Submerged Worlds and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Mighty Rivers
Vaishali Shroff
Reviewed by Ashwini Padwal & Anandita Rao
The book captures a hope that rivers will someday flow as freely as they are meant to
The blurb of the book states, ‘Deeply steeped in the historical, spiritual, cultural, political, ecological, and economic fabric of our society, these stories are highly relevant in today’s world where the climate crisis is a water crisis.’
| Publisher: Penguin Random House IndiaPublication Date: 2025
ISBN: 9780143462415 Page count: 221 Genre: Non-fiction QBR Reviews Issue: Q1 2026 Categories: Ecology, River conservation |
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Looking at a river from various angles might be new to many children or even adult readers who are socialised to studying only major rivers of India through textbooks with their classification, origin, major tributaries, drainage basins (Bay of Bengal vs. Arabian Sea), and their crucial roles in irrigation as part of the compulsory subject of social studies at mainstream schools. Well-known anti-big dam and social activist Medha Patkar has written the Foreword for the book, sharing “this book is like an encyclopedia on rivers”.
The author’s interest in rivers and submerged lands or stories emerged from an incident she encountered during her travel to Uttarakhand in 2022. She heard a story from a local driver and guide during this trip, who shared about his submerged village under the dam water. This sharing inspired her to gather more information about large dams and rivers, which resulted in the book, Submerged Worlds and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Mighty Rivers, published in 2025.
The book begins with basic terminologies or nomenclature about rivers, their parts and systems, as well as what a river is called in different languages. The book has twenty-one chapters, each discussing a river, its geography, the communities along or dependent on the river, and the challenges it presents. After the introduction, the fluidity or openness of the book may allow the reader to choose to read in any order or even skip some chapters according to their interests. The puns or play on many of the chapter titles were interesting entry ways for what opens up in the chapter; for example, the chapter titled ‘Dammed but Not Drowned’ talks about the many-fold impact of the construction of dams and the protests that have arisen around this.
The chapters have grey-toned information boxes for extra information on the topic under discussion. They serve as ‘Did you Know?’ Or ‘To Know More’ kind of navigation for the reader who is keen to deepen their understanding. Moving forward in the book, these boxes could possibly be sidelined or skipped by readers as they are add-on information. Some readers might also note them as references to revisit in the future if needed.
The eighteen pages of the selected bibliography list website links where references for varied government and non-government reports find place such as Sardar Sarovar- Report of the Independent Review, 1992, popularly known as the Morse Report (p. 163) or South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) report – ‘Let Yamuna Flow’: A River’s Appeal to Political Parties (p. 87). However, we were missing references from texts or narratives around the rivers, which might have brought in other perspectives. References to other texts would have also provided recommendations for further reading to interested readers.
The expanse covered by the book in terms of the geographies chosen, the ecological perspectives focused on, and the communities talked about is quite varied. We were happy to locate within the chapter titled ‘Submerged Worlds’ a reference to the village Curdi that was located along the banks of the river Salaulim, a tributary of the river Zuari, in Goa, and the perspective of the community who were displaced through the dam construction.
In the Introduction, the author writes, “We are taught about dams and hydroelectric power plants and how they are important for us and for our nation’s progress, but no one tells us what happens before and after a dam is constructed- to the river and to the people who live along the rivers. No one tells us how our rivers are abused. I felt it was important for our generation and future generations to look at the other side of the story” . Keeping this intention constant in the stories or chapters across the book, the author also admits that these are told as an author, just as a medium, between the rivers and the readers. She distances herself as neither being an expert on the subject nor a direct victim of the issues that riparian communities face.
The stories include anecdotes from local activists, writers, or journalists who work closely with the communities along the rivers or displaced communities. Similarly, it would have also been wonderful to hear the stories of communities, such as Majhi or Mallah or people in Majuli island, etc., in their own voice as anecdotes rather than through the author’s narration.
The book calls out dominant systems of power quite explicitly and justly, and we appreciate the stance that it takes in this. For example, in the third chapter ‘Children of Rivers’, it states how power plant and airport project in Great Nicobar Island have received ‘environmental clearance’ from the government as well as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) even though it is going to damage the environment at large-scale and in the twelfth chapter Submerged Worlds, it mentions how Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), prepared for every dam, do not necessarily project accurate numbers of displacements.
While interacting with a child reader about the book, she said that the book introduced her to many stories about local communities across geographies, and she found these stories interesting. When asked about the illustrations in the book, the first mention was how the river system picture made her understand the parts or flow of the river in a simplified way. However, none of the other illustrations particularly stayed with her.
Vaishali, the author, has worked on the illustrations in the form of sketches for her book. She shares that they were the scribbling and sketches that she did while writing, and hence were an integral part of storytelling. But as readers, we feel the absence of these novice sketches may not be missed, or even the presence may not appeal to readers who are used to more aesthetic art, which adds value to the book as much as the text.
We found the gender angle shared in the book interesting. The book talks about gender and rivers from a few perspectives: One, how rivers in India often take on or are more comparable to the female gender because of the ideals of roles to ‘nurture, provide and care’. Secondly, how although women have been historically very involved in reviving rivers, official water departments and policy-making groups are still dominated by men. The book, however, makes one statement that is not quite correct: ‘the river Brahmaputra and the river Son are the only two rivers with masculine names’ (p. 149). But there are many more rivers in India with masculine names, including the river Damodar that is talked about in the book, as well as others. Further research shares that it is the mythological text, the Vedas, that officially seem to recognise only these two rivers as masculine ones. References to Hindu mythological texts are many in the book, to the extent that it veers towards a visibility of one kind of mythological narrative connected to the rivers in India.
Overall, the book gives an entry point for studying more about river geography, ecology and socio-cultural and development issues, and it has potential to open up discussion on the same. While reading this book or recommending this to children, it would be helpful to open it out chapter by chapter, as it could be dense to read independently.
Further Recommendations from the Library Collection
- What is a River by Monika Vaicenaviciene, published by Enchanted Lion Books in 2021
- River of Stories by Orijit Sen, published by Blaft Publication in 2022
- Bijoy and the Big River by Meera Sriram, Prab Ram, published by Tulika Publication in 2012
- Water Stories From Around the World by Radhika Menon, Sandhya Rao, Nirupama Sekhar, published by Tulika Publication in 2010