New Delhi, April 22 -- Kashmir said yes. Nepal delayed giving its consent. Sikkim refused outright. In 1854, the East India Company (EIC) found itself in a fix. It had hired three German geologists - brothers Adolph, Hermann and Robert Schlagintweit - to complete the magnetic survey of the Indian subcontinent. A portion of this pioneering scientific mission was done, but the north, particularly the entire Himalayan region, was still left to survey. The 19th century was rife with the colonial project of knowledge-gathering. New tools aided calculations greatly, and trade offered an impetus for European countries to send scientific emissaries to hitherto unknown parts of their captured colonies. The Schlagintweit brothers had gained a reputat...