I think it's a bit harsh to call an article by, for, and about British and Australian map-making "privileged" and "west-centric" in the sense that it's tautolog

I think it's a bit harsh to call an article by, for, and about British and Australian map-making "privileged" and "west-centric" in the sense that it's tautological. It would be another whole article, and a fascinating one, to track civilian mapping in India from the British occupation to Lonely Planet guides. I encourage you to follow up on this idea, either to research and write it yourself or find others who can (maybe even write to the article's author to raise your point and suggest it). My experience in India as a student backpacking there 20 years ago was that tourist maps were inadequate, the LP guide was worth its price for the city maps alone, and locals on the street couldn't read either kind to help you. I don't know if it was illiteracy or just unfamiliarity, but outside of hotels and tourist centers, about half the people we asked on the street were baffled by a map and unable to orient themselves on it to help us. I'm sure they knew their way around, we just couldn't communicate with words (expected) or pointing at maps (unexpected). There is a sibling comment that says in some cases there were also military reasons. I don't know about India, but I did run across this in Ecuador. To get a topographic map to climb a volcano, we had to find the Military mapping office and show our passports. Obviously, they wanted some control over the cartographic information. Now, world-wide topographic maps are available on google maps with terrain turned on. The data for which I believe was obtained by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission in 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Radar_Topography_Mission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Radar_Topography_Missi...