Sam Dalrymple.
| Photo Credit: K. Ragesh
Right after his session at the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) at the Kozhikode beach on Friday afternoon (January 23), Sam Dalrymple was taken to a counter set up for authors to sign their copies. The queue of readers with their copy of the young author’s first book got longer, as did the book-signing session.
He was surprised and delighted. “I don’t think I have signed as many books at any session yet,” Dalyrmple told The Hindu, smiling. “I know in Kerala more books are read than in every other State put together. So in that sense, it is less surprising. It has been wonderful to see so many people out here in Kozhikode.”
Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia is an ambitious work that looks at partitions beyond India and Pakistan. It was not just the readers at the KLF that have received the book well. “But somehow I have written a book on partition that hasn’t angered anyone,” he smiles. “I think the fact that India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have all liked it has been the biggest heartwarming thing.”
Dalrymple says the book arrived at its current form when he realised that there were several partition stories to be told in Asia. “I think for me, it is how much more there is in common than any nationalist narrative would give you,” he says. “And not just within India and Pakistan, but Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Yemen, the Gulf. The first time I went to Lahore, I saw that no city was more similar to Delhi, where I grew up. It shook me. You can see the India-Pakistan wall from space. You can’t see the Great Wall of China from space.”
Dalrymple’s first plan was to make a documentary film on partition. “But COVID hit, while I was working on getting permission to shoot something in Himachal and Punjab,” he recalls. And then COVID cancelled everything. And so we decided to turn it into a book instead.”
Among the earlier readers of his book was his father William Dalrymple, the prolific Scottish historian who has written several significant books on India. And what was his reaction?
“I think he rather loved it,” he smiles.
Published – January 23, 2026 07:48 pm IST
