Book review: National Atlas of India

Summary

This review assesses the preliminary Hindi edition of the National Atlas of India, published in 1957 as the foundation for a comprehensive national atlas. Designed to inventory India’s physical, economic, and cultural resources, the volume employs shaded relief, hachures, dot mapping, proportional circles, and numerous large-scale insets. The reviewer highlights the value of its maps of relief, drainage, rainfall, land use, agriculture, power, industry, transport, population, education, health, archaeology, and tourism. Particular praise is given to the delineation of drainage basins and rainfall-deficient areas, while weaknesses include unclear colour combinations, obscured topographic features, limitations of crop dot maps, and insufficient representation of transport and electricity accessibility. Planned large-scale maps of population and settlements, within an eventual 500-map programme, promise to support both theoretical and applied geographical research and transform understanding of India’s resource distribution.