Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia

Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia is a sweeping history of how the British Indian Empire was dismantled and transformed into twelve modern nations. The book challenges the familiar view that South Asian Partition was a single event in 1947. Instead, Sam Dalrymple examines five connected partitions: Burma’s separation from India, the detachment of Aden and the Arab territories administered from Bombay, the 1947 division that created India and Pakistan, the integration and division of the princely states, and the violent breakup of Pakistan that produced Bangladesh in 1971. The narrative follows the political decisions, military campaigns, revolutionary movements, migrations and personal tragedies that accompanied these transformations. It shows how borders were drawn not only by officials in London and Delhi but also by local rulers, soldiers, activists and communities caught in rapidly changing political circumstances. Dalrymple connects these historical ruptures to continuing conflicts and instability, including civil wars in Burma and Sri Lanka, insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan and northeast India, and the Rohingya crisis. His research draws on archival material, previously untranslated private memoirs, and interviews conducted in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Konyak, Arabic and Burmese. The result is both a political history and a human account of exile, violence, identity and belonging. The Indian edition is a 536-page English hardback published in 2025 by Fourth Estate/HarperCollins India. The title, author, page count, format and ISBN are corroborated by Indian booksellers, while the publisher supplies the book’s central synopsis and author information. [web:1][web:5][web:4][web:16]