For Teachers¶
Thank you for looking at this book for your students. This page explains what the book is, gives four ways to use it, and offers routines and cautions that make it work well in a real classroom. You don't need to read all 22 chapters first. Pick a plan below, open one chapter, and spend five minutes with its MicroSim yourself.
What the book is¶
Roots & Rivers is a free, open textbook about the cultures of South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, plus the South Asian diaspora. It is written for students in grades 9 to 12 and assumes no background. Many readers are second-generation South Asian Americans. Many others are their friends.
Every chapter has the same parts:
- a short opening scene with two fictional Minnesota teens, Zara and Ben
- core content that starts with a familiar comparison before the details
- a MicroSim, a small interactive simulation that runs in the browser
- a Whose Story? box that shows how different communities, countries or historians tell the same thing differently
- Ask Your Elders, a ten-minute interview guide
- Common Misconceptions (Myth and Reality pairs), five Check Yourself questions, 12 exercises (two per Bloom level) and Key Takeaways
- a 10-question quiz on its own page, and a references page
The 22 chapters are in four parts: Foundations (1 to 6), Living Culture (7 to 16), The Eight Countries (17 to 20) and Here and Now (21 and 22). After Chapter 1, most chapters stand on their own, and each one lists its prerequisites at the top. See the List of Chapters and the List of MicroSims.
License¶
The book uses Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. In plain words: you can use it free in class, print it and share it with students; you can change it (shorten a chapter, translate it) if you share your version under the same license; give credit; and don't sell it. A credit line like this works: Adapted from "Roots & Rivers" by Aaryav Sharma, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. See How to Cite for more formats.
Four ways to use it¶
Times below assume class periods of about 50 minutes. Adjust them to your schedule.
Option 1: A full semester (ethnic studies or a world history elective)¶
A semester of about 18 weeks covers all 22 chapters at one to two chapters per week, with time for the oral history capstone. The book's Chapter 22 turns the Ask Your Elders interviews into a final project, so students build toward it all term.
| Weeks | Chapters | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1: What Is South Asia? | The region, its land and the monsoon |
| 2 | 2: Ancient Roots | Indus cities to the Guptas |
| 3 | 3: Empires and Encounters | Many powers, overlapping |
| 4 to 5 | 4: Colonialism, Independence, and Partition | Two weeks: read the sensitive topics section below first |
| 6 | 5: Faiths of South Asia | Comparing faiths without ranking them |
| 7 | 6: Languages and Scripts | Language families, scripts and identity |
| 8 | 7: Festivals Through the Year, 8: Food and the Table | Calendars, festivals and regional food |
| 9 | 9: Music, 10: Dance and Theater | Raga, tala and classical and folk forms |
| 10 | 11: Art, Architecture, and Craft, 12: Clothing and Textiles | Making and wearing |
| 11 | 13: Family, Names, and Life Events | Kinship, naming, caste (see the guidance below) |
| 12 | 14: Stories and Literature | How stories travel |
| 13 | 15: Cinema, Cricket, and Pop Culture, 16: Science, Math, and Ideas | Media, sport and ideas |
| 14 | 17: India, 18: Pakistan and Afghanistan | Country tours, part 1 |
| 15 | 19: Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, 20: Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives | Country tours, part 2 |
| 16 | 21: The South Asian Diaspora | Migration waves and Minnesota |
| 17 | 22: Bring It Home | Oral history method and project work |
| 18 | Capstone presentations | Students share one interview story with permission |
A weekly rhythm that works for many classes:
- Day 1: the opening scene and the "intuition first" section, read together
- Day 2: core content, ending with the Whose Story? box as a discussion
- Day 3: the MicroSim, in pairs
- Day 4: Common Misconceptions and exercises
- Day 5: quiz questions as an exit ticket, and Ask Your Elders assigned for the weekend
Option 2: A 6-week South Asia unit inside world history or world geography¶
This plan uses ten chapters and fits a unit of about 30 class days. The history-heavy chapters come first; the culture chapters show what that history means in people's lives.
| Week | Chapters | MicroSims | End-of-week check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1, 2 | Region Explorer, Ancient Timeline | Locate the eight countries; order the ancient periods |
| 2 | 3, 5 | Empire Swim Lanes, Faith Explorer | Short written comparison of two empires or two faiths |
| 3 | 4 | Borders Then and Now | Explain 1947 and 1971 as two separate events |
| 4 | 6, 7 | Script Family Tree, Festival Wheel | Quizzes for Chapters 6 and 7 |
| 5 | Two of 17, 18, 19, 20 | The matching country sims | Jigsaw: groups teach their country to the class |
| 6 | 21 | Migration Waves | Short source analysis using the chapter's Whose Story? box |
For a world geography course, swap Chapter 3 for Chapter 8: Food and the Table (crops, climate and trade) and give Chapter 1's monsoon section a full day.
Option 3: Single-lesson drop-ins by topic¶
Each chapter works as a one- or two-day lesson. Use the chapter's MicroSim and Whose Story? box as the core.
Option 4: A club or advisory period¶
A South Asian student association, a multicultural club or an advisory group can use one chapter per meeting. The Club Kit has a two-year plan of 20 monthly 45-minute meetings, with games, festival timing and food notes. Advisory periods can use the Check Yourself questions and the Ask Your Elders share-outs on their own, without the full chapter.
Standards connections¶
These are teacher-made connections
The connections below were made by the book's author to help with planning. The book is not aligned to, reviewed by or endorsed by the Minnesota Department of Education, the College Board or the National Council for the Social Studies. Check your own state or district standards.
Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies (2021)¶
Minnesota's 2021 social studies standards were approved in 2024 and take effect in the 2026-27 school year (Sahan Journal). They are organized into five strands: (1) Citizenship and Government, (2) Economics, (3) Geography, (4) History and (5) Ethnic Studies. The codes and wording below come from the standards document as posted by Education Evolving. The Minnesota Department of Education's own site holds the official version; please confirm codes there before you put them in a lesson plan.
The Ethnic Studies strand has three anchor standards: Identity, Resistance and Ways of Knowing and Methodologies. In grades 9 to 12 they appear as standards 23, 24 and 25.
| Benchmark | What it asks (shortened) | Chapters that connect |
|---|---|---|
| 9.5.23.1 | How definitions of racial and ethnic groups changed over time as a result of politics | 21 (diaspora history in the U.S.) |
| 9.5.23.3 | The connection between language and power | 6 (language movements, including 21 February 1952 in Dhaka), 19 |
| 9.5.23.6 | How religions develop and change over time; the benchmark names Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam and others | 5, 7 |
| 9.5.24.1 | Compare liberation struggles in different regions of the world | 4 (independence movements and 1971) |
| Anchor standard 25 (Ways of Knowing and Methodologies) | Use ethnic and Indigenous studies methods and sources | 22 and the Oral History Project |
Several geography and history benchmarks also connect:
| Benchmark | What it asks (shortened) | Chapters that connect |
|---|---|---|
| 9.3.15.3 | Migration patterns, including forced migration and displacement | 4, 21 |
| 9.3.15.6 | The spread of culture through diffusion | 8, 14 |
| 9.3.15.8 | The impact of colonialism on new states, and tensions when borders don't match the people living within them | 4, 18 |
| 9.3.17.1 | Investigate one's multiple identities based on place and culture | Every Ask Your Elders section; 22 |
| 9.4.18.6 | Conflicting narratives about the past and how they can lead to conflict (World History Era 6) | Every Whose Story? box, especially 4 |
| 9.4.19.5 | Perspectives on revolutions, imperialism and nation-building, including in Asia (Era 5) | 3, 4 |
| 9.4.20.6 | Primary sources about global migration and refugees since 1900 (Era 6) | 21 |
| 9.4.21.15 | (U.S. History Era 8) Immigrant, migrant and refugee groups; the benchmark names Hmong, Somali, Indian, Ethiopian and Latinx people | 21 |
Separately, the 2023 Legislature required Minnesota high schools to offer an ethnic studies course beginning in 2026-27 (Sahan Journal). This book can be one resource for such a course, but it covers one world region and is not a full ethnic studies curriculum on its own.
AP World History: Modern¶
The College Board's AP World History: Modern Course and Exam Description (the version effective fall 2026) has nine units, listed on the course page. South Asia appears in many of them:
| Unit | Where South Asia appears in the framework | Chapters that connect |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1: The Global Tapestry | Topic 1.2 lists the Delhi sultanates among new Islamic states; Topic 1.3, Developments in South and Southeast Asia from c. 1200 to c. 1450, gives examples such as the Bhakti movement, the Vijayanagara Empire, the Rajput kingdoms and Sinhala dynasties | 3, 5 |
| Unit 2: Networks of Exchange | Topic 2.3, Exchange in the Indian Ocean | 3, 8 |
| Unit 3: Land-Based Empires | The Mughal Empire in topics on expansion, administration and belief systems; the framework notes that Sikhism developed in South Asia amid interactions between Hinduism and Islam | 3, 5, 11 |
| Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections | Maritime empires and global trade; Indian cotton is an example of growing artisan labor | 3, 12 |
| Unit 6: Consequences of Industrialization | The 1857 rebellion in India; Indian indentured servitude; Indian communities in East and Southern Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia | 4, 21 |
| Unit 7: Global Conflict | The Indian National Congress appears as an example of anti-imperial resistance | 4 |
| Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization | The Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, India's negotiated independence, the Partition of India, and South Asian migration to Britain | 4, 19, 21 |
| Unit 9: Globalization | Caste reservation in India appears as an example | 13, 17 |
Use the book as enrichment and as a source of perspectives. It is not an AP exam prep book.
The C3 Framework¶
The National Council for the Social Studies' C3 Framework is built on an Inquiry Arc with four dimensions. Minnesota's 2021 standards say they used it. Each chapter of this book can carry one full inquiry:
| C3 dimension | How the book supports it |
|---|---|
| 1. Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries | Each chapter's opening scene ends on a real question (for example, "Is Bangladesh part of India?"). Students write their own supporting questions before reading. |
| 2. Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools | MicroSims practice geography (schematic maps, the monsoon), history (timelines, overlapping empires), economics (trade and food) and civics (federal states in India). |
| 3. Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence | Every number in the book is linked to a source on the chapter's references page. Whose Story? boxes ask students to weigh accounts that disagree. |
| 4. Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action | Ask Your Elders and the Oral History Project end with something real: a recorded story, a club presentation, or a contribution to the Story Archive. |
Classroom routines¶
MicroSims: predict, observe, explain¶
Every MicroSim runs in a browser with no login or install, on phones, tablets and Chromebooks. You can link students straight to a sim's page from the List of MicroSims.
- Predict. Before touching the sim, students write what they expect. ("If I move the year slider forward ten years, will Eid be earlier or later in the year?")
- Observe. Pairs run the sim. One drives, one records, then they switch.
- Explain. Each pair writes two sentences explaining any surprise, using the chapter's terms.
Maps in this book are schematic on purpose: tiles, dots and rivers, never official borders. Tell students this before they start, and ask them why a textbook about eight countries might choose not to draw borders. It's a good opening for Chapter 4 or Chapter 18.
Whose Story? boxes: one event, several tellings¶
Every chapter has a short box showing how different communities, countries or historians describe the same thing. A ten-minute routine:
- Read the box aloud.
- In pairs, students fill in a two-column chart: "Who tells it this way?" and "What might shape that view?"
- Ask: "What would you need to read or ask to know more?" Students list one source and one person.
Keep the goal clear: understanding why people see things differently, not deciding which community is right. The book never ranks faiths, countries or communities, and class discussion shouldn't either.
Ask Your Elders, with a real choice¶
Ask Your Elders is the heart of the book, but it must never require students to disclose their family history. Some students have no South Asian elders. Some live with foster or adoptive families, have lost family members, or have family stories that are painful or private. Some simply don't want to share. Offer every student the same three choices, and never ask which one applies to them or why:
- Option A: interview a family member or family friend, using the chapter's questions.
- Option B: interview a community member instead: a club advisor, a volunteer at a temple, mosque, gurdwara, church or cultural center, a neighbor, or another teacher. The chapter template already offers this.
- Option C: do a "research interview": read or listen to a published oral history (see the Oral History Project page for where to find them), then answer the chapter's questions as the narrator would have, with a citation.
Grade the process (questions prepared, notes taken, one story written in the person's words, a reflection), not the content of anyone's family life. Share-outs in class are always voluntary. A student can submit an interview to you and still decline to present it.
Exit tickets¶
Each chapter's quiz is on its own page, with answers in "Show Answer" boxes. For an exit ticket, copy two or three questions into a form or onto paper so students can't see the answers. Other quick ideas:
- Myth or Reality? Read one statement from the chapter's Common Misconceptions. Thumbs up or down, then one student explains.
- 3-2-1: three new terms, two places named in the chapter, one question to ask an elder.
- One-sentence Whose Story?: "One group tells it as , another as , because ___."
- Sim screenshot: students paste a screenshot from the MicroSim and caption it with what it shows.
Teaching sensitive topics with care¶
Some chapters touch history that is still personal for families in your room. A few principles help.
Partition (1947) and 1971. Chapter 4 describes suffering on all sides, gives death and displacement figures as scholarly ranges, and avoids graphic detail. Before teaching it:
- Tell students a day ahead what the chapter covers. Offer a quiet alternative task without asking for a reason.
- Don't ask students to speak for their family's country or community, or to explain "their side".
- Some families carry memories of loss or violence. The chapter's Ask Your Elders section says to ask only if the elder wants to share; repeat that out loud.
- If a student or family member contradicts the book, treat it as a perspective to explore, not an error to correct. The Whose Story? box is built for exactly this.
Caste. Chapter 13 describes caste as a historical and continuing social system. Discrimination by caste is illegal in India under Article 17 of the Constitution, and it still exists. In class:
- Never ask students their caste, and never ask anyone to guess a classmate's caste from a surname. Stop that conversation if it starts.
- Never use "high" or "low" to describe communities. Use "Dalit" and "Adivasi" respectfully, as the book does.
- Keep the discussion on the system and how people have resisted it, not on individuals.
Religion. Chapter 5 describes beliefs in the words of believers ("many Hindus believe", "in Sikh tradition") and never as the book's own claims. Ask students to do the same. Practices vary widely within every faith, and students should not be asked to represent their faith or to perform a ritual or prayer. Visiting a place of worship can be wonderful, but make it optional and get permission from the community first.
Other topics that need a heads-up: the Sri Lankan civil war (Chapter 19), indenture and post-2001 hate crimes (Chapter 21), disputed territory such as Kashmir (described as disputed, with each side's position stated briefly), and health traditions such as Ayurveda, which the book describes as traditions, not medical advice.
When a student says the book is wrong
Thank them and ask where their version comes from. Sometimes families remember things the books leave out. If it's a factual error, please report it so we can fix it for everyone.
Accessibility¶
- Devices and network. The book is a website and works on any modern browser. MicroSims load the p5.js library from a content delivery network; if a sim shows a blank area on school devices, ask your IT team whether that site is blocked.
- Screen readers. MicroSims are visual and interactive, so pair students who use screen readers with a partner, and use the chapter text alongside the sim.
- Language. Terms from South Asian languages are given in their original script, a simple respelling and a meaning. The Pronunciation and Script Guide helps everyone, including teachers, say names and words with respect.
- Printing. See the Downloads page for printable versions as they become available.
Tell us how it went¶
If you use the book with students, please report your classroom use. Tell us what worked, what confused students and what you changed. Please don't include student names or other personal information; the form is public. Reports help us improve the book and are summarized, as totals only, on the Impact page.
To report a factual error or something that feels unfair, use the links on the Contact page. Corrections are listed on the Accuracy page.
If you want to measure whether the book helps your students learn, the project's pilot study kit (in the Materials/pilot-study folder of the book's source files) has a 20-question pre and post test, a survey, consent and assent forms, and a simple analysis guide. It requires approval from your school before you collect any data.