RETRACING THE MAP

Sam Dalrymple's Shattered Lands is about the end of the British Empire in Asia and the many partitions it left in its wake

- Kishwar Desai

SHATTERED LANDS Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia By Sam Dalrymple HARPERCOLLINS/ FOURTH ESTATE ₹799;536 pages

The one thing predictable about empires is that they do fall, and usually there is a messy outcome. It was no different with the British Raj-as countries struggled for their own independence and identity. And sometimes it was the mandarins in Whitehall who just gave up, especially after the second World War. In India, of course, we take pride that we made the British quit the jewel in their crown. But it also meant paying the terrible price of Partition.