Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia

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

This book is a revelation both original and important' MISHAL HUSAIN

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 Empires crown jewel, a vast dominion stretching from the Red Sea to the jungles of Southeast Asia, home to a quarter of the worlds 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 Dalrymples 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.

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-statesAn impressive debut by a gifted and very energetic young writer RAMACHANDRA GUHA

Reviews

EARLY PRAISE FOR SHATTERED LANDS:

This book is a revelation. Sam Dalrymples charting of these five moments is both original and important, adding a valuable layer to our understanding of a vast region of the world MISHAL HUSAIN

'Excellent expertly examines the way the Indian empire was divided into 12 separate nation states between 1931 and 1971 packed with riveting detail' INDEPENDENT

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-statesAn impressive debut by a gifted and very energetic young writer RAMACHANDRA GUHA

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

Brilliant storytelling, exemplary history PHILIP MARSDEN

Written with a novelists flair and an archival historians research, Shattered Lands captures the violence and the ruptures that shaped South Asia through partition. It is astonishing that this story has not been told before. Both essential and irresistible reading an unputdownable book EUGENE ROGAN

'Surprising, relevant, finely-judged, diligently-researched and brilliantly told, Shattered Lands does what the best histories do and presents a story you might think you know, but in a way that will be a revelation. This is one of the most assured and accomplished debuts I have read in many years' ANTHONY SATTIN

Author Bio

SAM DALRYMPLE is a Delhi-raised Scottish historian and award-winning filmmaker. He graduated from Oxford University as a Persian and Sanskrit scholar, and also studied at the University of Isfahan and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran. He has worked across South and Central Asia, including stints with Turquoise Mountain in Kabul, and with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Hunza and Lahore. In 2018, he co-founded Project Dastaan, a peace-building initiative that reconnects refugees displaced by the 1947 Partition of India. His debut film, Child of Empire, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022, and his animated series Lost Migrations sold out at the BFI the same year. He is a columnist for Architectural Digest, and in 2025, Travel & Leisure named him ' Champion of the Travel Narrative '. He runs the history Substack @ travelsofsamwise. Shattered Lands is his first book.