as a Discipline
- Where the word “geography” comes from, and how its meaning grew from “description of the earth” to the scientific study of areal differentiation
- The three questions (What, Where, Why) that every geographical study answers, and why the third one is what makes geography a science
- Why geography is called an “integrating” discipline, and how it connects to History, and to both the natural and the social sciences
- The full family tree of geography’s branches, under both the systematic and the regional approach, and why Physical Geography matters for managing resources
1What Is Geography?
You have already studied geography as part of your Social Science course up to Class 10. From this class onward you study it as an independent subject, and you learn about the earth’s physical environment, human activities, and how the two interact with each other.
Why study geography at all? We live on the surface of the earth, and our lives are shaped by our surroundings in many ways. Early human societies depended directly on natural resources, edible plants and animals, for survival; over time we developed technology and began producing our own food using land, soil and water, adjusting our food habits and clothing to the local weather. Geography is the subject that equips you to understand this diversity, across both time and space, and to ask why it exists.
The term Geography was first used by Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar (276-194 BC). It comes from two Greek roots, geo (earth) and graphos (description), which together mean “description of the earth.”
Since the earth has always been seen as the home (abode) of human beings, scholars later refined this into a fuller definition.
Geography is “the description of the earth as the abode of human beings.”
The earth’s surface is not uniform. It has physical variety, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, plateaus, oceans, lakes, deserts and wilderness, and it also has social and cultural variety: villages, cities, roads, railways, ports and markets, all created by people. This variation is the clue to understanding how the physical environment and human/cultural features relate to each other, and it is exactly what geography studies.
“Geography is the study of areal differentiation” is one of the most common one-line definitions asked in exams. Areal differentiation simply means variation from one area to another, in both physical and cultural features.
1.1 An Interdisciplinary Subject
Reality is many-sided, and so is the earth, which is why many disciplines study different aspects of it: natural sciences such as geology, pedology (soil science), oceanography, botany, zoology and meteorology, and social sciences such as economics, history, sociology, political science and anthropology. Geography is different from all of these in its subject matter and method, but it stays closely related to every one of them, drawing its database from all the natural and social sciences and attempting a synthesis of them.
Natural sciences geography links with
- Geology
- Pedology (soil science)
- Oceanography
- Botany
- Zoology
- Meteorology
Social sciences geography links with
- Economics
- History
- Sociology
- Political Science
- Anthropology
Geographers do not stop at describing variation, they study the associations behind it. For example, cropping patterns differ from region to region, and this variation is itself linked to differences in soil, climate, market demand, the farmer’s capacity to invest, and the technology available. This is why geography always looks for the causal relationship between two or more phenomena, explaining them in a cause-and-effect frame that not only interprets the present but also helps foresee the future.
Geographical phenomena, physical and human both, are never static, they are highly dynamic. They change over time through the constant interaction between an ever-changing earth and ever-active human beings. “Human” is an integral part of “nature,” and nature has left its imprint on human food, clothing, shelter and occupation, just as humans have modified nature through adaptation and technology.
The book quotes a short dialogue between “human” and “nature”: nature gave the soil, humans made the cup from it; nature gave the night, humans made the lamp to light it. It is a poetic way of saying that humans have used natural resources creatively, moving with technology from a stage of necessity to a stage of freedom.
Space itself gets organised through transport and communication: links (routes) and nodes (settlements of every type and size) integrate a region. As a social science, geography studies exactly this spatial organisation and spatial integration.
2The Three Questions Geography Asks
Geography, as a discipline, is concerned with three sets of questions about any feature found on the earth’s surface.
“What” and “Where” together only give inventorised, distributional information, what exists, and where it is. This was a very popular approach during the colonial period. These two questions alone did not make geography a scientific discipline. It became one only when the third question, “Why?”, was added, because that is the question that looks for causes and explanations, not just location.
Geography, being related to space, studies patterns of distribution, location and concentration of phenomena, and explains them; it also studies the associations and inter-relationships between phenomena that result from the dynamic interaction between human beings and their physical environment.
3Geography as an Integrating Discipline
Geography is a discipline of synthesis. Its approach is holistic: it treats the world as a system of interdependencies, and today that idea shows up as the “global village,” where better transport has shrunk distances, and audio-visual media and information technology have enriched our data and our ability to monitor natural, economic and social change.
3.1 Spatial Synthesis vs Temporal Synthesis
Geography
- Attempts spatial synthesis
- Studies how phenomena relate across different places
History
- Attempts temporal synthesis
- Studies how events relate across different times
Geography’s interface with other sciences, both natural and social, means every discipline concerned with scientific knowledge links to geography because many of its own elements vary over space. A geographer needs a broad understanding of all these related fields to logically integrate them, and it becomes clearest through examples.
3.2 Geography and History, in Practice
Geography shapes History
Spatial distance itself has changed the course of world history. In traditional warfare, large countries could trade space for time. The wide ocean around the countries of the “New World” acted as a natural defence, protecting them from wars being fought on their own soil.
India’s own example
The Himalayas have acted as a great barrier, protecting India, but their passes gave routes to migrants and invaders from Central Asia. The long sea coast encouraged contact with East and Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa, and it was navigation technology that let European powers colonise India and other parts of Asia and Africa by reaching them through the ocean.
4Space, Time and the Fourth Dimension
Every geographical phenomenon changes through time and can therefore be explained temporally, too. Landforms, climate, vegetation, economic activities, occupations and cultural development have all followed a definite historical course. Many geographical features are the result of decisions taken by different institutions at a particular point in time.
Place A is 1,500 km from place B. That same distance can be expressed in time instead of space: place A is 2 hours away if you travel by plane, or 17 hours away if you travel by a fast train. This is exactly why time is treated as geography’s fourth dimension. (The book’s own question, for you to answer: what are the other three dimensions? They are the three dimensions of space itself, length, breadth and height.)
5Branches of Geography: The Systematic Approach
Geography as a subject is studied through two major approaches.
5.1 Two Approaches, Two Founders
Systematic approach
- Introduced by Alexander Von Humboldt, a German geographer (1769-1859)
- A phenomenon is first studied at the world level, then its typologies/spatial patterns are identified
- Example: natural vegetation is studied world over first, then classified into equatorial rain forests, softwood conical forests, monsoon forests, and so on
Regional approach
- Developed by Karl Ritter, another German geographer and Humboldt’s contemporary (1779-1859)
- The world is divided into regions at different hierarchical levels, and all phenomena within one region are studied together
- Regions may be natural, political, or designated (named) regions
Dualism has been one of geography’s main features from the very start, depending on which side a scholar chose to emphasise. Earlier scholars focused on Physical Geography. But since human beings are themselves an integral part of the earth’s surface and have shaped it through cultural development, Human Geography grew alongside it, with its own emphasis on human activities.
5.2 The Three Branches
Under the systematic approach, geography branches into three main groups.
6Branches of Geography: The Regional Approach
Under the regional approach, geography’s branches look different: instead of one topic studied worldwide, they study one region, at whatever scale, in full.
| Branch | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Regional Studies / Area Studies | Macro, Meso and Micro regional studies |
| Regional Planning | Country/Rural planning and Town/Urban planning |
| Regional Development | Planning and improving the economy of a region |
| Regional Analysis | Studying a region’s own internal patterns and structure |
Two more threads run through every branch of geography, whichever approach it belongs to, because they are common to any discipline at all.
| Common aspect | Includes |
|---|---|
| Philosophy | Geographical Thought; Land and Human Interaction (Human Ecology) |
| Methods and Techniques | Cartography (incl. Computer Cartography); Quantitative/Statistical Techniques; Field Survey Methods; Geo-informatics (Remote Sensing, GIS, GPS) |
This classification is not fixed forever. Every discipline grows with new ideas and tools: what was once manual cartography is now computer cartography, the internet has made huge amounts of data available, GIS has opened new possibilities for analysis, and GPS has become a handy tool for finding exact locations. You will learn some of these techniques yourself in the companion book, Practical Work in Geography, Part I (NCERT, 2006).
7Physical Geography and Its Importance
This chapter appears in the book titled Fundamentals of Physical Geography, and its contents reflect exactly what this branch of geography studies.
7.1 The Four Spheres
Pedogenesis is the process by which soils are formed. It depends on the parent rock, climate, biological activity and time; time gives soils maturity and helps develop their soil profile.
7.2 Why Physical Geography Matters
Every one of these four spheres matters directly to human life.
Landforms
Provide the base on which human activity is located: plains are used for agriculture, plateaus give forests and minerals, and mountains give pastures, forests, tourist spots, and are the source of the rivers that water the lowlands.
Climate
Shapes our house types, clothing and food habits, and profoundly affects vegetation, cropping pattern, livestock farming and some industries. Humans have even developed technology, air conditioners and coolers, to modify climate within a limited space.
Temperature and precipitation
Together decide how dense a forest is and how good a grassland is. In India, monsoon rainfall sets the whole agricultural rhythm in motion, and precipitation recharges the groundwater used later for farming and daily use.
Oceans
Are a storehouse of resources: fish and other sea-food, and mineral resources too. India has developed the technology to collect manganese nodules from the ocean bed.
Soils
Are a renewable resource that influences farming and other economic activity. Their fertility is partly natural and partly the result of how people use them, and they form the base of the biosphere itself, holding plants, animals and micro-organisms.
“Geography is concerned with the description and explanation of the areal differentiation of the earth’s surface.”
Richard Hartshorne
“Geography studies the differences of phenomena usually related in different parts of the earth’s surface.”
Hettner
The study of physical geography is emerging as a discipline for evaluating and managing natural resources. This requires understanding the close relationship between the physical environment and human beings: the environment provides resources, and people use those resources for their economic and cultural development. But the accelerated pace of resource use, helped along by modern technology, has created ecological imbalance across the world, which is exactly why a sound understanding of the physical environment is essential for sustainable development.
Choose forest as a natural resource, and write about its economic importance for the country, along with a historical account of forest conservation in India, focusing on the Chipko Movement in Rajasthan and Uttaranchal. (This is meant as your own research activity, not something to memorise for the written exam.)
- Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) coined “Geography” from geo (earth) + graphos (description)
- Geography is the study of areal differentiation, variation across the earth’s surface
- Every geographical study answers three questions: What, Where, and Why; “Why” is what made geography a science
- Geography does spatial synthesis, History does temporal synthesis; together they show how space and time both shape events
- Time is geography’s fourth dimension: distance can always be converted into time, and back
- Systematic approach (Humboldt, 1769-1859): one topic studied world over, then classified. Regional approach (Karl Ritter, 1779-1859): one region studied in full
- Systematic branches: Physical Geography (Geomorphology, Climatology, Hydrology, Soil Geography), Human Geography (5 branches), Biogeography (4 branches)
- Regional branches: Regional/Area Studies, Regional Planning, Regional Development, Regional Analysis; Philosophy and Methods/Techniques run through every branch
- Physical geography studies the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, and is now a discipline for managing natural resources sustainably
- 1 markWho coined the term “Geography,” and in which language does the word originate?
- 1 markDefine geography as “the study of areal differentiation.”
- 1 markName the three questions that geography, as a discipline, is concerned with.
- 1 markWho introduced the systematic approach to geography, and who developed the regional approach?
- 1 markName the four branches of Physical Geography under the systematic approach.
- 1 markWhat is pedogenesis?
- 1 markName the four “spheres” of the earth studied under Physical Geography.
- 2 marksWhy does the study of “What” and “Where” alone not make geography a scientific discipline?
- 2 marksWhat is meant by saying geography does “spatial synthesis” while History does “temporal synthesis”?
- 2 marksGive one example of how time can be converted into space, and space into time.
- 2 marksWhat is meant by “dualism” in geography?
- 2 marksName any four sciences, two natural and two social, that geography draws its database from.
- 3 marksExplain, with the example of cropping patterns, why geography studies causal relationships and not just variation.
- 3 marksDistinguish between the systematic approach and the regional approach to studying geography.
- 3 marksHow did the Himalayas and India’s sea coast each shape the course of Indian history?
- 5 marksTrace how the meaning of “geography” grew from a simple “description of the earth” to the modern study of areal differentiation, mentioning Eratosthenes and the three questions What, Where and Why.
- 5 marksDescribe the branches of Human Geography under the systematic approach, explaining what each one studies.
- 5 marksDescribe the branches of Biogeography and explain why this group is called the “interface” of Physical and Human Geography.
- 5 marksExplain why geography is called an “integrating discipline,” using at least two examples from the chapter.
- 5 marksExplain the importance of Physical Geography for human life, covering landforms, climate, oceans and soils.
- 5 marksWhat is the “regional approach” to geography, and what branches does it include? How is it different from the systematic approach?
- 1 markWhich one of the following scholars coined the term ‘Geography’?
(a) Herodotus(b) Eratosthenes(c) Galileo(d) Aristotle - 1 markWhich one of the following features can be termed a ‘physical feature’?
(a) Port(b) Road(c) Plain(d) Water park - 1 markMatch the columns and choose the correct option. Column 1: 1. Meteorology, 2. Demography, 3. Sociology, 4. Pedology. Column 2: A. Population Geography, B. Soil Geography, C. Climatology, D. Social Geography
(a) 1B,2C,3A,4D(b) 1A,2D,3B,4C(c) 1D,2B,3C,4A(d) 1C,2A,3D,4B - 1 markWhich one of the following questions is related to a cause-effect relationship?
(a) Why(b) Where(c) What(d) When - 1 markWhich one of the following disciplines attempts temporal synthesis?
(a) Sociology(b) Geography(c) Anthropology(d) History - 1 markWho introduced the “systematic approach” to the study of geography?
(a) Karl Ritter(b) Richard Hartshorne(c) Alexander Von Humboldt(d) Hettner - 1 markZoogeography and Plant Geography are both branches of:
(a) Human Geography(b) Biogeography(c) Regional Geography(d) Political Geography - 1 markWhich resource has India developed the technology to collect from the ocean bed?
(a) Coal(b) Manganese nodules(c) Petroleum(d) Bauxite
- 1 mark
Assertion (A): Geography became a scientific discipline only after the question “Why?” was added to “What?” and “Where?”.
Reason (R): “What” and “Where” together only give inventorised, distributional information; “Why” looks for the causal relationship behind that pattern. - 1 mark
Assertion (A): The regional approach and the systematic approach to geography always study exactly the same set of branches.
Reason (R): The systematic approach studies one phenomenon world over first, while the regional approach studies one region in full, so their branches are organised differently. - 1 mark
Assertion (A): Physical Geography is emerging as a discipline for evaluating and managing natural resources.
Reason (R): The accelerated pace of resource use through modern technology has created ecological imbalance, making a sound understanding of the physical environment essential for sustainable development.