The Handbook of India

I picked up this interesting looking little book at a book sale for a dollar recently. I thought the cover was great, and like the concept of the book: India having a go at publicising itself to the tourist market in 1958.

It is a ‘not for sale' publication, split into three parts. The first is an introductory section titled ‘the land and the people' which gives a good summary of (a very brief) history, and the people and cultural diversity within India, and also a What India offers the Tourist chapter.

Second is an excellent ‘pictorial tour' of India, in which literally hundreds of cities and town receive a paragraph or two describing their main tourist attractions (whether that is a temple (which it most often is - ha,ha), a palace, game park, a place of natural beauty, a minority tribe, or interestingly - a piece of new infrastructure or engineering - dams, a train manufacturing workshop, steel works etc. Almost any city you can name in India receives a mention, even in some cases where there is nothing particularly touristy! Clearly there was some lobbying to be included in the book!

The third section is the ‘useful hints' section, where the basics are covered - passports, visas, customs, currency, post and telephone, then on to accommodation and travel facilities. Next is a section on sports, then a section titled Shikar - this means hunting for sport, but is not a term I had heard before. There is then an elaborate and detailed description of what animals may and may not be shot in each region. In 1958, tigers, panthers and cheetahs, were, amazingly aspired to as a hunting target, whereas lion were strictly protected. Elephants in some areas needed to be deemed rogue before being shot, in others they were permitted targets. Four kinds of bear, seven of deer, antelope and gazelle six, goats eight, sheep three, and of the ox three were all fair game. In addition there were rhinoceros, and rare game such as the Sikkim stag, the cloud leopard, the musk deer and the mouse deer.
Amazing how much things have changed - to be able to have protected such an abundance of species from that point onwards would have been incredible.

At the rear is also an attractive little fold away map.

An interesting little book. 3 stars.