Horizontal, Vertical and Diagonal

Here is a Schematic Map of the Indian Railway Network. Keeping with the purpose of schematics, the scale, the locations and the boundaries on the map have been altered to present the railway's point of view of India. Having seen the actual railway maps of India over the years, this depiction makes sense like none before.

The format was first made famous by the iconic Tube Map of London Underground designed by Harry Beck in the 1930s. To understand something complex for oneself is a skill. But to come up with a scheme to unclutter a mess not just in one's own mind but in the minds of the untrained needs a high degree of clairvoyance. The Tube Map's simplicity and utility is so great that it is considered a piece of design art.

Unlike in electronic circuit design, the use of schematics in rail and road lines result in a warping of the geographical reality experienced by the commuters. On these maps the only locations that matter are the destinations. All the places between these destinations are shown as having no significance and are either stretched out or fused together in the aid of a better understanding of the mesh.

Extending this design typology to the Indian socio-political context can help understand the paradox of growth alongside inequity that results in the existence of pockets of prosperity surrounded by oceans of misery. These pockets mingle among themselves exclusively, creating a network of exclusion. To explain this structure, a different schematic representation of India is needed, a political and economic schematic map which omits or skips-over the downtrodden and the less fortunate.

To an extent this neglect can also be seen in the railway network map - the sparsest presence of railway activity on the map (East Central Railways) corresponds to the poverty-stricken Chhattisgarh state which has seen the greatest amount of naxal violence. So when the naxalites blow up a bus on the road lines as they did yesterday, they also attack the schematic vision of India.

Links:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/310/IN_CRAIL0310.pdf
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.pdf
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article432488.ece