Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia
A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it.
As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia ― India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait ― were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the ‘Indian Empire’, or more simply as the Raj.
It was the British Empire’s crown jewel, a vast dominion stretching from the Red Sea to the jungles of Southeast Asia, home to a quarter of the world’s population and encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities on the planet. Its people used the Indian rupee, were issued passports stamped ‘Indian Empire’, and were guarded by armies garrisoned forts from the Bab el-Mandab to the Himalayas
And then, in the space of just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving out new nations, redrawing maps, and leaving behind a legacy of war, exile, and division.
Shattered Lands, for the first time, presents the whole story of how the Indian Empire was unmade. How a single, sprawling dominion became twelve modern nations. How maps were redrawn in boardrooms and on battlefields, by politicians in London and revolutionaries in Delhi, by kings in remote palaces and soldiers in trenches.
Its legacies include civil wars in Burma and Sri Lanka, ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan and north-east India and the Rohingya genocide. It is a history of ambition and betrayal, of forgotten wars and unlikely alliances, of borders carved with ink and fire. And, above all, it is the story of how the map of modern Asia was made.
Sam Dalrymple’s stunning debut is based on deep archival research, previously untranslated private memoirs, and interviews in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Konyak, Arabic and Burmese. From portraits of the key political players to accounts of those swept up in these wars and mass migrations, Shattered Lands is vivid, compelling, thought-provoking history at its best.
Praise For Shattered Lands
“A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian”
Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
“This richly researched and vividly written book tells the
story of how a colossal and powerful Empire was broken up into many distinct
nation-states. The narrative is peopled by a wide range of characters: arrogant
imperialists, ambitious nationalists, self-absorbed princes, passionate
dissidents, suffering refugees. Through these individual lives Sam
Dalrymple deftly explores the persisting fault-lines of language,
ethnicity, religion, and nation. An impressive debut by a gifted
and very energetic young writer.”
- Ramachandra Guha, author
of Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World
“This book is a revelation. Sam Dalrymple’s charting of these five moments is both original and important, adding a valuable layer to our understanding of a vast region of the world. A revelation. An original and important charting of the unmaking of Empire.”
- Mishal Husain, BBC Radio 4
" It is astonishing that this story has not been told before. Both essential and irresistible reading – an unputdownable book."
- Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans
"It is as if the
tight-lipped reticence of our fathers and grandfathers has at last been
unleashed, and we hear this epic tale of the Decline and Fall of the Raj for
the first time, mingled with the proud struggle for freedom, independence and
identity. This is a vast and intricate investigation, with an impressive
geographical and political reach but skilfully combined with a page-turning
focus on the principal players, their crimes, lovers, ideals and agents."
- Barnaby Rogerson, author of A House Divided
“Shattered
Lands is a vivid, unputdownable account of the collapse of the Indian Empire.
With clarity and narrative flair, Sam Dalrymple reimagines ‘Partition’ as a
series of upheavals, far more layered than commonly acknowledged — tracing its
unique implications on geography, language, citizenship, economy, daily life
and the aspect of belonging. From monarchs and soldiers to ordinary citizens,
he brings to life the many protagonists of this colossal rupture with nuance
and intimacy. Both expansive and incisive, this is history recovered and
restored to public memory.”
- Aanchal Malhotra, author of
Remnants of a Separation
“A vivid account that
is meticulous and memorable in detail and authoritative in its ambitious sweep.
This is a stunning and assured debut, by an important new voice in narrative
history and a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the making of modern
Asia.”
- Kavita Puri, author of Partition Voices
“A stunning achievement. Shattered Lands reframes the story
of South Asia with rare empathy and elegance, breathing life into the legacies
of the partitions that shape a quarter of our world today.”
- Thant Myint U, author of The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma
“With
masterly detail, grand vision and moral clarity, Sam Dalrymple takes the
breaking up of Britain’s Indian Empire and recreates an intricate and highly
animate drama – brilliant storytelling, exemplary history.”
- Philip Marsden, author of The Summer Isles
“Expansive, exhilarating, and heartbreaking, Shattered
Lands is an eye-opening account of South Asia's turbulent twentieth
century. With aplomb, empathy, and great wit, Sam Dalrymple navigates the
palatial boardrooms of the Raj as fluently as the chaos and confusion of war
and exodus. This period, so often imagined as a neat parcelling out of
nation-states, emerges as something altogether more raw and challenging: a time
of political churn, of anxiety and terror... Dry archival documents transform into deeply human stories;
nationalist heroes into flawed and complex beings; refugee families into
determined, remarkable figures; simple binaries into mosaics of truth and
colour. There can be no better introduction to these decades that determined
the fates of billions.”
- Anirudh Kanisetti, author of Lords of the Deccan
Reviews of Shattered Lands
"In its Calvino-esque braiding of stories [this] is
markedly more ambitious than most debuts... There ought to be a mammoth, epic,
television series."
- The Scotsman
"Dalrymple’s excellent Shattered Lands:… expertly examines the way the
Indian empire was divided into 12 separate nation states between 1931 and 1971.
It is a disturbing story of hatred, violence and treachery. There was British
deceit too, by the way, in playing down the true size of the Indian empire.
“Maps depicting it in its entirety were only published in top secrecy,” states
Dalrymple, whose book is packed with riveting detail."
-The Independent
"Very rarely can a book on history transform the
public's understanding of an entire continent and region's past... But this
could be such a rarity. Shattered Lands, Dalrymple's first book, is
magisterial. In fact, I can confidently say it is groundbreaking... Dalrymple
has produced an outstanding debut. But better than that, it is a delight to
read... Dalrymple's energetic, electrifying prose is thus a breath of fresh
air. Every paragraph is practically bursting with
colour."
- Middle East Eye
"Dalrymple has written a detailed, authoritative and
sweeping account of the dismantling of the Raj which highlights some overlooked
historical events. And with well-chosen and well told illustrative anecdotes,
it is an enjoyable read"
- Literary Review
“
Rivalling Outcast as this month's (year's, perhaps) most ambitious debut is Sam Dalrymple's Shattered Lands. A swashbuckling idea... There is an enthralling first book, broad in vision and written with great poise.”
- Unseen Histories
"Shattered Lands is a magisterial work...At a time when
history and its politicisation causes so much anxiety, this new wave of
remarkable popular history writers arrive as a balm, complicating our
narratives, opening up new vistas and worlds with wonder and humility, passion
as well as introspection."
- Mid Day
"An impressive scholarly achievement. That Dalrymple is
a polyglot comes in handy, and he is clearly at the cutting edge of his
field... is possible to accord the colonised as much agency as the colonisers;
it is possible to imagine alternative courses that empire, and decolonisation,
might have taken. The reading public likes interesting stories, and they like
moral complexity; they do not need to be hectored at or condescended to. Books
like these can show us how it’s done."
- Engelsberg Ideas
“
[A] remarkable debut work or history... Dalrymple is not in the business of excessively guilt-ridden handwringing and self-flagellation, certainly not at the expense of good history. While implicitly condemning the way everything was “haphazardly” put together, he also does something unusual and far more interesting: he restores agency to the colonised themselves... Shattered Lands has been hailed as a fair and nuanced take on empire... In writing such a splendid work of popular history, based on deep archival research as well as previously untranslated private memoirs and interviews, Dalrymple has already provided the antidote to... ugly, narrow-minded nationalism: an understanding of the past in all its moral complexity; a reflection on the multiplicity of identity; and an appreciation of the contingency of so much of what we take for granted. We are all just bits of flotsam in the whirlwind of politics.”
- The Article
"A fascinating, and timely examination of the
partitions of the Indian empire."
- Foyles Top Ten Reads of June
“[An] ambitious debut”
- Indian Express
"[A] majestic, riveting debut"
- Open Magazine
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