Before people discard this blog as a travelogue, I will give them a better reason to ignore it. So today we (actually just me) will discuss about this book I read some time ago. It is called Empires of the Indus: etc. etc. ,and is written by Alice Albinia. At some point she had enough time (must be during her phd) to travel from the mouth of Indus to the origin. So she did it ...... also wrote this beautiful book not just about the travel but also about the historical civilizations which have flourished in this area.
Perhaps the most impressive part of this book is that she was able to align the chronological order of historical events with the length of Indus. So she starts from the delta of Indus and talks about the present day Sindh. After that partition and Mughal rule in Punjab, then describes the invasion of Alexander. She finishes her journey in Mount Kailash (Kailash Parbat) and is somehow able to relate it with Neandarthals or an era close to them.
To make it more alluring for you lazy buggers, let me share some of the interesting facts from it. After the partition, untouchable Hindus were not allowed to move from Sindh to India, because no one else would be ready to clean the toilets and sewerage system. They have what we don't, job security. Moving on, Great Alexander had a really hard time crossing Indus and that contributed in his failure to expand his empire to the east of Indus. On the other hand it made the land fertile and rich, in effect attracting invaders from the north. Coming back to present Fundamentalists have destroyed some Buddhist temples (in Afghanistan) which were only accessible to shepherds before. Somehow man's innate tendency to demolish pleasing things takes them far (literally) in their political ambition.
But yeah life is not perfect, and neither is this book. In spite of the book being a great read, it seemed at some places things were little more dramatized and more emotional. I guess the things which third world is fine with are not considered right in developed nations. Hopefully things will change soon and in the right direction :). Since she is a British historian, that justifies her firm believe in Aryan invasion theory. But I like to believe in united India, so her implications drawn from this theory didn't travel much inside my brain. There might be a medical reason for this also, so just to keep you brain sharp, here is a puzzle for the budding politicians and normal people;).
Given that Indus flows from India to Pakistan, India can control the water flow. Then why is "Indus water treaty" still intact after three wars and Kargil ?
