Page 324 - EW September 2025 Final

Books

ing ethnic cleansing of that the British colonial
Eastern-origin Jews (Miz- state played was relegated SHATTERED LANDS: FIVE
rahim) by the European to the margins. PARTITIONS AND THE MAKING
Jews (Ashkenazi) in Israel Moving away from OF MODERN ASIA
itself. this skewed perspec- Sam Dalrymple
The author forecasts tive, historians, in more WILLIAM COLLINS
the new world order as a recent times, have made Rs.799 Pages 520
division on the colour line. attempts to examine the
Between Arabs and Is- pivotal, and at the same
raelis, and a Global South time dubious, role that the
against a Global North. Mountbatten-led British Burma, has been termed as This book draws
Perhaps Herzl’s dream Indian government played the ‘fourth partition’ by the attention to partitions
“of a rampart of Europe in dividing the country author. played out in Burma,
against Asia, an outpost of and its people on religious The source of all the five Arabian peninsula,
civilisation as opposed to lines. Colonialists, given partitions was a political Pakistan and
barbarism” is taking shape. that all the instruments of entity known officially as Bangladesh. Also
The discourse in The power were in their hands, the ‘Indian Empire’ or ‘the integration of princely
World after Gaza places were majorly responsible Raj’. This study argues that states in South Asia
blame on Western powers for Partition as well as the till about the 1930s, the
for the creation of this mass displacement and Indian Empire, comprising
imbroglio. They have used bloodshed of 1947. Recent the region including India, thoroughly examined by
their political privilege analyses have demonstrat- Pakistan, Bangladesh, the author. From mundane
and power to redefine the ed conclusively that the Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, problems like release of a
moral and ethical nar- British Indian government Yemen, Oman, the United new set of stamps depict-
rative to suit their, and was determined to divide Arab Emirates (UAE), ing the Shwedagon Pagoda
Israel’s, ends. For a return the country, with individu- Qatar, Bahrain, and Ku- instead of the Taj Mahal, to
to a world order based on als like Mountbatten exert- wait, was a political unit. more complex issues con-
international understand- ing immense pressure on However, within a span cerning the demographic
ing, legal framework and colonial cartographers and of barely 50 years, this profile of India, the colonial
human rights, this book officials to finish the ‘task’ entity, referred to as the state, in days following the
is an excellent presenta- at the earliest. crown jewel of the British political separation.
tion on how the system Historians studying Empire, collapsed, or, to Among others, an im-
has become unhinged, and the Partition of India have use Dalrymple’s descrip- portant point that Dalrym-
what the world must do to seldom tried to go beyond tion ‘shattered’. ple makes, with regard to
restore sanity. their area of research and While most issues con- this ‘first partition’ which
ANIL THAKORE study this human tragedy cerning partitions of India, occurred in 1937, is that
on a bigger scale. Com- Pakistan and Bangladesh by drawing partition lines
Partitions parative studies on the have been examined ex- between India and Burma,
Partition are still few and
a ‘non-Hindu’ region, the
tensively, it is the detailed
history retold far between. In light of this study of lesser-known British India government
gave credence to the idea
lacuna, young historian
separations of Burma and
Sam Dalrymple’s new the Arabian Peninsula that that India belonged pri-
OR A consider- approach to the subject in makes the present work marily to Hindus, a claim
able period of time, his recent book Shattered illuminating. reiterated by the right-wing
Fhistorical studies Lands, becomes relevant. In a lengthy portion, the Hindutva forces.
on the Partition focused Dalrymple draws atten- author outlines not only Along with Burma, the
primarily on the role that tion to Partitions played socio-political conditions far-flung Aden region too
key non-colonial actors, out in different parts of which led to the separation was separated from the Raj
including the Indian Asia, including Burma, of Burma from the Indian in 1937. And this was also
National Congress, Muslim the Arabian Peninsula, Empire, but also high- the year when the Congress
League, Mahatma Gandhi, Pakistan and Bangladesh. lights fascinating details adopted Bankim Chan-
Jawaharlal Nehru and In addition to these, the pertaining to inauguration dra Chatterjee’s Vande
Muhammad Ali Jinnah complex issue of integra- of the new state. The chal- Mataram as the national
played in the days leading tion of the Princely States lenges that emerged in the song of India. All these
to the Partition. The part with India, Pakistan and wake of this partition are developments, according

324 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2025