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NEXT EVENT
TUESDAY 26 MAY, 11.30AM - 1.00PM
Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia
Sam Dalrymple
University Women's Club, 2 Audley Square, Mayfair, London W1K 1DB
As recently as 1928 India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait were bound together as the Indian Empire. It was the British Empire’s crown jewel: a vast dominion stretching from the Red Sea to the jungles of Southeast Asia, home to a quarter of the world’s population.
And then, in the space of just fifty years, the Indian Empire shattered. Five partitions tore it apart: carving out new nations, redrawing maps, and leaving behind a legacy of war, exile and division.
Shattered Lands presents the 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.
Sam Dalrymple is a Scottish historian and film-maker who grew up in Delhi. He graduated from the University of Oxford as a Persian and Sanskrit scholar. His work has been published in the New York Times, TIME, New Yorker and Economist. His debut book, Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia, was an international bestseller, and a ‘Best Book of 2025’ for the Financial Times, Spectator, BBC History Magazine and History Today.
This lecture is presented in association with The British in India Historical Trust
Tea and coffee (self-serve and included in the ticket price) will be available on arrival. At 11.45 am there will be a short meeting in the Library for members of the Indian Civil Service Society (and anyone interested in joining).
The lecture will be presented in the Library at 12 noon. For those who would like to stay, an optional two-course meal (main course, dessert and coffee) from 1pm to 2.30pm will follow in the Drawing Room. Tickets for the lecture cost £15. Tickets for the lecture and meal cost £65. Drinks can be purchased separately from the pay bar in the Drawing Room after the lecture. Dietary requirements accommodated. All welcome.
HOW TO BOOK
Tickets may be booked online by card (fees apply), by bank transfer or by cheque.
* Price includes platform and payment processing fees
* Price includes platform and payment processing fees
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