India, July 9 -- There are several books about Indian rivers and the worlds they have engendered. Where most of them focus on larger rivers, such as the Ganga, Brahmaputra, Narmada, and Kaveri, Danesh Rana's The Dark-Coloured Waters trains its lens on the Chenab, a tributary of the Indus.

The author uses the waterway to thread disparate stories of the lands it flows through, from its source at the Baralacha pass in Himachal Pradesh to its confluence with the Indus in Pakistan. The geographical account serves as a launchpad into these regions' politics, culture and history.

It thus delves into a range of landmarks and topics: how sapphire mining and smuggling led to a gold rush of sorts in the Paddar valley in the 19th century; how timbe...