Vaishali Shroff’s Submerged Worlds and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Mighty Rivers (Penguin India, 2025) illustrates the mesmerizing stories of rivers within the Indian subcontinent. The book not only elaborates on the geographical location, biodiversity, and environmental threats to these bodies of water but also brings up the histories they witnessed through the various ages, local cultures, lores, and mythical tales that evolved around the rivers. Shroff (b. 1977) didn’t restrict her stories to the prominent rivers on the map; rather, she included tributaries and not-so-visible water channels that might have been threatened by urban dispositions. For instance, minor rivers like Varuna and Assi, from which Varanasi got its name. These rivers have almost choked due to the release of unfiltered pollutants from the city. The story also shares  other minor rivers throughout the country. 

Such major rivers as the Ganga, Yamuna, and Brahmaputra, which play a vital part in sustaining lives along their banks, are also under threat. Yamuna, which flows through Delhi, is a dumping ground for industrial waste. White foam choking the water is a common picture that circulates every year on the news and social media. On the other hand, unsustainable development in the Himalayas is causing a rapid increase in temperature, which is a principal cause for the melting of glaciers. These glaciers, witnesses of deep time—the Gangotri and Siachen, in particular—are shrinking rapidly. Not just random construction projects within the natural territory, but also national-security affairs such as the militarization of borderlands (e.g., in Siachen and Kashmir) are working as a catalyst in the process. 

Shroff brings up the issue of the Great Nicobar Project: a marine defense project and settlement that is being set up on the southern island of Nicobar at the mouth of the Galathea River. The project would not only displace the aboriginal occupants who inhabit the place but would also disrupt the natural habitat for numerous rare species such as leather-backed turtles. 

Another important issue that the author discusses is the sharing of river waters between different countries. There are many rivers, from the Indus in the West to the Brahmaputra in the East, that originate from other countries (China, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan), flow through the Indian subcontinent, and enter the boundaries of another country (Pakistan, Bangladesh) before they drain into the sea. These rivers have been at the center of discussion and disputes for decades. Shroff has skillfully discussed the topic to a certain extent. 

Stories of rivers are not just stories of nature but also the people who live along their banks. They are inseparable from the landscape. The author narrates the stories of those people, such as the mask makers from Majuli island in Brahmaputra, whose habitats are constantly threatened by the unpredicted movement of the river; the boatmen communities (Majhis and Mallahs) in the Gangetic plain whose occupation is under threat; the fishermen and fisherwomen for whom the river is a livelihood; and thousands of people who lost their homes and farming lands due to the construction of big dams. She calls these people the “Children of the River.” She has also dedicated a chapter in her book to tell the story of a small dam constructed in Rajasthan that has not caused displacement; rather, it helped in building local biodiversity. 

Stories of rivers are not just stories of nature but also the people who live along their banks.

History is a vital key for all these stories, not only legends (as a part of Itihasa) and of independent India, but the history of the European settlements, too. The author has woven tales about how a river (Hooghly, a major distributary of Ganga) has played a vital role in the settling of different European traders like the Dutch, Portuguese, French, and British who conducted their trades through this river, thus making it a channel that led to the outer world and played a significant role in precolonial and colonial India’s economy. 

Though the book’s narrative style suggests that it is dedicated to young adults, the content and the mesmerizing stories have much more to convey than merely an environmental awareness could be read and thoroughly enjoyed by readers across ages. As Medha Patkar (an anti-big-dam social activist) mentions in her foreword, this book is like an encyclopedia of Indian rivers that needs a larger range of readerships “from gullies to Delhi.”

University of Oklahoma