About This Book

Why it exists

Many South Asian American teens grow up inside traditions they were never taught to explain. They know the food, some of the words and the festival days. They don't always know why Eid moves every year, why their grandparents tell the story of 1947 or 1971 the way they do, or how the script on a wedding card works. Their friends are curious and have nowhere good to start.

Good free material is scattered. Some covers only ancient history or art. Some is written for teachers, not students. Some covers a single country, or only the diaspora. No single resource is interactive, covers all eight countries of South Asia, and sends readers back to their own families with good questions. Roots & Rivers tries to be that book.

It also comes at a useful time. Starting in the 2026-27 school year, Minnesota high schools must offer an ethnic studies course (Sahan Journal; Minn. Stat. 120B.021), and teachers need free, sourced material they can trust.

What makes it different

• All eight countries. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in every theme and in four country chapters.
• Interactive. Every chapter has a MicroSim you can use on a phone: a festival calendar, a rhythm cycle, a script family tree, a kolam you draw yourself.
• Ask Your Elders. Every chapter ends its teaching with an interview guide, and the final chapter turns those interviews into an oral history project with a community Story Archive.
• Whose Story? Every chapter shows how different communities, countries and historians tell the same thing differently. Disputed questions are presented as disputed.
• Checked and sourced. Every number and date links to a source. See Accuracy and Corrections.

How it was checked

Each chapter went through several separate passes by different reviewers. A script checked the structure. Every claim was fact-checked against its source. Another review looked at nuance, balance and whether facts were current. A final edit put the language in plain words, and a script checked that no fact changed. The details, and every correction made, are on the Accuracy and Corrections page. If you spot something wrong, please tell us.

Who made it

Roots & Rivers was created by Aaryav Sharma, a student at Eastview High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, and a member of the board of the school's South Asian Student Association (SASA). It was made for SASA's meetings and for any school, club or family that wants to use it.

It is built with Dan McCreary's open intelligent textbook framework, which also powers books on dozens of other subjects.

Not affiliated

Roots & Rivers is an independent student project. It is not an official publication of Eastview High School, Independent School District 196, or any government, religious body or organization named in it.