A legacy of war, exile and division

In a room full of South Asians, the natural flow of conversation inevitably turns to politics -- geopolitics, to be precise -- infused with a potent mix of anger, sadness, and nostalgia. The region's intricately intertwined geopolitics, shaped by shared borders, cultures, subcultures, histories, disputes, and rivalries, remains a paradox yet to be resolved.

Colonial domination and the arbitrary decision to draw borders based on religious nationalism inflicted indescribable sorrow and conflict that moulded the region. The impact of the legacy of the 1947 Partition is still shaping the region's present legislatures.

Sam Dalrymple, a Delhi-raised Scottish historian, award-winning filmmaker, and co-founder of Project Dastaan, along with his friends of South Asian heritage, romanticises the memories shared by their grandparents and parents -- recollections of homelands left behind.

These stories breathe life into Project Dastaan, an initiative that reconnects displaced refugees of the 1947 Partition of India -- which created the modern-day republics of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh -- with their childhood communities and villages.

Taking his experience a step further, Sam authored Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia. An archival masterpiece, the book documents the firsthand horrors and traumas of 1947 and explores five other partitions that fractured the Raj -- an imperial banner encompassing India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. And how it reshaped the history of modern South Asia, tracing a legacy of war, exile, and division.

"This region," as Sam writes, "is home to a quarter of the world's population and encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities on the planet. And the breakup of the British Raj is an event that affected a quarter of humanity. 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."

"The first generation after Partition spent their time rebuilding their lives, and the second generation mostly just wanted to move on and forget the past. The third generation, on the other hand, has completely settled but wants to rediscover where they have come from and reconnect with the land of their ancestors. So many times, in Project Dastaan, we found that it was the third generation that was opening up these conversations within their families," Dalrymple told The Daily Star ahead of the Dhaka launch of his book on Friday, November 7, at Shahabuddin Park's Amphitheatre.

He draws parallels between the hasty border-drawing by the departing British administration and the horrific communal riots and massacres that followed -- events that have fuelled today's aggressive nationalism and hardened right-wing ideologies.

"We wanted to document the past and reconnect with the generation that is dying with those horrific experiences and memories," he emphasises the need to document.

"My underlying message is to help people recognize the folly of nurturing hatred and to understand how social media is hijacking our conscience with fake news and disinformation. The idea that news can be subjective is absurd -- social media has undermined journalism. Anyone can start a podcast or post their take on issues without any factual checks. That's why archival research is more important than ever -- to sift through the noise and uncover the truth," he says, reflecting on the growing sense of living in a broken world.

Bangladesh is ahead of the curve with the Liberation War Museum, which has done excellent archival work commemorating and documenting its two-step journey to independence: first from the British in 1947 (as East Pakistan), and then from Pakistan in 1971 to become a sovereign nation. Seventy-five years after the 1947 Partition, its memories are still not fully documented. Archiving efforts have only recently gained momentum.

South Asia continues to reel from the crude decisions of arbitrary borders imposed by the former British Indian Empire. Dalrymple adds that its "legacies include civil wars in Burma and Sri Lanka, ongoing insurgencies in Kashmir, Baluchistan and north-east 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."

The culture of violent geopolitics is intensifying; communal harmony now feels like a relic of the past. Just look at old photographs from forgotten times and see how people once lived side by side for generations.

Let the book speak. Our world is changing, prioritising national interests above all else. Give the nostalgic longings and memories of tormented survivors a chance to be heard. Let their stories correct our present political debacles.

Sam Dalrymple's stunning debut is based on untranslated private memoirs, and interviews in English, Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, 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.

Shattered Lands has been hailed as a must-read history book of the year. Sam Dalrymple will be signing copies at BOOKWORM on Saturday, from 11:00am.