John E. Brush · 1958
This review describes the 1957 National Atlas of India (Preliminary Hindi Edition), prepared under S. P. Chatterjee, with final drafting and printing by the Survey of India. The reviewer praises the maps' quality and notes that English translations accompany Hindi titles, legends, and notes. Its 26 sheets cover India's physical geography and socio-economic structure, including agriculture, industry, transport, population, education, and health. They contain 21 maps at 1:5,000,000 and 16 at 1:10,000,000, alongside smaller-scale world maps and numerous insets. The review explains how color tints, screens, and symbols combine different kinds of information: the forest and land-use map distinguishes 12 land categories, 35 dominant tree species, and 11 vegetation types. It singles out the administrative map as the first comprehensive delineation of minor civil divisions since the 1881 census, showing boundaries following the reorganization of November 1, 1956. The review closes with prices for the standard and popular editions, the sales office, and a contact for American inquiries.
A. I. H. Rizvi · 1958
The publication of the National Atlas of India in Hindi marks the completion of the first phase of the National Atlas Project, with a more comprehensive edition planned for the end of the Second Five Year Plan. Prepared by the National Atlas Organization under the Union Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, the atlas comprises 28 sets of specialized maps emphasizing socio-economic distribution patterns over mere place-name locations and physical features. It is the first Indian atlas to adopt the metric system, presenting heights in metres, distances in kilometres, areas in hectares and square kilometres, rainfall in centimetres, and temperature in degrees centigrade. The loose-leaf format allows individual maps to be extracted for detailed study, and English legends and explanatory notes are included to facilitate international use. Based on the latest data from central and state governments, the maps cover administrative divisions, relief, drainage, climate, soils, forests, land use, agriculture, livestock, power, industries, transport, population distribution, education, health, archaeology, and tourism, offering fresh insights into India's physical, economic, and social conditions.
L. Dudley Stamp · 1959
L. Dudley Stamp reviews the 1957 Preliminary Hindi Edition of the National Atlas of India, edited by S. P. Chatterjee under the Second Five-Year Plan. Despite a shortage of trained personnel, the Calcutta team, supported by Survey of India printing facilities at Dehra Dun, completed it within twelve months. Its 26 sheets use a standard scale of 1:5,000,000 for the main maps and metric units throughout. Hindi maps are accompanied by English place-name and key translations and bilingual descriptive text, an arrangement Stamp praises for combining national aspirations with international usability. He highlights the administrative detail, climate maps redrawn from about 3,000 stations, and thematic maps linking crops with industries, cattle with population or arable land, and transport with traffic and accessibility. He commends the atlas's methods of cartographic representation while finding the grey base maps too faint. Stamp regards it as a clear national overview that leaves detailed land-use surveying necessary, and reports that a larger atlas of over 300 plates is already in preparation.
