Hyderabad, Jan. 3 -- Himachal Pradesh is known as the "Apple State of India." Himachal, along with Kashmir and Uttarakhand, are the biggest apple-producing regions of India and have made the country the world's fifth-highest producer of the fruit after China, the USA, Turkey and Poland. However, anyone who loves the sweet and crunchy apple must thank an American man named Samuel Stokes, for it was he who introduced apple cultivation in Himachal Pradesh.

Samuel Evans Stokes Jr (who later changed his name to Satyananda Stokes because he fell in love with Indian culture) was an American who was born in Philadelphia. He came to India as a young man in 1904 and became a great admirer of Indian traditions. A few years later, this led him to ch...