India and the subcontinent

In 1984, Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space, spoke to the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. She asked: How does India look from space? He replied: *Sāre jahān se achchha* — better than the whole world.

India is the seventh-largest country in the world and part of Asia. With its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, it forms the Indian subcontinent: a region big and distinct enough to talk about on its own, but still part of the continent of Asia.

Picture India like a person: the Himalayas are its crown in the north; its two arms are the Arabian Sea (west) and the Bay of Bengal (east); the Indian Ocean lies to the south.

Every one of India's boundaries is natural:

These features separate India from the rest of Asia, and the book says they have shaped India's climate, culture and history. That is the big idea of this chapter.

The chapter visits five regions: the great mountains, the plains of the Ganga and the Indus, the desert, the southern peninsula, and the islands. Keep the physical map at the end of the book open: its colours show how high each area is.