Shattered Lands

A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. We think of the Raj as controlling only India and Pakistan, and its breakup happening in August 1947. In reality, a quarter of the world''s population was ruled by the Viceroy from New Delhi, in a single market/rupee-currency zone that spread from the Red Sea to the borders of Thailand - an empire within an empire that included Burma, parts of Yemen, and most of the Gulf states like Dubai. The breakup of this single ''Indian Empire'' created almost all of the conflicts which plague Asia today. These include civil wars in Burma and Sri Lanka, the ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan and North East India, the Iranian Revolution, the rise of the Taliban, and most recently the Rohingya genocide. The partitions under the microscope in this book will be The Partition of Burma, the Great Partition, the Partition of Princely India, the Partition of Arabia, and the Partition of Pakistan. Combining narrative history based on archival materials, first-hand accounts and new interviews conducted by the author, this is an accessible introduction to the continuing legacy of empire and to twentieth-century South Asia.

Autorentext

Sam Dalrymple

Klappentext

**** THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ****

ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING FINALIST 2026

A Best Book of the Year in the Financial Times, The Week, Spectator, BBC History Magazine, NPR, History Today, Waterstones and Daunts

'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' PETER FRANKOPAN

**'Remarkable ... The prose is vivid, the storytelling cinematic'**GUARDIAN

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 in forts from the Bab el-Mandeb 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 war in Burma and ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan and Northeast 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 history 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.

**** Shattered Lands is being translated into four languages (Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam and Hindi), and was shortlisted for the Eastern Eye Award for History, the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman and Atta Galatta prizes. ****

**'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

**'This richly researched, vividly written book tells the story of how a colossal and powerful Empire was broken up into many distinct nation-states...An impressive debut by a gifted and very energetic young writer'**RAMACHANDRA GUHA