History of geogrpahy: A review by C K Lal
Ashutosh Tiwari
Taken from: Kathmandu Post Review of Books
Vol. 3, No. 9 (30 August 1998)
Issue Coordinator: Mary Des Chene
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BOOK: Geographical Thought: A Contextual History of Ideas
Author: R. D. Dikshit.
Publisher: Prentice Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi, 1997.
Price: IRs. 175.
Reviewed by C K Lal
"Chunder Seekur Opedeea", Agent on the part of the "Rajah of
Nipal", who handed over the Treaty of "Sugaulee" to Ochterlony, Agent of
the Governor General of the East India Company, must have been a learned
man to have been entrusted with such an important task. However, he
evidently had not recognized the importance of either geography or history.
Geography would have told him to be precise about the location of Kali and
history would have warned him to be wary of a treaty drafted by the
stronger party to establish and perpetuate its hold over the weaker one.
Had he done that, King Mahendra's concession to the Indian Army could not
have been construed as submission and it would not have resulted in the
continued occupation of a part of Nepal by that army. A sound case to
ground our policy makers in geosophy. If some of them need to make a
beginning, Prof. R. D. Diksit's new book is an exceedingly well compiled
primer.
For the definition of geosophy, Dikshit turns to J. K. Wright who
regarded the subject to be "to geography what historiography is to history,
it deals with the nature and expression of geographical knowledge, both
past and present--with what Whittlesey called 'Man's sense of territorial
space'". The discipline also deals with "geographical ideas both true and
false held by all manner of people, accounting for human desires, motives
and prejudices".
Extending this line of thought, W. Zelinsky demands that a
geographer must be involved as a diagnostician, forecaster, and an
architect who could present the blueprints for achievement of the
preferred future. One may not agree to this all-encompassing role for a
geographer, but a study of geographical ideas through the ages makes one
appreciate the strength behind this seemingly audacious argument.
More than the depth, it's the breadth of scholarship in this book
that is truly breath-taking. Even though billed as a textbook by the
publishers, it's an attempt by the author to appreciate the vastness of
the area of study undertaken by him. Consequently, what readers get of the
great geographical ideas is merely a taste; for their fill they'll have to
go back to the originals themselves.
Diskhit leafs through history till the 18th century for
geographical ideas and decides to build upon the philosophical
contributions of German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Thereafter,
his path demarcated by chorology (space) on one side and, on the other, by
chronology (history), he takes readers on an exciting tour of ideas,
deftly guiding them through the maze of theories and the milestones in
Physical Geography, Spatial Analysis, Humanistic Geography, Political
Economy of Geography, Regional Analysis, Historical Explanations,
Ecological Thoughts, Environmentalism, Human Geography, Geography of
Gender and Post-Modernism before bringing them back to the holistic view
of the subject propounded by old Greek masters. The tour is a journey of
discovery and Dikshit is a competent, even if sometimes dull, guide for
this exploration.
The book can perhaps be summed up in one sentence of the author,
"More recently, the emerging convergence between historical geographers and
social and economic historians and historical anthropologists on the one
hand, and between historical geographers and palaeobotanists, historical
climatologists, and archaeologists on the other, has been... a major source
of interdisciplinary integration, evidenced by the increasing
methodological convergence between historical geography and the rest of the
subject, as also general recognition given by geographers to the important
role played by historical specificity in the explanation and understanding
of problems of human geography". However, as you must realize, one needs to
read the whole book to take the impact of that one sentence.
The book sparkles with luminous quotes that throw an entirely new
light upon old ideas. For example, it puts Collingwood's claim that all
history is history of thought up against Marx's adage that all history is
history of class struggle and then pits them together against the view of
geographer Samuels that, "The history of mankind is ... always a geography
of man's search for roots.
The first man is, as it were, the man who invented a boundary to
delimit his place, and human history is, therefore, a history of
boundary-making, maintaining and changing". Do you still wonder why our
Crown Prince Dipendra chose geography as his field of study? In the realm
of historical geography, insists Harris, "There is no useful disciplinary
line separating present from past, space from time". Such a subject would
be indispensable to any one keen upon understanding human civilization.
Readers would be well advised not to rush through this book. An
academic work, it is meant to be studied, not read. The effort is rewarding
as one listens to the masters down the ages speaking through an interpreter
who clearly knows the language and is a fellow student of the subject.
Dikshit knows the road, has some idea about the destination that often
proves to be another beginning, and enjoys the journey along with the
readers. How often does one come across such efforts at humanizing
knowledge?
Professional geographers are not the only ones who stand to benefit
from this book. Perhaps it would be of equal use, if not more, to any
scholar engaged in interdisciplinary studies. The volume would have been
immensely more interesting had some thoughts of Eastern thinkers been
included in it. Then the relatively cursory overview treatment meted out to
Economic Geography annoys. Settlement Geography gets even less attention
and Planning Geography barely a mention. Although no book can be
comprehensive on any subject, one expected an introduction to these ideas
of far reaching implications in a venture as ambitious as compiling a
contextual history of ideas in geographical thought.
Lastly, remember that it's the work of an academician and a
specialist aimed at an audience mature enough for the force of sometimes
raw ideas. The language is no Archer, nor the flow of narrative that of
Michener. The book needs effort but the view from the peak, once reached,
is breathtaking and well worth every drop of sweat generated in reaching
there. Marx insisted that we must always be aware of the historicity of our
conceptual constructions. Paying attention to geosophy would take us far in
that regard.
(C. K. Lal, a writer based in Kathmandu, would like to believe that he is
a student of interdisciplinary studies)
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man...@my-dejanews.com
tiw...@login3.fas.harvard.edu (Ashutosh Tiwari) wrote:
>
> Reviewed by C K Lal
Just curious ! Is this C K Lal is the same person, who used to write excellent
satirical column in the Independent?
--
Mangal. Bangkok.
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Ashutosh Tiwari
>> Reviewed by C K Lal
>Just curious ! Is this C K Lal is the same person, who used to write excellent
>satirical column in the Independent?
Yes, he is. He still writes for The Independent weekly.
ashu