Join Nadia Khan (Golden Threads) in conversation with Sam Dalrymple, historian and author of ‘Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia’.
This debut book is 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.
And then, in the space of just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart, carving out twelve modern 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. It examines 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.
Based on deep archival research, private memoirs, and interviews across eight languages, this is history at its most vivid: ambition and betrayal, forgotten wars and unlikely alliances, exile and resilience.
✨ Praised as:
- "A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian" — Peter Frankopan
- "Remarkable… vivid prose, cinematic storytelling" — The Guardian
- "A revelation… both original and important" — Mishal Husain
☕ Café on site | Refreshments provided
