The partitions
Sam Dalrymple,, the author of Shattered Lands, a book about the splintering British Raj, was interviewed by Guneeta Singh Bhalla, founder of the 1947 Partition Archive, on March 13 at their Berkeley headquarters. Their conversation explored the origins of his debut novel and how partitions have shaped the worldview of a post-colonial world.
Twenty-nine-year- old Sam Dalrymple grew up in a Delhi born of the shadows of the 1947 Partition—a city where nearly every resident carries a migration story in their lineage. The dialogue moved quickly from the personal to the geopolitical as the young author described the surreal experience of crossing the border to Lahore, and discovered a “twin city” that mirrors his home in social and architectural detail, yet remains tragically inaccessible to most.
This shared history of displacement and the irony of meeting South Asian peers at Oxford catalyzed Dalrymple’s work with Project Dastaan, a venture dedicated to reconnecting aging survivors with the homes and memories they left behind seventy-five years ago. His book emerged from the research on this project.
Shattered Lands reveals little-known truths, Dalrymple argued, pointing out that between 1926 and 1976, five major partitions fragmented the unified imperial space of the British Raj, eventually producing 12 nation-states. These divisions reshaped political borders and identities, leaving lasting impacts that continue to influence contemporary conflicts—from Kashmir and Balochistan to Myanmar, Yemen, and even the Gulf War.
These ruptures are often overlooked in popular narratives, which tend to focus narrowly on the 1947 partition, said Dalrymple.
Relationships that mattered
In his view, one cannot separate a leader’s private life from their public decisions, because the two are irretrievably enmeshed. “I think that these early relationships are so integral to understanding what happens later,” explained Dalrymple, referring to Muhammad Ali Jinnah as a key example. Jinnah’s shift toward a separate Pakistan was fueled by personal heartbreak.
In his early years, Jinnah was a modern, secular man who believed in Hindu-Muslim unity. However, social rejection of his interfaith marriage and the tragic death of his wife deeply changed him. His shift was further propelled by political betrayals; Dalrymple recounts how Nehru and Gandhi used Jinnah’s absence during his wife’s hospitalization to pass resolutions against Muslim reservations, a move Jinnah never forgave.
According to Dalrymple, the Partition was not the result of mass movements but the result of decisions made by seven men — Jinnah, Nehru, Gandhi, Mountbatten, Sardar Patel, Liaquat Ali Khan, and Cyril Radcliffe — whose relationships “determine(d) the fate of one quarter of the world’s population.”
Lived experiences inform the storytelling
Dalrymple drew on sources like the 1947 Partition Archive, curated by Guneeta Singh Bhalla, to combine traditional research with roughly 80–100 multilingual interviews. By centering these narratives in his work, he highlights lived experiences that are frequently overlooked or erased by official state records. Dalrymple’s use of oral histories reveals that Partition was actually a collection of different regional experiences rather than a singular event, noted Bhalla.
Dalrymple gathered sources as he traveled through the British Raj’s successor states, and from rare private archives — such as families preserving coup documents in Pakistan or firsthand diaries of wartime migrations from Burma. Dalrymple highlighted how much historical material remains hidden in personal collections rather than formal institutions.
The discussion highlighted how borders created between countries shape or limit the historical understanding of regions. In Nagaland, local memories of when borders were drawn differ markedly from official accounts, highlighting how the experience of partition varied across regions. Dalrymple extends this idea by arguing that events such as the separation of Burma or the Gulf states should also be understood as forms of “partition,” since they similarly split interconnected communities and political systems.
And, as emerging new evidence reshapes history and challenges long-standing national narratives, Dalrymple stresses that history is far from complete. Shattered Lands calls for a broader perspective on the Partition — to include overlooked regions, voices, and connections. Without resetting our mindset, he suggests, our fundamental understanding of South Asia’s past and present remains incomplete.
