The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale Of How India Was Mapped And Everest Was Named (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
The Great Arc is an account of the Trigonometric Survey of India, a mammoth exercise to survey and map the Indian sub-continent from Kanyakumari (then Cape Comorin) to Kashmir and from the Indus delta to Burma, an exercise that commenced in 1802 and was completed only in 1870.The book traces the history of the Trigonometric Survey from its conceptualisation and commencement in 1802 by its first superintendent William Lambton until the mid 1830's under his successor George Everest. In this time the primary arc tracing the 78 E longitude that passes through Delhi was surveyed in a series of interconnected triangles that stretched from Kanya Kumari in the south to Dehradun in the north.The primary arc was to be the spine of the web of triangles that measured and surveyed the length and breadth of the country - secondary arcs branching off perpendicularly from the primary arc and these secondary arcs further lending to further arcs that then ran parallel to the primary arc, crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country.Nothing as ambitious had been attempted before, for a survey of this magnitude in effect measured the very curvature of the earth. Mapping and measuring the heights of some of the highest peaks of the Himalayas: Nanda Devi, Kanchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, Mount Everest and others were a direct consequence of this survey.In addition to the cartographical, geographical and wider scientific implications of the survey, the exercise had a significant political impact too. For this was a way for the East India Company that by now had clear territorial ambitions to exert its influence over the land it wished to govern. A survey of this magnitude was essential to map territories, delineate regions and divisions, build the web of infrastructure links so essential to effecting control over such a large region and above all to assert territorial superiority. Needless to add, it was a necessary aid to revenue collection, one of the primary reasons why India was attractive to the colonial ambitions of the British.Large swathes of forest were cleared, hills flattened, monuments temples and mosques vandalized, villages razed, buildings and mansions in towns cut through... all in the name of obtaining clear lines of sight to measure the trigonometrical angles. Suffice to say the local populace and their princes were not amused. Nor did the arrogant and high handed approach of the superintendents of the Survey, George Everest included, help. Local resources were diverted, men and beasts put in the employ of the Survey and the harsh conditions of the dense jungles and working in the heat and rain claimed fatalities larger in number than wars. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this was one of the reasons contributing to the First War of Independence in 1857.The subject matter of the book makes for interesting reading. Without complicating it with technical details, the author explains the basics of geographical survey and measurement, with its complexities and problems, in a simple enough manner. There would have been difficulties in researching a topic two centuries old, inspite of the copious amount of correspondence and publications that the mammoth effort must have generated. The book restricts itself to the first thirty or so years of the survey that took nearly seventy and traces the events during the course of its first two superintendents: William Lambton, an unassuming but much loved person with a zeal for perfection and his successor George Everest, a man with an equal zeal for perfection but loathed by his sub-ordinates for his abrasive and abusive ways. There is some reference to the administrative, logistical and practical difficulties that these men had to face, but the book is neither a humanistic account that presents the dynamics of the what-how-why nor a research treatise that delves into the technical details. It is an attempt at turning a mega event into a novel but ends up without strong characterisation with the exception of Lambton who is presented as a lovable old man and Everest as a loathable person. There is little detail on the social, political and cultural impact the survey had on the India of then. Even events that would have then been (and would now be too) sacrilegious, such as drilling a hole in the dome of a mosque, removing a pillar holding the cupola atop Akbar's tomb at Fatehpur Sikhri, mounting equipment tons heavy on the spires of temples are glossed over. Needless to add, such acts would have generated tremendous animosity and ill-will among the local population, with implications for the survey and the fledgling administration of the East India Company. An examination of these aspects would have made the book a far more absorbing read, for by the last third of the book, it gets repetitive: Everest's outbursts, the same challenges and problems in finding suitable spots for observation points etc.,Nevertheless, the book is an interesting read on a subject matter that literally defined the world we live in. Full marks to the author for that.
John Keay is an engaging writer of uncomplicated books. I have relished reading his works. His India Discovered and History of China were keenly informative, the later even carrying a heightened colour and relatively racy narration. My hunch is that the presence of his wife Julia in that book creates that effect. And the frequent literary flourishes, which were absent in the more sedate, though still romantic, 'India Discovered' could also be happily dedicated to Julia.'The Great Arc' too, apparently, carries the Julia influence and is frequently humorous and there are places where poetic effects are deliberated attempted. That makes the book qualify for the description of 'occasionally racy'. His frequent criticism of George Everest is not substantiated effectively in the book and seems borne out of some visceral dislike for the great surveyor. George Everest was definitely not the exclusively egotistic and superficial man he is portrayed to be. Someone who devoted decades of his life following a grand pursuit deserves a more sympathetic treatment. Pursuits, such as his, should not be ascribed entirely to a manic and vulgar desire for power and recognition. And even it be so, why harp on that to the almost total exclusion of everything that may have been good in him. But we love heroes to fall, and this book apparently aims to satisfy that desire. 'Everest' he may have achieved, we would still like to bury him deep enough under the dry and parched soil of the plains where he toiled for decades. Deep enough. Also, full of details, it somehow seems to miss something essential - a substantially stated and illustrated connection with the other events of the period. It is surprising that Sleeman is mentioned only once or twice in passing, Gorkha war is mentioned vaguely and Gorkha occupation to the west of Garhwal, upto Sutlej, has not been mentioned. The Great Trigonometrical Survey has been listed as one of the causes of the uprising of 1857. Was it really so ? Had it not been for the excessive mention of complexity of mathematics that the author seems to have taken a fancy to, apparently without fully comprehending the complexity, lack of enough historical backdrop and, most importantly, a lopsided portrayal of George Everest, this would have been an even more interesting book. Please go ahead and read it. The book is engrossing like all John Keay books and is actually full of humour. But do not get swayed by what the reviews on the cover of the book say. They definitely lavish praise to a degree not merited.
What do You think about The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale Of How India Was Mapped And Everest Was Named (2001)?
A thin but inspiring history: how William Lambton, George Everest (pronounced EVE-rest), and other hardy and dedicated souls mapped a great deal of India. The Arc was a series of triangles plotted through vertical and horizontal triangulation, sometimes confirmed by fixing one’s place by observation of the stars. This mapping required braving malaria- and dysentery-infested forests and plains; crunching the numbers in impossibly complex equations; lugging a vast instrument calledThe Great Theodolite over rugged terrain; constructing towers and scaffolding for flagmen and flares, and huge amounts of patience.The story is awe-inspiring, if only for the bravery of these pioneers, who often faced greater casualty rates than soldiers in the name of science; but I was most impressed by the precision of the survey under the given conditions. Every variable was predicted and dealt with, even to attaching thermometers to the measuring-chains so as to calculate the metal’s expansion and compensate in the resulting calculation. In all this plotting, the measuring of mountains was incidental, but Keay also reveals how the bad-tempered Everest somehow got his name attached to the world’s highest peak. This book is a fine work of scholarship and very pleasant to read. However, it is a pity that there is so little on the reactions of Indians to the survey: I’d like to know how Everest’s own native contingent felt, what local villagers thought on seeing the great procession, what the survey’s own Indian mathematical genius felt about the project. Perhaps there is no record of their feelings, but that’s a shame. Otherwise, this is a stirring tale of human achievement.
—Ensiform
NOTE: This is a review of the book that I wrote 3 years ago on my blog. It has been edited for grammar and minor factual errors.WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008===============================I read very few books these days, but I am glad that The Great Arc was one among the few. It is [a] wonderful book written by John Keay, an Englishman, about one of the greatest scientific feats of the 19th century. Before you start thinking about mile-long bridges or sky-high buildings, hey... There are things in life that people rarely know about and the science (and art) of Surveying is one of them.I am in fact gifted to have learned this subject as part of my curriculum, though I wonder how many of my classmates share my opinion. People have often asked me what Surveying is. I am no expert in it and therefore my explanation does not make any impact on them. I say, "It involves getting the measurements from ground about the features there and transferring it to a map." People say,"Oh great. Is that all? You study only that for a year at college?" The point is I would recommend to these people the book I just mentioned.The book is about a series of measurements made by two Englishmen, William Lambton and George Everest, of the entire Indian subcontinent spanning a period of fifty years. They made what are called triangulations across the entire subcontinent in times when there were no lights, no telegraph, no telephone, etc. It was no simple feat. For example, the beginning of the series of triangulations, called the Great Indian Arc of the Meridian, was at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai. A baseline of 12 Km was measured for some 50 days. The presicion with which these measurements were made was phenomenal. In a distance of about 1 m, the error would not exceed 1 mm. (In today's measurement the tolerances are 1 um in 1 m !!!). This was a stupendous task for times when no modern equipment like GPS were [was] available. The author of the book goes so far to say that the amount of computations performed by the surveyors back then would take several days to complete in a supercomputer today. The measurements were made in the field for years together in places where tigers roamed free and malaria wrecked havoc. There are more things I would like to mention but might end up writing an entire book!The second name is probably familiar to many, George Everest. You guessed it, Mt. Everest is named after him, but not because he measured its height but because of the services he rendered by looking after the Great Arc for 30 years. This comes to show the respect these two commanded for their feats. Had it not been for the Great Arc we would never have had maps of India and we would never have known the [sic.] heights of the Himalayas.I read the book twice, once in my III semester and once in my IV. I found that it complemented my Survey course. I understood it better when I read it for the second time, since I knew a lot about the instruments like theodolites, levels, chains, etc.The Great Arc was also publicised as a documentary in NDTV's Documentary 24x7. But it did not go beyond what I read in that book. I hope that I have made a little effort in bringing some light to this mammoth event that took place 200 years ago.
—Srinath Sridhar
http://ajitabhpandey.info/2014/11/the-great-arc-a-dramatic-tale-of-how-india-was-mapped-and-everest-was-named-by-john-keay/This book covers the story of trigonometrical survey carried out in India during the most part of 19th Century. The project was started by a British surveyor William Lambton and after his death the chief surveyor position was taken over by George Everest. However, surprisingly, people do not remember Lambton at all and Everest was only remembered because Mount Everest was named after him.The book covers the hardship faced by the surveyors in the then prevailing geographic conditions. A good amount of surveyors died due to various diseases, more specifically malaria and attacks by tigers and scorpios. The survey team also faced mobility problems as the survey instrument of those times weighed in tons and were difficult to transport.If you are instructed in history and most specifically geographical history, then this book is a worth read.
—Ajitabh Pandey
