A STATUS REPORT ON HUMAN GEOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

ABSTRACT

Geography was traditionally split into two categories, Physical and Human Geographies, and while it may seem absurd to create tens of branches with a variety of adjectives attached, this duality may also be more logical. Economic and Regional Geographies, however, became more important to hasten the exploitation of the conquered countries with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the following spread of colonialism; as a result, two new branches of geography were created. These four branches were well-liked for a long time in Indian institutions, where colonial rulers planted the first seeds of geography. However, it is generally acknowledged that in addition to the current branches of physical and environmental geography, human geography also encompasses economic, regional, and all other geographies. The development of human geography in India can be monitored by looking at academic publications produced by various associations for geography, Ph. D. theses submitted to various universities, faculty research projects, books written by geographers, and university curricula. Due to the breadth of the nation, poor recordkeeping practises throughout the post-Independence period, and the lack of comparable data available in a single location, compiling the pertinent data from numerous sources to analyse the progress is difficult and nearly impossible for a single academic. As a result, the author of the current paper sketches out the development of human geography in India over the past 50 years or so using the information that is currently at his disposal as well as contacts he has made with other geographers across the nation in recent months. As a result, this paper provides an overview of the state of Indian geography since the country’s independence. Development geography is a subfield of geography that deals with the standard of living and overall well-being of a region’s people. Development in this sense refers to a process of change that has an impact on people’s lives. It might entail an enhancement in how those going through transition view their quality of life.

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