1947 Alf Cooke Map of India, Economic Production

A beautiful c. 1947 Alf Cooke pictorial map of India, produced on the eve of independence and partition. It highlights the goods produced by the Raj and posits a bright future for the subcontinent.

A Closer Look

The map reflects the vast diversity of the Indian subcontinent through its economic output, ranging from raw minerals and petroleum, to staples like wheat, millet, and rice, to commodities like cotton, tea, and sugar. Heavier industries, such as shipbuilding and steel works, point to the country's hoped-for economic future. Illustrations represent these economic activities, while text labels some of the provinces, princely states, and geographic regions. An intricate border with a flower motif surrounds the map.

India in War and Peace

As referred to in the text at bottom-right, though World War II (1939 - 1945) was a tumultuous period in India, with civil disobedience against British imperial rule, religious strife, and a horrific famine in Bengal, the need for war materiel was beneficial to India's economy and finances. However, the traumatic experience of 1947 partition and its aftermath damaged economic prospects, at least temporarily. Under the administration of Jawaharlal Nehru (1952 - 1964), India followed a socialist modernization model inspired by the Soviet Union, which did result in some expansion of heavy industry as well as the construction of roads, dams, canals, and railways.

Publication History and Census

This map was printed by Alf Cooke around the year 1947 and was distributed by British Information Services, a propaganda outfit in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office established in 1941 to promote British interests in the United States, which explains its New York City location noted here. There are two editions of the map: one held by the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection dates to c. 1943 and the text box at bottom is titled 'India in War and Peace,' while the present edition dates to c. 1947, with the box title as 'India's Economic Future.' Regardless of edition, it is scarce to the market and is only listed among the institutional holdings of the British Library, the Library of Congress, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Chicago, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.