Servant of Sahibs A Book to be Read Aloud

Ghulam Rassul Galvan (Aksakal of Leh), Servant of Sahibs: A Book to be Read Aloud, Cambridge: W Heffer and Sons, 1924

xix, 282 pages, frontispiece
8.7 x 5.6 in (21.7 x 14 cm)

"Man seems to possess an inherent desire to record his presence in this world, to leave some trace of his existence," Dr Azaz A. Baba wrote in his foreword to the autobiography of Ghulam Rassul Galwan titled Servant of Sahibs. That desire got fulfilled for Ghulam Rassul, the explorer from Leh, when the Galwan river was named after him.

This approximately 80-kilometre-long river originates in the Samzungling area and flows west to join the Shyok river, which further joins Indus at Keris, near picturesque Skardu.

In 1899, Galwan, a 21-year-old young explorer stood on the banks of a previously unknown river in north eastern Ladakh. He was the caravan in-charge of a British expedition to the areas north of Chang Chenmo valley.

The British had developed an interest in exploring these areas in the 1890s. They wanted to see if they could develop a caravan route through this valley and connect the Indian subcontinent to the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang region of China. Tarim Basin mostly covered by the Taklamakan desert formed the spine of the ancient Silk Route. Now, China has invested in developing this area under Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Silk Road routes lost their significance 15th-century onwards, with the rise of the Ottoman Empire and the ensuing boycott of trade with China.

But that unknown river became the Galwan - one of the few rivers and natural formations named after regional explorers of the time. And that is the river everyone is talking about now as India-China stand-offs continue across the Line of Actual Control." (Sandeep Chaudhary, "Ghulam Rassul Galwan - The man who named the Galwan river, the site of India-China stand-off", theprint.in, 2020, online

This book is an autobiographical account of Ghulam Rassul Galwan, a Ladakhi native, who began his career as a servant and companion of European and American explorers in their expeditions through Kashmir and Central Asia.