Unit I

GEOGRAPHY AS A DISCIPLINE

CHAPTER
NATURE AND
Y
ou have already been introduced to
geography as a part of social science in
secondary school. As such you learnt
about the world — its people and places;
distribution of various natural and cultural
features and phenomena over the earth’s
surface; and the emerging patterns of human-
environment interactions at local, regional and
global levels. Now, at this stage, you are being
introduced to geography as a ‘discipline’ for the
first time. In this chapter, you will get to know
the nature and scope of geography and its
evolution over the years and the main
branches. Soon you would realise that this
fascinating area of study, offers immense
possibilities to use and apply the knowledge
and skills required for living and working in
today’s world.
NATURE OF GEOGRAPHY
You must have noted that geography is
concerned with the study of the earth’s surface
where all life forms including human beings
live and all human activities take place. The
earth’s surface includes the oceans, the
atmosphere, the upper part of the earth’s crust
and the biosphere.
The earth’s sur face is ever changing,
sometimes slowly and imperceptibly, while at
others, rapidly and perceptibly. In general, the
natural phenomena like mountains, rivers,
lakes etc. change slowly while the cultural
phenomena like buildings, roads, crops, etc.
change fast. Geography studies the origin of
these changing phenomena; the processes
that change them and have brought them to
the present state and arranged them in space
in the way they exist. It also studies the
SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY
implications of location and arrangement of
these phenomena for human beings.
Over 6,000 million people live on the earth
in innumerable places called villages, towns
and cities spread over many continents and
countries. Continents, mountains, rivers,
plains and many other physical features are
the outcome of natural processes in action,
while countries, villages, towns, cities,
agriculture, industry, means of transport and
communication etc. are the products of
human activities. A process is a sequence of
change systematically related through a chain
of causes and effects. Human beings use the
natural resources of the earth such as land,
water, air, minerals, animals, forests and many
others to make a living and to shape their
culture. In doing so they change the earth
surface enormously. It is no longer natural in
the real sense except in remote areas that are still
inaccessible, such as Antarctica. The inhabited
part of the earth has a clear imprint of the human
use of nature.
Geography thus, studies the sur face
features of the earth and their association with
one another and derives meaningful spatial or
regional patterns. It studies the factors and
processes, which change these features; their
mutual relationships; and their spatial
arrangement. And finally it studies the
implications of the above changes for human
beings and their activities.
It would be pertinent to note that all
surface features of the earth that attract the
attention of geographers are not visible; many
of them are conceptual and, therefore,
cannot be seen on the ground. For example,
we cannot see education, health, per capita
income as we can see rivers, mountains, roads
4 FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
etc. We can, however, see their social
topography when we convert their intensities
into patterns on maps. Thus, we have maps that
show literacy, mortality, longevity of life,
environment, prevalence of diseases, quality of
life, etc.
Nature provides the base, the resources as
well as the resistances. Human beings use these
natural endowments to evolve their cultures and
civilisations. Culture is the cumulative product
of experiences; it consists of values, norms,
beliefs, thoughts, ethical standards and styles
of life and living. Civilisation is the physical
manifestation of culture. Houses, villages, cities,
means of transport and communication,
agriculture, industry, etc. forms part of
civilisation. Apparently, the two are closely
related and almost inseparable. In our
discussion, we will use the term culture to
include civilisation. Culture is cumulative and
therefore, ever changing.
In ancient societies human interaction
with nature was rather direct: As time passed,
experience accumulated to give rise to various
kinds of cultures. Cultures are not only the
outcome of the interaction between humans
and nature but also among the humans living
in different natural environments. It is an ever
evolving and ever changing phenomenon.
That is why in similar natural settings,
cultures and civilisations are not always the
same. The earth surface that geographer
studies is, therefore, not homogeneous or
isometric; it is marked by vast differences in
both natural and cultural features.
Geography is thus, a natural-cum-human
science engaged in the study of factors and
processes, both natural and human, that
shape the earth surface and give rise to
different cultures and civilisations. It classifies
and delineates the earth features to arrive at
regional patterns and structures; it identifies
the agencies and processes at work to change
the existing patterns; and predicts the
possible outcomes of the processes at work.
Thus, geography tries to answer the following
questions:
• What are the natural and cultural features
on the surface of the earth?
• How have they come into being?
• How are they distributed and why?
• How are they associated with each other?
• Are the existing patterns of distribution
conducive to human welfare?
• What can be done to modify them?
• What are the implications of the proposed
changes for humans?
To sum up, geography is a science that
studies the spatial arrangement of things on
the surface of the earth resulting from a
dynamic interaction between humans and
nature. Unlike other disciplines, geography
cannot be defined by its subject matter for
anything present on the earth surface can be
and is studied by it. Geography uses
information provided by various disciplines,
all the way from nuclear physics to, let us say,
ancient history, as raw materials to analyse
the emerging patterns and structures of the
earth sur face and their implications for
human beings.
SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY
Literal meaning of the term ‘geography’ is
‘description of the earth’ (geo = earth +
graphos=description). The term was first used
by Eratosthenes, a Greek geographer who
lived in Alexandria, Egypt during 276-192 BC.
This is how geography was conceived in
ancient times. At present, it is no longer
confined to the description of the earth. It has
now acquired the status of a science that
explains the arrangement of various natural
and cultural features on the earth surface. In
this section we will examine the scope of
geography in greater details.
Geography is often called the mother of
all sciences. There is some truth in it. Humans
in their early stages of civilised life had to cope
with an omnipotent and omnipresent nature.
Nature was most important object of curiosity.
As apparent from ancient literary works of
practically all cultures, nature was often
personified and its elements were presented
as Gods and Goddesses, and devils and evil
spirits, depending upon how they affected
human life. Humans suffered from serious
limitations imposed by nature because nature
NATURE AND SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY
was overpowering and the technological
means to control it were primitive and
toothless. As such humans adjusted
themselves to natural environment; they did
not try to transgress the dictates of nature;
they cooperated with nature and felt one
with it.
Domestication of animals and plants set in
motion a great change in human life. It
culminated in Agricultural Revolution, which
lasted until eighteenth century in Europe and
nineteenth century in Asia, Africa and Latin
America. As the cultural base of humans
expanded, their relationship with nature
changed from subservience to cooperation.
Their tools and techniques improved, as did
their knowledge pool. By the seventeenth
century, they broke the shackles of nature
and ventured to control it to their advantage.
They developed a great variety of mechanical
and chemical devices to usher in a change
that is popularly known as Industrial
Revolution. It took about three centuries,
eighteenth to twentieth to spread all over the
world.
The strength of the Industrial Revolution
lay in scientific inventions on the one hand
and European discovery of the sea routes to
reach sparsely settled rich lands of Americas,
Australia, Africa and highly advanced cultures
of Asia on the other. With increasing
interaction, knowledge about continents and
oceans, mountains and plains, rivers and
lakes, and peoples and places increased many
fold and measurements of distances,
directions, heights, and depths along with
details of cultural landscapes became
necessary for preparing maps and charts.
Geography became really global. The attitude
of human beings changed and they started
moving away from mythology to scientific
presentation of both natural and human
phenomena.
Once the spirit of scientific enquiry was
kindled and information about the world
became more copious, the urge for deeper
analysis of the processes that gave rise to such
a great variety of natural and cultural features
in the world grew. This necessitated
5
specialisation, which ultimately gave rise to
systematic disciplines like physics, chemistry,
biology, economics, sociology, political science,
etc. that once formed part of one unified
discipline called geography. Today there are
hundreds of disciplines and sub-disciplines
aiming at unravelling the mysteries of nature
and human behaviour, not holistically, but
from one or the other perspective. They
individually see part of the reality even if in
great depth, not the whole of it.
The branching off of specialised disciplines
did not, however, diminish the place and
importance of geography. The need for a
discipline, which looked at the causes and
consequences of the arrangement of various
natural and cultural features of earth surface
holistically existed before and exists even
today. Geography does not compete with
specialised sister disciplines; apart from
generating its own information, it takes
knowledge generated by them and processes
it to build up theories and principles to explain
the ongoing changes on the earth surface.
Geography is, therefore, a truly holistic and
interdisciplinary field of study engaged in
understanding the changing spatial structure
at different territorial levels, global to local,
and at different times, from past to the future.
EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHY
As noted earlier, geography is perhaps the
oldest intellectual preoccupation of man. Its
foundation was laid by Indian, Chinese,
Greek, Arab, and other scholars of times
immemorial who ventured out beyond their
own locale to write about other lands and
peoples. Atharva Veda written around tenth
century BC gives the details of the then known
earth; its physical features, biogeography and
human settlements. Indian Rishis went to
different parts of the world to carry the
message of Indian culture particularly of
Hinduism and Buddhism to Central Asia,
East Asia, Southeast Asia, eastern coast of
Africa, etc. The Chinese scholars made similar
trips to different parts of the then known
world particularly to India, and so did the
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek and Arab
6 FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
travellers. They were the first discoverers of the
unknown lands. The experiential knowledge
of these itinerants produced a unique culture,
the imprints of which still persist in the
commonality of certain human values in South,
Southeast and East Asia. One gets a sense of
unity in diversity .
In sixth century BC, Thales of Miletus, a
Greek geographer gave the size and shape of
the earth; in second century BC, Ptolemy gave
latitudes and longitudes for map making and
locating places. In first century BC, Strabo, a
Roman geographer gave detailed description
of the world in 17 volumes. The contributions
of Indian astronomers and geographers were
highly advanced for their times. Aryabhatta
propounded the theory of heliocentric
universe a century before Copernicus, and
Bhaskaracharya mentioned about the gravity
of the earth, 1,200 years before Newton.
Kalidasa’s description of the geography of
central India in Meghdoota is highly
professional. Arabs too made significant
contributions and carried the known
knowledge to far off places. In fourteenth
century AD, Ibn Batuta, travelled to India and
wrote about its land and people.
During fourteenth to eighteenth centuries,
discoveries of new lands and ocean routes
generated vast amount of information about
physical configurations of the world and the
places and people beyond the shores of
Europe. These details enabled Europeans to
migrate from overpopulated Europe to less
populated lands of Americas, Australia and
parts of Africa relieving Europe from the
growing pressure of population. It also
enabled the Europeans to politically and
economically subjugate practically the whole
of the resource rich Asia, Africa, Australia and
Americas. Control over the resources of the
world and the opportunity for emigration to
other lands, were the main factors behind the
rise of Eur ope as the most developed
continent of the world.
By the end of the eighteenth century,
efforts were afoot to scientifically analyse the
geographical accounts available from various
sources. Two German geographers, A.V.
Humboldt and Karl Ritter played a leading role.
Prior to them Imanuel Kant, the great German
master of logical thought, had given geography
its place in the overall framework of organised
objective knowledge otherwise known as
science. He enumerated five sub-fields of
geography: mathematical geography; moral
(cultural) geography; political geography;
commercial geography, and theological
(religious) geography.
Geography became a very popular subject
in schools because it gave knowledge about
the lands to prospective migrants, adminis-
trators and traders. Gradually, along with the
description of places and peoples, explanation
for varying responses of people to natural
environment was also presented. Thus,
geography, in the later half of the nineteenth
century, emerged as the study of the
dynamics of man-environment relationship
and its imprints on the earth surface.
Geographers were not however united on
the question of man-environment
relationship. Those who postulated that
environment controlled or determined human
activities were called ‘determinists’. They were
lead by Friederich Ratzel and Elsworth
Huntington. And those who said that man
could modify the environment to create new
opportunities for himself were lead by Vidal
de la Blache and L. Febvre. They were known
as ‘possibilists.’
In early twentieth century, H.J.
Mackinder, a British geographer of German
origin, looked at geography as a science of
relationships; as a study of arrangement and
association of things on the face of the earth
to form regional systems and structures. He
strongly advocated for synthesis of physical
and cultural streams of geography into a
regional frame. According to him humans
could not exist without nature and nature
could not escape the influence of humans.
The two together shaped the earth surface
and gave rise to regional patter ns and
structures. Thus, Mackinder defined
geography as an outlook, as a way of looking
at the earth; it did not confine itself to any
specific domain of factual information; it
NATURE AND SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY
studied the spatial patterns on the earth
surface, the processes involved in their
evolution, and the impacts they produced on
humans and their activities.
Thus, geography in the twentieth century
became a discipline, which studied the earth
surface from two perspectives: systematic
and regional. The former produced sub-
disciplines like geomorphology, climatology,
biogeography, political geography, economic
geography, health geography etc., while the
latter gave rise to regional geography, regional
science, regional development, regional
planning, area planning, etc. The first started
with systematic knowledge to arrive at
regional patterns, while the second started
with regions to arrive at systematic details.
In both cases, humans remained a central
theme: how systemic processes and regional
patterns affected humans and their activities.
In the second half of the twentieth century,
search for an acceptable definition of
geography was abandoned. It was realised
that no living discipline could be defined once
for all. It must change with time. Geography
too must change and no definition could be
considered final. A group of geographers,
economists, and statisticians under the
leadership of Walter Isard of University of
Pennsylvania, USA joined hands to evolve a
new and hybrid analytical discipline called
Regional Science. It brought geography closer
to other social sciences and mathematics and
triggered of f what is now known as
quantitative revolution in geography.
As quantitative methods and techniques
of Regional Science penetrated other social
sciences, an environment of cross-fertilisation
set in and quantitative geography became a
craze during 1960s and 1970s. It provided
scientific tools to study the relationship
between physical and human phenomena,
and carry out regional analysis with a
precision never attempted before. It enabled
geographers to handle large number of factors
and processes together to discern meaningful
patterns and structures.
Along with quantitative revolution, the
signs of another major revolutionary change
7
became apparent in 1970s. It was Information
Revolution; its impact became apparent in
1990s. Apart from the fact that it enabled
geographers to use their newly acquired
quantitative techniques with greater ease and
swiftness, it produced immense amount of
information in photographs taken from several
thousand metres above the earth otherwise
known as remote sensing. Such photos were
taken from aircrafts in post- World War II
decades. To begin with, it was meant to secure
information about enemy positions and
movements during the war but soon it became
an important source of information for
development of agriculture, industry,
transportation, communication and public
utilities. Along with the air photographs came
photogrammetry, the technique of air photo
interpretation.
The 1980s brought artificial satellites,
which circled the earth at a set speed and
route, several kilometres above the earth to
take photographs of much larger chunks of
the earth and with far greater precision and
sharpness than the aircrafts could ever do. It
is possible to get satellite imageries
(photographs) with a resolution of less than
one metre, that is to say that even a metre
long thing could be photographed and
identified. Further, practically all details of the
earth surface, above it and below it, can be
photographed. It is possible to image mineral
deposits and sources of ground water, to chart
weather conditions, to locate various features
of the earth surface and changes therein, and
to trace the movement of people, armies,
goods and services from place to place The
satellite imageries have made air photograph
antiquated. The information they provide is
unimaginably vast and detailed. They have
enabled geographers to develop Geographic
Information System (GIS), Land Information
System (LIS), and Global Positioning System
(GPS) as location decision, administrative and
managerial tools. Geography of the twenty-first
century is set to enter a new era of Spatial
Information Technology (SIT). Geographers of
tomorrow would be trained not only in
answering the question what is where and
8 FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
why but also in what should be where and why;
not only in generating information for decision
making but also in actively participating in
decision making.
The last quarter of the twentieth century
has put geography on a new trajectory of
development with SIT as the main source of
information and information processing. It
was also a period when concern about the
deteriorating environment became vocal.
Pollution of land, water, and air reached an
alarming state. Environment had always been
a major concern of geography. Environmental
geography thus, emerged as a major branch
of geography.
BRANCHES OF GEOGRAPHY
Today geography is the only discipline that
brings all natural and human sciences on a
common platfor m to understand the
dynamics of the spatial configuration of the
earth surface. It is an interdisciplinary and
integrative science having numerous
branches (Fig.1.1). Space in geographic
terminology is the congregation of places
on earth sur face to form patter ns and
structures, which support life particularly
human life.
Systematic Geography
Geography looks at the earth surface from
two perspectives: systematic, and regional.
A study of specific natural or social
phenomenon that gives rise to certain spatial
patterns and structures on the earth surface
is called systematic study. There can be as
many systematic branches of geography as
the phenomena studied. Ordinarily,
systematic geography is divided into four main
branches:
• Physiography, conventionally known as
physical geography;
• Biogeography, including environmental
geography;
• Human geography, also referred as
cultural geography; and
• Geographic methods and techniques.
Physical Geography
Physical geography can be divided into four
main sub-branches:
• Geomorphology;
• Climatology;
• Hydrology;
• Soil geography.
Geomorphology is a genetic study of
landfor ms like continents, mountains,
plateaus, plains, river valleys, and a vast
number of other features. Climatology is the
systematic study of climate and its constituent
elements like temperature, pressure, winds,
rainfall, storms, etc. and their distribution.
Hydrology is the study of the role water plays
in nature and human life through oceans,
rivers, glaciers, and water vapour. Soil
geography is the study of soil formation, its
typology and distribution.
Biogeography
The main sub-branches of biogeography are:
• Plant geography;
• Zoogeography;
• Human ecology; and
• Environmental geography.
Plant geography studies the distribution
of various kinds of forests and grasslands.
Zoo geography studies the distribution of
animals and micro-organisms, and human
ecology studies the changing human-nature
relationship and its consequences for human
life and living. Environmental geography
studies the quality of the living environment
and its implications for human welfare.
Human Geography
Human beings working with the nature create
a great variety of cultural phenomena like
villages, towns, cities, countries, factories,
roads, houses, etc. They are also responsible
for destroying many things through conflicts
and wars. Study of location and distribution
of all such phenomena fall under the purview
of human geography. The main sub-branches
of human geography are:
• Cultural geography;
• Social geography;
 Geography

t t
Systematic Regional

t t t t t t t t
NATURE AND SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY

Physical Bio Human/ Methods and Techniques Regional Regional Regional Regional
Cultural of Geography Studies Planning Analysis Development

t
t t t t
Plant Zoo Human Environmental
Ecology t t t t
Field Cartography Quantitative Geo-Informatics
Survey

t t t t
Geomorphology Climatology Hydrology Soil

t t t t t t t t t t
Cultural Social Population Urban Rural Economic Agricultural Industrial Political Geography of
Trade and
Transport

Fig1.1 : Geography — Branches and Sub-Fields

9
10
• Population geography;
• Urban geography;
• Rural geography;
• Economic geography;
• Agricultural geography;
• Industrial geography;
• Political geography;
• Geography of trade and transport.
Each of these studies the distribution of
the relevant elements, tries to find out the
processes involved in their origin and uneven
distribution, delimits the patter ns of
distribution, and predicts the emerging
patterns and structures.
Geographic Methods and Techniques
Under geographic methods and techniques
come:
• Field studies (physical as well socio-
economic surveys);
• Cartography;
• Quantitative geography;
• Spatial information system (GIS, LIS,
GPS).
Regional Geography
Unlike systematic geography, regional
geography starts with the spatial imprints of
one or all the systematic geographic processes
discernible as regions of different sizes.
Regions could be based on a single factor like
relief, rainfall, vegetation, per capita income,
literacy and so on. They could also be
multifactor regions created by the association
of two or more factors. Administrative areas
like states, districts, tehsils/taluks, revenue
villages also can be treated as regions, even if
they have no rationale other than
convenience. For planning and development
purposes, one can form specialised regions.
Identification of the relevant geographical
characteristics of a region; study of interplay
between nature and human and its regional
implications; delimitation of regions using
given criteria; tracing of mutual relationship
among the regions, both vertical and
horizontal; finding regional structures of
economy, society, and polity; and regional
FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
planning for problem areas and regions, are
some of the principle concerns of regional
geography. The main sub-branches of regional
geography are:
• Regional studies;
• Regional analysis;
• Regional development;
• Regional planning including area and
community planning.
Regional studies encompass study of
selected areas and regions to bring out their
geographic personality and potentials. They
include regional surveys. Regional analysis
is far more technical than regional studies
both in terms of methodology used and the
scope. Regional analysis uses highly advanced
statistical and mathematical techniques in
analysing the data and lays greater emphasis
on interregional relations and flows to
determine the potentials of a region for future
development. Regional development is a
branch of study that focuses on the processes
of development in a region and suggests
policies and programs, which can help the
region overcome its problems. Regional
planning is a technical exercise involving the
theory and practice of area planning for urban
as well rural areas.
To sum up, geography is a unified field of
study known for its approach and point of
view rather than for its subject matter. It
studies the spatial structure of the earth
surface and its implications for human life
and living. As such the branches of geography
listed above are not exhaustive; they are only
indicative. There can be as many branches
as the subject matters studied to arrive at
meaningful scientific conclusions about the
causes and consequences of the existing or
emerging spatial patterns and structures of
the whole or part of the earth surface.
There are two ways of studying geographic
problems. One of the ways is to select a
geographical factor such as climate and study
its mechanism to evolve typologies and to
examine the causes and consequences of their
spatial distribution on the surface of the earth.
The focus in this case is on climate and
climatic types as modified by local and
NATURE AND SCOPE OF GEOGRAPHY 11

regional factors. Such a study falls within the
purview of systematic geography. Alter -
natively, one can start with a region, let us
say a state of India, or a river basin, and then
study it from different perspectives to
understand its uniqueness, to diagnose its
problems and to suggest policies and plans
to solve the problems. In either case region is
a common denominator. Scientific study of the
causes and consequences of the spatial
structure of the earth surface forms the core
of geography.
IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
This book pertains to physical geography. It
covers all that is natural— lithosphere,
atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.
Lithosphere covers land forms, atmosphere
deals with climates, hydrosphere is the study
of water features and biosphere focuses on
living things like plants, animals, micro
organisms and human beings. Soils are the
products of all the four elements of physical
geography.
Modern geography, as it emerged in
Europe, was oriented to physical aspects. This
tradition continued almost till the end of the
nineteenth century. Colonial era was marked
by over emphasis on physical environment as
a determining factor in human behaviour, but
there were dissenting voices particularly from
France and the United States where geographic
patterns were considered primarily as products
of human mind working on the physical
base of the earth rather than of nature working
on man.
Movement from the theory of environmental
determinism to that of social determinism did
play a balancing role and made geography
once again a broad based discipline but it
induced a mindset which treated natural
environment — land, water, air, soils,
vegetation, animals etc. — as mere resources
to achieve economic progress. Resource
exploitation became a desirable activity. This
led to the destruction, pollution and shortage
of practically all natural resources including
free gifts like air.
By 1950, humans realised the damage
they had done to their own future. They
realised that natural resources constituted the
life support system on the earth. Their
destruction could lead to extinction of all life
on planet earth. Geographers in India, under
the influence of American geographers and
guided by theories of economic growth
deemphasised physical geography. In the
light of the new situation emerging from
environmental crisis, geography has sought
to return to its physical base. Geography of
the twenty-first century has once again
become a balanced, integrated and
comprehensive discipline giving equal
importance to both physical and human
geography. There can be no geography
without physical geography; nor there can be
one without human geography.

EXERCISES

Review Questions
1. Answer the following questions:
(i) Who first used the term ‘geography’?
(ii) Why is geography often called the mother of all sciences?
(iii) Why was the need felt for specialisation, which gave rise to systematic disciplines?
(iv) Why did geography become a popular subject in schools by the end of the eighteenth
century?
(v) Name the two major revolutionary changes in geography, which influenced it most
during the second half of the twentieth century.
(vi) What are the two ways of studying geographic problems?
12 FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

2. Distinguish between:
(i) Culture and civilisation;
(ii) Systematic and regional geographies;
(iii) ‘Deterministic’ and ‘Possibilistic’ schools of thought;
(iv) Physical geography and biogeography.
3. Write short notes on the following:
(i) Geography in the twentieth century;
(ii) Geographic methods and techniques;
(iii) Contributions of ancient Greek and Indian scholars to geography.
4. Discuss the scope of geography with changing times.
5. ‘There can be no geography without physical or human geography’. Explain this statement
by giving suitable examples.

Project Work
Collect information regarding some eminent Indian geographers of the twentieth century and
their contributions.