture as the human response: the Historical purview

With his life-long devotion and rigorous field investigations, Dilip Chakrabarti has successfully
established a new interdisciplinary field of archaeological geography that broadly emphasizes
settlement morphogenesis and their links to culture, artifacts, religious beliefs and man’s role in
transformation of the local habitat, landscape and ultimately the environment. Chakrabarti’s
earlier studies of the archeology of ancient cities, their plans and their territories have been
extended and substantiated by later researches in India and also in South Asia. His recent work
(2008, 2009) concerned with public domain that is connected to issues like Sarasvati Project,
Aryan invasion theory, the textbook controversy in India, and the language of the Indus
civilization. He challenged the western biased approach of establishing the Aryan invasion
theory, and scientifically proved the diffusion and hearth theory (1997) that needs further
investigation by historical/ archaeological geographers. He felt that even the apparently remote
conclusions about India’s prehistoric, protohistoric and early historic past have sub-texts of
various kinds and that these sub-texts have different socio-political implications and agendas
(2008a). The interdisciplinary potentiality of the archaeological investigations is also re-
established by his work on the line of environmental archaeology (2008b).
In 1870, Nawab Sikandar Begum of Bhopal became the first Muslim Woman to publish
an account of her Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. She travelled with a retinue of a thousand, visited
Jeddah and Mecca, performed the requisite rituals and observances, then returned to India and
wrote her impressions of her visit. Her accounts is reproduced, “A Pilgrimage to Mecca” in the
original English translation by the wife of a British Colonial officer, of an unpublished Urdu
manuscript, and is accompanied by a critical introduction and afterword that make this offering a
comprehensive resource on travel writing by South Asian Muslim Women and encourage the
reader to rethink established understanding relating to travel writing, colonialism and world
history. Sikandar Begum’s critical and often surprising description provides unique insight into
the factors that went into writing this quintessentially Muslim journey in a colonial environment
(Lambert-Hurley 2008).
Another study examines the nineteenth-century cultural history of Orissa from the
postcolonial angle by drawing primarily from literary sources. It focuses on issues such as
feudalism and colonial modernity, language politics and the rhetoric of progress, westernisation,
nativity and border crossing. It brings the archival material to centre stage and employs theatrical
tools from the fields of gender, translation and culture studies; and also highlighted the
intersections between colonial subjugations and postcolonial longings (Mohanty 2008).
In historical context analysing everyday corruption in India, and the effects of the
Panchayat Raj reforms, using unique empirical material from the states of Madhya Pradesh and
Kerala, and taking comparative perspectives and references to historical cases from around the
world a major work has recently been released that shows how decentralisation can be connected
to social capital and corruption. The book shows that the relationship between decentralisation,
corruption and social capital can be well understood if illuminated through the prism of collective
action theory considering the historical processes (Widmalm 2008).
A recent anthology builds upon and extending recent insights into the constitutive and
multiple projects of colonial modernity, eschewing the fashionable binaries of resistance and
collaboration, successfully re-conceptualized modernity as a local and transitive practice of
cultural conjunction, exemplified with reading of Anglo-Indian poetry, Urdu rhyming
dictionaries, Persian Bible translations, Jain court records, or Bengali polemical literature, and
interpret South Asian modernity as emerging from localized, partial and continuously negotiated
efforts among a variety of South Asian and European elites (Dodson and Hatcher 2012).
Identified by different names, the Zou is a fringe community in India’s Northeast frontier
and a non-state entity that has sustained a fluid identity under changing historical contexts.
Within the ‘galactic polities’ of pre-colonial Chin Hills, the confederate Zou chiefs lost out to
their agnatic rivals (the Kamhau-Sukte clan). From being ‘rebellious’ subjects of the Raj, the Zou
community in independent India managed to get itself recognised as a ‘scheduled tribe’ in 1956;
however, the post-colonial era saw the surge of modernising forces like the birth of local church
movement, ethnic identity formation and political consciousness; but the ‘cultural metabolism’ of
this marginal community allows for both resistance to and acceptance of external challenges (Zou
2009). It is argued that imperial geographical discourses invested the colonial Northeast (British
Assam) with a new kind of territorial identity, where surveyors and mapmakers objectified the
“geo-body” of this borderland in a spatial fix and visualized it as a Northeast-on-the-map (Zou
and Kumar 2011). A post-colonial liberal polity like India does not seem to be at ease in
managing the stark reality of identity-related interests today. In spite of disavowal by the Indian
state, current international debate on indigenous tribal peoples may serve as a crucial point of
departure to historicise the self-definitions of indigenous tribes and also to document little known
struggles of non-dominant internal minorities like the Zo people who inhabit India’s eastern
borderland (Zou 2010).
It is noteworthy that the encounter between the state and disparate tribal groups in India’s
north-east or elsewhere not only affirms the state’s monopoly of material and symbolic power but
also opens up a complex and shifting discursive space Although the recognition of tribes may be
useful in extending minority rights to a certain extent, it simultaneously tends to canonize the
‘narcissism of minor differences’ within and across tribes and has proved to be unhelpful in
solving burgeoning problems like unemployment, and intra/inter ‘tribe’ inequalities especially in
terms of access to power and economic status (Suan 2011).
A recent study of British colonialism in South Asia breaks new ground by combining new
strands of research on colonial history, focussing on the movement of people of the lower orders
that imperial ventures generated. It is noted that challenging the assumed stability of colonial
rule, the social spaces featured are those that threatened the racial, class and moral order instituted
by British colonial states. By elaborating on the colonial state’s strategies to control perceived
‘disorder’ and the modes of resistance and subversion that subaltern subjects used to challenge
state control, a picture of British Empire as an ultimately precarious, shifting and unruly
formation is presented, which is quite distinct from its self-projected image as an orderly entity
(Tambe and Tiné 2008).
A recent anthology presents a set of new and innovative essays on landscape and garden
culture in precolonial India, with a special focus on the Deccan, highlighting first as real or
imagined spaces and manipulated landscapes that are often invested with pronounced semiotic
density; and second as congeries of institutions and practices with far-reaching social
ramifications for the constitution of elite societies (Ali and Flatt 2010).
3. Cultural notions and changing reflections

Language has played an important role in not only identity formation but also “contextual
coexistence” of various linguistic as exemplified with a recent study in South India where the
understanding of the complex relationships among linguistic identity, state formation, and
individual political participation are examined and their importance are established (Mitchell
2009). With four case studies from a Hindu-Muslim conflict in a neoliberalising city,
Ahmedabad, India, it is argued that neoliberal globalisation undergoes a thorough grounding in
accordance with the pre-existing socio-cultural and economic specificities of places, which
impact upon inter-community alienation and conflict. It is further illustrated that open market
policies are implicated in local industrial restructuring and urban renewal that simultaneously
utilise place-specific ethnocentrism to exclude and fragment the poor (Chatterrjee 2009). The
issue of cultural contestation in the context of Hindu-Muslim relations, related issue of critical
geographies of peace, and appraisal of marginality and role of agencies and power are also
recently been examined (cf. Williams 2001, Williams and McConnell 2011, Williams, et al.
2011).
Following interdisciplinary and cross-cultural comparative approach the ecological,
social, economic and, in particular, the cultural dimensions of the Australia-India relationship,
studies are presented at many levels of focus on environment, place and culture, re-exploring
how literature has treated “landscape” (Bandyopadhyay, et al. 2011). A study of sun festival and
its association with landscape and culture has further paved the path for ethnogeography (Singh
2009f, 2010b).
Religion has a catalyst role played in geopolitics and the regional identity and deeper
experiences of nature through pilgrimages (Singh 2008a, 2013). Dating back some five thousand
years, Hinduism is the dominant faith of India and an increasingly powerful spiritual force in the
West; however attempt is made to present the rooted insideness and its reflection outside,
covering issues like varieties of divinities, sacred places and spatial affinity, ethical teachings,
and sacred texts, as well as aspects of contemporary culture such as yoga (Narayan 2008); this
work links the inside and outside views in a harmonious manner. Fundamentalism is a thoroughly
modern and global phenomenon because it presupposes the globalization of ideas and practices
concerning religious leadership and organization, as well as universal changes in the relationship
of religion to modern societies and states, as exemplified in cases of Christianity, Islam,
Buddhism and Hinduism (cf. Brekke 2012). By using the themes of boundaries, appropriations,
and resistances, a recent anthology offers insight into the dynamics and diversity of Western
approaches to South Asian religions and the indigenous responses to, involvements with, and
influences on them, paying particular attention to contemporary controversies surrounding the
study of South Asian religions, including several scholars’ reflections on the contentious reaction
to their own work (Schmalz and Gottschalk 2011).
Through ethnographies and histories of the urban, a recent anthology unsettles theories
generated in the Euro-American context to show how urban citizenship might be differently
practiced, understood, and reconfigured within the Indian context, illustrated with Ahmedabad,
Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, and Varanasi (Desai and Sanyal 2011). Civil Society, a
conceptual category formulated as a response to the idea of civil society in a postcolonial context
across different disciplines and ideological and theoretical frameworks has enjoyed an
acceptability in the cultural discourse, as illustrated with case studies from Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Delhi and Maharashtra, which are conceived
around the five themes – the relation between the civil and the political; the role of middlemen
and their impact on mobility of the subaltern groups; elites and leadership; the fragmentation and
intra-subaltern conflicts and its implications for subaltern agency; and finally the idea of moral
claims and moral community (Gudavarthy 2012).
4. Cultural Journey: Pilgrimage and Sacredscapes

Of course started in 1970s by a geographer Surinder Bhardwaj through his pioneering publication
on Hindu Places of Pilgrimages (1973), the study of pilgrimages (sacred journeys) has not been
popular in comparison to Indology. However, recently it has received attention in geography too
(cf. Singh 2005, 2006b, 2009b, 2013). The recent most landmark publication, Hindu Tradition of
Pilgrimage (Singh 2013), has revived the tradition in interdisciplinary frame and opens a
scientific and sustainable way of understanding and practice. Hindu pilgrimage places are vital
cultural symbols, and pilgrimage has had a central place throughout Hindu cultural history.
Hindu tirthas are centres of power – either to cross from this world to the eternal liberty of
moksha, or to gain blessings and grace to enrich one’s present life. Use of theoretical frame of
pilgrimage studies in the light of geography has attracted people even from religious studies,
especially to emphasize the Victor Turner’s constructs, territorial context and emerging conflicts.
(cf. Shinde 2011c, and Singh, Rana 2011g). Experiencing the power of place and act of
pilgrimage became a central feature of Hinduism in classical texts (cf. Jacobsen 2012). In fact,
the deeper quest to reciprocate between human and divine realm, sacred geography plays an
important role in developing the complex web of pilgrimage places in India (cf. Eck 2012, cf.
Singh 2013). The role of goddess in Hindu society has a frame of consciousness that developed in
the past and further helped to form the surrounding landscape as a cosmogram, represented in
sacred geometry and associated landscapes and functions (Singh 2010a). It is noted in historical
context that people who travel on a pilgrimage in order to gain some result in the material world,
are believers, but their mind is troubled by rough weather in the ocean of material life, like Sri
Balaram in the Mahabharata (cf. Haigh 2011).
Study of the origin and growth, and the role of various active agents in the process of
making goddess landscape, indicates that the universality submerges into locality like in case of
goddess shrine at Kamachcha that maintains and transform the cultural landscapes through
continuity and increasing pace of devotees and functionaries (Singh, R.S. 2009). Similar studies
were also presented, illustrated with cases of other Hindu goddess places that examined the
contextuality and perspectives of spatial pattern and symbolic orders in Varanasi (Singh and
Singh 2010). The role of sun god and its association with death and transformation in Gaya has
opened a new interdisciplinary approach to study pilgrimage landscape and testing the theory of
self-organised criticality (Singh, Malville and Marshall 2009).
The performances of fairs and festivals help to awaken the ‘spirit of place’, that further
support the motive and aspiration of pilgrimages. Under the ethnogeographical frame the study of
Sun goddess festival, ‘Chhatha’, in Bhojpur Region, India illustrates the interlinking chain from
locality to universality (Singh 2009f and 2010b). Similarly, the applicability and contextuality of
Gaia theory in Indian culture has been tested in a cross-cultural perspective, emphasising the
roots in Indian culture (Singh 2009b: 81-109).
In the purview of studying cultural landscape, recently many studies were made that deal
with pilgrimage places, related heritage, architectural symbolism, and pilgrimage-tourism. Kiran
Shinde has studied Vrindavan and Tirumala-Tirupati, and related or similar places in the context
of sacred journey and heritage tourism as key elements of motivation, destination and journey in
cotemporary pilgrimage travel (2008), environmental governance to develop a better approach to
environmental management through getting involved stakeholders befitting into comprehensive
development planning (2009a), religious entrepreneurship using religious hegemony, social status
and networks, that altogether innovate, develop new products and expand the cultural economy of
rituals and performances to suit the demands of the burgeoning tourism (2009b, 2010a),
devotionalism and media reflecting wryly that faith, society, and traditional culture make the
cultural wholes (2010b), management of Hindu festivals in the light of changing trends in the
organization and management of surrounding events (2010c), sacred landscape and spirit of place
that affected the cultural ecology and also the symbolism, ritualisation, and interpretation of the
sacred landscape and associated social spatialization, religious socialization, and interpreting
cultural theory (2011a), planning the sacred landscape as base of religious tourism industry,
which is largely centred on devotion-based informal activities in pilgrimage centres (2011b), and
planning pilgrimage sites and related pilgrimage-tourism (2013).
The study of sacred towns of Tuljapur and Shirdi, reveals that majority of the prevailing
functions are handled by a charitable public trust that administers the shrine, and guides and tour
operators and hotels that mediate movement and experience of visitors. The study highlights how
the different spatial modes of engagement with pilgrimage rituals and the mediation by religious
specialists through distinct socio-spatial relationships play a significant role in creating the
situations for fostering of communitas (Shinde 2011c). Similarly the study of Varanasi refers that
creation of mosaicness during a pilgrimage, corresponds closely to Turner’s notion of
communitas, a sense of collective human bond. It can be considered anti-structure, i.e. a hierarchy
in social structure; however, in many cases Brahmin priests do not oversee or dominate religious
performances (Singh 2011g). On the line of ‘production of space’ as propounded by Henri
Lefebvre, successful test has been made to use his triad of inhabiting, constructing and
representing taking case of Varanasi (Tiwari 2009).
5. Landscape, Cultural Heritage: Contestation and Context

The conceptual frame of heritagescapes, heritage ecology, mythic landscape of Buddhist places,
and also the perception of tourists and pilgrims about the landscape, culture and functions are
recently framed out, thus opened new avenues in the cultural geography of India (Singh 2011a;
Singh and Rana 2011a, b, and c). The issue of heritage contestation has recently drawn attention
of historical geographers, architects and conservators. Some of the UNESCO sites in India have
been recently studied (Singh 2008a and b). Following the scale of UNESCO World Heritage the
riverfront of Varanasi also considered as landscape of contestation, which needs critical appraisal
for urban-regional development (Singh 2008a and 2008b). The maintenance of cultural mosaic,
religious multiculturalism and blending of diversification and distinctiveness of lifeworld make
this city eternal.
Defining heritage territory under the strict control of heritage law will help avoiding
conflicts and contestation together with active public participation. This can be exemplified with
a case study of riverfront heritagescapes of Varanasi (Banaras) where history, culture and the
lifeways together resulted into evolution of an unique landscape, i.e. faithscape (cf. Singh 2009a).
The studies of holy places and related pilgrimage landscapes have opened new avenues for
interpreting cultural landscapes in India (Singh 2011b, and c).
The study of heritagescapes with reference to cultural astronomy, emphasising cultural
landscape, the sacred sites and their alignments and correspondences converge into the formation
of landscape geometry, ac exemplified with the study of Varanasi, Khajuraho, Chitrakut, Gaya,
and Vindhyachal (Singh 2011d, and 2011e). Such studies focussed for the re-establishment of the
ancient glories by re-interpretation of the old literature together with conservational strategy to
save it (Singh 2009e). Study of sacred hill and landscape gardening in and around the UNESCO
heritage site of Champaner-Pavagarh, natural heritage sites of Delhi, landscapes of Taj and
memorial parks in Lucknow are the examples studies by Sinha (2008, 2009, 2010; and Sinha and
Harkness 2009). In the frame of archetype the natural, spatial and design; attributes of landscape
in India is studied and illustrated with examples from Braj, Pavagarh, village plans, and
pilgrimage centres and that landscape symbols express all that a culture holds dear and
externalise deeply felt emotions. It is further observed that as Indian society modernizes; secular
thinking in the workplace and public sphere replaces religiosity ordained tasks (Sinha 2011).
Malaviya’s vision of Ancient Indian Spatial Planning and Archetypal layout of the Banaras Hindu
University is a fresh approach in the archetypal cosmic frame of landscape design and associated
symbolism (Singh 2010d).

A recent anthology examines the essential ambiguity of modernization schemes in Varanasi as
well as the contingency of elements of religious narrative, which inscribes the city as having been
forged substantially in the experiences of British rule that transformed the city in many respects
(Dodson 2011). Considered and mytholised as city of Shiva, Varanasi has been distinctively
represented in the tradition of lithographs showing this city as revealed by the study of the textual
background of the studied cartographic material, and appraising a nineteenth century debate on
the Panchakroshi procession on the interrelation of maps, texts and pilgrimage practice; the first
such detailed study of four pilgrimage maps produced during the 18th and 19th century
(Gengnagel 2011). Since ancient past the city has attracted people from different corners of India,
emerging into evolution of varieties of heritagescapes; the historical and cultural growth and
contouring of landscape has played a major role in shaping Varanasi (Singh 2009b, 2009c,
2010c) and its frame as cosmogram (Singh 2009g). The study of boatman and their role in the
formation of life along the riverfront is itself a ‘lifeworld’ of its own and consider being a special
feature (Doron 2009). The riverfront of the Ganga at Varanasi is in itself a sacredscape where a
unique faithscape emerged and constantly made awakened by rituals performed there. Similarly
In case of sites associated to Shiva, Ganesha and Surya (sun god) in Banaras also form series of
alignments that converges to various symbolic shapes that described in the texts metaphorically
(Singh 2009c, and 2011d).
An intensive study of Varanasi through interview and personal experiences the spaces of
contentions shows the challenges to the civic sense in the society and as to how the resources and
capital are involved to support the agitation and the involved stakeholders (cf. Wood, 2010, 2011,
and 2012).
7. Epilogue: Conclusion
Geography, like other social sciences, is in a state of flux. Geography matters because it affects
human life and the natural environment, and serves as force in the formation of landscape. With
increasing pace for critical examination of the varieties, distinctions and uniqueness, and the
linkages that bind and apart interrelations and interactions among the attributes of the cultural
India has started its turn, quite close to humanism; of course, unfortunately mostly by foreign
geographers or geographers’ from Indian roots settled abroad. However, there appear contrasts,
discrepancies and selective subjectivity based on personal interest for more academic exercise. In
case of India still the Saurian tradition of ‘landscape’ (after Carl O. Sauer, 1889-1975) of the
West, and Sankalian tradition of ‘historico-cultural processed formation’ (after H.D. Sankalia,
1908-1989) and Culturo-astronomical tradition of ‘exposing inherent message of the past and
scientific exposure’ (cf. Singh 2009b) would be the potential concerns that may link between the
traditional and new turnings in cultural geography. What earlier conceived as ‘marginal’, the
ongoing ways of cultural geography of India, recording beauty of great heterogeneity, is indeed
would certainly lead to employ both traditional and new concepts (like in the wave of New Age)
to address the issues of environments, landscapes, identities, inequalities, global harmony and
peace at micro-, meso- and macro- levels like a channel from ‘locality’ to ‘universality’.
Through Indian sacred geographies, cultural processes linking ‘local’ tradition of deities
and pilgrimages, slowly expanded and thus was formed pan-Indian imageries and manifestive
glories in the form of eulogies superimposed there, as exemplified in case of twelve Jyotirliṅgas
of Shiva (Fleming 2009); Fleming (ibid.: 51) suggests that the conceptualization of “pan-Indian”
religious ideology did not arise solely with the British. Rather, this encounter was but one
historical moment in a much broader story. The study of cultural ecology with its basic attributes
of subsistence, work, reproduction, and resources and their interrelationships as embedded in the
rules and ethics of Indian society also need consideration for future research.
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Shinde, Kiran A. 2010 b. Hindu Religious Devotion in Media as Contemporary Folklore:
Prospects for Religious Tourism in India. Australian Folklore, 25 (1): 55-66.
Shinde, Kiran A. 2010 c. Managing Hindu Festivals in Pilgrimage Sites: Emerging Trends,
Opportunities, and Challenges. Event Management, Vol. 14 (1): 1-16.
Shinde, Kiran A. 2011 b. Shifting pilgrim trails and temple-towns in India: Problems and
prospects; in, Winter, Tim and Daley, Patrick (eds.) Routledge Handbook on Heritage in
Asia. Routledge, London and New York.
Shinde, Kiran A. 2011 c. Placing communitas: Spatiality and ritual performances in Indian
religious tourism. Tourism, an International Interdisciplinary Journal, 59 (3), Oct.: 335-352.
Shinde, Kiran A. 2011a. Sacred Landscape, Sacred Performances: Connection and Cacophony;
in, Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) Holy Places and Pilgrimages: Essays on India. Planet Earth &
Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 8. Shubhi Publs., New Delhi: pp 127-146.
Shinde, Kiran A. 2012. Policy, planning, and management for religious tourism in Indian
pilgrimage sites. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure & Events, 4 (3): f.c.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2008 a. The contestation of heritage: the enduring importance of religion; in,
Graham, Brian and Howard, Peter (eds.) Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage &
Identity. Ashgate Publs., Aldershot & London: pp. 125-141.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2008 b. Heritage Contestation and context of Religion: Political Scenario from
Southern Asia. Politics and Religion [Belgrade, Serbia], vol. 2 (1), Spring: 79-99.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 a. Historical Geography of India: Trends in the 21st Century; in, his:
Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the 21st Century. Planet Earth &
Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 2. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon
Tyne U.K.: 129-161.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 b. Cultural Geography of India: Trends in the 21st Century; in, his:
Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the 21st Century. Planet Earth &
Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 2.Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon
Tyne U.K.: 162-195.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 c. Banaras, the Heritage City of India: Geography, History and
Bibliography. Pilgrimage and Cosmology Series: 8. Indica Books, Varanasi.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 d. Banaras: Making of India’s Heritage City. Planet Earth & Cultural
Understanding Series, Pub. 3. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne U.K.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 e. Cosmic Order and Cultural Astronomy: Sacred Cities of India. Planet
Earth & Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 4. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle
upon Tyne U.K.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 f. Ethnogeography of the Sun goddess festival, ‘Chhatha’, in Bhojpur
Region, India: From Locality to Universality. Man in India, International Journal of
Anthropology (New Delhi), 89 (1-2): 103-120.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 g. Kashi as Cosmogram: The Panchakroshi Route and Complex Structures
of Varanasi; in, Malville, John M. and Saraswati, B. N. (eds.) The Sacred and Complex
Landscapes of Pilgrimage. DK Printworld, Delhi for IGNCA: 87 – 98.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2009 h. Uprooting Geographic Thoughts in India: Toward Ecology and Culture
in 21st century. Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding, Series Pub. 1. Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, New Castle upon Tyne U.K.
Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) 2010 a. Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia: Essays in memory
of David Kinsley. Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding, Series Pub. 5. Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2010 b. The Sun goddess festival, ‘Chhatha’, in Bhojpur Region, India: an
Ethnogeography of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Asiatica Ambrosiana [Milano, Italy], nr. 2:
pp. 59-80.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2010 c. Varanasi, the Heritage City of India: Growth of urban fabrics, visions
and strategies for future development. Asian Profile, Asia’s International Journal, 38 (3),
June; 257-282.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2010 d. Mahamana Malaviya’s vision of Ancient Indian Spatial Planning and
Archetypal layout of the Banaras Hindu University. National Geographical Journal of
India, vol. 56 (1-2): 1-16.
Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) 2011 a. Heritagescape and Cultural Landscapes. Planet Earth & Cultural
Understanding Series, Pub. 6. Shubhi Pub. , New Delhi.
Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) 2011 b. Sacredscapes and Pilgrimage Systems. Planet Earth & Cultural
Understanding Series, Pub. 7. Shubhi Publ. , New Delhi.
Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) 2011 c. Holy Places & Pilgrimages: Essays on India. Planet Earth &
Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 8. Shubhi Publ. , New Delhi.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2011 d. Sacred Geography and Cosmic Geometries: Interfaces in Holy Places
of North India and link to Leonardo da Vinci’s images. Asiatica Ambrosiana, nr. 3: pp. 31-
82.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2011 e. Interfaces between Hindu Cosmology and Leonardo da Vinci. Itihas
Darpan, Research Journal of ABISY (New Delhi), vol. 16 (2): 227-242.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2011 f. Indo-Kyosei Global Ordering: Gandhi’s Vision, Harmonious
Coexistence, & Ecospirituality. [Research Center for Kyosei Philosophy, Toyo University,
Japan]. Meitoku Publishing, Tokyo.
Singh, Rana P.B. 2011 g. Politics and Pilgrimage in North India: Varanasi between Communitas
and Contestation. Tourism, an International Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 59 (3): 287-304.
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Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 9. Dev Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi. <in
Press>
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2011 a. Perceptions and Images of Tourists and Pilgrims in
Banaras; in, Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) Holy Places and Pilgrimages: Essays on India. Shubhi
Pub. , New Delhi: pp. 165-206.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2011 b. The Mythic landscape of the Buddhist places of
Pilgrimage in India; in, Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) Sacredscapes and Pilgrimage Systems. Planet
Earth & Cultural Understanding Series, no. 7. Shubhi Pub. , New Delhi: 249-286.
Singh, Rana P.B. and Rana, Pravin S. 2011 c. Heritagescapes of India: Appraising Heritage
Ecology; in, Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) Heritagescape & Cultural Landscapes. Shubhi Publs.,
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Progress in Indian Geography. A Country Report, 2004-2008. For the 31st IGU Congress,
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Tunis, Tunisia. INSA, New Delhi: 70-76, & refs. pp. 128-133.
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Symbolism; in, Singh, Rana P.B. (ed.) Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia:
Essays in memory of David Kinsley. Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding Series, Pub. 5.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: 45-78.
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Gaya: Pilgrimage, ancestors, and the Sun; in, Malville, John M. and Saraswati, B.N. (eds.)
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121.
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Festivals. Man in India (New Delhi), 89 (1-2): 121-140.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Author
Contact & Corresponding Address:
Prof. Dr. RANA P. B. SINGH
Professor (spel.Cultural Geography & Heritage Studies),
Head, Dept. of Geography, Banaras Hindu University
# New F - 7, Jodhpur Colony; B.H.U.,
Varanasi, UP 221005. INDIA.
Tel: (+091)-542-2575-843. Cell: (+91-0)- 9838 119474.
Email: ranapbs@gmail.com ; ranapbsingh@dataone.in
§ Rana P.B. Singh [born: 15 Dec. 1950], M.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1974, F.J.F. (Japan) 1980, F.A.A.I. (Italy) 2010,
Professor (specl. Cultural Geography & Heritage Studies) at Banaras Hindu University since January
1999, has been involved in studying, performing and promoting the pilgrimage studies, cultural
landscapes, heritage planning, sacred geography and cultural astronomy, in the Varanasi region for
the last four decades, as consultant, project director, collaborator and organiser. He is also the
Member, UNESCO Network of Indian Cities of Living Heritage (- representing Varanasi), since
2005. As visiting scholar on these topics he has given lectures and seminars at various centres in
Australia, Austria, Belgium, China PR, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Indonesia (Bali), Italy, Japan,
Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Thailand, USA (& Hawaii), USSR. His publications include over 220 papers and 41
books on these subjects, including Banaras (Varanasi), Cosmic Order, Sacred City, Hindu Traditions
(1993), Environmental Ethics (1993), The Spirit and Power of Place (1994), Banaras Region: A
Spiritual & Cultural Guide (2002, with P.S. Rana), Towards pilgrimage Archetypes: Panchakroshi
Yatra of Kashi (2002), Where the Buddha Walked (2003), The Cultural Landscape and the Lifeworld:
The Literary Images of Banaras (2004), Banaras, the City Revealed (2005, with George Michell),
Banaras, the Heritage City: Geography, History, Bibliography (2009), and the eight books under
‘Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding Series’: ‒ five from Cambridge Scholars Publishing U.K.:
Uprooting Geographic Thoughts in India (2009), Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and
Vision for the 21st Century (2009), Cosmic Order & Cultural Astronomy (2009), Banaras, Making of
India’s Heritage City (2009), Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia (2010), and ‒ three from
Shubhi Publications (New Delhi): Heritagescapes and Cultural Landscapes (2011), Sacredscapes
and Pilgrimage Systems (2011), Holy Places and Pilgrimages: Essays on India (2011), and the one
from Dev Publs. (New Delhi) – Hindu Tradition of Pilgrimage: Sacred Space and System (2013).
Presently he is working on an encyclopaedic book Kashi & Cosmos: Sacred Geography and
Ritualscape of Banaras.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[170.08]. Singh, Rana P. B. and Singh Ravi S. 2008. Historical Geography, India, 2004-08; in,
2008. Indian National Science Academy, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002:
pp. 57-65, & refs. 152-159. << in this file pp. 27 – 39 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Progress in Historical Geography, India, 2004-08

Rana P. B. Singh & Ravi S. Singh
Review of over seventy papers in the turn of present century on the aspects of historical
geography of India indicates that this branch has mostly been used as a way and approach in
place of an established branch (Singh and Singh, 2004). The first pioneering magnum opus is
Alexander Cunningham’s The Ancient Geography of India (1871), which needs re-reading and
re-search with the use of recent techniques and technology, orientation and objectivity, surety and
subjectivity. By ignoring the past one loses the understanding of the rootedness of culture by
which biotechnologies essential to human survival and health have progressed over the past 8,000
years in the ancient world like India, and the consequences of uncontrolled urban growth on food
and health security (Hulse, 2007).
Spanning a range of topics- print culture and oral tales, drama and gender, library use and
publishing history, theatre and audiences, detective fiction; a recent book has made appeal to
historians, cultural theorists, sociologists and all interested in understanding the multiplicity of
India’s cultural traditions and literary histories (Blackburn and Dalmia, 2004). The collective or
interdependent nature of Asian society is consistent with Asians’ broad, contextual view of the
world and their belief that events are highly complex and determined by many factors, including
human and terrestrial. The individualistic or independent nature of Western society seems
consistent with the Western focus on particular objects in isolation from their context and with
Westerners’ belief that they can know the rules governing objects and therefore can control the
objects’ behaviour. Nisbett adds: “I believe the twain shall meet by virtue of each moving in the
direction of the other” (Nisbett, 2004); the historical process of development and transforming
thoughts approve this now. Cartographic representation and mapping of historical attributes has
recently got attention by NATMO, covering time series from Stone Age to Vedic India to
Mughals and British with depiction of territories, kingdoms, centres, expansion, and routes (Nag,
2007).
Travelogue, Image Writing and Historical purview

In 1870, Nawab Sikandar Begum of Bhopal became the First Muslim Woman to publish
an account of her Hajj Pilgrimage to Mecca. On her return to India she wrote her impressions of
the visit. Her account is reproduced, “A Pilgrimage to Mecca” in the original English translation
by the wife of a British Colonial officer, of an unpublished Urdu manuscript, and is accompanied
by a critical introduction and afterword that make this offering a comprehensive resource on
travel writing and encourage the reader to rethink established understanding on travel writing,
colonialism and world history. Sikandar Begum’s critical and often surprising description
provides unique insight into the factors that went into writing this quintessentially Muslim
journey in a colonial environment (Lambert-Hurley, 2008).
Majeed’s essay focuses on the oppositional politics expressed in the historical geography
of the Persian and Urdu poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), showing how it emerges from,
and breaks with, Urdu and Persian travelogues and poetry of the nineteenth century, exploring the
complex relationships between the politics of Muslim separatism in South Asia and European
imperialist discourses. There are two defining tensions within this politics. The first is between
territorial nationalism and the global imaginings of religious identity, and the second is between
the homogenizing imperatives of nationalism and the subjectivity of individual selfhood. Iqbal’s
work contains three elements: a sacred space, a political territoriality and the interiority of
subjectivity; however, these elements are in conflict with each other, particularly, the space of
interiority in his poetry conflicts with the realm of politics in the external world (Majeed, 2007).
The study of historical formation and the de-territorialization of the Muslim minority in India
exemplify the emergence of spatial blocks and associated lifeworlds (Delage, 2007).
A book on ‘partition’ examines the context, execution and the aftermath of the Indian
subcontinent’s division, weaving together local politics and ordinary lives, focusing the
obliviousness of the small elite driving division, as well as the activists on both sides, to what the
partition would entail in practice, how it would affect the populace and how damaging its legacy
would be (Khan, 2007). The proverbs and sayings refer to the cultural knowledge about the
agrarian life and horticulture, as exemplified in the study of Assam (Bhagowati and Neog, 2006).
Exploration of the concepts of boundaries and homes in partition fiction through a scholarly essay
and interviews with six well-known novelists from India and Pakistan, narrating historical stories
of their personal experiences and memories of the years around 1947, their families in pre-
partition India, their Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh neighbours, their ideological shifts, their difficult
days of survival amidst the carnage, and the impact of the partition on their writings provides the
context and happenings of conditions (Bhalla, 2006).
Following the post-colonial approach and archival sources, a biographical analysis of
Mary Curzon, Vicereine of India (1898–1905) is presented within the context of her family and
friendship circle, presents the recent shifts in the method and theory of biography that have
opened new avenues for geographers engaged with life writing (Thomas, 2004). Following an
interdisciplinary path, a recent pioneer study of Hindu images in late 18th century portrays and
projects the monumental achievements of Balthazar Solvyns (1760–1824), a Flemish artist from
Antwerp who lived in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) from 1791 to 1803. By analyzing life, work,
creations and the interpretive and intuitive messages, a new dimension to historical geography
and regional historiography has been added (Hardgrave, 2004).
Partly derived from South India, and partly from the northern Indian core of the Mughal
empire, the materials related to South Asian xenology deal with the problem of the ‘Franks’,
namely the Europeans-whether seen in the context of Asia or of Europe. Initially the Europeans
appear as strange, wondrous and also largely untrustworthy interlocutors in the Indian Ocean.
Then, with the passage of time, an image of Europe itself emerges, which is finally sealed in the
later eighteenth century with the first travel accounts by Indians to Europe. However, these
images are part and parcel of a more general xenological and geographical understanding of the
areas that neighbour South Asia, and should hence be analyzed as such (Subrahmanyam, 2005).
Understanding the period of transition from ‘native’ to colonial rule, issues like the crisis
of political-economy in transition, by contextualising certain civil cases and petitions to
understand how people exploited the ambiguity between power and authority—between the
ideology of ‘tradition’ and the ‘method’ of colonial institutions—to elevate their social and
economic status have been comprehended. It is noted that while the colonial institutions could
empower individuals and groups economically, only ‘traditional’ authority could legitimise their
revision in social status. The strategy of social mobility and empowerment, undergirds the
transformation in the agrarianscape, and contextualises the ascendance of religious orders/leaders
that cut across caste and sectarian boundaries at the time when the state was in the process of
transition (Sharma, 2006).
Through an anthology, the notion of photography as a globally disseminated and locally
appropriated medium is established, and its importance in raising historical consciousness from
many regional, cultural, and historical perspectives is also provoked (Pinney and Peterson, 2003).
Changing political interests, a decreasing desire to fix identity and a broader popular visual
culture is reflected through photographic portraiture which is indicative of the emergence of post-
colonial Indian photographic practice (Pinney, 1997).
Science, Historical Context and Searching the Roots

Indo-Muslim medicine or the Unani tradition developed in South Asia alongside Mughal
political culture. While it healed the body, it also had a profound bearing on the social fabric of
the region. Alavi’s book shows the nature and extent of this Islamic healing tradition’s interaction
with Indian society and politics. Without disprivileging the state, she demonstrates how an in-
house struggle for hegemony can be as potent as external power during processes that define
medical, social, and national modernity (Alavi, 2007). Epitomizing a lifetime of research on
ancient India, a recent writing vividly captures all different articulations of sociological import
from a whole body of traditional writings: both sacred and secular (Banerji, 2007).
The 19th century historiography of colonial India consciously projected modern science
as a characteristic product of the Western civilization decoupled from and superior to its
antecedents, with the implication that all material and ideological benefits arising from modern
science were reserved for the West. In the present century when the East (oriental) and the West
(occidental) are coming closer by a search of interconnectedness and multicultuaralism, there is
thus a need to construct a history of world astronomy that is truly universal and unselfconscious
(Kochhar, 2006). Interest in science, technology and medicine of India under British rule has
grown in recent years and has played an ever increasing part in the reinterpretation of modern
South Asian history. Spanning a period from the establishment of the East India Company rule
through to independence, a recent analytical survey demonstrates the importance of examining
the role of science, technology and medicine in conjunction with the development of the British
engagement in India and in the formation of Indian responses to western intervention, the impact
of scientific and medical research and the dilemmas of nationalist science (Arnold, 2005). Under
the East India Company the writing of records and historical documents were subject to variable
regimes of transformation and stability in relation to their own interest and motives that fulfill the
objectives of the Company (Bowen, 2005).
Focusing on ideas and cultural attitudes toward science and technology, and more
specifically toward scientists and engineers in British period, 1875-1927, a recent study (Weil,
2006) traces the trajectory of several self-reinforcing transitions in the culture of the Forest
Service. Drawing on a rich collection of sources, Weil reconstructed the history of the forest
communities in western India, while exploring questions of tribal identity and the environment;
further also demonstrating how the ideology of indigenous cultures, developed out of the notion
of a pure and untouched ethnicity, is in fact rooted in nineteenth-century racial and colonial
anthropology. It is appealing to trace the processes by which the apparently immutable identities
of South Asian populations took shape, and how these populations interacted politically,
economically and socially with civilizations outside their immediate vicinity (Guha, 2005). A
work on ecology and colonialism documents the impact that colonial commercialization had on
the environment in a cattle rich region of central India called Berar when the traditional
interdependency of agriculture, grazing lands and forest was broken under British colonial
onslaught (Satya, 2004).
During the British period attempts have been made to develop forestry under the notion of
modernizing nature and imperial purview of eco-development (Rajan, 2006), but unfortunately
after independence less emphasis is laid. Tropical forestry in the nineteenth century consisted of
at least two distinct approaches towards nature, resource, and people; and what won in the end
was the Continental European forestry paradigm. The assessment and analysis of impact of Green
Revolution in Bulandshahr is also an example of understanding agrarian change in modern
history (Jewit and Baker, 2007). In the light of modern history transformation, growth and
development have provided a substantive frame to understand the Indian condition after
independence (Nayyar, 2006). The study of the Rigveda, myths based upon it and the Mycenaean
names of land and people is also a new dimension in historical interpretation (Srinivasan, 2005).
The historical analysis of environmental movement like Chipko has also been a subject of
historical geography that refers to achievements, peoples’ consciousness and awakening and also
the pitfalls and marketization of such movements (Buryn, 2005).
Cultural History and Regional Historical Geography

It is being gradually realized today that the present civilization of India is not merely a
development of the Aryan culture, as has so far been generally held. Indian culture is a composite
product in which the contribution of the Sindhu (Indus) valley civilization has been significant. A
recent book has explained the various strands of diverse cultures that have contributed to the
emergence of Indian culture (D’Souza, 2007). Another study (Mohanty, 2008) examines the
nineteenth-century cultural history of Orissa from the postcolonial angle by drawing primarily
from literary sources. It focuses on issues such as feudalism and colonial modernity, language
politics and the rhetoric of progress, westernization, nativity and border crossing.
The conventional modern history writings have mainly dealt with nationalist movements
and leaders. However, recently there is a clear shift towards subordinated histories of regions and
peoples. An anthology of six essays by well-acclaimed social scientists has established this
tradition, and covered themes like caste and cricket, autobiography of Indian women, calendar
art and ‘unity & diversity’, etc. – reflecting new topics and new ways of looking at the issues
(Menon, 2006). The decades of the 1950s and 1960s were a watershed in the writing of history.
Narratives of the past continued to be written as they are to this day, and there continues to be a
valuable gathering of new evidence. But the more challenging trend has been to pursue answers
to questions that relate to why and how something happened rather than merely when and where.
There is also a need to integrate a variety of facets in constructing a historical context. Historical
explanation and understanding also have to be viewed as a process in time (Thapar, 2005).
Historical study proves that the establishment of the Mughal Empire and the advent of
Europeans, particularly the English, had intertwined India’s history with larger, historical
movements sweeping the world. The Mughals connected India to Persia and Central Asia through
massive movements of people and goods, and by precipitating new encounters and
accommodations between Muslims and Hindus. At about the same time, Europeans were
establishing trading posts and forts throughout the Indian Ocean basin, challenging the Arab and
Indian merchants who dominated these trade routes. Moreover, as time went on, the Europeans
entered aggressively into the politics of the region, leading eventually to their colonial rule over
the subcontinent. As a result of these, life in England was also transformed, in everyday matters
like food and clothing, an incipient industrial revolution, increasing global competition with
European rivals, and a new self-aggrandizing image as rulers of a global empire (Spodek and
Louro, 2007). The Maratha Empire that was founded by Shivaji in the mid-seventeenth century,
spread across most of India during the following century has been analyzed by regional
historiography, based on administrative documents of the Maratha polity, family papers and
histories of the Empire (Gordon, 2007).
In the debate about political unity and cultural diversity in India, representation of the past
often has been the main battlefield. The frequent instances of violence against minorities in
connection with disputes over the past give cause to reconsider the role of history in the
emergence of the nation state in India. By inserting both the unifying model of the nation state
and the diversity of cultural and social forms of life into an overarching perspective of temporal
change, a modern form of unity can be accomplished that may be called unity in diversity
(Gottlob, 2007).
An article dealing with configuration of the migrant self as located within the problematic
of capital and colonial modernity explores the fashioning of the figure of the Kutiyettakkaran, a
migrant, in the Malayalee unconscious by problematising the peasant migration from Travancore
to Malabar during 1920–70. It is noted that the fashioning and circulation of a modernizing and
heroic image endowed the migrant with a peculiar authority in the landscape and history of
Malabar. However, such a mission is critiqued, often in absolute terms, by texts closer to our
times (Varghese, 2006).
Orientalist research has most often been characterized as an integral element of the
European will-to-power over the Asian world through the histories of knowledge – Sanskrit
erudition and forms of legitimacy. Dodson’s study profusely seeks to nuance this view, and
asserts that British Orientalism in India was also an inherently complex and unstable enterprise,
predicated upon the cultural authority of the Sanskrit pundits, its principal Indian intermediaries.
By revealing the unacknowledged roles which this ‘traditional’ intelligentsia played within
elements of the colonial state apparatus, he traces the conflicts within Orientalism, from the
consolidation of Britain’s fledgling Indian empire to its links with the emergence of early forms
of Indian national identity and inherently anti-colonial cultural movements (Dodson, M. S.
2007a). Through establishment and expansion of English language the British succeeded to
reorient and transform Indian culture towards the West. Similarly through translations and re-
interpretation publishing in English, Indians became suspicious about their own root, of course in
several ways that helped them to preserve several of their old literary traditions (Dodson, 2005
and 2007b).
Historical settlement geography

Computing the length of the 16-span rod, a measuring instrument used in the
Kanchipuram region during the late Chola period, by combining information on land boundaries
from a single inscription with fieldwork and map tools, attempt is made to reconstruct part of the
geography of the city referring to long-term changes in land use. It is suggested that the
application of this methodology to other epigraphic records may allow a detailed reconstruction
of early agrarian and urban environments, and contribute to the quantitative evaluation of land
holding or revenue systems (Heitzman and Rajagopal, 2004). Chamar (2005) has tried to analyze
the evolution and history of rural settlements in Bhiwani district of Haryana with reference to
succession of period and spatial expansion. The settlement pattern and cultural profile of an early
historical city of Mathura is an additional example of historical settlement geography explaining
the expansion, planning and the structural growth (Singh, V.L. 2005). In case of another holy
city, geographical interpretation of the historical growth of Varanasi shows the impact of cultural
forces and emergence of the sacredscapes (Singh, R.P.B. 2005). Since the emergence of myths
and related literature (Puranas), starting from 2nd century BCE to 16th century CE, Varanasi has
been the focus of attention for understanding cultural landscape, sacrality of space, time and
functionaries, and above all the processes of spatial transposition through which the city has
emerged as a sacred territory (kshetra) and pilgrimage place (tirtha). The critical edition of the 8-
9th century text, Skandapurana, that has a special section on Varanasi refers to above aspects in
detail and successfully justified its role as cultural capital (Bakker, and Isaacson, 2004). By use of
power and patronage, the deserted city of Banaras was recreated, reinvested and re-established
among the dwellers and pilgrims during the 18th and 19th centuries (Freitag, 2005).
In a significant contribution to the understanding of gender history, attempt is made to
capture and document crucial turning points in the course of transformation of Indian women’s
consciousness from objects to subjects, especially referring to Punjab. (Mohan, 2007). A
geographer turned activist observed that during the 2002 riots, some areas coped with violence
better than the others through peace committees; processes of rehabilitation and restitution; and
effective collaboration among local, regional, national, international relief, and human rights
organizations (Ahmed, 2004). A study dealing with coming of the ‘modernity’ in Bombay in the
first quarter of 20th century, offers an insight into the multi-layered relationships between
modernity, colonialism, and the production of urban space (Hazareesingh, 2007).
Conservation of sacred groves is a cultural phenomenon of historical significance in
conserving the nature. Carrying a strong tradition of landscape approach, historical study of
conservation of sacred groves in the Western Ghats of India presents a good example (Bhagwat,
et al. 2005).
British Raj, Imperialism and Orientalism

An innovative remapping of empire offers broad-ranging view of the workings of the
British Empire at a time when India of the Raj stood at the centre of a newly globalised system of
trade, investment, and migration. A recent publication offers a refreshingly new perspective on
how imperialism operates, emphasizes transcolonial interactions and webs of influence that
advanced the interests of colonial India and Britain alike (Metcalf, 2007).
Constructed from original source material including confidential documents of some of
the British Viceroys and Officers as well as some letters of Winston Churchill to Muhammad Ali
Jinnah a work deals with the intricacies of the problems which overwhelmed the greatest men of
India like inexorable forces of time (Das, 2004).
Tracing the history of the East India Company from its first tentative trading voyages in
the seventeenth century to the foundation of an empire in Bengal, a pioneer study presents tour de
passage into the scriptoria, ships, offices, print shops, coffeehouses, and palaces to investigate the
forms of writing needed to exert power and extract profit in the mercantile and imperial worlds.
Interpreting the making and use of a variety of forms of writing in script and print, the study
argues that material and political circumstances always undermined attempts at domination
through the power of the written word. Navigating the juncture of imperial history and the history
of the book, Indian Ink, uncovers the intellectual and political legacies of early modern trade and
empire and charts a new understanding of the geography of print culture (Ogborn, 2007). This
study has been further enriched by historical geographical interpretations of travel and trade,
geographical context of arts of commerce, collectivity and authority in India during 1600-1760
(Ogborn, 2004, 2006; Ogborn, and Withers, 2004). It is known that the industry entered into a
declining phase in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. The hypothesis of discriminatory
colonial policies as an explanation for the decline is not tenable; rather, the industry collapsed
under the adverse impact of the market (Ray, 2005).
In a paper that examines the contested grounds of authorization for one important
orientalist project 19th century India– translation of the ancient Sanskrit Rig Veda, it is argued that
Europeans initially sought to validate their translations by adhering to Indian scholarly practices
and, later, to a more “scientific” orientalist–philological practice. Indian Sanskrit scholars, rather
than accepting such translations, instead engaged critically with them, reproducing a distinctive
vision of Indian civilization through their own translations into English. This essay also suggests
that intellectual histories of the colonial encounter in South Asia should move beyond debates
about colonial knowledge to more explicitly examine the contexts of knowledgeable practices
(Dodson, 2007). The historical passage to modernity, mediated by colonial authority and by
nationalist resistance to it, has impacted all cultural disciplines (Ganesh, and Thakkar, 2005).
On the line of post-colonial studies in geography, some attempts have been made to re-
analyse the colonial literature and archival materials. Challenging scholarly inquiries into
communalism in South Asia that often exclusively focused on politically constructed religious
and ethnic identity categories, it is argued that territoriality and the designation of homelands
played an important, but largely unrecognized, role in developing social and political boundaries
in the region. By analyzing the writings of Bipin Chandra Pal, it is revealed that the
territorialization of a Hindu-based version of the national homeland as a key process in the
development of communal difference in Bengal and South Asia was more popular and operative.
By implicitly excluding all other forms of social affiliations from the narrative of the homeland, it
is argued that the stage was set for the contestation of territorial identity categories that played out
through the 20th century Bengal (Jones, 2006).
Following the analysis of colonial urban governmentality, combining Foucauldian and
(post-) colonial theory, recent interpretation of archival data are presented as re-interpretation of
the politics of late colonial Indian urbanism, illustrating a comparative history of New and Old
Delhi and taking into account problems of social and racial segregation, policing of the cities, and
biopolitical needs in urban settings, and portraying the scenes of lived spaces (Legg, 2007). This
is in continuation of earlier works dealing with nationalist struggle in colonial Delhi, postcolonial
developmentalities and related aspects of congestion and calculation (Legg, 2005, 2006a, 2006b).
The issue of governance and governmentality in India has also caught attention by contemporary
geographers dealing with post-colonial critique (cf. Sharp, 2007). Similar perspective and
constructs are also used by a geographer turned historian who has analyzed colonial governance
and public culture and issue of poverty formation in Bombay (Kidambi, 2004a, 2004b, 2007).
Historical study of imperialism, dark and light sides of public life and culture in the city of
Madras (presently Chennai), and also the growth, consequences and impact of prostitution in city
life have been critically examined by a historical geographer (Kumar, 2005, 2006a, 2008). A
cross-cultural study of the census and women’s work in Rangoon, 1872–1931, further reflects
upon the expansion and influence of the colonial culture and the stress imposed by the British
(Kumar, 2066b).
Reconsidering the policies applied by the colonial state with regard to European ‘loafers’
or vagrants in colonial India, a number of questions have been raised about the relationship
between categories of ‘race’ and ‘class’ in colonial settings. Discussing the intellectual roots of
the class prejudices towards working-class Europeans dating back to the Company era, on the
basis of a brief survey of the economic and demographic developments in mid-nineteenth century
which brought the issue of ‘white poverty’ to the foreground, it is noted that the ‘reclamation’ of
European loafers can be regarded as an ‘internal’ civilizing mission which shared many features
with the ‘external’ mission directed at the Indian population. It is noted that the colonial
government’s vagrancy policy was largely designed to protect the bluff of ‘colonial difference’
underlying the ‘external’ imperial civilizing project (Fischer–Tiné, 2005). The tale narrating the
aftermath of partition for Lahore and Amritsar 1947-1957, presents the viscosity and disastrous
situation of structural and cultural loss (Talbot, 2007).
Theories that explain the origins of communal violence in South Asia often point to the
discursive creation of Hindu and Muslim identity categories at the beginning of the 20th century.
These theories indeed overemphasize imagined social differences without adequately considering
how these boundaries were territorialized in everyday life through performative place-making
practices. It is argued that zones of tradition were established across British India symbolically
and tangibly dividing the territory before it was officially partitioned (Jones, 2007). Similar case
study of colonial agrarian policies in the tribal areas of the Salem and Baramahal region of
Madras Presidency (1872–1947), also concludes that those setting the colonial agrarian policy did
not consider the economic disadvantages of the hill areas and forest-oriented tribal economy and
treated them in line with the plains; mainly to extract maximum land revenue. It is also confirmed
that colonial agrarian policy, from the late 19th century to the end of the colonial rule, contributed
to the deterioration of the tribal economy in Madras Presidency due to restrictions on rights and
access over land and forest (Saravanan, 2006). Western Himalayas however were politically,
economically and socially distant from the civilizations and empires of the North during pre-
colonial times; subjected to British interference much later that made them far removed from
nature (Alam, 2007).
Society, Gender and Historical processes

British historian Nile Green has extensively analyzed the Islamic and Islamicate South
Asia from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, in particular Sufi expressions of Islam.
Given that Sufism as a category was itself in some sense a colonial invention, his recent work has
concentrated on the interplay between Sufis and the colonial power in India. Following an
approach of a historian trying to formulate ethnography his work aims at understanding the
different ways in which Sufism has functioned in its changing historical and ethnographic
contexts. The first monograph referring to Indian Sufism (Green, 2006), was a study of historical
change in three Sufi traditions under the Mughal Empire. The followed book is a study of what he
has termed ‘barracks Islam’. Based on wholly neglected small town Urdu lithographs which lend
an entirely new insider perspective on the life of the Muslim sepoy under British command, the
work also draws on colonial archives to address the roles of such new institutions as the ‘natives
only’ asylum on the transformation of Islam in colonial India through the medium of the army
(Green, 2008a). Another book presents the neglected but major role of Hyderabad in reforming
the customary Islam of India’s many Muslim saints and shrines, emphasising the evolution of two
reformist networks stretching between the towns and countryside of Hyderabad State to the
industrial quarters of colonial Bombay and across the Indian Ocean to Natal in the wake of the
export of Indian indentured labourers (Green, 2008b).
In the perspectives of history of landscape, culture, tradition, formation of narratives and
social environment are examined; and at the same time, the localization of Islam and re-
conceptualizing the interaction of Islam with other religions (particularly in India) has been taken
seriously with an aim to see the harmonious interaction and community formation, e.g. Sufism
and its ways in the formation of publics (cf. Green, 2004a, b, c, d, e, f, and 2005).
In historical context, analyzing everyday corruption in India, and the effects of the
Panchayat Raj reforms, drawing examples from the states of Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, a
major work shows how decentralization can be connected to social capital and corruption
(Widmalm, 2008). Arguably, these systems are the product both of the colonial history of the
Indian subcontinent, and of the poverty and inequalities still endemic in post-colonial India.
Moreover, leaving aside the distracting influence of romantic or demonic myths of rurality,
ethnographic and other accounts of village life should be read with an awareness of wider
political, social and economic influences (Wardhaugh, 2005). According to popular belief,
poverty and low standards of living have been characteristic of India for centuries. Examining the
transformation of Indian society and economy under British rule through the prism of the
labouring classes, it is justifiably argued that their treatment by the early colonial state had no
precedence in the pre-colonial past and that poverty and low wages were a product of colonial
rule (Parthasarathi, 2007). Through the processes of agrarian change and supporting industries in
South India, the provincializing capital get regional accumulation that changed the life and
economy of people (Chari, S. 2004). The nature of sacred relationship between human and nature
and interactions within that have shaped the ecosystem specifically of Maharashtra, were
threatened and transformed into exploitative strategy under the British colonial rule, and followed
up even after independence (Rao, 2007).
By integrating the histories of land and capital, the relationship between capitalist
‘development’ of the wider economy under colonial rule and agrarian continuity and change, a
critical interpretation of agrarian change under British colonial rule, on the basis of the
relationships between demography, commercialization, class structure and peasant resistance
unfolding over the long term between 1770 and more recent times, is presented recently.
Drawing most of the empirical evidence from rural Bengal, Bose’s study makes comparison with
regional agrarian histories of other parts of South Asia, thus stands on its own in the field of
modern Indian social and economic history in its chronological sweep and comparative context
and makes the complex subject of India’s peasantry (Bose, 2007).
By using the case of the Baptist missionaries called the ‘Serampore Trio’—Rev. William
Carey, Rev. William Ward and Rev. Joshua Marshman— it is urged that science and Christianity
were intimately related in early nineteenth-century north India. Ward, in his important account of
Hinduism, argued that true Hindu science had given way to empiricism, and that Hindus had
confused nature with the divine. The trio sought to educate Indians with respect to both Sanskrit
and European science, and utilized a range of scientific instruments and texts on science
published in India, and aimed successfully to change the way its pupils saw the material world by
urging experimentation rather than reverence of nature (Sivasundaram, 2007).
It is also noted that the colonial census was a bureaucratic device which provided an
essential abstraction from social reality, a ‘statistical fix’ designed to map individual social
groups in space, as exemplified with the contradictions associated with colonial knowledge
systems as reflected in the census grafted onto Burmese society in the 19th and early 20th century
similar to other areas of India (Kumar, 2006). The impact of cinema that turned its march from
public awakening to common entertainment, it carried the basic pitfalls of the colonial period and
in fact took a turn in more negative way, especially encouraging crime, loss of rich culture and
dismantling social ties (Mankekar, 2004). Similarly, the legacy of the colonial India has not yet
recovered even after passing more than five decades. While India succeeded at economic front
but at social front and regional scale wide hierarchical gaps are visible (Goswami, 2004).
Focusing on the role of the poor in caste, religious and nationalistic politics, and on their
contribution to the urban economy, it is demonstrated how they emerged as a major social factor
in South Asia during the interwar period, and illustrated with the case of Uttar Pradesh, focusing
on urban social history, ethnic and sectarian conflict, nationalism, and the politics of poverty,
labour and class relations (Gooptu, 2005).
Rather than waning in significance under globalization, nation-state is made the reference
point by representatives of the state as well as by civil society actors of diverse political
persuasions, in an attempt to secure material and discursive control over identities. The anxiety
with globalization is displaced onto gendered bodies, juxtaposing the scale of the body with the
scale of the nation. These anxieties lead to efforts to police the boundaries of gendered behaviour,
or conversely to displays of military strength. On these lines it is concluded that it is critical to
interrogate the categories of identity mobilized by ‘local resistance’ to globalization before
valorizing this resistance (Oza, 2006).
Epilogue
The increasing acceptance of critiques like post-colonialism, post-traditionalism, post-
structuralism and postmodernism has opened a new avenue to understand the interpretive
meanings, inherent messages and the projective mystical realities that are deeply rooted in the
vast corpus of ancient Indian narrative, literature and mythologies. Re-reading, re-interpreting
and re-projecting the contextuality of sources that are rich resources of the past would be helpful
in tracing the backdrops of Indian crisis and to modify the image and identity. The issues of
historical legacy and cultural downfall yet not fully analyzed from the viewpoint of “inside
reality”— seeing the world through the eyes of its people. The acceptance and emergence of new
notions, ways, perspectives, subaltern views, oral history, biographical resources, heritage
ecology, etc. are some of the recent concerns enriching the field of historical geography of India.
Even the historians are now frequently using geographical skills and resources; remember it is
said: “geography without history is a mirror without frame” (cf. Mittal & Dua, 2005).
References: pp. 152-159.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Authors:
Prof. Rana P. B. Singh (b. 1950), MA, PhD, Professor (spel. Cultural Geography & Heritage
Studies) at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP 221005. He is involved in studying and
promoting the heritage planning and spiritual tourism in Varanasi region since last two decades as
promoter, collaborator and organiser. On these topics he lectured at various centres in America,
Europe, East Asia and Australia. His publications include over 170 papers and 31 books on these
subjects, including Banaras Region: A Spiritual and Cultural Guide (2002), Panchakroshi Yatra
(2002), Pilgrimage to the Buddhist Places (2003), Literary Images of Banaras (2004), and
Banaras, a Heritage City of India: Geography, History and Bibliography (2008).
E-mails: ranapbs@gmail.com
Dr. Ravi S. Singh (b. 1971), MA, MPhil, PhD, is Associate Professor, Dept. of Geography at
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi UP 221005. His doctoral dissertation deals with the “Sacred
Geography of Goddesses in India, with special reference to the Varanasi Region”. In the past, he
has been associated with several study and tour programs of the foreign countries, including from
Japan and Germany. He has presented about two dozen of papers in the international and national
seminars, and has published several papers, a monograph, Paths of Development in Arunachal
Pradesh (NBC, New Delhi, 2005), and also an anthology, Musing on Indian Geography: Inner
Vision and Outer Exposure (Rawat Publ., Jaipur, 2008).
E-mails: drravissingh@gmail.com
[171.08]. Singh, Rana P. B. and Singh Ravi S. 2008. Cultural Geography, India: 2004-08; in,
2008. Indian National Science Academy, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002:
pp. 70-76, & refs. Pp. 162-171. << in this file pp. 41 – 60 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Progress in Cultural Geography, India: 2004-08

Rana P. B. Singh & Ravi S. Singh
The diversities, distinctions and desperateness scattered all over India and at the other end
unifying forces of traditions made this country a web of cultural whole. It is with these
characteristics in studying cultural geography of India emerges a variety of topics. In the present
review emphasis is placed on research that has been conducted in or about India. The first attempt
to review the literature on cultural geography of India is presented by Wescoat et al. (2003). In
the evolution and growth of geography in India since late 1990s a cultural turn took place through
reinterpreting the ancient Indian classics using multidisciplinary approaches and illustrating them
with field studies and contemporary contextuality (cf. Wescoat, et al. 2003). Examining
‘Indianness’ in geographical context is a subject of self-retrospection as well as re-assessment
(Singh, R.P.B. 2008e). Presently, issues of conversation and contestation have received more
attention, like fluidity and dynamics of tradition, lineages of art, inter-culturalism and the
question of body, dimensions of woman power in India, legacy of Gandhian politics, the
humanist perspective and the civilizing role of history, and the debate on science in post
independence India. The long-standing and continuing debate on Indian culture and on what
constitutes 'Indianness' manifests itself in many ways, some more subtle than others.
Since the turn of the 21st century, a review of good number of works published on
cultural geography of India, mostly by scholars from abroad; indicate that this branch has mostly
been used as a way and approach narrating or analyzing landscape and culture, putting aside the
theoretical construction and critique of the philosophical ideas as popular in the West (Singh,
R.P.B. and Singh, R.S. 2004). The acceptance of regional and territorial use of geographic skill
in social sciences is now a common practice, yet in cultural context, territoriality is a prominent
tool (Delage and Headley, 2008b). Mobilizing the metaphors of pregnancy and lactation to
address the imperatives arising from British academic geography’s postcolonial position has
influenced geographers dealing with culture of India, especially fascinating to foreign scholars.
In recent debate geography as a discipline is considered ‘pregnant’ but ‘in trouble’ to
illustrate the paradoxical struggle of the discipline to be a global discipline whilst at the same
time marginalizing the voices and perspectives that make it global. Moreover, geography is also
considered as a discipline whose ‘milk is flowing’– suggesting ways that the discipline can
acknowledge its global interconnectedness to produce a mutually responsible academic agency
(Noxolo, et al. 2008). In cultural geography discourses in the West, critique of representational
and non-representational context, expression and exposition are given more emphasis (Lorimer,
2007); however in India more emphasis is continues to be laid on descriptive-narrative and
ethnological interpretation. Cartographic representation and mapping of attributes of cultural
heritage has recently got attention by the NATMO, covering aspects like physical and cultural
bases of ancient India, religions and philosophy, Bhakti movements, social reforms movements,
art and culture, and performing arts, and also short introduction to each of the maps (Nag, 2007).
Cultural Journey: Pilgrimage and Sacred place

Started in 1970s by Surinder Bhardwaj through his pioneering publication on Hindu Places of
Pilgrimages (1973), study of pilgrimages has not been popular in comparison to Indology.
However, it has received attention recently in geography too. The tradition of Bhardwaj has been
continued by Stoddard and his associates, though taking only numerical dimension (Foster and
Stoddard, 2008). In a study of history of religions attribute of space has been taken prominently
as a basic frame (Zeiler, 2008). As a cultural practice, pilgrimage and pilgrimage places are in
continual transformation as the societal forces shaping them are changed. As with any cultural
practice, pilgrimage is both a window and mirror, revealing and reflecting the effects of these
forces in people’s lives. This continues in modern India, and has become even more complex as
Hinduism in the Diasporas has extended Hindu sacred horizons. Pilgrimage to such spirituo-
magnetic nexus is an expression of the richness and variety of life and culture within India, and
wherever else, Hindus are settled (Bhardwaj and Lochtefeld, 2004).
Use of theoretical frame of pilgrimage studies in a geographical perspective has attracted
people even from religious studies, especially to emphasize Victor Turner’s constructs, territorial
context and emerging conflicts (cf. Delage, 2004, 2005, 2008; also Singh, R.P.B. 2006). The
study of feminine divine and her association with different cults, traditions has proved the
potential capacity of geographic skills in narrating the deeper spirits, as exemplified in the study
of Chhinnamasta goddess at Rajarappa (Singh, R.S. 2008b). Study of the origin and growth, and
the role of various active agents in the process of making a local goddess, indicates the locality in
time frame converges into regionality through continuity and increasing pace of devotees and
visitors and their supporting auxiliary functionaries (Singh, R.S. 2007). Conversely, the
universality submerges into locality like in case of goddess shrine at Kamachcha (Singh, R.S.
2008a).
In pilgrimage studies using ‘text’ as a way to see the past and understanding ‘context’ is
to see the contemporary situation receiving strong attention with reference to image worship that
looks simple but it possesses the complex, fluid, and contested nature of religiosity and cultural
underpinnings. The five essays in a recent anthology deal with these themes. The studies establish
the notion of ‘crossing the religious boundaries’ from locality to universality (Granoff, and
Shinohara, 2004a).
Essays included in the Proceedings of a Conference on ‘Sacred Space and Sacred
Biography in Asian Religious Traditions’ explore the role of sacred place in creating a specific
local religious identity (Granoff, P. and Shinohara, K. 2004b).
Use of religion in public awakening and consciousness in the elections is also a field of
enquiry in contemporary cultural geography by British scholars, e.g. in the context of feeling of
nationalism and reformative frame for maintenance of identity and also as a ‘show’ (Oza, 2004).
Additionally, the study of contrapuntal geographies of threat and security, while making
comparison with USA and Israel has also been a new addition that reflects the similarities,
transformations and changing life ways (Oza, 2007).
Studying the social and cultural issues as being the root cause of present political crises in
Nagaland, Kibami (2004) propounds that ethno-linguistism is an important dimension to
understand the present crisis, especially in providing a strong base not only to understand
language dynamics but also to help in language planning in a multilingual country like India. It is
noted that the in-group clashes among the Nagas have bearings on their separate identities, but
the mass conversion to Christianity in Nagaland has brought them together (Kibami, 2004).
A study of topographic symbolism of pilgrim landscapes offers an insight into aspects of
the mother goddess' divinity. The study of Pavagadh Hill in Gujarat, notes that the primeval
landscape of bare rock, ephemeral springs, and layered vegetation, has evolved into a cultural
landscape of worship in temples and shrines, small communities that draw their sustenance from
pilgrimage, and holy organizations that facilitate and manage it (Sinha, 2006b). A study of
multiculturalism and integrative form of culture and built architecture has been undertaken by
geographers-turned architects and their team, e.g. case study of the Yamuna riverfront (Sinha,
Ruggles and Wescoat, 2004).
Study of sacred geography of Puri emphasizes the variety of existing religious centres and
landscape that comprising temples, maths, Sahis inhabited by ritual functionaries, sacred tanks,
holy trees and the auxiliary and supportive secular institutions and organizations (Patnaik, 2006).
The study reveals the blending of sacred and profane, thus resulting to the ‘wholeness’ in the holy
territory of Puri.
Ethno geographical study of Sun goddess festival in Bhojpur Region illustrates the
interlinking chain from locality to universality (Singh, R.P.B. 2008d). similarly, the applicability
and contextuality of Gaia theory in Indian culture has been tested in a cross-cultural perspective,
emphasizing the roots in Indian culture (Singh, R.P.B. 2008e). The most sacred month for
Hindus, i.e. Karttika, records variety of festivals and celebrations that make the sacredscape a
fantastic web of culture (Pintchman, 2005).
The conflation of the West with modernity is being challenged by new critical
interventions on the themes of ‘occidentalism’ and ‘plural modernities’. In this context an
interesting study compares two important figures in the articulation and invention of the West, the
Japanese ‘Westerniser’ Fukuzawa Yukichi and the Indian poet and advocate of spiritual Asia
Rabindranath Tagore. Fukuzawa and Tagore developed contrasting narratives both of the West
and of Asia, narratives which they employed to express novel and distinctive visions of the nature
of modern life (Bonnett, 2005).
Cultural Notions and Changing Reflections
The literary images and fictive literature are rich cultural resource in explaining the roots
of culture and traditions that developed in the past and continued as legacy and continuity of
maintaining identity (cf. Dhussa, 2007). An attempt is made to recapture the past, relocate
priorities, recover lost myths and unveil the process of nation construction, an effort to unfold a
multi-layered reality (Jain, 2006). A recent study of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy is a good
example that portraits the variety, distinctions and contrasts of Indian culture (Festino, 2005).
Classical study of folk art in India, illustrated with Mithila art and painting, has also drawn
special attention jointly by an expatriot Indian and an American geographers (Cotton and Karan,
2007).
A comment by Narayan on the “false geography” of his “imaginary town” provides the
departure-point for a discussion of Malgudi, which argues against the frequently held view that it
is a metonym for a quintessential India, or South India. Taking its cue from the cultural
geographer Doreen Massey's assertion that “the identities of places are always unfixed, contested
and multiple”, the paper contends that Malgudi is a multifaceted and transitional site, an interface
between older conceptions of “authentic” Indianness and contemporary views that stress the
ubiquity and inescapability of change in the face of modernity (Thieme, 2007). The mystical,
erotic and metaphysical expression of Indian art has influenced the contemporary American art an
exemplified in a recent study where Indian deities, mandala, chakra, body-soul metaphor and
cosmicised representations are given preference (Myers, 2005).
Examining class, gender, and work in Tiruppur, South India, where export of knitted
garments has been led by a networked fraternity of owners of working-class and Gounder caste
origins, it is noted that the class mobility is hinging on their “toil.” Chari (2004) very admirably
portrays how history, geography, gender, and work practice shape local sites of global
production. The issue of caste and land quality in Bihar has intricate relationship that led to
hierarchy, dominance and the power relationship (Thakur and Sinha, 2007). Mapping the
changing profile of reservation debates on caste, class and politics in India, a study has argued for
developing new paradigms for the discussion of caste and interrogates the democratic and secular
roles of caste in relation to class and politics (Pankaj, 2007).
The impact of cultural globalization with special reference to Kolkata (Calcutta),
illustrates how the City-symbol of Bengali culture, is changing fast under the sway of
globalization in which the traditionality of the culture is lost for the several ongoing processes—
may it be called feminism or postmodernism! (Ray, 2005). Kashmir, as known internationally for
proxy militias, Islamic terrorists, and human rights abuses by the Indian security forces, is
reflected in its regionality called Kashmiriyat, the language of belonging as expressed by
Kashmiris themselves, prior to foreign rulers, colonization, and the creation of national
boundaries (Zutshi, 2004). Language has played an important role in not only identity formation
but also “contextual coexistence” of various linguistic groups and understanding of spatiality of
languages and their explanation is imperative (Ishtiaq, 2005).
The issue of women’s empowerment in India, with reference to socio-spatial disparities in
regional and societal contexts is a good example of practicing modern cultural geography (Gupta
and Yesudian, 2006). Gender concerns in coal mining displacement and rehabilitation in India
emphasize the engendering mining communities (Ahmad, and Lahiri-Dutt, 2006). The journey of
women’s struggles and their emotional and intellectual responses to patriarchal control and
imposition has received a scholarly analysis (Jain, 2006a). Hindi cinema offers a means of
examining the evolving geographies of the multi-sited, multi-national Indian diaspora and its
relationship to the ‘homeland’. Mohammad’s paper (2007) seeks to elaborate an understanding of
Bollywood’s visibility in the new Diaspora as a response to political, economic, and
technological transformations that have taken place in India.
An overview of the Sufi traditions of South Asia emphasizes some emerging research
angles on the problematic convergences between texts, territories and the transcendent elements
in Sufism (Green, 2004). Islam as it is practiced by millions of Muslims in South Asia, has an
empirical validity and is a dynamic process of adjustment and accommodation as well as conflict
with other religions, with which it coexists’ (Ahmad and Reifeld, 2004).
Landscape, Cultural Heritage, Contestation and Context
In the frame of archetype the natural, spatial and design; attributes of landscape in India is
studied and illustrated with examples from Braj, Pavagarh, village plans, and pilgrimage centres
and that landscape symbols express all that a culture holds dear and externalise deeply felt
emotions. It is further observed that as Indian society modernizes; secular thinking in the
workplace and public sphere replaces religiosity ordained tasks (Sinha, 2006a).
Within the time frame of the 12th through the 14th centuries, a particularly creative period
in Gujarat, Islamic influence has been predominant that do not necessarily fall into specific
sectarian categories. In fact, the local traditions formed its ‘communities’ as exemplified in the
Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit inscriptions is illustrated in Maru-Gurjara style at Bhadreshvar as
studied by Patel (2004). Using a case study of the sacred complex of Tirumala-Tirupati, a popular
pilgrimage centre in south India, a paper explores causal linkages between different factors that
shape the environment in a pilgrimage centre, and also notes the environmental effects i.e.
seasonality on traditional pilgrimage to be limited over time and space. It is argued that
significant changes in scale, frequency and character of such visitation over the past few decades
reflect new pressures on the environment of sacred sites (Shinde, 2007).
The issue of heritage contestation has recently drawn attention of historical geographers,
architects and conservators. Some of the UNESCO sites in India have been recently studied
(Singh, R.P.B. 2008f). Champaner-Pavagarh, like other heritage sites in India, exhibits both the
palimpsest of landscape layers inscribed over time and the juxtaposition of Hindu and Islam
traditions in architecture and city planning (see Sinha, 2004). Both Hindu and Islamic cultures
exploited the visual potentials of the topography. The concept of cultural landscape as a heritage
resource is a recent development on the line of old idea of historic conservation and certainly did
not guide monument-centric colonial efforts at restoration (Sinha and Harkness, 2006). On this
line the Yamuna riverfront around the Taj Mahal is suggested as ‘cultural heritage landscape’.
This also raises the issue of suspicion of tension between the Hindus and the Muslims at some
places (Sinha, 2005). Defining heritage territory under the strict control of heritage law will help
avoiding conflicts and contestation together with active public participation. This can be
exemplified with a case study of riverfront heritagescape of Varanasi where history, culture and
the lifeways together resulted into evolution of a unique landscape, i.e. faithscape (Singh, R.P.B.
2004). Studies dealing with the historical processes involved in assessing the heritage area of
Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India refer the failure of the mechanism and also prioritization of
the concern for heritage preservation (Sinha et al., 2004a, 2004b). Historical formation and the
deterritorialisation of the Muslim minority in India, soon after independence have been noticed
prominently resulting in diverse structure and forms of sacred landscape (Delage, R. 2007).
Following the scale of UNESCO World Heritage the riverfront of Varanasi is also
considered as landscape of contestation, which needs critical appraisal for urban-regional
development (Singh, R.P.B. 2004a, 2007b, 2008f; also Dar, 2005). Maintenance of cultural
mosaic, religious multiculturalism and blending of diversification and distinctiveness of lifeworld
make this city eternal (Singh, R.P.B. and Singh, R.S. 2008). Study of another UNESCO site of
Khajuraho refers to re-establishment of the ancient glories by re-interpretation of the old literature
together with conservational strategy to save it (Singh, R.P.B. 2006e).
Based on the aesthetical and conservational studies of water with reference to design
themes, illustrated with South Asian examples from medieval history it is noted that if history is
any guide, water will not be a cause of war in the 21st century’ (Wescoat, 2005). Inspired by the
conservation work of Sir Bernard Feilden with a study of conserving Mughal Garden, it is
concluded that historical waterworks help us rediscover traditional methods of water conservation
that ultimately enhance human experiences and understanding (Wescoat, 2006). Metaphorically,
Indian landscape was an icon of garden as in Mughal period (16th-17th centuries). Emperors
realized and used it as political metaphor. This study indicates the historical ways to project
environmental well-being (Wescoat, 2007a). Recent explorations are made to understand and
navigate the spectrum of cultural conflicts associated with landscape heritage conservation. To
link the case of Champaner–Pavagadh with the theme of human rights, the six types of conflict
examined, may be viewed as progression from cultural to socio-economic and ultimately to
human rights (Wescoat, 2007b).
Varanasi, the Holy city & Symbol of Indian Culture
Considered and mytholised as city of Shiva, Varanasi has been distinctively represented in
the tradition of lithographs showing this city (Chakraverty, 2005). Since the last twenty the city is
facing the problem of illegal encroachments and threats (Dar, 2005; also Doytchinov and
Hohmann, 2004). Mahamaya temple is a representative of such a cultural symbol that is also a
subject of threat (Dwivedi, 2005). The study of boatman and their role in the formation of life
along the riverfront is itself a ‘lifeworld’ of its own and is considered to be a special feature
(Doron, 2005a, 2005b). The riverfront of the Ganga at Varanasi is in itself a sacredscape where a
unique faithscape emerged and constantly awakened by rituals performed there (Singh, R.P.B.
2007c, and 2007d).
The role of historicity and cultural patronage during 18th and 19th centuries has been a new
wave of revitalizing the city’s religious landscape and related architectural built-up; in fact in this
period the city has been re-created to fit into the ancient panorama of its sacredscapes (Feitag,
2005). A monumental work that integrates architecture, photography, cosmology, culture and
geography, illustrated with the pilgrimage routes and symbols in Banaras is an example of
cultural geography of a city (Gutschow, 2005).
The Heidelberg University has completed its 3-years project dealing with Visualised
Space in Banaras: Images, Maps, and Representations (Gaenszle, and Gengnagel, 2006). Many
other associated attributes of codifying the maps and processional routes, field study based on the
ancient maps and texts have also added new dimension (Gengnagel, 2005a, 2005b, 2006). The
behavioural study of pilgrims and tourists in Varanasi further support the image of the city as
‘holy centre’ and place of pilgrimages for Hindus and also for others (Rana, P.S. and Singh,
R.P.B. 2004). The study of life style and lifeways of Muslim communities shows space affinity
and temporal consequences that influenced Hindus and reciprocally influenced by too, thus
emerged the multiplicity of culture (cf. Lee,. 2005; Showeb, 2004-2005). Another study of daily
data for continuous two year of the tourists and visitors are used to test the theory of Self
Organized Criticality that supports the pattern and ordering of chaos and fractals (Malville, 2004;
Malville, and Singh, 2004; Singh and Malville, 2005a). The spatial structure of the goddesses’
sites in Banaras forms many such patterns, where shapes like triangle, square, circle, pentagon,
hexagram, and other meet (Singh and Singh 2008a, 2008b, 2008c). The detailed analysis of nine
mother goddesses in Banaras also supports the same pattern (Wilke, 2006). Similarly in case of
sites associated to Shiva, Ganesha and Surya (sun god) in Banaras also form series of alignments
that converge to various symbolic shapes (Singh, R.P.B. 2008a).
Even in the establishment and growth of the Banaras Hindu University, the archetypal
cosmogonic design has been taken as a base for the basic plan (Singh, R.P.B. 2007a). The city
has maintained its cultural image through the processes of spatial manifestation and set breathe of
the Indian culture (Singh, R.P.B. 2007b). The study of various cultural attributes and variety of
landscapes has presented the amalgamation of culture where multiplicity of religion and society
converges into mosaic (cf. Mitchell and Singh 2005). Iconographic and cosmic design of
goddesses in Varanasi reflected the deeper sense of cultural astronomy and positively
corresponding alignments (Singh, and Singh, 2006). The role of goddess in Hindu society has a
frame of consciousness that developed in the past and further emerged as a ‘motherly’ force,
linking humanity to divinity (Ståhle, 2004). To activate and re-energise such rituals many old
healing trees and their products are still used (White, 2005). This study is further comparable and
projected with the similarities and contrasts with the goddess territory of Vindhyachal, a
neighbouring sacred territory which emerged in the frame of ‘landscape as temple’ and spatial
manifestation of all the 52 Shaktipithas scattered all-over India (Singh, R.P.B. and Singh, R.S.
2008b, also 2008c)
Gandhi, a Cultural Symbol and a Vision
In the 21st century Mahatma Gandhi has been considered as ‘icon’ of India and as a way
to make this world more humane, peaceful and harmonious; that is how in geographical debate
emphasis has been laid on his contribution to understand development, human development,
ecological and political practices (Singh, R.P.B. 2006c, 2007b).
The making of one of modern India’s most enduring political symbols, khadi: a
homespun, home-woven cloth has been explored with the background of image of Mahatma
Gandhi who clothed simply in a loincloth and plying a spinning wheel as familiar around the
world. Trivedi’s work brings together social history and the study of visual culture to account for
khadi as both symbol and commodity (Trivedi, 2007). Weber (2006) noted that it is difficult to
understand Gandhi without understanding his spiritual quest. Gandhi’s importance as an
environmental thinker may be marked in terms of the strategies and vistas opened up by his
pursuits, both public and private, towards a sustained animal and environmental liberation
struggle. In fact, Gandhi’s environmental thinking is rooted in his larger philosophical and moral
thinking (Bilimoria, 2004).
Gandhi’s thought on ethical and humanistic frame of political thought is of a state
consisting of self-governing village communities small enough for ‘love’ to be a practical reality
and for communal approval and disapproval to be effective moral forces without the need for
routine and formalized coercion. The ends of such a state will be achieved not through threats and
force, but through persuasion and consensus (Adams and Dyson, 2003). Against Nehru’s high
modernist vision, Gandhi’s postmodern view of India’s future has been more suited to India but it
is tyranny that has never been used (Rudolph and Rudolph, 2006). These ideas have not yet
examined in the field of geography.
Epilogue
Geography matters because it affects human life and the natural environment, and serves as force
in the formation of landscape. In a country of such rich cultural traditions and ancient civilization
there are ample areas, issues and objects of serious and comprehensive research in cultural
geography, emphasizing the classical, traditional, transformational and futurist approaches to be
used to understand and reinterpret the meaning, metaphor, symbols and the inherent messages
that may help awakening and formation of new vision to serve the society better. With the
emergence and acceptance of interdisciplinary approaches, study of cultural geography has
acquired a renewed importance in the present than ever before. Recent philosophical constructs
like Gaia theory, visioning spiritual tourism, sacralising space and time, interrelationships
between mystical tradition and corresponding cultural astronomy, etc. are strengthening the
corpus and field of cultural geography. Issues like changing nature of cultural adaptation,
attitudinal and ethical, role of religious movement and pilgrimages, sacred places and message of
peace, reinterpreting the old texts and their relevance today, India’s message to the world order,
and Diasporas etc. are yet waiting serious attention. The exposition of experiential feelings, like
the novel, the meeting point of culture and technology, ecological order and conservation, saving
and serving the humanity are the other areas where Indian geographers are lagging behind.
References: pp. 162-171.

Cultural Geography
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30th International Geography Congress, Glasgow, UK (August 15-20, 2004). INSA
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Singh, Rana P.B. and Singh, Ravi S., 2008b. Sacred Places of Goddesses in India: Spatiality and
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Asia. Essays in memory of David Kinsley, Sundeep Publ., New Delhi.
Singh, Rana P.B., Malville, John M. and Marshall, Anne L., 2008. Death and Transformation at
Gaya: Pilgrimage, Ancestors, and the Sun, in The Sacred and Complex Landscapes of
Pilgrimage, John M. Malville and B. N. Saraswati (eds.), DK Printworld, Delhi, pp. 110-
121.
Singh, Ravi S., 2007. Mari Mata Darbar, a Local Goddess Shrine: A Study in Ethno-geography of
a Sacred Place, Oriental Anthropologist, 7 (2): 323-336.
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P.B. Singh and Ravi S. Singh (eds.), Sundeep Publ., New Delhi, pp. 145 – 160.
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International Studies of Heritage Studies, 10 (2): 117-128.
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Jörg Gengnagel (eds.), South Asia Institute, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 69-94.
Zeiler, Xenia, 2008. The Ten Mahavidyas’ Yatra–A Contemporary Pilgrimage in Banaras, in
Sacred Geography of Goddess in South Asia: Essays in memory of David Kinsley, Rana
P.B. Singh and Ravi S. Singh. (eds.), Sundeep Publ., New Delhi, pp. 195 – 210.
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Kashmir, Hurst and Co., London.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Authors:
(2002), Pilgrimage to the Buddhist Places (2003), Literary Images of Banaras (2004), and
Banaras, a Heritage City of India: Geography, History and Bibliography (2009), Uprooting
Geographic thought in India (CSP 2009), Geographical Thoughts in India (CSP 2009), and
Banaras, Making of India’s Heritage City (CSP 2009).
E-mails: ranapbs@gmail.com
Dr. Ravi S. Singh (b. 1971), MA, MPhil, PhD, is Associate Professor, Dept. of Geography at Banaras
Hindu University, Varanasi UP 221005. His doctoral dissertation deals with the “Sacred
Japan and Germany. He has presented about two dozen of papers in the international and national
seminars, and has published several papers, a monograph, Paths of Development in Arunachal
Pradesh (NBC, New Delhi, 2005), and also an anthology, Indian Geography: Perspectives,
Concerns and Issues (Rawat Publ., Jaipur, 2009).
E-mails: drravissingh@gmail.com
[148-04]. Singh, Rana P.B. and Singh, Ravi S. 2004 h. Cultural Geography of India, 2000-04; in
2004). INSA National Committee of Geography, New Delhi: pp. 139-146. << in this
file pp. 53– 60 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Progress in Cultural Geography of India, 2000-04

Prof. Rana P. B. Singh and Dr. Ravi S. Singh
Dept. of Geography, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP 221005, INDIA
1. Introduction
Of course the interest in understanding relations between human response and the
landscape setting has its deeper historical roots in Indian tradition, but its banner as ‘cultural
geography’ is a product of early 20th century American geography. Cultural geographers have
tended to use historical, archival, ecological, literary, travelogue, ethnographic and associated
methods to investigate localised patterns of religion, language, diet, arts, and customs. Among
such themes the vividity of ‘cultural landscape studies’ has been a core concern for cultural
geographers.
India has its own history of contrasts ― ecological, religious, linguistic, historical,
political and eco-psychological. At present, India is divided into thirty-three states, embracing 190
religious groups with 1,652 languages and dialects in twelve language families with twenty-four
different scripts, and 3,742 castes and sub-castes further grouped into 4,635 communities. Before
becoming a British colony, the country had never been a united sovereign state; instead, it had
been an amalgam of various independent republics. Historically, successive invaders (e.g. the
Huns, Turks, Kushans, Mughals) became part of this culture, and Hindu society accepted them all.
This multiplicity of historical and cultural changes makes the personality of a country known as
India: ‘Bharat’. The diversities, distinctions and desperateness, and at the other end unifying
forces of traditions made this country a web of cultural whole. It is with these characteristics in
studying cultural geography of India emerges a variety of topics. In the present review emphasis
is placed on research that has been conducted in or about India. The first attempt to review the
literature on cultural geography of India is presented by Wescoat & others (2003). In the
evolution and growth of geography in India since late 1990s a cultural turn took place through
reinterpreting the ancient Indian classics using multidisciplinary approaches (cf. Wescoat, J.L. et
al. 2003). During 2000-04 a good number of works published, of course mostly by scholars from
abroad; all the important works are taken into consideration and are arranged under the six
themes.
2. Culture: the human response
In an ancient civilisation like India which maintain its continuity through traditions, the
critical appraisal of terms and their regional meaning is a good source to understand the
intricacies, including tradition of caste system and its link to development in the past (Bronger, D.
2004.). This perspective can further be seen with reference to ideology and life philosophies of the
people that lead to develop their traditions and use of resources (Chari, S. 2003). Caste dominance
is also taken as one of the indices for making socio-cultural regions (Efremova, I. 2004); this idea
was developed by an American geographer Joseph Schwartzberg in later 1960s. Of course, the
study of caste has not been the first choice of cultural geographers, it has directly linked to the
issues of regional inequality and regional diversity, which are rooted in territorial expression.
Similar work has been done in case of Arunachal Pradesh, with emphasis on the ethic minority
and the cultural traditions that fits to the environmental setting and sensibility (Singh, R.S. 1999).
Caste, ethic groups and the issue of gender are closely tied up in the mountain environment like
Arunachal Pradesh, where gender serves as important role in the division of labour and other
religious activities (Singh, R.S. 2001). The tribal agriculture depends upon the topography and
the age-old tradition of agricultural practices and food habits (Singh, R. S. 2000b).
The Indian culture has its psychological set up, structuring the mind and constructing the
space that by getting culturised turns to a distinct place; altogether this results to the formation of
a cultural personality (Gupta, D. 2000). One has also to note that transcendence of geographic
cover always work in the formation of the base, of course one is free to project, accept of neglect
it (Singh, R.S. 2004). There are examples that people from a place when settled at other place they
manifest their culture and spatially transmit to their neighbouring culture through adaptation and
effects, e.g. in case of Tibetan refugees in exile situation living in India and receiving spiritual
guidance by HH Dalai Lama (Mitra, C. and Desai, M. 2004). The spiritual essence of Indian
culture has been a major driving force in the development of creativity, which can easily be
visualised in the context of spatial differentiation (Bhawuk, D.P.S. 2003).
The cultural response to nature turned to ethical norms in ancient civilisation like India
where continuity and maintenance passed together in the sustenance of nature and man; that faith
system is referred as dharma (Singh, Rana 2000a). In the medieval period the vegetal world has
taken a part of built space and special setting as Mughal garden that also suits to maintain the
environmental aesthetically beautiful and healthy (Wescoat, J.L. 1999). The development of
granaries around fort and their association with water and architectural design made the place of
garden distinct (Wescoat, J.L. 2000b). The adaptation of natural channels and man-made
watersheds later taken as unit for regional planning, especially in the context of resource appraisal
and cultural adaptability (Wescoat, J.L. 2000a). It has also been noted that in spite of drastic speed
of urban sprawl over the peri-urban areas, there also exist the dominance of rural culture and
agricultural practices (Singh, Rana and Sen, C. 2001).
Of course environmental determinism faced a critical challenge, yet in the isolated areas,
the system of cultural adaptation promotes such relationship to the natural environment like in
the river island of Brahmaputra (Bhagbati, A.K. 2004). In the Brahmaputra riverine island,
Majuli, is facing problem of serious human intervention and threat, where once was a strong
integrity of ecology and culture (Hazarika, A. 2004).
3. Cultural Ethnology: text, context and narrative
Cultural ecology is expressed in terms of ethnology; and rural dwellings can be taken as an
index of cultural adaptation like in case of Haryana (Chamar, K.V. 2002). Similarly in case of
Indian village or Siwalik landscape taken as ‘open system’ of social and cultural interaction has
also to be considered on the scale of biological systems (Grover, N. 2004a, and 2004b). The belief
systems also make a place distinct where caste plays an important role in the functioning of
society; in case of Varanasi the pilgrimage function makes it unique (Gesler, W.M. and Pierce, M.
2000). The studies from Gujarat (Kolis in Kheda, and Vankars in Baroda district), West Bengal
(e.g. Lodhas) and community in Tiruvannamalai, in the context of consumption and migration
shows close affinity to religious boundaries (Gidwani, V. and Sivaramakrishnan, K. 2003).
Similar regional pattern of life styles, habitat and economy is also observed in the Nilgiri hills
(Noble, W.A. 2004). The Nilgiri hills are also marked for the custom of worshipping spirit stones,
the history of which go in the early phases of settlement (Noble, W.; Jebadhas, W. and Mulley, P.
2000). The tribal areas are earmarked by their animistic religion, close nature association, which
influence the low educational status and literacy as in case of North-East India (Sharma, H.N.
2004). The issue of gender and classical music has its affinity to colonial modernity in south
India, mostly because of the fact that the classical music has been protected and patronised under
the colonial rule (Weidman, A. 2003). The impact of tourism and modernisation have been
responsible for the environmental change and depletion of the scenic beauty, e.g. in the Kullu
valley of Himachal Pradesh (Coward, W, 2001). The Tibetan refugees settled in Indian hilly areas
have carried their traditions that fit to their environmental setting however together they have also
leaned the ways of socio-cultura;l adaptation (Mitra, C. and Desai, M. 2004).
4. Cultural Practice: consciousness and performances
In the process of environmental adaptation and quest for survival, society learns
management of the natural resources and natural hazards (Gardner, J.S. 2002). In this process role
of women in the hilly tract of Kulu has been found sustainable and good example of societal
consciousness (Bingeman, K. 2001). The Bishnoi society follow such ways of natural
conservation as religious practices (Qureshi, M. H. and Kumar, S. 2004). The wide regional
differences in the food habit are another example of such tradition (Chakravarti, A.K. 2004).
Television has an important role in making social change in the rural areas (Johnson, K. 2000).
Religion has a catalyst role played in geopolitics and the regional identity (Racine, J-L. 2002),
and also for deeper experiences of nature through pilgrimages (Singh, Rana and Fukunaga, M.
2000). Through the survival age-old cultural tradition a new consciousness is promoted, which
will also promote sustainable heritage tourism (Rana, P.S. and Singh, Rana 2001; Singh, Rana
and Rana, P.S. 2000). On the similar lines, the assessment and appraisal of heritage resources are
essential on the line of ecotourism (Rana, P.S. 2003) and behavioural planning (Rana, P.S. and
Singh, Rana 2004). In case of Varanasi the riverfront is considered as heritage to be enlisted in
the UNESCO List (Singh, Rana and Dar, V. 2002; Singh, Rana; Dar, V. and Rana, P.S. 2001).
On the line of ‘production of space’ as propounded by Henri Lefebvre, successful test has been
made to use his triad of inhabiting, constructing and representing in case of Varanasi (Tiwari, R.
2003). Landscape conservation and watershed planning are the other measures which help to save
a symbolic monument like Taj, and several forts and gardens in western India (cf. Wescoat, J.L.
2000 and 2000a). Film is an important media to express and understand the message of landscape
(Dhussa, R.C. 2000). The classical debate of strong relationship between landscape religion has
recently been reinterpreted (Heehs, P. 2002; Sen, G. and Banerjee, A. 2001; Sharma, M. 2001).
5. Cultural Manifestation: Spatiality and Astronomy
The behavioural dimension of visitors and tourists also possess the spatial dimension,
including the site of belonging and naïve cultural tradition (Brinkmann, R. 2002). The detailed
study of different aspects of spatial association in mapping the religious landscape of Banaras and
local images has an interdisciplinary approach and a joint venture to promote a cultural and
religious atlas (Gaenszle, M. and Gengnagel, J. 2004; also Singh, Rana 2004a). In this context
case study of washermen in Banaras has helped to develop a frame of social construction of space
(Schütte, von S. 2003a, 2003b, 2004). The practice of stone worship and funeral practices in the
Nilgiris are example of landscape and religious relationship as object of spatial affinity (Jebadhas,
W.; Mulley, P. and Noble, W. 2000). The aspect of spatiality has also been analysed in the
cultural-ecological setting and specific feature like house types (Marh, B.S.2004). In a
metaphysical world of divine realm and its spatial transposition on the earth has been portrayed
with the combination of visual images, archetypal connotation and exposures, exemplified with
Banaras (Makkuni, R. and Khanna, M. 2002).
The inherent root of astronomy that followed in locating sacred sites and establishing
divine images has been the main object of cultural astronomy. In this analysis use of GPS and its
resultant orientation and alignments provide important clues to the astronomical interpretation.
The interpretation of holy territory of Vindhyachal as representation of Shri Yantra is one such
example where the two series of triangles makes holy hexagram (Singh, Rana 2000c; 63; 64). The
spatial structure of the goddesses sites in Banaras forms many such patterns, where shapes like
triangle, square, circle, pentagon, hexagram, and other meet (Singh, Rana and Singh, R.S. 2004a,
2004b, 2004c). The detailed analysis of nine mother goddesses in Banaras also supports the same
pattern (Wilke, A. 2004a). Similarly in case of sites associated to Shiva, Ganesha and Surya (sun
god) in Banaras also form series of alignments that converges to various symbolic shapes that
described in the texts (Singh, Rana and Fukunaga, M. 2004).
6. Cultural Journey: pilgrimage to sacred place
Of course started in 1970s by a geographer Surinder Bhardwaj through his pioneering

publication on Hindu Places of Pilgrimages (1973), the study of pilgrimages (sacred journeys)
has not been popular in comparison to Indology where the dimension of space and time also been
accepted recently (e.g. Dubey, 2000, and 2000a; Lukens-Bull, R. 2004; Miyamoto, H. 2003), or
anthropology (Nath, V. 2000). However, recently it has received attention in geography too. The
tradition of Bhardwaj has been continued by Stoddard and his associates, of course only taking
numerical dimension (Foster, G. and Stoddard, R. 2004). The study of Banaras/ Varanasi has
been very popular for the study of pilgrimages in various contexts, like visitors’ perception and
images (Gesler, W.M. and Pierce, M. 2000; Gupta, S.S. 2003), philosophic view in time (Lannoy,
R. 2002), experiential exposition (Schilder, R. and Callewaert, W. 2000) For the first time in the
history of geography an attempt has been made to prepare a masterly spiritual and cultural guide
of the Banaras Region where mapping, narration, symbolism, altogether framed a sacred path for
the pilgrims and the serious tourists (Singh, Rana and Rana, P.S. 2002). The study of the fifteen
sites where the Buddha had been attached to a different level, especially mapping the present
landscape and narrating the Jataka tales associated therein is a landmark in this direction (Singh,
Rana 2003). The study of feminine divine (goddesses) and her association with different cults,
traditions has proved the potential capacity of geographic skills in narrating the deeper spirits
(Singh, R.S. 2000a, 2004). In a similar study of goddesses and other pilgrimage journeys and
sacred places the strong role of mapping and landscape association are marked (Singh, S.P. 2002).
In the study of history of religions similar study has also been made where the attribute of space
has been prominently taken as basic frame (Zeiler, X. 2005).
7. Epilogue
Geography, like other social sciences, is in a state of flux. However, in a country of such
rich cultural traditions and ancient civilisation there prevails ample areas and objects of more
deeper and comprehensive research in cultural geography with emphasis on postmodernist and
postcolonialist approaches should be used to understand and reinterpret the meaning, metaphor,
symbols and the inherent messages. The study of cultural ecology with its basic attributes of
subsistence, work, reproduction, and resources and their interrelationships as embedded in the
rules and ethics of India society also need consideration for future research. Further such issues be
like changing nature of cultural adaptation, attitudinal and ethical, role of religious movement and
pilgrimages, sacred places and message of peace, reinterpreting the old texts and their relevance
today, India’s message to the world order, etc. The exposition of experiential feelings, like the
novel, the meeting point of culture and technology, ecological order and conservation, saving and
serving the humanity, are the other areas where geographers are lacking behind.
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Wescoat, James L. Jr. 2001b. Toward an Aesthetic of Water in Indo-Islamic Gardens: The Case
of Nagaur Fort, Rajasthan, [Estetica dell'acqua nei giardino di Nagaur nel Rajastan
(India)]. Giardini Islamici: Architettura, Ecologia. Genoa: Microarts Edizioni: pp. 109-
20.
Wescoat, James L. Jr. 1999. Mughal Gardens: The Re-emergence of Comparative Possibilities
and the Wavering of Practical Concerns; in, Perspectives on Garden Histories, ed. M.
Conan. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC: pp. 107-126.
Wescoat, James L. Jr.; Nagar, Richa and Faust, David 2003. Social and Cultural Geography. In,
The Oxford India Companion to Anthropology and Social Anthropology, ed. Veena Das.
Oxford University Press, Oxford & Delhi: pp. 326-365.
Wilke, Annette 2004a. The Banarasi Navadurgaa Cycle and its Spatial Orientation. In, Visualised
Space in Banaras: Images, Maps, and Representations in Varanasi; eds. Martin Gaenszle
and Jörg Gengnagel. (South Asia Institute, Heidelberg, Germany).
Zeiler, Xenia 2005. The Ten Mahavidyas’ Yatra–A contemporary pilgrimage in Banaras; in,
Sacred Geography of Goddess in South Asia: Essays in memory of David Kinsley; eds.
----------------------------
The Authors:
(2002), Pilgrimage to the Buddhist Places (2003), and Literary Images of Banaras (2004).
E-mails: ranapbsingh@dataone.in
Dr. Ravi S. Singh (b. 1971), MA, MPhil, PhD in cultural geography, is Reader, Dept. of
Geography at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi UP 221005. He has served as an Associate to
the NYSICCSI Program during 1995-1998. His doctoral dissertation deals with the “Sacred
Japan and Germany. He has presented about a dozen of papers in the international and national
seminars, has published several papers, and author of a monograph, Paths of Development in
Arunachal Pradesh (NBC, New Delhi, 2005). .
E-mail: drravissingh@gmail.com
[149-04]. Singh, Rana P.B. and Singh, Ravi S. 2004 i. Historical Geography of India, 2000-04;
in Sharma, H. N. (ed.) Progress in Indian Geography, 2000-2004 (A Country Report).
2004). INSA National Committee of Geography, New Delhi: pp. 147-154. << in this
file pp. 62 – 70 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Progress in Historical Geography of India, 2000-04

Prof. Rana P. B. Singh and Dr. Ravi S. Singh
Dept. of Geography, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP 221005, INDIA.
1. Introduction
Historical geography is a branch that deals with the interpretation of the past, evolution
and development, change and transformation, sequence and continuity, adaptation and exposure,
morphogenesis and maintenance, visualising and reconstruction of cultural landscape, and other
facets related to these themes. The spatiality of time, and temporality of space makes the lifeworld
of human being a continuous process on the scale of history. In the context of various perspectives
these attributes are analysed, however a specific platform of historical geography has not been
fully developed in Indian geography. Those works deal with the past, especially interpreting the
old literature is considered as the subject matter of historical geography. This notion has been
changed recently by accepting historical geography as a way and philosophy of research. The first
pioneering magnum opus is Alexander Cunningham’s The Ancient Geography of India (1871),
which needs re-reading and re-search with the use of recent techniques and technology.
The diversities, distinctions and desperateness, and at the other end unifying forces of
traditions made India a web of cultural whole, which maintained its continuity in history. The first
attempt to review the literature on cultural (historical) geography of India is presented by Wescoat
& others that also included the sources on historical geography, however this review covers the
period before 2000 (Wescoat, J.L. et al. 2003). In the evolution and growth of geography in India
since late 1990s a cultural turn took place through reinterpreting the ancient Indian classics using
multidisciplinary approaches (cf. Wescoat, J.L. et al. 2003). During 2000-04 a good number of
works published, of course mostly by scholars from abroad; all the important works are taken into
consideration and are arranged under the six themes.
2. History of Landscape: sequence in crossings
An example of environmental history and public consciousness has been established by

Alley by addressing the critical questions about how the religious category of purity relates in
practice to political, ethical and legal concern about the Ganga pollution in and around Banaras;
this is a master treatment of historical geography of ecological disorder (Alley, K.D. 2002).
Different cultures have different ways of encountering the problems of nature that the people
learnt in history. In the west water is considered as resource, but in the East as sacred flow; by
these differing perception there developed distinct ways of handling the problems. This is further
compared with the case of water rights in the past as practised in the two cultures (Wescoat, J.L.
2000, and 2001a).
The close historical connection between land of Kuru and ethnic geography of Near-
Eastern countries has been established on the basis of Hindu literature and linguistic
interpretations (Srinivasan, L. 2000). Further, this study is extended on the bases of geographical
and historical sources, and finally proposing that the original setting of the Ramayana was in the
Near-Eastern region; this re-construction is mostly inclined to linguistic analysis (Srinivasan, L.
2001). The pre-historic sources also taken to explain the culture of the period, especially in
anthropological context (Singh, M.K. 2002). Nomadism and sedentary farming have been the
main factors in the evolution of folk houses in Maharashtra (Diddee, J. 2004). The regional and
social distinction have marked its impact on the maintenance of cultural norms and maintenance
of colonial towns and hill stations as in case of Himachal Pradesh (Sharma, K.D. 2000, & 2004).
Similarly the loss of community forests has turned into social conflict and different type of man-
forest relationship in Himachal Pradesh (Vasan, S. 2001). The historical study of a Punjab village
supports the idea that changing nature of field patterns has undergone various evolutionary stages
and understanding of processes of settling (Singh, D. 2004). Similar conclusion also to be noted
for changing rural house types in Punjab (Singh, M. 2004).
Linguistic index has been popular in the cultural analysis, especially the acculturation
process, as exemplified in case of Portuguese loan-words in Bengali and Marathi languages
(Guha, S.B. and Guhathakurta, S. 2004). In the passage of time, during 1977-2001, the increasing
impact of urban sprawl has a drastic effect on the land use, cropping pattern, villagers’
behavioural pattern, altogether responsible for transformation, as narrated in the story of three
villages around Banaras (Gustafsson, G. et al. 2000; Lejonhud, K. 2003). At the other end the
impact of gay culture in urban areas like Delhi is associated with spatial orientation and distinct
images among the people (Bacchetta, P. 2002).
The study of pilgrimage route, associated shrines and frequency of pilgrims in the
Panchakroshi Yatra around Banaras shows a tendency of historico-cultural continuity; in fact, the
faith system and wish for maintaining religious identity have supported the continuity (Singh,
Rana 2002).
3. Searching roots in the Classics: towards the ‘New Age’
Asserting that humans are a combination of matter, mind and consciousness, a recent
classic, ‘Human Devolution’ by Cremo, presents a cosmic tour of the Vedic sources with
comparison to modern science and finally challenged Darwinian evolution theory; he concludes
that we devolved from the realm of pure consciousness spirit (Cremo, M.A. 2003). Another great
classic linking the scientific evidences and the mystical views of the ‘Bhagavata Purana:
Mysteries of the Sacred Universe’ by Thompson, provides a clear understanding of how the
spiritual dimension was integrated into ancient Indian cosmology that possessed the different
astronomical, geographical and spiritual world models (Thompson, R.L. 2000).
The reappraisal of Kautilya’s Arthashashtra validates this classic as ‘applied earth
science’ that deals with physical hard science like astronomy and terrain evaluation, and soft
science like sustainable development and management (Dasgupta, S.P. 2001). Taking evidences
from fluvial geomorphology, geology and archaeology, literary tradition of the river Sarasvati has
been re-evaluated and further compared with recent evidences like remote sensing data and
analysis of satellite imageries; this study proved the existence and importance of the river
Sarasvati in Vedic literature (Dasgupta, S.P. 2003). The reinterpretation of the classical literature
and the archetypal connotation comparing the nature symbolism and the present relevance has
another trend on the path of ‘New Age’ movement. Such archetypes include centre, cosmic tree,
caves and water, especially feminine spirit (Sinha, A. 2000). This is further explained in the
context of Buddhism, emphasising cosmic tree, architecture and the Buddhist holy sites (Sinha, A.
and Sinha, R.P. 2001).
4. Cultural Astronomy: continuity from the past
The Indian architectural theory and its contemporary uses of Vastuvidya (‘the science of
architectural design’), especially in the context of system of measurement, the mandalic
symbolism and cosmogram, orientation, site, building materials and built form – all maintained
their continuity through the Indian literature (Chakrabarti, V. 2000). With a case study of
Varanasi the principles of urban space formation has also been examined in historical perspective
and further compared with the contemporary situation (Yanagisawa, K. 2001). The built up
design with respect to territory has also very strong astronomical association, as in case of
Chitrakut where all the sacred sites are associated to unique natural or hilly environment which
also form unique design of orientation and alignment like triangle, square and circles (Dubey,
D.P.; Malville, J.M. and Singh, Rana 2000). The innovative and recent collaboration of
geography and astrophysics has been helpful in this context. The proceedings of an International
seminar on Cosmic Geometries and Ritual Landscape in India has recorded several such
examples like Dholavira, Sisupalgarh, Chitrakut, Varanasi, Sun temples of Varanasi, and
Vijayanagara, which easily justify the fact that these centres record varying degrees of
geometrical order and planning (Malville, J.M. and Gujaral, L.M. 2000; also Singh, Rana and
Malville, J.M. 2000). On the similar lines detailed studies have been made taking example of
sacred cities like Kashi/ Varanasi and distribution of divine images (Singh, Rana 2000), Gaya and
its holy spots (Singh, Rana 2001; Singh, Rana; Malville, J.M. and Marshall, A.L. 2004), The
results of these studies can easily be compared with self-organised systems that link chaos and
pilgrimage (Malville, J.M. 2004). The solar shrines of Varanasi when compared with GPS values,
the narrative myths and the spatial alignments, the results came to be the great conclusion
approving very strong and precise links between mythology and scientific facts (Malville, J.M.
and Singh, Rana 2000; Singh, Rana and Malville, J.M. 2004).
By the study of spatial orientation of castes with respect to sacred directions, fragmented
social order and interconnecting social ties the importance of cardinality and functional
interaction are found in the roots of evolutionary process that finally emerged into cosmological
principles and ecological ordering. These generalisations are well supported by the mythological
literature and also by the field investigations in the Mewat region of Western India (Singh, J. and
Khan, M. 2002, and 2004).
5. The Images: historical context
The literary geography in the light of historical background has strong tradition, especially
with reference to analysis of ‘images’. In this manner imaginative literature is not so much a
scientific report, but a powerful medium of expressing subtle images. The recent study of
Kipling’s Calcutta (Kolkata) as portrayed in his ‘City of the Dreadful Night’ based on his travels
in 1898, is a landmark in this context (Dhussa, R.C. and Erski, T.L. 2004). The Tamil values,
beliefs and interest and related motifs provide frame of typology for making cultural sub-
regionalisation that are further narrated in sub-regional folktales (Ferro-Luzzi, G.E. 2002a). This
is further reflected on the philosophical debate with respect to thought and reality what
idiomatically expressed as ‘mental monkey’ as narrated in codified language and dialects of
Tamil Nadu (Ferro-Luzzi, G.E. 2002b).
The holy city and cultural capital of India, Varanasi, has recently received a great deal of
attention to portray its vivid and contrasting literary images that evolved, maintained, continued,
diversifies but also possessed its coherent sense to serve the common masses, as exemplified in a
recent study of fourteen such literary works on this city (cf. Singh, Rana 2004a). The study of
tourists’ perception and their narration of the problems faced are related to the historical process
and cultural contexts as expressed by the frequently coming visitor who feels cultural isolation
that breaks down one own image (Payne, P. 2001). In an attempt to compare the West and East
vs. Oursider and Insider images and perception Pankaj Mishra’s novel is usually taken as model,
but it tried to deteriorate the image of Indian culture by vulgar and false takes which no way
represent the culture (Mishra, P. 2000); in fact this is a malicious attempt on the name of
‘progressive writing’.
With help of a long term analysis of co-operative forest societies in Himachal Pradesh it is
found that no way the cultural tradition of adjustment with nature has been followed upon; in
fact, the lust to control the nature for materialistic gain has destroyed the social-ecological
ordering of the people in the Himalayas (Springate-Baginski, O. 2001). The historical sources
referring to pre-colonial Andhra mark the complicated interaction among society, religion and
social identity (Talbot, C. 2002). Searching roots for the crisis in India, it is observed that
historical legacy and colonial impacts together created a social pattern of life where
‘consumerism’ and ‘individualism’ are considered as the main index of development at the
place of Gandhian approach of moral economics and social harmony; it is not the money but
the mind matters (Singh, Rana and Singh, Ravi 2002).
6. Morphogenesis: evolution & mapping of structure
The historical study of castes in Haryana with reference to spatial distribution, patterns of land
ownership and regionalisation provides a substantive base to understand the dominance,
hierarchy and network of cultural areas (Mukerji, A.B. 2000). The evolution of administrative
space in India is an example of spatial organisation that historically linked to spatiality of
family property, clan solidarity and tribal affinity; this is exemplified with five-tier
administrative hierarchy in Punjab (Kant, S. 2000.). The process of spatialising states
continued, earlier in terms of princely states and later in terms of colonial control, followed
with linguo-cultural identification, and since independence neo-liberally and politically
motivated strategy (Ferguson, J. and Gupta, A. 2002).
Like other traditional societies of India, the ethnic affinity of the Kerala migrants has also
been maintained through preserving their native taboos and customs, of course they have also
adopted the local traditions (Gregory, J. 2002). The historical study of settling and settlements in
the Beas-Sutlej Kandi, north-eastern part of Punjab, shows that the morphological growth of
Gujjar settlements have recorded four stages of transformation, and at family level from clan-
based to nuclear type (Manku, D.S. 2004). The historical continuity of tradition is also noticed in
case of Katkaris in the Sahayadri region of Maharashra, of course they marked changes in their
occupation by disappearance of charcoal making because of the shrinking of forest and change in
customary rights (Patnaik, R. 2004).
A recent book on Imperial Delhi narrates the story of the making of Imperial Delhi
through morphological analysis taking all the major considerations of contentious debate and
cultural adaptation in the frame of cross-cultural integration (Volwahsen, A. 2002). This book is a
landmark in telling the story of making of a city nexus in the context of formation process,
structural patterning, the functional mosaic, the distinct and integrated network of architectural
design and symbolic representation in different parts (cf. Singh, Rana 2004c).
Mapping the visualised space as described in the puranic literature, especially in case of
Varanasi, is a good example of historical cartography of the 19th century (Gengnagel, J. 2002, and
2003). In continuation, study of Kailashnath Sukul’s Kashi Darppan, dated 1875, with reference
to inscription and the process of making, has opened a new perspective of methodology and
understanding (Gengnagel, J. & Michaels, A. 2001; Michaels, A. 2000). Together with Sukul’s
map the other five pilgrimage-cognitive maps of Kashi (Varanasi) are recently detailed out with
notes on codification, spatial affinity, design symbolism, names of divine beings and their
grouping, pilgrimages, quest to expose messages, cataloguing and finally compared with the
contemporary pilgrimage map (Singh, Rana 2004b).
7. Continuity of Religious symbolism: historical links
The study of religious symbolism while comparing with the ancient literature and also to
trace the historical links has been a strong tradition in the historical geography of India. Exploring
the religious geography by interpreting texts through uncovering a multitude of intersecting,
overlapping and disconnected regions that co-exist in the western part of India, Feldhaus has
explained the intricacy of regional identity and the role of ‘sacradness’ (Feldhaus, A. 2003). The
study of different forms of divinities and their association to sacred places has been important in
the study of history of religion and theology. The comparative study of Bhairava in two
traditions, Banaras and Kathmandu, refers to similarities in space, time and functions, of course
there are several grounds of contrasts too (Chalier-Visuvalingam, E. 2003). Study of the Kumbha
Mela and Prayag (Allahabad) is a pioneering attempt to interpret the historicity, spatiality and the
ritualscape of a great historical city which roots go to at least 1000 BCE (Dubey, D. P. 2001a; and
2001b). With the study of medieval saint poets a recent study has successfully attempted to link
the messages, historical processes and the centres associated to those poets (Hawley, J.S. and
Juergensmeyer, M. 2004).
The study of pilgrimage tradition in historical and cultural perspective has been mostly
examined in the regional context, like in Tamil Nadu (Gangadharan, N. 2000). The spatial
dimension is further examined in describing the religious symbolism related to fifty-six forms of
Vinayakas in Kashi (Karnitis, C.S. 2002), and the shrines of Hanuman in Kashi (Keul, I. 2002).
The detailed study of Shiva and his forms, associated myths, spatial affinity and orientation,
related festivals, and cataloguing of all forms of Shiva, numbering 500, is a great addition in the
literature of spatial view of religious symbolism (Singh, P. 2004). In continuation of similar
approach where the Tantric and Puranic texts are re-interpreted in the field of historical and
cultural study of goddesses in Indo-Nepalese border, study of Dyczkowski is a great contribution
(Dyczkowski, M. 2004).
8. Epilogue
The impact of postcolonialism and postmodernism has opened a new door to understand
the meanings, messages and the mystical realities as deeply rooted in the vast corpus of ancient
Indian literature and mythologies. Re-reading and re-interpreting the sources and resources of
the past and testing their relevance today in the context of cultural identity, like heritage, would
be helpful in tracing the backdrops of Indian crisis. The issues of historical legacy and cultural
downfall yet not fully analysed from the viewpoint of “inside reality”— seeing the world
through the eyes of its people. The coming up field of cultural astronomy is one of the most
potential areas, which can give a fresh message to the academic world. Historical analysis of
spatial manifestation, ecological insights and practices, environmental transformation,
evolutionary frame of development, varying images and realities are the other potential areas
where the roots of inventory, prospect and perspective of diversities, distinctiveness and
unifying channels be re-searched and re-interpreted.
9. References
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Singh, Pratibha 2004. Shiva Kashi : Pauranic Paripekshya aur Vartman Sandarbh (Shiva-Kashi:
Pauranic Background and Present Context). Vishvavidyalaya Prakashan, Varanasi.
Singh, Rana P. B. 1999. Sacredscape, Manescape and Cosmogony at Gaya, India: A study in
Sacred Geography. National Geographical Jl. of India (ISSN: 0027-9374/1075), vol. 45
(1-4): pp. 34 – 63.
Singh, Rana P. B. 2000. Kashi as Cosmogram: Sacred Geometry of Varanasi. In, Ancient Cities,
Ancient Skies: Cosmic Geometries & Ritual Landscape in India, eds. J. M. Malville & L.
M. Gujral. Aryan Publ., New Delhi for Indira Gandhi National Centre for Art, IGNCA: pp.
58-81.
Singh, Rana P. B. 2001. The Holy city and the Cultural Tradition of Pilgrimage Mandala in India:
Cosmic Geometries of Kashi (Varanasi) and Gaya. Cultural Approach in Geography at the
turn of New Millenium, eds. M. R. Hashemi and M. Papoli-Yazdi. University of Mashhad
Press, Mashhad (Iran).
Singh, Rana P. B. 2002. Towards the Pilgrimage Archetype. Panchakroshi Yatra of Banaras.
Pilgrimage & Cosmology Series : 3. Indica Books, Varanasi.
Singh, Rana P. B. 2004a. Cultural Landscapes and the Lifeworld. The Literary Images of
Banaras. Pilgrimage & Cosmology Series: 7. Indica Books, Varanasi.
Singh, Rana P. B. 2004b. Representation of Kashi through the Cartographic Art in the 19th
Century. In, Contribution of Banaras to Indian Art and Culture (Proceedings of a National
Seminar, 22-24 March 2004); eds. Ananda Krishna and Mukul Raj Mehta. Indian Institute
of Advanced Studies, Simla.
Singh, Rana P. B. 2004c. Book Review, “Volwahsen, Andreas (2002). Imperial Delhi: the British
Capital of the Indian Empire. Prestel Verlag, Munich and London”. Urban Morphology:
Journal of the International Seminar on Urban Form (Versailles, France), vol. 8 (1): 57-
58.
Singh, Rana P. B. and Malville, John M. 2000. Sacredscape, Faithscape and Cosmic Geometry: A
Study of Holy Places of north India. In, Esteban C. & Belmonte J.A. (eds). Astronomy and
Cultural Diversity. (Proceedings, Oxford VI & SEAC 99 Int’nal Conf., June 21-29, 1999,
La Laguna, Spain). OAMC. Santa Cruz de Tenerife: pp. 99-106.
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The Sun images and cultural astronomy; in, Cultural Geography: Form and Process, eds.
N. Grover and K.N. Singh. Concept Pub. Co., New Delhi: pp. 202-220. Reprinted from
National Geographical Journal of India, vol. 41 (1), 1995: pp.69-88.
Singh, Rana P. B.; Malville, John M. and Marshall, Anne L. 2004. Death and Transformation at
Gaya: Pilgrimage, Ancestors and the Sun; in, Pilgrimage and Complexity, eds. John M.
Malville and B. N. Saraswati; DK Printworld, Delhi for IGNCA: pp. 99-116.
Singh, Rana P. B. and Singh, Ravi S. 2002. Development in India: Scenario and Ideology.
Towards a New Regional and Local Development Research Agenda, eds. Anders Närman
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100 and Centre for Development Studies, University of Kelaniya (Sri Lanka), No. 1: pp. 65-
78.
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term analysis of the cooperative forest societies of Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh,
India. Himalayan Research Bulletin (Portland, USA), vol. 21 (no. 2): pp. 46-52.
Srinivasan, Liny 2000. The Land and people Kuru. Geographical Review of India, vol. 62 (1): pp.
39-57.
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vol. 63 (2): pp. 103-128.
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Andhra. Oxford University Press, New York.
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Purana. Govardhan Hill Publ., Alachua FL.
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Himalayan Research Bulletin (Portland, USA), vol. 21 (no. 2): pp. 36-45.
Volwahsen, Andreas 2002. Imperial Delhi: the British Capital of the Indian Empire. Prestel
Verlag, Munich and London.
Wescoat, James L. Jr. 2000. Wittfogel East And West: Changing Perspectives on Water
Development in South Asia and the US, (1670-2000); in, Cultural Encounters with the
Environment: Enduring and Evolving Geographic Themes, eds. A.B. Murphy and D.L.
Johnson. Rowman & Littlefield, New York: pp. 109-32.
Wescoat, James L. Jr. 2001. Water Rights in South Asia and the United States: Comparative
Perspectives, 1873-1996; in, Land, Property and the Environment. Ed. John F. Richards.
Oakland: ICS: pp. 298-337.
Wescoat, James L. Jr.; Nagar, Richa and Faust, David 2003. Social and Cultural Geography. In,
The Oxford India Companion to Anthropology and Social Anthropology, ed. Veena Das.
Oxford University Press, Oxford & Delhi: pp. 326-365.
Yanagisawa, Kiwamu 2001. A Study on the Principles of the Urban Space Formation of
Varanasi (India). Unpub. M. Arch. dissertation in Architecture and Environmental Design,
Kyoto University, Kyoto. Supervisor: Prof. Shuji FUNO. (in Japanese, captions on figures
in English)
----------------------------
The Authors:
(2002), Pilgrimage to the Buddhist Places (2003), and Literary Images of Banaras (2004).
E-mails: ranapbsingh@dataone.in
Dr. Ravi S. Singh (b. 1971), MA, MPhil, PhD in cultural geography, is Associate Professor, Dept. of
Geography at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi UP 221005. He has served as an Associate to
the NYSICCSI Program during 1995-1998. His doctoral dissertation deals with the “Sacred
Japan and Germany. He has presented about a dozen of papers in the international and national
seminars, has published several papers, and author of a monograph, Paths of Development in
Arunachal Pradesh (NBC, New Delhi, 2005). .
E-mail: drravissingh@gmail.com
[315-09]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2009. Cultural Geography of India: Trends in the 21st
Century; in, his: Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the
21st Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne. U.K.: pp. 162-
195. <Chapter 5> << in this file pp. 71 – 91 >>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Singh, Rana P.B. (2009): Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the 21st
Century [xvi + 431pp; 16 tables, 58 figures; 11 essays; Planet Earth & Cultural
Understanding: Series Pub. 2, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne. U.K.]
Hb, ISBN (10): 978-1-4438-1119-X. Pb, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-1119-4.
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CHAPTER 5
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA:
TRENDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Rana P.B. Singh
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
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Abstract. The practice of cultural geography in India has been part of the wider arena of human
geography. In spite of multidisciplinary approaches to Indian classics, rarely attempts made in
geography for self-retrospection of the inside social and cultural phenomena, as concluded by
Wescoat, et al. (2003). They also remarked that most of the notable works in this area were
presented by non-geographers, and at other end geographers not paid serious attention to those
works. This resulted to weaken the practice of cultural geography in India. The anthropological
literature on habitat, economy and traditions are still recording dominance in geographical
publications. Such studies includes description of tribes and their life, linguistic differentiation,
East-West discourses in depicting the culture and people, including even the new themes like
cinema, role of media, diaspora, religious landscape and sacred geometry, architectural
symbolism, and cultural astronomy. Study of pilgrimages and sacredscapes also drawn recent
attention that has a long tradition started by Bhardwaj (1973). The recent additions to these
themes include culture heritage and preservation, again in the frame of interdisciplinary approach.
Keywords: Cultural heritage, cultural manifestation, ethnology, human response, Indian
tradition, religious landscape, sacred geometry.
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…. Hinduism has given South Asia much of its sense of cultural identity and indeed marks
the region out as one of Earth’s great cultural hearths, it ought also to be apparent that it
does not really offer the kind of identitive bonding that would, in the absence of other
bonds, lead to the political integration of the area. It provides an over-arching system ‒
which permits and celebrates difference and diversity, dividing as much as uniting.
― Graham Chapman (2009: 39).
1. Introduction
Of course the interest in understanding relations between human response and the landscape
setting has its deeper historical roots in Indian tradition, but its banner as ‘cultural geography’ is a
product of the early 20th century American geography. Cultural geographers have tended to use
historical, archival, ecological, literary, travelogue, ethnographic and associated methods to
investigate localised patterns of religion, language, diet, arts, and customs. Among such themes
the disparateness and distinctness of ‘cultural landscape’ has been a core concern of studies by
cultural geographers. In a recent debate it is considered that geography as a discipline is pregnant
but ‘in trouble’ to illustrate the paradoxical struggle of the discipline to be a global discipline
whilst at the same time marginalising the voices and perspectives that make it global. Moreover,
geography is also considered as a discipline whose ‘milk is flowing’ – suggesting ways that the
discipline can acknowledge its global interconnectedness to produce a mutually responsible
academic agency (Noxolo, et al. 2008). In the emerging literature on cultural geography
discourses in the West, critique of representational and non-representational context, expression
and exposition are given more emphasis (Lorimer 2007); however in India still emphasis is laid
on the descriptive-narrative and ethnological interpretation (cf. Singh 2009b: 153-191). The
multidimensionality and comprehensiveness of cultural geography is noted as it mostly deals with
“understanding people and the places they occupy by analysing cultural identities and cultural
landscapes” (Norton 2006: 1).
In terms of collection of papers (readings) on/about cultural geography, the first and masterly
attempt has been by Wagner and Mikesell (1962), which broadly defined and structured the
classical tradition within its thirty four essays, four sectional and a general introduction at the
beginning. After passing thirty two years, the second re-reading (Foote, et al. 1994) has expanded
the horizon by addition of new papers with different perspectives taken by second generations.
The third one is a companion volume, consisting of thirty five thematic review essays, arranged
under seven themes (Duncan, et al. 2004). Similarly the fourth ‘handbook’ was also on the same
line (Anderson, et al. 2005). The fifth, a ‘reader’, tried to make a bridge between classics and the
contemporary writings arranged thematically (Toakes and Price 2008). In none of these readers
and anthologies India’s rich cultural heritage given even marginal space. In fact, the western
hegemony (especially Anglo-American and British) used India as a resource for their own
theoretical test, but never given honour to consider it as part of curriculum. Unfortunately, more
interest has been shown in geopolitical issues mostly due to its marketability and funding support.
At the turn of the 21st century the established frame of cultural geography, mostly in the
purview of Cultural Landscape School of Berkeley as directed by Carl Sauer, has faced a serious
threat. Mitchell (2000: 34-35) provoked the irrelevancy of the cultural geography, taking support
from other young geographers who stressed upon its flawed theoretical base, lack of dynamic
concept of cultural transformation of landscape, dominancy of esoteric narration, and overall
negligence of consequences of power relations. Mitchell (2003: 2) further opines that “Culture is
decidedly not everything. Indeed… Culture needs to be understood as no-thing, which is to say
that rather than an object, “culture” is an on-going, struggled-over set of social relations that give
rise to social meaning, to differentiate within and across social groups and places, and to the
exercise of power”. Within a pre-conceived concept, Mitchell is stressing that culture as way of
life needs to be understood in political terms as it always serves particular groups and particular
aims; thus culture, according to him, is both a component and a consequence of power relations
(Norton 2006: 21). This may be taken as frame of reference for the New World, but not for the
Old World like India, that records a continuity and maintenance of age-old traditions and
wonderfully get absorbed the new additions together with acceptance and superimpositions.
However, one may also accept the hard reality that practice of cultural geography is
predominantly description, object and attribute oriented considering regional
homogeneity/heterogeneity as context. Also to be noted that Carl Sauer always stressed upon the
processes and change; this tradition had been continued by Sankalia in Indological studies, but
not in cultural geography per se (cf. Mukerji 1992). Sankalia’s pioneering interdisciplinary
researches on the themes like Pleistocene environment, material culture, settlement archaeology,
and similar others still waiting re-study and re-search by the geographers.
India has its own history of contrasts― ecological, religious, linguistic, historical,
political and eco-psychological. The diversities, distinctions and desperateness scattered all over
India (embracing 190 religious groups with 1,652 languages and dialects in twelve language
families with twenty-four different scripts, and 3,742 castes and sub-castes further grouped into
4,635 communities into thirty-six states), and at the other end unifying forces of traditions made
this country a web of cultural whole (cf. Singh 2009b: 19). It is with these characteristics in
studying cultural geography of India emerges a variety of topics. Before becoming a British
colony, the country had never been a united sovereign state; instead, it had been an amalgam of
various independent republics. Historically, successive invaders (e.g. the Huns, Turks, Kushans,
Mughals) became part of this culture, and Hindu society accepted them all. This multiplicity of
historical and cultural changes makes the personality of a country known as India: ‘Bhārat’. The
first Article of the Constitution of India states that “India, that is Bhārat, shall be a union of
states.” Thus, India and Bhārat are equally official short names for the Republic of India.
The first contemporary attempt to review the literature on the various facets of cultural
geography of India was presented by Wescoat, et al. (2003). In the evolution and growth of
geography in India since late 1990s the cultural turn took place through reinterpreting the ancient
Indian classics using multidisciplinary approaches and also in the purview of New Age
movements. Since the turn of the 21st century a good number of works published around the
cultural geography of India, of course mostly by scholars from abroad, and a majority from non-
geographers.
The examination of the sense of ‘Indianness’ in the geographical debate is also an issue of
self-retrospection and re-assessment (Singh 2009b: 18-23). Presently in the arena of cultural
studies in India, the issues of conversation and contestation have received more attention, like
fluidity and dynamics of tradition, lineages of art, inter-culturalism and the question of body,
dimensions of woman power in India, legacy of Gandhian politics, the humanist perspective and
the civilizing role of history, and the debate on science in post independence India. The long-
standing and continuing debate on Indian culture and on what constitutes ‘Indianness’ manifests
itself in many ways, some more subtle than others. The acceptance of regional and territorial use
of geographic skill in social sciences is now a common practice, yet in cultural context
territoriality is a prominent tool (Delage and Headley 2008b). Mobilising the metaphors of
pregnancy and lactation to address the imperatives arising from British academic geography’s
postcolonial position, has influenced geographers dealing with culture of India, especially
fascinated to foreign scholars (cf. Singh and Singh 2008). Cartographic representation and
mapping of attributes of cultural heritage has recently got attention by the NATMO, covering
aspects like physical and cultural bases of ancient India, religions and philosophy, Bhakti
movements, social reforms movements, art and culture, and performing arts, and also short
introduction to each of the maps (Nag 2007). In the field of cartographic representation of
cultural attributes and phenomena, Schwartzberg (1993) has established a great path through his
Historical Atlas of South Asia (1st ed. 1978) that still needs serious appraisal and detailed
investigations in the field by geography.
2. Culture: the human response

In an ancient civilisation like India which maintain its continuity through traditions, the critical
appraisal of terms and their regional meaning is a good source to understand the intricacies,
including tradition of caste system and its link to development in the past (Bronger 2004). This
perspective can further be seen with reference to ideology and life philosophies of the people that
lead to develop their traditions and use of resources (Chari 2003). Caste dominance is also taken
as one of the indices for making socio-cultural regions (Efremova 2004); this idea was developed
by an American geographer Joseph Schwartzberg in later 1960s (cf. 1965, 1968). The distribution
and caste ranking phenomena were marginally studied by Indian geographers, except Singh (cf.
1975, 1977: 65-91, also see chapter 9) who with case studies of the Saran Plain (Bihar) critically
examined the distributional context and finally after challenging Marriott’s interactional theory of
caste ranking proposed alternative theory of ‘attributional resource-control theory’ that elucidates
that ownership land resource had been the basic criteria for caste ranking that in passage of time
become a complex structure together with purity-pollution and religio-ritual transactions. Of
course, the study of caste has not been the first choice of cultural geographers; it has directly
linked to the issues of regional inequality and regional diversity, which are rooted in territorial
expression. The study of Arunachal Pradesh, emphasising the ethic minority and the cultural
traditions, reports that diversity and traditions fits to the environmental setting and sensibility,
especially mountain environment, where gender serves as important role in the division of labour
and other religious activities (Singh, R.S. 1999, 2001).
The Indian culture has its psychological set up, structuring the mind and constructing the space
that by getting culturised turns to a distinct place; altogether this results to the formation of a
cultural personality (Gupta 2000). There are examples that people from a place when settled at
other place they manifest their culture and spatially transmit to their neighbouring culture through
adaptation and effects, e.g. in case of Tibetan refugees in exile situation living in India and
receiving spiritual guidance by HH Dalai Lama (Mitra and Desai 2004). The spiritual essence of
Indian culture has been a major driving force in the development of creativity, which can easily
be visualised in the context of spatial differentiation (Bhawuk 2003).
The cultural response to nature turned to ethical norms in ancient civilisation like India where
continuity and maintenance passed together in the sustenance of nature and man; that faith system
is referred as dharma (Singh, Rana 2000a). In the medieval period the vegetal world has taken a
part of built space and special setting as Mughal garden that also suits to maintain the
environmental aesthetically beautiful and healthy (Wescoat 1999). The development of granaries
around fort and their association with water and architectural design made the place of garden
distinct (Wescoat 2000a, ii). The adaptation of natural channels and man-made watersheds later
taken as unit for regional planning, especially in the context of resource appraisal and cultural
adaptability (Wescoat 2000a, i).
Of course environmental determinism faced a critical challenge, yet in the isolated areas, the
system of cultural adaptation promotes such relationship to the natural environment like in the
river island of Brahmaputra (Bhagbati 2004). In the Brahmaputra riverine island, Majuli, is facing
problem of serious human intervention and threat, where once was a strong integrity of ecology
and culture (Hazarika 2004).
3. Cultural notions and changing reflections

Examining class, gender, and work in Tiruppur, South India, where export of knitted garments
has been led by a networked fraternity of owners of working-class and Gounder caste origins, it is
obviously noted that the class mobility is hinging on their “toil.” These self-made men drew from
their agrarian past to turn Gounder toil into capital, and successfully continued to make an entire
town work for the global economy. Tiruppur demonstrates the importance of gender and
geography to the globalization of capital as it affects the lives of working people in provincial
India and elsewhere. By such analysis the links between the political economy of development
and postcolonial and cultural studies, rooting the analysis of globalization ethnographically and
geographically has been established. The pioneering work dealing these aspects provides a
window into a decentralized capitalism and thereby critiques macroeconomic portrayals of
globalization by showing how history, geography, gender, and work practice shape local sites of
global production (Chari 2004). The issue of caste and land quality in Bihar has intricate
relationship that led to hierarchy, dominance and the power relationship (Thakur and Sinha
2007). In the recent past, particularly since the 1990s, Mandal debate has given new dimensions
to the caste debates in India. Through mapping the changing profile of pre-Mandal and post-
Mandal debates on caste, class and politics in India an argument was made for developing new
paradigms for the discussion of caste and interrogating the democratic and secular roles of caste
in relation to class and politics more vigorously (Pankaj 2007).
Studying the social and cultural issues as the root cause of present political crises in Nagaland,
a study propounds that ethno-linguistism is an important dimension to understand the present
crisis, especially providing a strong base not only to understand language dynamics but also
help in language planning in a multilingual country like India. It is noted that the in-group clashes
among the Nagas have bearings on their separate identities, but the mass conversion to
Christianity in Nagaland has brought them together. Such religious cohesiveness among the
different sections of Nagas may go a long way to achieve their social, political and economic
goals (Kibami 2004).
The impact of cultural globalization with special reference to Kolkata (Calcutta), presents an
example to illustrate as to how the culture of this city, the symbol of Bengali culture, is changing
very fast under the sway of globalization in which the traditionality of the culture is lost for the
several ongoing processes — may it be called feminism or post-modernism! (Ray 2005).

Kashmir, as known internationally for proxy militias, Islamic terrorists, and human rights abuses
by the Indian security forces, is reflected in its regionality called Kashmiriyat, the language of
belonging as expressed by Kashmiris themselves, prior to foreign rulers, colonisation, and the
creation of national boundaries (Zutshi 2004). Language has played an important role in not only
identity formation but also “contextual coexistence” of various linguistic groups and thus is seen
as a significant component of social geography, it is not being paid enough attention by scholars
especially geographers who can contribute a lot in developing the understanding of spatiality of
languages and their explanation (Ishtiaq 2005). This study may further be compared with a recent
study in South India where the understanding of the complex relationships among linguistic
identity, state formation, and individual political participation are examined and their importance
are established (Mitchell 2009).
The conflation of the West with modernity is being challenged by new critical interventions on
the themes of ‘occidentalism’ and ‘plural modernities’. These themes are brought together into an
account of the way the idea of the West has been employed and deployed in the construction of
non-Western modernities, exemplified with the two important figures in the articulation and
invention of the West, the Japanese ‘Westerniser’ Fukuzawa Yukichi and the Indian poet and
advocate of spiritual Asia Rabindranath Tagore. Fukuzawa and Tagore developed contrasting
narratives both of the West and of Asia― narratives which they employed to express novel and
distinctive visions of the nature of modern life (Bonnett 2005).
The issue of women’s empowerment in India, with reference to socio-spatial disparities in
regional and societal contexts is a good example of practicing modern cultural geography (Gupta
and Yesudian 2006). Similar study of the missing gender concerns in coal mining displacement
and rehabilitation in India emphasizes the engendering mining communities (Ahmad and Lahiri-
Dutt 2006). The journey of women’s struggles and their emotional and intellectual responses to
patriarchal control and imposition has considerable variations and parallels. Literature in this case
is a vast source for such readings into socio-cultural evolution of women in all societies— how
they look at childhood, old age, loneliness, and work with bold strokes of comedy, irony and
radical ideology, etc. (Jain 2006). Hindi cinema offers a means of examining the evolving
geographies of the multi-sited, multi-national Indian diaspora and its relationship to the
‘homeland’. Dealing with understanding of Bollywood’s visibility in the new diaspora as a
response to political, economic, and technological transformations that have taken place in India,
a paper maps these shifts and the reconfigured relationship between the Indian diaspora in the UK
and its imagined ‘homeland’: the relationship between territory, location, and identity. It further
considers how women’s bodies are deeply implicated in – indeed, essential to – the negotiation of
these shifts (Mohammad 2007).
An overview of the Sufi traditions of South Asia emphasises some emerging research angles
on the problematic convergences between texts, territories and the transcendent elements in
Sufism (Green 2004). Discussing the issue of everyday religious lives of the Muslims of south
Asia, it is argued that ‘Islam cannot be understood through the works of theologians alone, for
whom it is a formal, uniform and rigid system of beliefs and practices. Popular Islam, or Islam as
it is practised by millions of Muslims in South Asia, has an empirical validity and is a dynamic
process of adjustment and accommodation as well as conflict with other religions, with which it
coexists’ (Ahmad and Reifeld 2004).
4. Cultural Manifestation and Ethnology: text and context

The behavioural dimension of visitors and tourists also possess the spatial dimension,
including the site of belonging and naïve cultural tradition (Brinkmann 2002). The detailed study
of different aspects of spatial association in mapping the religious landscape of Banaras and local
images has an interdisciplinary approach and a joint venture to promote a cultural and religious
atlas (Gaenszle and Gengnagel 2006; also Singh, Rana 2004). In this context case study of
washermen in Banaras has helped to develop a frame of social construction of space (Schütte
2003, 2006). The practice of stone worship and funeral practices in the Nilgiris are example of
landscape and religious relationship as object of spatial affinity (Jebadhas, et al. 2000). The
aspect of spatiality has also been analysed in the cultural-ecological setting and specific feature
like house types (Marh 2004). In a metaphysical world of divine realm and its spatial
transposition on the earth has been portrayed with the combination of visual images, archetypal
connotation and exposures, exemplified with Banaras (Makkuni and Khanna 2002).
The inherent root of astronomy that followed in locating sacred sites and establishing divine
images has been the main object of cultural astronomy. In this analysis use of GPS and its
resultant orientation and alignments provide important clues to the astronomical interpretation.
The interpretation of holy territory of Vindhyachal as representation of Shri Yantra is one such
example where the two series (male and female) of triangles makes holy hexagram (Singh, Rana
1997).
Cultural ecology is expressed in terms of ethnology; and rural dwellings can be taken as an
index of cultural adaptation like in case of Haryana (Chamar 2002). Siwalik landscape, like that
of Indian village, assumed as ‘open system’ of social and cultural interaction has also to be
considered on the scale of biological systems (Grover 2004a and b). Moreover, the belief systems
make a place distinct where caste plays an important role in the functioning of society; in case of
Varanasi the pilgrimage function makes it unique (Gesler and Pierce 2000). The studies from
Gujarat (Kolis in Kheda, and Vankars in Baroda district), West Bengal (e.g. Lodhas) and
community in Tiruvannamalai, examining consumption and migration show close affinity to
religious boundaries (Gidwani and Sivaramakrishnan 2003). Similar regional pattern of life
styles, habitat and economy is also observed in the Nilgiri hills (Noble 2004). The Nilgiri hills are
additionally marked for the custom of worshipping spirit stones, the history of which goes in the
early phases of settlement (Noble, et al. 2000). The tribal areas are earmarked by their animistic
religion, close nature association, which influence the low educational status and literacy as in
case of North-East India (Sharma 2004). The issue of gender and classical music has its affinity
to colonial modernity in south India, mostly because of the fact that the classical music has been
protected and patronised under the colonial rule (Weidman 2003). The impact of tourism and
modernisation have been responsible for the environmental change and depletion of the scenic
beauty, e.g. in the Kullu valley of Himachal Pradesh (Coward 2001). The Tibetan refugees settled
in Indian hilly areas have carried their traditions that fit to their environmental setting however
together they have also leaned the ways of socio-cultural adaptation (Mitra and Desai 2004).
In the process of environmental adaptation and quest for survival, society learns management
of the natural resources and natural hazards (Gardner 2002). In this process role of women in the
hilly tract of Kulu has been found sustainable and good example of societal consciousness
(Bingeman 2001). The Bishnoi society follows such ways of natural conservation as religious
practices (Qureshi and Kumar 2004). The wide regional differences in the food habit are another
example of such tradition (Chakravarti 2004). Television has an important role in making social
change in the rural areas (Johnson 2000). Religion has a catalyst role played in geopolitics and
the regional identity (Racine 2002), and also for deeper experiences of nature through
pilgrimages (Singh 2008a). Through the survival of age-old cultural tradition a new
consciousness is generated, which will also promote sustainable heritage tourism (Rana and
Singh 2001; Singh and Rana 2000). On the similar lines, the assessment and appraisal of heritage
resources are essential on the line of ecotourism (Rana 2003) and behavioural planning (Rana and
Singh 2004). In case of Varanasi the riverfront is considered as heritage to be enlisted in the
UNESCO List (Singh, et al. 2001). On the line of ‘production of space’ as propounded by Henri
Lefebvre, successful test has been made to use his triad of inhabiting, constructing and
representing taking case of Varanasi (Tiwari 2009). Landscape conservation and watershed
planning are the other measures which help to save a symbolic monument like Taj, and several
forts and gardens in western India (cf. Wescoat 2000a and b). Film is an important media to
express and understand the message of landscape (Dhussa 2000). The classical debate of strong
relationship between landscape and religion has recently been reinterpreted (Heehs 2002; Sen and
Banerjee 2001; Sharma 2001).
5. Cultural Journey: Pilgrimage and Sacred place

Of course started in 1970s by a geographer Surinder Bhardwaj through his pioneering
publication on Hindu Places of Pilgrimages (1973), the study of pilgrimages (sacred journeys)
has not been popular in comparison to Indology where the dimension of space and time also been
accepted recently (e.g. Dubey 2000, 2000a; Lukens-Bull 2004; Miyamoto 2003), or anthropology
(Nath 2000). However, recently it has received attention in geography too (cf. Singh 2005, 2006b,
2009b: 153-191). Hindu pilgrimage places are vital cultural symbols, and pilgrimage has had a
central place throughout Hindu cultural history. Hindu tirthas are centres of power – either to
cross from this world to the eternal liberty of moksha, or to gain blessings and grace to enrich
one’s present life. As with any cultural practice, pilgrimage is both a window and mirror,
revealing and reflecting the effects of these forces in people’s lives. Pilgrimage to such spirituo-
magnetic nexus is an expression of the richness and variety of life and culture within India, and
wherever else in the world Hindus are settled (Bhardwaj and Lochtefeld 2004).
Use of theoretical frame of pilgrimage studies in the light of geography has attracted people
even from religious studies, especially to emphasize the Victor Turner’s constructs, territorial
context and emerging conflicts (cf. Delage 2004, 2005, 2008; also Singh 2006b). Study of the
origin and growth, and the role of various active agents in the process of making a local goddess,
‘Mari Mata’, indicates the locality in time frame converges into regionality through continuity
and increasing pace of devotees and visitors and their supporting auxiliary functionaries (Singh,
R.S. 2007). In an opposite manner too, the universality submerges into locality like in case of
goddess shrine at Kamachcha (Singh, R.S. 2009).
In pilgrimage studies using ‘text’ as a way to see the past and under-standing ‘context’ is to
see the contemporary situation received strong attention with reference to image worship that
looks simple but it possesses the complex, fluid, and contested nature of religiosity and their
historical and cultural underpinnings. The five essays in a recent anthology deal these themes.
The binary projection of ‘image’ covers themes like diversity and distinction, orthodoxy and
openness, complexity and centrality, accommodations and ambiguities, and so on. The studies
establishes the notion of ‘crossing the religious boundaries’ from locality to universality, and
returning vice versa (Granoff and Shinohara 2004a).
In June 1998 a conference on ‘Sacred Space and Sacred Biography in Asian Religious
Traditions’ held in Canada, which proceedings published later, bringing together studies from
various countries, including India that explored the classical and medieval period. Out of the
twelve essays in the proceedings seven deal with India. These essays present account of
‘intersection of sacred biography, sacred place, and community formation in Braj’, ‘sectarian
competition from terrestrial sacred space and visionary seeing in Assam and Orissa’, ‘sacred city
of Dvaraka as extension of the divine body’, ‘interweave of place, space and biographical
discourse’, ‘the role of politics and secular concerns in the patronage of holy place’, and ‘the
competing theories about the origins of Naklamki cult’. Altogether these papers explore the role
of sacred place in creating a specific local religious identity (Granoff and Shinohara 2004b).
From insiders’ and experiential perspective Karan’s (2004) recent book deals with critical issues
and details of the local scenarios of development, environment, and cultural conflicts facing most
areas using of the non-Western world in cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary approaches. In a
way the book has established a vision to understand the ‘Asian way’.
A study of topographic symbolism of pilgrim landscapes offers an insight into aspects of the
mother goddess’ divinity. The study of Pavagadh Hill in Gujarat, notes obviously that the
goddess is visualized in and through the landscape, it is mythology that anchors her narratives at
specific sites in the Pavagadh Hill. The primeval landscape of bare rock, ephemeral springs, and
layered vegetation, has evolved into a cultural landscape of worship in temples and shrines, small
communities that draw their sustenance from pilgrimage, and holy organizations that facilitate
and manage it (Sinha 2006b). The study of multiculturalism and integrative form of culture and
built architecture has been taken by geographer-turned architects and their team, e.g. case study
of the Yamuna riverfront (Sinha, Ruggles and Wescoat 2004). Analytical combination of textual
and ethnographic authority in the study of the religious traditions of Braj, where the river
Yamuna is symbol of liquid love, but today it is severely polluted, the victim of fast-paced
industrial development. Through a detailed analysis of the environmental condition of the river it
is noted that religious practices are affected by its current pollution; of course the newly coming
up Indian river environmentalism, has successfully attracted the West to realise implications of
the Yamuna’s plight and its effect on worldwide efforts to preserve our environment (Haberman
2006).
The study of sacred geography of Puri (structure and organisation and cultural role of a
pilgrim centre) emphasises the variety of existing religious centres and landscape that comprising
temples, maths, Sahis inhabited by ritual functionaries, sacred tanks, holy trees and the auxiliary
and supportive secular institutions and organisations. This clearly reveals the blending of sacred
and profane, thus resulting to the ‘wholeness’ in the holy territory of Puri, called Sankha Kshetra
that extends to 16km in extent of which nearly half of it have remained submerged in the sea, and
the remaining portion is above the water, where most of the sacred geography is confined to the
sacred places (Patnaik 2006).
The performances of fairs and festivals help to awaken the ‘spirit of place’, that further support
the motive and aspiration of pilgrimages. Under the ethnogeographical frame the study of Sun
goddess festival, ‘Chhatha’, in Bhojpur Region, India illustrates the interlinking chain from
locality to universality (Singh 2009c). Similarly, the applicability and contextuality of Gaia
theory in Indian culture has been tested in a cross-cultural perspective, emphasising the roots in
Indian culture (Singh 2009b: 81-109). The most sacred month for Hindus, i.e. Karttika, records
variety of festivals and celebrations that make the sacredscape a fantastic web of cultural
performances (Pintchman 2005). The study of the fifteen sites where the Buddha had been
attached to a different level, especially mapping the present landscape and narrating the Jataka
tales associated therein is a landmark in this direction (Singh 2003).
Use of religion in public awakening and consciousness in the elections is also a field of
enquiry in contemporary cultural geography by British scholars, e.g. in the context of feeling of
nationalism and reformative frame for maintenance of identity and also as a ‘show’ (Oza 2004).
Additionally, the study of contrapuntal geographies of threat and security, while making
comparison with USA and Israel has also been a new addition that reflects upon the similarities,
transformations and changing life ways (Oza 2007).
6. Landscape, Cultural Heritage: Contestation and Context

Landscape could also be read like language, text, symbol of cultural values, archetypal forms,
and several such exploration of interface between nature, culture, and built environment. In the
frame of archetype the natural, spatial and design attributes of landscape in India is studied and
illustrated with examples from Braj, Pavagarh, village plans, and pilgrimage centres and noted
that landscape symbols express all that a culture holds dear and externalise deeply felt emotions –
of security, kinship, and relationship with the divine. It is further observed that as Indian society
modernises and secular thinking accepted in the workplace, public sphere replaces religiosity
ordained tasks (Sinha 2006a).
Within the time frame of the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, a particularly creative
period in Gujarat area, the Islamic influence has been predominant, of course that do not
necessarily fall into specific sectarian categories. In fact, the local traditions formed its
‘communities’ as exemplified in the Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit inscriptions are illustrated in
Maru-Gurjara style at Bhadreshvar as studied by Patel (2004), whose careful focus has made one
vital part of medieval western India come alive in terms of communities and their artistic
legacies. Using a case study of the sacred complex of Tirumala-Tirupati, a popular pilgrimage
centre in south India, a paper explores causal linkages between different factors that shape the
environment in a pilgrimage centre, and also noted that in traditional pilgrimage, environmental
effects are governed by seasonality and are limited over time and space. It is argued that
significant changes in scale, frequency and character of such visitation over the past few decades
reflect new pressures on the environment of sacred sites (Shinde 2007).
The issue of heritage contestation has recently drawn attention of historical geographers,
architects and conservators. Some of the UNESCO sites in India have been recently studied
(Singh 2008a and b). Champaner-Pavagarh (enlisted in UNESCO WHL), like other heritage sites
in India, is both an historic and ethnographic landscape that exhibits both the palimpsest of
landscape layers inscribed over time and the juxtaposition of Hindu and Islam traditions in
architecture and city planning (see Sinha 2004). Both Hindu and Islamic cultures exploited the
visual potentials of the topography. The sense of harmonic relationship between Hindu (like
Kalika goddess) and Muslim (like Jami and Shehri mosques) co-exists in maintenance of this
heritagescape, which exists facing each other, but this may be questionable in future. The
concept of cultural landscape as a heritage resource is a recent development on the line of old
idea of historic conservation and certainly did not guide monument-centric colonial efforts at
restoration (Sinha and Harkness 2006). On this line the Yamuna riverfront around the Taj Mahal
(enlisted in UNESCO WHL) is suggested as ‘cultural heritage landscape’. This also raises the
issue of suspicion of tensions between Hindus and Muslims at some places (Sinha 2005).
Defining heritage territory under the strict control of heritage law will help avoiding conflicts and
contestation together with active public participation. This can be exemplified with a case study
of riverfront heritagescape of Varanasi (Banaras) where history, culture and the lifeways together
resulted into evolution of an unique landscape, i.e. faithscape (cf. Singh 2009a). Studies dealing
with the historical processes involved in assessing the heritage area of Champaner-Pavagadh,
Gujarat, India refer the failure of the mechanism and also prioritization of the concern for
heritage preservation (Sinha, et al., 2004a, 2004b). After independence the historical formation
and the deterritorialisation of the Muslim minority in India have been noticed prominently, that
resulted to formation of different structure and forms of sacred landscape (Delage 2007).
Following the scale of UNESCO World Heritage the riverfront of Varanasi also considered as
landscape of contestation, which needs critical appraisal for urban-regional development (Singh
2007a, 2008a and b). The maintenance of cultural mosaic, religious multiculturalism and
blending of diversification and distinctiveness of lifeworld make this city eternal. Study of
another UNESCO site of Khajuraho refers to re-establishment of the ancient glories by re-
interpretation of the old literature together with conservational strategy to save it (Singh 2006c).
Based on the aesthetical and conservational studies of water with reference to design themes,
illustrated with South Asian examples from medieval history it is noted that if history has any
guide, water will not be a cause of war in the 21st century’ (Wescoat 2005). Inspired by the
conservation work of Sir Bernard Feilden, with a study of conserving Mughal Garden it is
concluded that historical waterworks help us rediscover traditional methods of water conservation
that ultimately enhance human experiences and understanding (Wescoat 2006). Metaphorically,
Indian landscape was an icon of garden as in Mughal period (the 16th-17th centuries) emperors
realised and use it as political metaphor. This study indicates the historical ways to project
environmental well-being (Wescoat 2007a). Recent explorations are made to understand and
navigate the spectrum of cultural conflicts associated with landscape heritage conservation. To
link the case of Champaner–Pavagarh with the theme of human rights, the six types of conflict
examined, which may be viewed as progression from cultural rights to socioeconomic rights, and
ultimately to human rights (Wescoat 2007b). Religious narrowness has always served as
obstacles to the sites famous for inter-religious harmony and integrity.

The study of Banaras/ Varanasi has been very popular for the study of pilgrimages in various
contexts, like visitors’ perception and images (Gesler and Pierce 2000; Gupta 2003), philosophic
view in time (Lannoy 2002), experiential exposition (Schilder and Callewaert 2000). For the first
time in the history of geography an attempt has been made to prepare a masterly spiritual and
cultural guide of the Banaras Region where mapping, narration, symbolism, altogether framed a
sacred path for the pilgrims and the serious tourists (Singh and Rana 2002/ 2006).
Considered and mytholised as city of Shiva, Varanasi has been distinctively represented in the
tradition of lithographs showing this city (Chakraverty 2005). Since ancient past the city has
attracted people from different corners of India, emerging into evolution of varieties of
heritagescape, but since last twenty years they are facing the problem of illegal encroachments
and threatening (Dar 2005; also Doytchinov and Hohmann 2004). Mahamaya temple is a
representative of such a cultural symbol that is also a subject of threat (Dwivedi 2005). The study
of boatman and their role in the formation of life along the riverfront is itself a ‘lifeworld’ of its
own and consider being a special feature (Doron 2005, 2009). The riverfront of the Ganga at
Varanasi is in itself a sacredscape where a unique faithscape emerged and constantly made
awakened by rituals performed there (Singh 2007a).
The role of historicity and cultural patronage during the 18th and 19th centuries has been a
new wave of revitalising the city’s religious landscape and related architectural built-up; in fact in
this period the city has been re-created to fit into the ancient panorama of its sacredscapes (Feitag
2005). A monumental work of interdisciplinary nature that integrates architecture, photography,
cosmology, culture and geography, illustrated with the pilgrimage routes and symbols in Banaras
is an example of cultural geography of a city (Gutschow 2005). The classical puranic
glorifications (mahatmyas; specifically the Skanda Purana) of the pilgrimage city of Varanasi —
exploring their literary strategies, religious significance and historical importance in the study of
early Shaiva sectarian formations in India, it becomes easy to explain how this transition has been
mythologically understood, as a town of merchants to the home of Shiva and Parvati, thus giving
Varanasi a primordial origin (Smith 2007).
The Heidelberg University has completed its 3-years project dealing with Visualised Space in
Banaras: Images, Maps, and the Practice of Representation (Gaenszle and Gengnagel 2006).
During the period of 2001-03 under this projects many other associated attributes of codifying the
maps and processional routes, field study based on the ancient maps and texts have also added the
new dimension to research (Gengnagel 2005a, 2005b, 2006). The behavioural study of pilgrims
and tourists in Varanasi further support the image of the city as ‘holy centre’ and place of
pilgrimages for Hindus and also for Jains, Buddhists, Sufis and Sikhs (Rana and Singh 2004).
The study of life style and lifeways of Muslim communities shows space affinity and temporal
consequences that influenced Hindus and reciprocally influenced by too, thus emerged the
multiplicity of culture (cf. Lee 2005; Showeb 2004-2005). Another study of daily data for
continuous two years of the tourists and visitors are used to test the theory of Self Organised
Criticality that supports the pattern and ordering of chaos and fractals (Malville 2004; Malville
and Singh 2004; Singh and Malville 2005a). The spatial structure of the goddesses sites in
Banaras forms many such patterns, where shapes like triangle, square, circle, pentagon,
hexagram, and other meet (Singh and Singh 2006). The detailed analysis of nine mother
goddesses in Banaras also supports the same pattern (Wilke 2006). Similarly in case of sites
associated to Shiva, Ganesha and Surya (sun god) in Banaras also form series of alignments that
converges to various symbolic shapes that described in the texts metaphorically (Singh 2009c).
Even in the establishment and growth of the Banaras Hindu University, the archetypal
cosmogonic design has been taken as a base for the basic plan (Singh 2007a). The city has
maintained its cultural image through the processes of spatial manifestation and set breathe of the
Indian culture. The study of various cultural attributes and variety of landscapes, like houses and
mansions, mosques and tombs, water bodies and gardens, frescoes, temples, riverfront
architecture, etc. has presented the amalgamation of culture where multiplicity of religion and
society converges into mosaic (cf. Mitchell and Singh 2005). An attempt to identify and describe
the sacredscapes, setting and the iconographic and cosmic design of goddesses in Varanasi
reflected the deeper sense of cultural astronomy and positively corresponding alignments (Singh
and Singh 2006). The role of goddess in Hindu society has a frame of consciousness that
developed in the past and further emerged as a ‘motherly’ force, linking humanity to divinity
(Ståhle 2004). To activate and re-energise such rituals many old healing trees and their products
are still used (White 2005). This study is further comparable and projected with the similarities
and contrasts with the goddess territory of Vindhyachal, a neighbouring sacred territory which
emerged in the frame of ‘landscape as temple’ and spatially manifestation of all the 52
Shaktipithas scattered all-over India (Singh, Rana 1997)
8. Gandhi, a Cultural Symbol and a Vision

In the 21st century Mahatma Gandhi has been considered as ‘icon’ of India and as a way to
make this world more humane, peaceful and harmonious; that is how in geographical debate
emphasis has been laid on his contribution to understand development, human development,
ecological and political practices (Singh 2006c, 2007b, 2009b: 192-223). The making of one of
modern India’s most enduring political symbols, khadi: a homespun, home-woven cloth has been
explored with the background of image of Mahatma Gandhi who clothed simply in a loincloth
and plying a spinning wheel as familiar around the world, that resulted to encourage other
political leaders dressed in “Gandhi caps” and khadi shirts. Less widely understood is how these
images associate the wearers with the swadeshi movement― which advocated the exclusive
consumption of indigenous goods to establish India’s autonomy from Great Britain ― or how
khadi was used to create a visual expression of national identity after Independence. Trivedi’s
work brings together social history and the study of visual culture to account for khadi as both
symbol and commodity (Trivedi 2007).
Until late 1940s, the term ‘development’ was not in currency as it is today. Gandhi had,
therefore, used the term ‘progress’ for human development, more with respect to ethics and
cosmic integrity. He said, ‘by economic progress we mean material advancement without limit,
and by real progress we mean moral progress, which again, is the same thing as progress of the
permanent elements in us’. It is obviously noted that “without understanding Gandhi’s spiritual
quest, we do not understand Gandhi” (Weber 2006: 123). Much of what Gandhi said or wrote on
ecology is of an anecdotal nature, his criticism of structures antithetical to a healthy ecological
life-world ramified into ideas which developed and were put into action in different areas of
environmental concern. Gandhi’s importance as an environmental thinker may be marked in
terms of the strategies and vistas opened up by his pursuits, both public and private, towards a
sustained animal and environmental liberation struggle. In fact, Gandhi’s environmental thinking
is rooted in his larger philosophical and moral thinking (Bilimoria 2004).
Gandhi’s thought on the ethical and humanistic frame of political thought is of a state
consisting of self-governing village communities small enough for ‘love’ to be a practical reality
and for communal approval and disapproval to be effective moral forces without the need for
routine and formalised coercion. The ends of such a state will be achieved not through threats and
force, but through persuasion and consensus (Adams and Dyson 2003). On the line examining
postmodern Gandhi, it is noted that he challenged the established order, both the ritual order of
upper caste Hinduism and the high modernism of the Nehruvian Congress, and presented critique
of modern civilization and his alternatives to it. Against Nehru’s high modernist vision, Gandhi’s
postmodern view of India’s future has been more suited to India but it is tyranny that has never
been used (Rudolph and Rudolph 2006). These ideas have not yet examined in the field of
cultural geography. A recent anthology of twenty-four papers on the enormous diversity of Hindu
World elucidates the history, philosophy and practice of one of the world’s great religious
traditions, offering new insights into all aspects of Hindu life, ranging from the devotional texts
of the Vedas and the Ramayana to current perspectives on dharma and karma, temple
architecture, sacred food, ritual, caste, cosmic philosophy, history and modernization (Mittal and
Thursby 2005). Dating back some five thousand years, Hinduism is the dominant faith of India
and an increasingly powerful spiritual force in the West; however attempt is made to present the
rooted insideness and its reflection outside, covering issues like varieties of divinities, sacred
places and spatial affinity, ethical teachings, and sacred texts, as well as aspects of contemporary
culture such as yoga (Narayan 2008). This work links the inside and outside views in a
harmonious manner.
9. Epilogue
Geography, like other social sciences, is in a state of flux. Geography matters because it
affects human life and the natural environment, and serves as force in the formation of landscape.
In a country of such rich cultural traditions and ancient civilisation there prevails ample areas,
issues and objects of serious and comprehensive research in cultural geography, emphasising the
classical, traditional, transformational and futurist approaches to be used to understand and
reinterpret the meaning, metaphor, symbols and the inherent messages that may help awakening
and formation of new vision to serve the society in a more better way. This way one of the major
functions of geography, i.e. ‘to train future citizens…. to think sanely about political and social
problems in the world around’, would be performed. With emergence and acceptance of
interdisciplinary approaches the study of cultural geography has turned into various directions
and handling various dimensions. Recent philosophical constructs like Gaia theory, visioning
spiritual tourism, sacralising space and time, interrelationships between mystical tradition and
corresponding cultural astronomy, etc. are strengthening the corpus and field of cultural
geography strong and richer. Further, issues like changing nature of cultural adaptation,
attitudinal and ethical, role of religious movement and pilgrimages, sacred places and message of
peace, reinterpreting the old texts and their relevance today, India’s message to the world order,
and diasporas and links to Indian roots, etc. are yet waiting serious attention. The exposition of
experiential feelings, like the novel, the meeting point of culture and technology, ecological order
and conservation, saving and serving the humanity, are the other areas where Indian geographers
could test their potentials and insights.
With increasing pace for critical examination of the varieties, distinctions and uniqueness, and
the linkages that bind and apart interrelations and interactions among the attributes of the cultural
India has started its turn, quite close to humanism; of course, unfortunately mostly by foreign
geographers or geographers’ from Indian roots settled abroad. However, there appear contrasts,
discrepancies and selective subjectivity based on personal interest for more academic exercise. In
case of India still the Saurian tradition of ‘landscape’ (after Carl O. Sauer, 1889-1975) of the
West, and Sankalian tradition of ‘historico-cultural processed formation’ (after H.D. Sankalia,
1908-1989) and Culturo-astronomical tradition of ‘exposing inherent message of the past and
scientific exposure’ (as paved by Subhash Kak 2005, 2006, 2007 ; also e.g. Malville 2004,
Malville and Singh 2004, Singh 2009b) would be the potential concerns that may link between
the traditional and new turnings in cultural geography. Kak’s contributions on the line of
integrated and harmonious links between ancient and the modern scientific exposure have
recently drawn world-wide attraction, like focusing on spatial design of ancient temples, their
iconographic aesthetics and the deeper message inherent their in and narrated in myths and tales,
and several such issues (e.g. Kak 2005a, b; 2006, 2007). What earlier conceived as ‘marginal’,
the ongoing ways of cultural geography of India, recording beauty of great heterogeneity, is
indeed would certainly lead to employ both traditional and new concepts (like in the wave of
New Age) to address the issues of environments, landscapes, identities, inequalities, global
harmony and peace at micro-, meso- and macro- levels like a channel from ‘locality’ to
‘universality’.
Elaborating Lorenzen’s (1999) insights through a focus on medieval, CE the 6th-7th century,
Indian sacred geographies, it has been noted that cultural processes linking ‘local’ tradition of
deities and pilgrimages, slowly expanded and thus was formed pan-Indian imageries and
manifestive glories in the form of eulogies superimposed there, as exemplified in case of twelve
Jyotirliṅgas of Shiva (Fleming 2009). That is how the ‘locality’, expanding in the frame of
‘regionality’, finally reaching to ‘universality’ emerged by the 6th-7th century whose roots go
back to the Vedic period, ca. the 3rd millennium BCE. Lorenzen (1999) has highlighted many
points of cross-cultural contact that took place in the medieval period, empathetically proposing
that “a much sharper self-conscious identity [emerged] through the rivalry between Muslims and
Hindus in the period between 1200 and 1500” (ibid.: 631). While it is likely that British
colonialism had much to do with crystallizing current concepts of “Hinduism” as a single pan-
Indian “religion,” with a unified set of doctrines and a “canon” of sacred literature, he suggests
that the conceptualization of “pan-Indian” religious ideology did not arise solely with the British.
Rather, this encounter was but one historical moment in a much broader story (cf. Fleming 2009:
51). The study of cultural ecology with its basic attributes of subsistence, work, reproduction, and
resources and their interrelationships as embedded in the rules and ethics of Indian society also
need consideration for future research.
At the very least, anyone interested in the cultural ways of knowledge, understanding and
perception should acknowledge that ‘culture’ too as subjected to the spatiality, temporality and
functionality in making complex web of the ‘socio-cultural system’ is running and producing
sub-spaces within the covering set of spaces that we constantly, continuously and cumulatively
create, nourish, inhabit and pass on to the coming generations (cf. Strohmayer 2005: 529). The
good question before us is as how to avoid the natural or cultural determinism! I think that it
would a great task before us, dweller geographers, to explain and share with others by joining
hands in narrating everyday experiences, feelings, revelations and realisations in all their
geographical complexities in order to re-search and re-making path towards peace, passion, love,
mutual cohesiveness and harmonious life.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Author
The Author
Contact & Corresponding Address:
Prof. Dr. RANA P. B. SINGH
Vice-President: ACLA, Asian Cultural Landscape Association
Professor (spel. Cultural Geography & Heritage Studies),
Head [2013-2015] Dept. of Geography, Institute of Science,
Banaras Hindu University, # New F - 7, Jodhpur Colony; B.H.U.,
Varanasi, UP 221005. INDIA.
Tel: (+091)-542-2575-843. Cell: (+91-0)- 9838 119474.
Email: ranapbs@gmail.com
§ Rana P.B. Singh [born: 15 Dec. 1950], M.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1974, F.J.F. (Japan) 1980, F.I.F.S. (Japan) 2004,
F.A.A.I. (Italy) 2010, F.A.C.L.A. (Korea) 2013, ‘Ganga-Ratna’ (GMS India) 2014, Professor (spel. Cultural
Geography & Heritage Studies), Department of Geography, Institute of Science at Banaras Hindu
University, has been involved in studying, performing and promoting the heritage planning,
sacred geography & cultural astronomy, pilgrimage studies in the Varanasi region for the last four
decades, as consultant, project director, collaborator and organiser. He has also studied
heritagescapes of Japan, Korea and Sweden. He has been a Member, UNESCO Network of
Indian Cities of Living Heritage (- representing Varanasi), and was a South Asian representative
to the IGU initiative on ‘Culture and Civilisation to Human Development’ (CCHD), 2005-08. He
is also the Member of the two Steering Committees of the International Geographical Union’s
Commissions, 2012-2016: (i) Cultural Approach in Geography (C12.07), and Landscape
Analysis and Landscape Planning (C12.25). He is also serving as President (2014-2016) of IASR,
Indian Association for Study of Religion, an affiliate of the International Association of Study of
Religion (Netherlands). In recognition of his works, he has been honoured as being Fellow of the
Academia Ambrosiana, Italy, F.A.A.I. in 2009, and serving as member of its International Board
of the Scientific Committee, 2010-15. As visiting scholar he has given lectures and seminars on
these topics at various centres in Australia, Austria, Belgium, China PR, Denmark, Finland,
Germany, Indonesia (Bali), Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA (& Hawaii), and
USSR.
His publications include 16 monographs, 25 books, and around 260 research papers in journals
of repute, and anthologies/ proceedings. His recent publications include Towards the Pilgrimage
Archetype (2002), Where the Buddha Walked (2003/ 2009), Cultural Landscapes and the
Lifeworld (2004), Banaras, the City Revealed (2005, ed. with George Michell), Banaras: History,
Geography and Bibliography (2009), and the eight books under ‘Planet Earth & Cultural
Understanding Series’: ‒ five from Cambridge Scholars Publishing UK: Uprooting Geographic
Thoughts in India (2009), Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the 21st
Century (2009), Cosmic Order & Cultural Astronomy (2009), Banaras, Making of India’s
Heritage City (2009), Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia (2010), and ‒ three from
Shubhi Publications (New Delhi): Heritagescapes and Cultural Landscapes (2011),
Sacredscapes and Pilgrimage Systems (2011), and Holy Places and Pilgrimages: Essays on India
(2011); Indo-Kyosei Global Ordering: Gandhi’s Vision, Harmonious Coexistence, &
Ecospirituality (Toyo Univ. Tokyo, Japan, 2011); and Hindu Tradition of Pilgrimage (2013).
Presently he is working on the Kashi & Cosmos: Sacred Geography and Ritualscape of Banaras.

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Singh, Rana P.B.

[469.16]. Reports on the

Progress in Cultural Geography, India (2012-16)

1. Cultural Geography studies in India: Purview

2. Indian Cultural Landscape (ICL)

3. Religion - Urban Landscape Interfaces

4. Pilgrimage and Sacredscapes

5. The otherness in Indian culture: Muslims’ lifeworld

6. Varanasi, the Holy city & Symbol of Indian Culture

Progress in Cultural Geography, India: 2008-12

1. Introduction: Overview of India’s Culture

2. Culture as the human response: the Historical purview

3. Cultural notions and changing reflections

4. Cultural Journey: Pilgrimage and Sacredscapes

5. Landscape, Cultural Heritage: Contestation and Context

6. Varanasi, the Holy city & Symbol of Indian Culture

Brekke, Torkel 2012. Fundamentalism: Prophecy and Protest in an Age of Globalization.

Progress in Historical Geography, India, 2004-08

Travelogue, Image Writing and Historical purview

Science, Historical Context and Searching the Roots

Cultural History and Regional Historical Geography

Historical settlement geography

British Raj, Imperialism and Orientalism

Society, Gender and Historical processes

References: pp. 152-159.

Majeed, Javed, 2007. Geographies of Subjectivity, Pan-Islam and Muslim Separatism:

Progress in Cultural Geography, India: 2004-08

Cultural Journey: Pilgrimage and Sacred place

Cultural Notions and Changing Reflections

Landscape, Cultural Heritage, Contestation and Context

Varanasi, the Holy city & Symbol of Indian Culture

Gandhi, a Cultural Symbol and a Vision

References: pp. 162-171.

and Resources in a Multicultural Perspective, Michael Conan (ed.), Dumbaton Oaks

Progress in Cultural Geography of India, 2000-04

2. Culture: the human response

3. Cultural Ethnology: text, context and narrative

4. Cultural Practice: consciousness and performances

5. Cultural Manifestation: Spatiality and Astronomy

6. Cultural Journey: pilgrimage to sacred place

Of course started in 1970s by a geographer Surinder Bhardwaj through his pioneering

Progress in Historical Geography of India, 2000-04

2. History of Landscape: sequence in crossings

An example of environmental history and public consciousness has been established by

3. Searching roots in the Classics: towards the ‘New Age’

4. Cultural Astronomy: continuity from the past

5. The Images: historical context

6. Morphogenesis: evolution & mapping of structure

7. Continuity of Religious symbolism: historical links

2. Culture: the human response

3. Cultural notions and changing reflections

several ongoing processes — may it be called feminism or post-modernism! (Ray 2005).

4. Cultural Manifestation and Ethnology: text and context

5. Cultural Journey: Pilgrimage and Sacred place

6. Landscape, Cultural Heritage: Contestation and Context

7. Varanasi, the Holy city & Symbol of Indian Culture

8. Gandhi, a Cultural Symbol and a Vision