The book received good reviews on flipkart.com. So, I ordered it.
Initially it is more like a book by Romila Thapar, I.e explained geology and then started real history. This technique is followed till the end of Harappan civilization. After that the economist in the author woke up and delivered opinions on historical develoments. The economic view of history is really interesting.
History was explained in a linear fashion till Mughals. From that point, he started on hopping. Author mentioned importance of lot of things in and around Delhi which are not famous tourist spots. Few anecdotes , trivia and lot of local stories which are useful for a tourist guide but not for a history reader.
The views of author on slums around a city and path of
transformation of a village to suburban and then to urban in the liberal India are amazing. Its good to read a popular economic cum geology cum historical book on India.
But there are few faults. The caption of the book is " A brief history of India's geography " . But there is less geography, it's not even history in the back drop of geography. Definitely not a reference book for either history or geography of India.
Author has mentioned " Rudrama devi of Golconda". Its a blunder.
Cover page of the book is the geographical map of India showing its rivers. In those rivers Godavari is missing. As name is the book is " land of seven rivers", graphic designer , author and publishers should have checked if the map on the cover page is correct. The word Geography on the cover page made it look more silly.
But, on the whole, it's a good read. It just didnt deliver what I expected from the book title.
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