Understanding India’s Uses of Space: Space in India’s Socio-Economic Development

Abstract

In the story of “the blind men and the elephant” that originated on the Indian subcontinent, six blind men are asked to determine what an elephant looks like by each feeling a different part of the elephant’s body. The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe. A king explains to them: “All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all the features you mentioned”.