Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia

Historian Dalyrmple debuts with an immersive chronicle of the final days of the British Raj that explores how a region previously connected by trade and culture—including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and much of what is now considered the Middle East and Southeast Asia—ended up fractured into starkly divided countries, dashing the dream of a united “Asiatic federation” held by some independence movements. As the British withdrew, they established new borders that formalized major divisions of religion and ethnicity, cutting through minority communities and further exacerbating tensions; in particular, they supported Hindus over Muslims on racist grounds, favoring a Hindu-led Indian National Congress. Dalyrmple illustrates the Raj’s administrative disarray ahead of the Great Partition, including many delays, with definitive plans released only after independence to “divert odium from the British.” Firsthand accounts illustrate a whirlwind of political stumbles and scandals, ranging from the absurd, as when British troops abandoned an Arab state in modern-day Yemen by feigning dinner plans and a beach day, to the unsettling, such as the founder of the Indian National Army courting Nazi support. Most affecting are accounts from survivors of partition’s chaotic violence, such as a Hindu student kept alive during the Great Calcutta Killings by Muslim neighbors who themselves “murdered an innocent passer-by in broad daylight.” The result is a compassionate and gripping look at the far-reaching consequences and human costs of partition. (Feb.)