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Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century
'A classic ... wonderfully enjoyable' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE'The story of South Asia told with verve, wit and brilliance' ANURADHA ROYBased on decades of scholarship, this is the authoritative history of South Asia in the 20th centuryShadows at Noon tells the subcontinent's story from the British Raj through independence and partition to the forging of the modern nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Unlike other histories of the region which concentrate exclusively on politics, here food, leisure and the household are given as much importance as nationhood, migration and the state.Thematic rather than chronological, each chapter illuminates an overarching topic that has shaped South Asia. This format enables us to explore issues - like the changing character of the family or the 'Indian diet' - over time and in depth.Chatterji's purpose is to make contemporary South Asia - its cultural vibrancy, diversity, social structures and political make-up - intelligible to everyone. In so doing this bold, innovative and personal work rallies against standard narratives of 'inherent' differences between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and reveals the many things its people have in common.'Truly magnificent' MIHIR BOSE'Wonderful' SIR MARK TULLY
842 pages, Hardcover
First published July 13, 2023
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About the author
Joya Chatterji
6 books15 followersJoya Chatterji is Professor of South Asian History and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. She specializes in modern South Asian history and was the editor of the journal Modern Asian Studies for ten years.
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September 25, 2023The Indian filmmaker Guru Dutt, known for his cloying tearjerkers about tormented poets and wilting royals, was often mistaken for a Bengali, Joya Chatterji tells us, on account of ‘his (hard-to-define) Calcutta ways’. But those ‘ways’ are not so elusive. Even a non-native like David Gilmour – of the peerage, not Pink Floyd – could pin it down. People often mistook his friend and fellow historian Ramachandra Guha for a Bengali, Gilmour observed, because ‘he talked in a way I had been told that bhadralok [Calcutta’s bourgeois] scholars always used to talk, rapidly and excitedly on a very wide range of subjects’.
Unlike Dutt and Guha, Chatterji is the real thing, a card-carrying member of the bhadralok, as she time and again reminds us in her new book. Shadows at Noon is a cheerful history of the subcontinent, by turns erudite, eclectic, analytical, gossipy and prolix – all instantly recognisable bhadralok qualities. In style and detail, it effortlessly surpasses Guha’s equally colossal India After Gandhi. The latter has gone through many reprints, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. By all accounts, though, it was a terribly conventional, even triumphalist, account of the wonder that is Indian democracy. Also scarcely forgivable was its unabashed bird’s-eye view. Hardly so much as a word was to be found on the lower orders in its pages.
Thankfully, these defects are corrected in Chatterji’s book. In Modi’s India, it would be injudicious to gawk, as Guha did, in admiration at Indian democracy. Chatterji is more heedful of the developments that led India to its current illiberal impasse. Likewise, though they often appear in the form of the help in Chatterji’s household, the working class isn’t absent in these pages. Later chapters supply ample room to sex workers and snake charmers, among other subalterns. Shadows at Noon is a long but brisk read, enlivened by opinions on everything from textbook reform to travel advice: ‘If you can, visit Lahore’s Old City.’
What we have is a gently revisionist account of an enduring, if also ever-tottering, democracy. It is, on the face of it, a history not only of India but also its Muslim neighbours, though Pakistan and Bangladesh only have walk-on parts. Bengal gets top billing. South India and the mofussil are mostly ignored. But even as a history of India, the book has much to commend it.
Indian anticolonialism, Chatterji observes, had its dark side. Nationalists could twist themselves into pretzels, going so far as to decry the Age of Consent Act of 1891 as a colonial intrusion upon Indian values, of which marital rape apparently was one; the act had been prompted by the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl by her 35-year-old husband. Refreshingly, there’s no halo around Gandhi. In Chatterji’s hands, the Mahatma comes down to earth as a befuddled soul perhaps too influenced by the Christian esotericism he imbibed in London. No radical, she writes, ‘Gandhi was instead an ally of capitalists and the caste order, a friend of patriarchy’.
Unusually for an Indian historian, Chatterji rightly lays the blame for Partition on the Congress, whose Hindu nationalists did much to push Muslims into the arms of the secessionist League. The creation of Pakistan was perfectly avoidable; both sides came close to burying the hatchet with the Lucknow Pact of 1916, and then again with the Cabinet Mission Plan 30 years later. Sadly, both proved inconclusive.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Pratinav Anil is the author of Another India: The Making of the World’s Largest Democracy, 1947-1977 (Hurst, 2023) and a lecturer at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
Unlike Dutt and Guha, Chatterji is the real thing, a card-carrying member of the bhadralok, as she time and again reminds us in her new book. Shadows at Noon is a cheerful history of the subcontinent, by turns erudite, eclectic, analytical, gossipy and prolix – all instantly recognisable bhadralok qualities. In style and detail, it effortlessly surpasses Guha’s equally colossal India After Gandhi. The latter has gone through many reprints, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. By all accounts, though, it was a terribly conventional, even triumphalist, account of the wonder that is Indian democracy. Also scarcely forgivable was its unabashed bird’s-eye view. Hardly so much as a word was to be found on the lower orders in its pages.
Thankfully, these defects are corrected in Chatterji’s book. In Modi’s India, it would be injudicious to gawk, as Guha did, in admiration at Indian democracy. Chatterji is more heedful of the developments that led India to its current illiberal impasse. Likewise, though they often appear in the form of the help in Chatterji’s household, the working class isn’t absent in these pages. Later chapters supply ample room to sex workers and snake charmers, among other subalterns. Shadows at Noon is a long but brisk read, enlivened by opinions on everything from textbook reform to travel advice: ‘If you can, visit Lahore’s Old City.’
What we have is a gently revisionist account of an enduring, if also ever-tottering, democracy. It is, on the face of it, a history not only of India but also its Muslim neighbours, though Pakistan and Bangladesh only have walk-on parts. Bengal gets top billing. South India and the mofussil are mostly ignored. But even as a history of India, the book has much to commend it.
Indian anticolonialism, Chatterji observes, had its dark side. Nationalists could twist themselves into pretzels, going so far as to decry the Age of Consent Act of 1891 as a colonial intrusion upon Indian values, of which marital rape apparently was one; the act had been prompted by the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl by her 35-year-old husband. Refreshingly, there’s no halo around Gandhi. In Chatterji’s hands, the Mahatma comes down to earth as a befuddled soul perhaps too influenced by the Christian esotericism he imbibed in London. No radical, she writes, ‘Gandhi was instead an ally of capitalists and the caste order, a friend of patriarchy’.
Unusually for an Indian historian, Chatterji rightly lays the blame for Partition on the Congress, whose Hindu nationalists did much to push Muslims into the arms of the secessionist League. The creation of Pakistan was perfectly avoidable; both sides came close to burying the hatchet with the Lucknow Pact of 1916, and then again with the Cabinet Mission Plan 30 years later. Sadly, both proved inconclusive.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Pratinav Anil is the author of Another India: The Making of the World’s Largest Democracy, 1947-1977 (Hurst, 2023) and a lecturer at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
October 6, 2023
"Shadows at Noon" is a captivating exploration of South Asian history in the twentieth century. Unlike traditional accounts, it balances politics with everyday life, offering insights into food, leisure, and household dynamics. Its thematic structure allows in-depth exploration of key themes, challenging stereotypes about India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This innovative and personal work sheds light on commonalities rather than differences, making it an essential read for those seeking a deeper understanding of South Asia's rich and diverse history.
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September 28, 2025In "Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century", Joya Chatterji takes readers through the turbulent history of the Indian subcontinent, showing how colonialism, independence, and partition left behind scars that never fully healed. She argues that the departure of the British in 1947 did not banish the darkness of empire but instead cast longer, deeper shadows that continue to shape the lives of over a billion people. What was expected to be a moment of liberation turned into a traumatic birth of nations, and the divisions of that period still echo in politics, culture, and even the everyday rhythms of South Asia. The book insists that to understand the present, one must face the legacy of those formative years without illusions.
The late nineteenth century marked the stirrings of a new political consciousness. Indian thinkers and activists began to interpret British rule as something more insidious than simple economic exploitation. Earlier generations had spoken of the drain of wealth, of the extraction of resources and profits, but by the 1890s, many came to believe that colonialism thrived because Indians themselves had become weak. Physical strength and martial vigor became symbols of resistance. Gymnasiums filled with young men who saw each push-up or wrestling exercise as a small act of defiance, a way of restoring the courage their ancestors supposedly lost. Leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak encouraged this militant spirit, transforming religious festivals into massive political demonstrations. When he was arrested for sedition in 1897, riots spread through Bombay, and the line between religion, politics, and resistance blurred.
Tilak’s revolutionary reading of the 'Bhagavad Gita', written during his imprisonment in Burma, transformed Krishna’s counsel to Arjuna from a call for detachment into a demand for action. The text, once seen as spiritual guidance, became an inspiration for political struggle. Revolutionary networks in Bengal and elsewhere soon stockpiled weapons, practiced secret rituals, and launched violent attacks against colonial officials. Yet alongside these radical visions, another leader began to chart a very different path. Mohandas Gandhi, returning from South Africa in 1915, turned the language of weakness into one of strength. He argued that non-violence, far from being cowardice, could become the most powerful weapon of the oppressed. His philosophy of mass mobilization without bloodshed offered an alternative to underground violence, but it also embedded religious and moral symbolism into politics in ways that would later complicate the quest for unity.
By the outbreak of the Second World War, the independence movement was divided and exhausted, and British control was fraying. Gandhi and the Congress leadership resigned from provincial governments in protest when India was dragged into war without consultation, while the Muslim League seized the opportunity to expand its influence. By 1945, Britain was broke and weary, and the end of empire was inevitable. The Indian Navy mutiny in 1946 proved how brittle colonial authority had become. Lord Mountbatten arrived with orders to cut losses quickly, and within months, the lines of partition were drawn. On August 14 and 15, 1947, Pakistan and India were born amid one of the greatest forced migrations in history. A million people perished, and ten million fled their homes. Independence came drenched in violence, and the act of liberation also became an act of division.
The tragedy lay partly in the very methods that Gandhi had pioneered. His attempts to unite Hindus and Muslims through shared causes, such as the Khilafat movement, encouraged communities to see themselves in religious rather than civic terms. His mastery of symbolic protest - whether through fasting, prayer, or the famous Salt March - resonated most strongly with Hindu traditions, leaving many Muslims wary. Congress claimed to represent all Indians, but its rituals and language often felt exclusionary. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, once a champion of inter-communal cooperation, absorbed these lessons and concluded that only a separate Muslim state could protect his community’s interests. By the mid-1940s, elections revealed how far the divide had grown: Congress spoke for Hindus, the League for Muslims. Partition had already begun in the imagination long before borders were officially drawn.
The years that followed independence set India, Pakistan, and later Bangladesh on divergent yet interconnected paths. India embarked on a democratic experiment under Nehru, committing itself to secularism in defiance of the religious carnage that had just unfolded. But democracy was rooted not only in lofty ideals but also in networks of patronage, where access to resources and services often depended on party loyalty. Hindu nationalism, though disgraced after Gandhi’s assassination, slowly rebuilt its base through grassroots work, preparing for a resurgence decades later.
Pakistan, meanwhile, floundered without strong civilian leadership. Jinnah’s death in 1948 and the assassination of his deputy three years later created a vacuum that the military quickly filled. Martial law became a recurring feature, and the army cast itself as the nation’s guardian. For East Pakistan, separated by a thousand miles from the western wing, this arrangement was disastrous. The Bengali majority faced neglect and repression, culminating in the bloody war of 1971, when Pakistan’s military launched a campaign of terror that left millions dead. Out of this trauma, Bangladesh was born, carrying the heaviest burdens of colonial legacies and postcolonial betrayals alike.
If politics revealed the fractures, culture displayed how deeply partition haunted the imagination. Cinema, literature, music, and television all carried the imprints of division. In India, Bollywood films like 'Mother India' exalted sacrifice for the nation while reworking partition trauma into melodrama. Pakistan’s studios leaned toward Islamic epics and love stories haunted by the theme of separation. Writers like Saadat Hasan Manto captured the horror directly, refusing to disguise it. His stories, such as 'Toba Tek Singh', conveyed madness as the only honest response to the absurdity of borders drawn overnight. In both countries, language policies deepened divisions: Urdu became Pakistan’s national tongue, sparking riots among Bengalis who demanded recognition of their own language, while India promoted Hindi, alienating speakers of other regional languages. Even music and food, once shared across the subcontinent, were rebranded as distinctly Indian or Pakistani.
The aftershocks of 1947 continue into the present. Families remain divided by borders they cannot cross. Trade between India and Pakistan is so restricted that goods often travel through Dubai to cover a short distance between Delhi and Lahore. The natural environment suffers as rivers are treated as weapons rather than lifelines, their flows subject to suspicion and political rivalry. Writers and artists across generations return again and again to partition, unable to exhaust its grief or its meanings. Diasporic communities carry these divisions abroad, shaping identities in cities from London to Toronto. What should have been the dawn of freedom turned into an endless twilight of suspicion, rivalry, and incompleteness.
In "Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century", Joya Chatterji shows that the promise of independence was shadowed by the legacy of empire and the catastrophe of partition. By tracing the intertwining stories of politics, violence, and cultural expression, she demonstrates that colonialism never truly ended in 1947 but instead embedded itself in the very fabric of the new nations. The book concludes that the partition of the subcontinent was not a single event but an enduring condition, one that continues to define South Asia’s politics, societies, and imaginations. The shadows cast at noon remain with us still, long after the empire’s departure.
The late nineteenth century marked the stirrings of a new political consciousness. Indian thinkers and activists began to interpret British rule as something more insidious than simple economic exploitation. Earlier generations had spoken of the drain of wealth, of the extraction of resources and profits, but by the 1890s, many came to believe that colonialism thrived because Indians themselves had become weak. Physical strength and martial vigor became symbols of resistance. Gymnasiums filled with young men who saw each push-up or wrestling exercise as a small act of defiance, a way of restoring the courage their ancestors supposedly lost. Leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak encouraged this militant spirit, transforming religious festivals into massive political demonstrations. When he was arrested for sedition in 1897, riots spread through Bombay, and the line between religion, politics, and resistance blurred.
Tilak’s revolutionary reading of the 'Bhagavad Gita', written during his imprisonment in Burma, transformed Krishna’s counsel to Arjuna from a call for detachment into a demand for action. The text, once seen as spiritual guidance, became an inspiration for political struggle. Revolutionary networks in Bengal and elsewhere soon stockpiled weapons, practiced secret rituals, and launched violent attacks against colonial officials. Yet alongside these radical visions, another leader began to chart a very different path. Mohandas Gandhi, returning from South Africa in 1915, turned the language of weakness into one of strength. He argued that non-violence, far from being cowardice, could become the most powerful weapon of the oppressed. His philosophy of mass mobilization without bloodshed offered an alternative to underground violence, but it also embedded religious and moral symbolism into politics in ways that would later complicate the quest for unity.
By the outbreak of the Second World War, the independence movement was divided and exhausted, and British control was fraying. Gandhi and the Congress leadership resigned from provincial governments in protest when India was dragged into war without consultation, while the Muslim League seized the opportunity to expand its influence. By 1945, Britain was broke and weary, and the end of empire was inevitable. The Indian Navy mutiny in 1946 proved how brittle colonial authority had become. Lord Mountbatten arrived with orders to cut losses quickly, and within months, the lines of partition were drawn. On August 14 and 15, 1947, Pakistan and India were born amid one of the greatest forced migrations in history. A million people perished, and ten million fled their homes. Independence came drenched in violence, and the act of liberation also became an act of division.
The tragedy lay partly in the very methods that Gandhi had pioneered. His attempts to unite Hindus and Muslims through shared causes, such as the Khilafat movement, encouraged communities to see themselves in religious rather than civic terms. His mastery of symbolic protest - whether through fasting, prayer, or the famous Salt March - resonated most strongly with Hindu traditions, leaving many Muslims wary. Congress claimed to represent all Indians, but its rituals and language often felt exclusionary. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, once a champion of inter-communal cooperation, absorbed these lessons and concluded that only a separate Muslim state could protect his community’s interests. By the mid-1940s, elections revealed how far the divide had grown: Congress spoke for Hindus, the League for Muslims. Partition had already begun in the imagination long before borders were officially drawn.
The years that followed independence set India, Pakistan, and later Bangladesh on divergent yet interconnected paths. India embarked on a democratic experiment under Nehru, committing itself to secularism in defiance of the religious carnage that had just unfolded. But democracy was rooted not only in lofty ideals but also in networks of patronage, where access to resources and services often depended on party loyalty. Hindu nationalism, though disgraced after Gandhi’s assassination, slowly rebuilt its base through grassroots work, preparing for a resurgence decades later.
Pakistan, meanwhile, floundered without strong civilian leadership. Jinnah’s death in 1948 and the assassination of his deputy three years later created a vacuum that the military quickly filled. Martial law became a recurring feature, and the army cast itself as the nation’s guardian. For East Pakistan, separated by a thousand miles from the western wing, this arrangement was disastrous. The Bengali majority faced neglect and repression, culminating in the bloody war of 1971, when Pakistan’s military launched a campaign of terror that left millions dead. Out of this trauma, Bangladesh was born, carrying the heaviest burdens of colonial legacies and postcolonial betrayals alike.
If politics revealed the fractures, culture displayed how deeply partition haunted the imagination. Cinema, literature, music, and television all carried the imprints of division. In India, Bollywood films like 'Mother India' exalted sacrifice for the nation while reworking partition trauma into melodrama. Pakistan’s studios leaned toward Islamic epics and love stories haunted by the theme of separation. Writers like Saadat Hasan Manto captured the horror directly, refusing to disguise it. His stories, such as 'Toba Tek Singh', conveyed madness as the only honest response to the absurdity of borders drawn overnight. In both countries, language policies deepened divisions: Urdu became Pakistan’s national tongue, sparking riots among Bengalis who demanded recognition of their own language, while India promoted Hindi, alienating speakers of other regional languages. Even music and food, once shared across the subcontinent, were rebranded as distinctly Indian or Pakistani.
The aftershocks of 1947 continue into the present. Families remain divided by borders they cannot cross. Trade between India and Pakistan is so restricted that goods often travel through Dubai to cover a short distance between Delhi and Lahore. The natural environment suffers as rivers are treated as weapons rather than lifelines, their flows subject to suspicion and political rivalry. Writers and artists across generations return again and again to partition, unable to exhaust its grief or its meanings. Diasporic communities carry these divisions abroad, shaping identities in cities from London to Toronto. What should have been the dawn of freedom turned into an endless twilight of suspicion, rivalry, and incompleteness.
In "Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century", Joya Chatterji shows that the promise of independence was shadowed by the legacy of empire and the catastrophe of partition. By tracing the intertwining stories of politics, violence, and cultural expression, she demonstrates that colonialism never truly ended in 1947 but instead embedded itself in the very fabric of the new nations. The book concludes that the partition of the subcontinent was not a single event but an enduring condition, one that continues to define South Asia’s politics, societies, and imaginations. The shadows cast at noon remain with us still, long after the empire’s departure.
August 24, 2023
18 July to 17 August is the South Asian Heritage Month. Although this time has passed, it's never too late to read some really great non-fiction and to gather knowledge about India and its partition. I'm currently reading the book so I'm not in a position to write a fully fledged review at the moment, and I'm going to take my time to finish this one. From what I have read, I can definitely share my point of view.
Shadows at Noon tells the subcontinent's story from the British Raj through independence and partition to the forging of the modern nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Unlike other histories of the subcontinent that concentrate exclusively on politics, here food, leisure and the household are given equal importance to discussions of nationhood, the development of the state and patterns of migration.
It is evident that the book has been curated after extensive research and with great prowess, the author has left no stone unturned. The book covers a whole century, in 840 pages. The book requires a lot of patience and time to be read as a lifetime of reading, thinking, teaching and learning is what has made this book. Notable events have been bejeweled with real life photographs. It's definitely different from the usual history books because of the details and themes that the author has covered. With the book the author reveals the many things the people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have in common and rallies against the standard narratives of 'inherent differences between these countries. It's an essential read for scholars, and anyone interested to know more about South Asian history. Joya Chatterji is a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, emeritus professor of South Asian History at the University of Cambridge.
Shadows at Noon tells the subcontinent's story from the British Raj through independence and partition to the forging of the modern nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Unlike other histories of the subcontinent that concentrate exclusively on politics, here food, leisure and the household are given equal importance to discussions of nationhood, the development of the state and patterns of migration.
It is evident that the book has been curated after extensive research and with great prowess, the author has left no stone unturned. The book covers a whole century, in 840 pages. The book requires a lot of patience and time to be read as a lifetime of reading, thinking, teaching and learning is what has made this book. Notable events have been bejeweled with real life photographs. It's definitely different from the usual history books because of the details and themes that the author has covered. With the book the author reveals the many things the people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have in common and rallies against the standard narratives of 'inherent differences between these countries. It's an essential read for scholars, and anyone interested to know more about South Asian history. Joya Chatterji is a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, emeritus professor of South Asian History at the University of Cambridge.
October 2, 2025
In August 1947, after nearly two centuries of ruling the Indian subcontinent, the British drew lines on a map and created two nations from one subcontinent. India and Pakistan were born in blood – a million dead, ten million displaced.
bombay info now makes sense from what I thought I knew before this book
notes:
- three generations later, trucks traveling from Delhi to Lahore detour through Dubai. Families cannot inherit across borders. Artists obsess over division. Even food and music wear national labels that never existed before 1947.
- British colonialism lengthened rather than disappeared during Indian independence
- By the 1890s, a new understanding of British rule was taking hold across India. Earlier generations had focused on economic exploitation – the drain of wealth theory that revealed how Britain extracted resources from Indian soil. But now intellectuals and activists saw something deeper at work. They believed British colonialism had succeeded because Hindus had grown weak and soft. The solution seemed clear: recover the warrior traditions of ancient India.
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak embodied this new militancy. In 1893, he transformed the Ganesh festival in Maharashtra from a private religious observance into a massive public demonstration. Thousands gathered in the streets, listening to songs that compared British officials to the demons killed by Hindu gods. When British authorities arrested Tilak in 1897 for sedition, riots erupted across Bombay. Young men who had trained in those gymnasiums now fought police in the streets.
- This muscular nationalism spread through networks of gymnasiums, schools, and secret societies. In the province of Bengal, revolutionary groups stockpiled weapons and compiled bomb-making manuals. Young men performed elaborate initiation ceremonies before images of the goddess Kali, patron of destruction. Between 1907 and 1917, these groups carried out over two hundred political assassinations and bombings.
- Mass mobilization could achieve what bombs could not. But the tensions between these visions – militant and peaceful, exclusive and inclusive – would shape everything
World War II changed everything:
- When in 1939 Britain declared India at war against Germany without consulting any Indian leaders, Gandhi’s Congress Party resigned from provincial governments in protest. Mass arrests ensued, and by 1942, Gandhi and the entire Congress leadership were imprisoned until 1944.
- Meanwhile, India’s second-biggest party – the Muslim League – worked with the British and grew stronger. By 1945, World War II had left Britain exhausted and bankrupt. Global colonial empires were crumbling everywhere. The Royal Indian Navy mutiny of February 1946 showed that British colonial control was coming to a rapid end. Lord Mountbatten arrived as the last British ruler of India in March 1947 with a mandate to transfer power quickly. On August 15, 1947, India gained independence. Pakistan was born a day earlier. Freedom came, but it came divided.
- Gandhi never wanted partition. He called it the “vivisection” of Mother India, and in January 1948, he would die at the hands of a Hindu nationalist who blamed him for allowing it.
- The provincial elections of 1946 proved the point. The Muslim League, which had been an elite club just a decade earlier, won almost every Muslim seat. Congress won the Hindu seats. India had already split along religious lines before any borders were drawn. Yet when partition came in August 1947, it unleashed horrors that killed over a million people. Trains arrived at stations carrying only corpses. Whole villages disappeared overnight.
on three paths:
- Three nations emerged from the ashes of partition, each scarred in different ways. India chose democracy but struggled with its demons. Pakistan searched for identity between mosque and military. Bangladesh would wait until 1971 to be born through another bloodbath.
- Across the new border, Pakistan faced a different problem. Jinnah died in September 1948, just thirteen months after independence. His deputy, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated in 1951. Pakistan had been created as a homeland for Muslims, but what did that mean? Should Islamic law govern daily life? Should clerics run the courts? The politicians debated while the military grew impatient.
- (the irony) Pakistan, created through ballot boxes and political mobilization, kept failing at democracy. India, born from the same violence, managed to hold elections even when democracy meant inefficiency and chaos.
Three nations, three experiments – all struggling with the ghosts of 1947.
Every new nation needs its myths. After 1947, artists, writers, and filmmakers across the Indian subcontinent faced an impossible task: create culture that could heal vast wounds while building new identities. The results revealed just how deep those wounds were.
Bollywood became India’s dream factory, but look closely at the films of the 1950s and you see partition everywhere.
The All-India Progressive Writers Association had united Muslim and Hindu intellectuals against colonialism. After partition, they split. Saadat Hasan Manto, who wrote the most searing partition stories, moved to Pakistan but found his work banned for obscenity. His story Toba Tek Singh captured the madness: it follows a lunatic asylum inmate who refuses to accept partition, dying in no-man’s land between the two countries. Manto drank himself to death by 1955, destroyed by the world he was documenting
The languages themselves became political. Hindi, written in Devanagari script, was declared India’s national language, though English remained for official business. Pakistan chose Urdu – essentially the same language as Hindi but written in Arabic script – even though most Pakistanis spoke Punjabi, Bengali, or Sindhi, languages as different from Urdu as Spanish is from German.
Walk through any South Asian city today and you still encounter many ghosts of partition. In Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market, the grandchildren of Punjabi refugees sell clothes in shops built on allocated plots from 1947.
When Indian filmmakers need a terrorist, he speaks Urdu. When Pakistani dramas need a villain, she prays to Hindu gods. Bangladesh, exhausted by its double partition, tries to forget both neighbors exist. Each nation defines itself by what it is not, who it is not, where it cannot go.
bombay info now makes sense from what I thought I knew before this book
notes:
- three generations later, trucks traveling from Delhi to Lahore detour through Dubai. Families cannot inherit across borders. Artists obsess over division. Even food and music wear national labels that never existed before 1947.
- British colonialism lengthened rather than disappeared during Indian independence
- By the 1890s, a new understanding of British rule was taking hold across India. Earlier generations had focused on economic exploitation – the drain of wealth theory that revealed how Britain extracted resources from Indian soil. But now intellectuals and activists saw something deeper at work. They believed British colonialism had succeeded because Hindus had grown weak and soft. The solution seemed clear: recover the warrior traditions of ancient India.
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak embodied this new militancy. In 1893, he transformed the Ganesh festival in Maharashtra from a private religious observance into a massive public demonstration. Thousands gathered in the streets, listening to songs that compared British officials to the demons killed by Hindu gods. When British authorities arrested Tilak in 1897 for sedition, riots erupted across Bombay. Young men who had trained in those gymnasiums now fought police in the streets.
- This muscular nationalism spread through networks of gymnasiums, schools, and secret societies. In the province of Bengal, revolutionary groups stockpiled weapons and compiled bomb-making manuals. Young men performed elaborate initiation ceremonies before images of the goddess Kali, patron of destruction. Between 1907 and 1917, these groups carried out over two hundred political assassinations and bombings.
- Mass mobilization could achieve what bombs could not. But the tensions between these visions – militant and peaceful, exclusive and inclusive – would shape everything
World War II changed everything:
- When in 1939 Britain declared India at war against Germany without consulting any Indian leaders, Gandhi’s Congress Party resigned from provincial governments in protest. Mass arrests ensued, and by 1942, Gandhi and the entire Congress leadership were imprisoned until 1944.
- Meanwhile, India’s second-biggest party – the Muslim League – worked with the British and grew stronger. By 1945, World War II had left Britain exhausted and bankrupt. Global colonial empires were crumbling everywhere. The Royal Indian Navy mutiny of February 1946 showed that British colonial control was coming to a rapid end. Lord Mountbatten arrived as the last British ruler of India in March 1947 with a mandate to transfer power quickly. On August 15, 1947, India gained independence. Pakistan was born a day earlier. Freedom came, but it came divided.
- Gandhi never wanted partition. He called it the “vivisection” of Mother India, and in January 1948, he would die at the hands of a Hindu nationalist who blamed him for allowing it.
- The provincial elections of 1946 proved the point. The Muslim League, which had been an elite club just a decade earlier, won almost every Muslim seat. Congress won the Hindu seats. India had already split along religious lines before any borders were drawn. Yet when partition came in August 1947, it unleashed horrors that killed over a million people. Trains arrived at stations carrying only corpses. Whole villages disappeared overnight.
on three paths:
- Three nations emerged from the ashes of partition, each scarred in different ways. India chose democracy but struggled with its demons. Pakistan searched for identity between mosque and military. Bangladesh would wait until 1971 to be born through another bloodbath.
- Across the new border, Pakistan faced a different problem. Jinnah died in September 1948, just thirteen months after independence. His deputy, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated in 1951. Pakistan had been created as a homeland for Muslims, but what did that mean? Should Islamic law govern daily life? Should clerics run the courts? The politicians debated while the military grew impatient.
- (the irony) Pakistan, created through ballot boxes and political mobilization, kept failing at democracy. India, born from the same violence, managed to hold elections even when democracy meant inefficiency and chaos.
Three nations, three experiments – all struggling with the ghosts of 1947.
Every new nation needs its myths. After 1947, artists, writers, and filmmakers across the Indian subcontinent faced an impossible task: create culture that could heal vast wounds while building new identities. The results revealed just how deep those wounds were.
Bollywood became India’s dream factory, but look closely at the films of the 1950s and you see partition everywhere.
The All-India Progressive Writers Association had united Muslim and Hindu intellectuals against colonialism. After partition, they split. Saadat Hasan Manto, who wrote the most searing partition stories, moved to Pakistan but found his work banned for obscenity. His story Toba Tek Singh captured the madness: it follows a lunatic asylum inmate who refuses to accept partition, dying in no-man’s land between the two countries. Manto drank himself to death by 1955, destroyed by the world he was documenting
The languages themselves became political. Hindi, written in Devanagari script, was declared India’s national language, though English remained for official business. Pakistan chose Urdu – essentially the same language as Hindi but written in Arabic script – even though most Pakistanis spoke Punjabi, Bengali, or Sindhi, languages as different from Urdu as Spanish is from German.
Walk through any South Asian city today and you still encounter many ghosts of partition. In Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market, the grandchildren of Punjabi refugees sell clothes in shops built on allocated plots from 1947.
When Indian filmmakers need a terrorist, he speaks Urdu. When Pakistani dramas need a villain, she prays to Hindu gods. Bangladesh, exhausted by its double partition, tries to forget both neighbors exist. Each nation defines itself by what it is not, who it is not, where it cannot go.
August 17, 2025
Very good overview of the 20th century on the South Asian subcontinent.
Chatterji's thesis is that the different South Asian peoples, the Indians, the Pakistanis, and the Bangladeshis, are more like than unlike each other, and she illustrates this with many examples. The book is organized roughly by theme, starting from political history before moving on to socio-economic and then cultural history. I found this layout to be quite effective.
The conversational tone of the book bothered me a little at the start, but I came to appreciate it in time. The very numerous personal stories, both from Chatterji's own life and family history and from interviews with many of the subcontinent's inhabitants, definitely add a great amount of depth to the work.
All in all, a great boon to my understanding of South Asian history, and well worth the two months I spent working my way through it.
Chatterji's thesis is that the different South Asian peoples, the Indians, the Pakistanis, and the Bangladeshis, are more like than unlike each other, and she illustrates this with many examples. The book is organized roughly by theme, starting from political history before moving on to socio-economic and then cultural history. I found this layout to be quite effective.
The conversational tone of the book bothered me a little at the start, but I came to appreciate it in time. The very numerous personal stories, both from Chatterji's own life and family history and from interviews with many of the subcontinent's inhabitants, definitely add a great amount of depth to the work.
All in all, a great boon to my understanding of South Asian history, and well worth the two months I spent working my way through it.
December 17, 2024
one of the best history books i've ever read. so deserved the wolfson prize. and i say that not having read all the nominees
September 9, 2023
Shadows at Noon" by Joyo Chatterji is a groundbreaking work that transcends traditional narratives of South Asian history by offering a fresh perspective on the region's complex past. Author's approach of weaving together various thematic strands, instead of a strict chronological account, provides a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics that have shaped the subcontinent over the twentieth century.
One of the standout features of the book is its inclusive treatment of diverse aspects of South Asian life. While many historical accounts tend to focus solely on political events, "Shadows at Noon" broadens the scope to incorporate everyday elements like food, leisure, and household dynamics. By doing so, the book paints a vivid and multi-dimensional portrait of the region's history, capturing the nuances of cultural evolution alongside political developments.
Author's decision to structure the book thematically enhances the reader's engagement with the material. This arrangement permits readers to delve deep into specific topics such as nationalism's transformation or shifts in food consumption patterns, fostering a more profound appreciation of the subtleties at play throughout the century. This format encourages readers to think beyond the surface and grasp the interconnections between various aspects of South Asian society.
A particularly commendable aspect of "Shadows at Noon" is its endeavor to debunk the notion of inherent differences between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Author emphasizes commonalities and shared experiences among the people of these nations, challenging the divisive narratives that have often prevailed. This approach not only enriches our understanding of the region's history but also holds the potential to foster a more inclusive perspective among readers.
Author's prose is both eloquent and accessible, making complex historical concepts understandable to a wide audience. His authoritative yet engaging writing style ensures that readers are not overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of the subject matter. This balance between scholarly rigor and readability is a remarkable achievement and adds to the book's overall appeal.
All-in-all, "Shadows at Noon" stands as a remarkable work of historical scholarship that redefines how we perceive South Asian history. Joyo Chatterji's innovative thematic approach, combined with his commitment to spotlighting shared experiences over divisive differences, makes this book an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the region's past and its enduring relevance. It is a bold and enlightening contribution that underscores the interconnectedness of various facets of life and history in South Asia.
One of the standout features of the book is its inclusive treatment of diverse aspects of South Asian life. While many historical accounts tend to focus solely on political events, "Shadows at Noon" broadens the scope to incorporate everyday elements like food, leisure, and household dynamics. By doing so, the book paints a vivid and multi-dimensional portrait of the region's history, capturing the nuances of cultural evolution alongside political developments.
Author's decision to structure the book thematically enhances the reader's engagement with the material. This arrangement permits readers to delve deep into specific topics such as nationalism's transformation or shifts in food consumption patterns, fostering a more profound appreciation of the subtleties at play throughout the century. This format encourages readers to think beyond the surface and grasp the interconnections between various aspects of South Asian society.
A particularly commendable aspect of "Shadows at Noon" is its endeavor to debunk the notion of inherent differences between India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Author emphasizes commonalities and shared experiences among the people of these nations, challenging the divisive narratives that have often prevailed. This approach not only enriches our understanding of the region's history but also holds the potential to foster a more inclusive perspective among readers.
Author's prose is both eloquent and accessible, making complex historical concepts understandable to a wide audience. His authoritative yet engaging writing style ensures that readers are not overwhelmed by the depth and breadth of the subject matter. This balance between scholarly rigor and readability is a remarkable achievement and adds to the book's overall appeal.
All-in-all, "Shadows at Noon" stands as a remarkable work of historical scholarship that redefines how we perceive South Asian history. Joyo Chatterji's innovative thematic approach, combined with his commitment to spotlighting shared experiences over divisive differences, makes this book an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the region's past and its enduring relevance. It is a bold and enlightening contribution that underscores the interconnectedness of various facets of life and history in South Asia.
August 31, 2023
What are nations if not her people!
We have often seen people talk about how the wheel of fortune & power has done its journey and has finally returned to Asia and in specific to India. A week back the news of the moon becoming Indian topped every news headline, there are countless other examples of exemplary performances of India across fields. But how was the journey till here?
The central question which 'Shadows At Noon' by Joya Chatterji poses is, "How did the countries in South Asia majorly India, Pakistan & Bangladesh evolve throughout the 20th century?" and where do they stand today. I'd like to reiterate on the headline of this review because unlike other historical expansions, people are at the heart of this tome.
A lean review of the thick book - 842 pages. 7 chapters. The first 300 pages focus on topics like nationalism (a tool to unite or divide?), Citizenship & the rights of minorities post the partition of British India into India and Pakistan (and then Bangladesh), State functionaries and Migration & displacement throughout the British Empire & post that till recent time. This part of the book I would say is not easy...not easy to digest. Terrible truths!! Second half of the book would thoroughly talk about the biggest institution in any society - the family. How patriarchy & hierarchy rules this institution and also it sheds light on the subject of inheritance across genders in a family. Alot from the same lens is also used to talk about the food consumption across sections in the society.
Readers & movie buffs are in for a treat with discussions of great Indian novels from authors like Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth and the likes... The content of bollywood (yes, obviously. SRK is covered in brief) is talked about in brief in the section where the author at large talks about the evolution of leisure activities of these countries.
Although being academic in genre a large part of the book is conversational in nature making it more comprehensible. Class & caste are the lenses through which Chatterji makes sense of the evolution of the 20th century because afterall, what are human beings if not their blood & identity.
We have often seen people talk about how the wheel of fortune & power has done its journey and has finally returned to Asia and in specific to India. A week back the news of the moon becoming Indian topped every news headline, there are countless other examples of exemplary performances of India across fields. But how was the journey till here?
The central question which 'Shadows At Noon' by Joya Chatterji poses is, "How did the countries in South Asia majorly India, Pakistan & Bangladesh evolve throughout the 20th century?" and where do they stand today. I'd like to reiterate on the headline of this review because unlike other historical expansions, people are at the heart of this tome.
A lean review of the thick book - 842 pages. 7 chapters. The first 300 pages focus on topics like nationalism (a tool to unite or divide?), Citizenship & the rights of minorities post the partition of British India into India and Pakistan (and then Bangladesh), State functionaries and Migration & displacement throughout the British Empire & post that till recent time. This part of the book I would say is not easy...not easy to digest. Terrible truths!! Second half of the book would thoroughly talk about the biggest institution in any society - the family. How patriarchy & hierarchy rules this institution and also it sheds light on the subject of inheritance across genders in a family. Alot from the same lens is also used to talk about the food consumption across sections in the society.
Readers & movie buffs are in for a treat with discussions of great Indian novels from authors like Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth and the likes... The content of bollywood (yes, obviously. SRK is covered in brief) is talked about in brief in the section where the author at large talks about the evolution of leisure activities of these countries.
Although being academic in genre a large part of the book is conversational in nature making it more comprehensible. Class & caste are the lenses through which Chatterji makes sense of the evolution of the 20th century because afterall, what are human beings if not their blood & identity.
July 11, 2024
It’s always a delight to explore South Asian History particularly aspects related to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh that were once a part of a greater whole, unlike today. Primarily to gain insight and occasionally to revel in the nostalgia of the long gone years.
Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century as the name suggests is just what it is and more. A comprehensive account of the region’s history through its diverse culture, rich tradition and heritage. This cohesive account is thematic which details the history of pre and post independence India, Pakistan and Bangladesh mainly the social, political and administrative ideologies and practices that define the governance and people.
From capturing the quality of life, difficulties and challenges faced by the common folk, availability of resources and ideologies that decide the course of powerplay affecting the masses and the nation as a whole along with insights on cinema and art this book tries its best to detail the similarities and differences of the common folk who more often than not display interconnected identities.
Joya Chatterji’s efforts at presenting a nuanced yet easy to grasp historical account is a success for the variety of themes it manages to cover. This book demands patience to revisit and discover all that it aims to offer.
Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century as the name suggests is just what it is and more. A comprehensive account of the region’s history through its diverse culture, rich tradition and heritage. This cohesive account is thematic which details the history of pre and post independence India, Pakistan and Bangladesh mainly the social, political and administrative ideologies and practices that define the governance and people.
From capturing the quality of life, difficulties and challenges faced by the common folk, availability of resources and ideologies that decide the course of powerplay affecting the masses and the nation as a whole along with insights on cinema and art this book tries its best to detail the similarities and differences of the common folk who more often than not display interconnected identities.
Joya Chatterji’s efforts at presenting a nuanced yet easy to grasp historical account is a success for the variety of themes it manages to cover. This book demands patience to revisit and discover all that it aims to offer.
March 2, 2024
This book revealed so much I never knew about the South Asia in the 20th century. I have read much about Gandi, the British Raj and the partition of India and Pakistan. The creation of Bangladesh, the rich multicultural aspects of the subcontinent before and after partition, the vestiges of both Mughal and British rule, caste and class dynamics, family and property ownership structures, the status and suppression of women, the overwhelming impacts of mass migrations, sources of hunger, poverty and labor exploitation plus the political myth making necessary to create 3 new national identities were relatively unknown to me. The wealth of art, literature, and culture throughout South Asian history and its survival and transformation into the present is clearly demonstrated. I did find the extensive section on South Asian cinema a bit tedious for someone not familiar with the genre. While very interesting with thoughtful analysis, I found it too long and too full of names and titles. The politics of all three nations are truly challenging at this point in history. I hope that democratic principles and a tolerance/acceptance of minorities will overcome current religious populism and past political violence. Prosperity for more than a billion people depends on it.
January 19, 2025
Spell-binding, captivating and incredibly well-researched treatise into the commonalities and histories of the states of South Asia. Was in serious need of some editing, but it enhanced my understanding of my own country and cast a new light on my apphrensive misunderstandings of facts.
Some things that were insightful: propagandistic education curriculums, the sanitization of classical dance forms, the history of the anti-hero in Bollywood, how our modern food habits (emphasis: rice) came to be, the complexity of taxation, language as an issue and the dismal treatment of women.
A particular facet of this book which was distilled quite well and analyzed the ineffable but obvious was the segregation of India's elite: between the intellectual Brahmins with social capital and the non-intellectual traders with economic capital. Never have I seen a truth so profound captured so intimately, wholly and accurately in concise written form. The acknowledgement that these boundaries blur was much-appreciated, as a testament to my own existence as a Bania with familial roots in trade who is now moving into a scholarly realm.
Some things that were insightful: propagandistic education curriculums, the sanitization of classical dance forms, the history of the anti-hero in Bollywood, how our modern food habits (emphasis: rice) came to be, the complexity of taxation, language as an issue and the dismal treatment of women.
A particular facet of this book which was distilled quite well and analyzed the ineffable but obvious was the segregation of India's elite: between the intellectual Brahmins with social capital and the non-intellectual traders with economic capital. Never have I seen a truth so profound captured so intimately, wholly and accurately in concise written form. The acknowledgement that these boundaries blur was much-appreciated, as a testament to my own existence as a Bania with familial roots in trade who is now moving into a scholarly realm.
September 5, 2023
𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝘼𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙤𝙤𝙣 by 𝙅𝙤𝙮𝙖 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙟𝙞
🌍 Shadows at Noon tells the subcontinent's story from the British Raj through independence and partition to the forging of the modern nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
🌍 Unlike other histories of the region which concentrate exclusively on politics, here, food, leisure and the household are given as much importance as nationhood, migration and the state.
📌 The book has embarks on various crucial event that have influenced the things and demographics as the way they are in the present.
📌 It does not only limits itself to the historical society but also discusses various other aspects, such as Art & Culture, Fashion, Revolutionaries, Colonization of British, and much more.
📌 The book comprises of 800+ pages, though excluding glossaries and index, the total goes upto 680 pages. But the book is designed in a very comprehensive and understanding way.
📌 The book might be a perfect read for the individuals who wish to learn more about the contemporary history of South Asia and its significance.
🌍 Shadows at Noon tells the subcontinent's story from the British Raj through independence and partition to the forging of the modern nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
🌍 Unlike other histories of the region which concentrate exclusively on politics, here, food, leisure and the household are given as much importance as nationhood, migration and the state.
📌 The book has embarks on various crucial event that have influenced the things and demographics as the way they are in the present.
📌 It does not only limits itself to the historical society but also discusses various other aspects, such as Art & Culture, Fashion, Revolutionaries, Colonization of British, and much more.
📌 The book comprises of 800+ pages, though excluding glossaries and index, the total goes upto 680 pages. But the book is designed in a very comprehensive and understanding way.
📌 The book might be a perfect read for the individuals who wish to learn more about the contemporary history of South Asia and its significance.
September 27, 2023
This book weaves between political, social, and cultural themes and synthesizes a lot of literature. It's long but reads quickly, as she intersperses her own memoirs/experiences into the analysis. Her analysis of how/why state/military relations differed between India/Pakistan/Bangladesh, grounded in the specific aftermaths of partition, was super clarifying and helpful to me, as was the section on migrant culture/film in the 70s/80s. (And appreciated how seriously she takes "low" culture like films deemed trashy by the elite, wrestling, etc.).
June 28, 2024
Worth a read. Tells you a lot of early history of India, Pak and Bangladesh which- despite growing up in India - I was not aware of. The premise is that despite the divisions, the countries are more intertwined than is commonly understood. The chapters on film, food and leisure are interesting although I think the one on film is a little too sugary. Interesting chapter on marriage and family too, with insights from her own marriage to someone her father did not approve of.
April 12, 2024
I have to give credit to an extremely ambitious undertaking. Powerful and challenging in parts, seemingly incomplete at times.
It’s a great look behind the curtain for the 3 nations, particularly at the idea of nation and identity building. But ultimately, there are just too many variables to capture the south Asian experience (even with all the caveats present)
It’s a great look behind the curtain for the 3 nations, particularly at the idea of nation and identity building. But ultimately, there are just too many variables to capture the south Asian experience (even with all the caveats present)
April 16, 2024
One of the better books I've read in awhile. As she notes in the introduction, the book has an unusual structure starting first as a history and then continuing for roughly the second half as a combination ethnography and autobiography. Appeared to be well researched and her bibliographical notes also made for interesting reading and follow-up.
July 27, 2024
Chatterji is trying to write a one-volume history of modern South Asia (well, mostly India with Pakistan and Bangladesh mixed in), and I think she mostly succeeds in making something more readable and useful for a newbie than Ram Guha's India After Gandhi, John Keay's history, or more academic stuff that focuses too much on a play-by-play rather than big themes. The book is a tour de force: 650+ pages not only on politics and history, but also on films/books, migration, diaspora dynamics, and food. The expanded focus beyond political history is unique, and the chapter on food as a lense for discussing caste and religion was particularly interesting. Still, as someone not totally new to the region - not personally nor academically - I had my quibbles with the book, even if this still would be my recommendation for the best intro to modern (north) India because of its breadth. For one, the part-memoir, part-academic history structure created obvious gaps. Chatterji is a Oxbridge-educated (and educator) Bengali-Anglo-Indian from an upper-class family. So we get a lot of well researched and deeply-personal passages on Anglo-Indians, Bengali filmmakers, intellectuals in the diaspora, and the upstairs-downstairs dynamics in an Indian household...as well as a pretty standard left-liberal analysis of Indian politics. In contrast, this history of "20th Century South Asia" features almost nothing on Sri Lanka, Burma, or Pashtuns; only a cursory discussion of Dravidian politics - and that too, through the lens of the erstwhile Telegu-Tamil conflict; and almost nothing on foreign policy and defense. Chatterji's plea to see the 20th century as more than just the "American Century" is well-taken, but the lack of discussion situating South Asia within global forces (the great chapter on migration notwithstanding) was disappointing. It would be unfair to expect Chatterji to comprehensively cover a century of events in the world's most populous subcontinent in less than 700 pages, but I did feel disappointed. Still, this would be my first choice to assign to a South Asia newbie. It's very readable and feels more relevant than the standard academic and political histories you're likely to get elsewhere.
August 1, 2025
Absolutely fascinating, covering a breath of different aspects from feminism to film, history, anthropology, food and fashion. I’m sure this will be an essential reading list staple for students of the region. The author puts a lot of herself into the book, which brings it alive and makes things relatable. The personal is the political.
January 1, 2025
Full of insight on south Asia, personal mixed with the big picture conveyed with an entertaining tone. An eye opener on the past and contemporary affairs for a reader whose knowledge was informed by empire and colonialism.
December 11, 2023
Great insight into the lives of everyday people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Chapter on caste / woman’s roles in society were particularly interesting.
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April 17, 2024800 sidor ganska tung facklitteratur. Inte lika lättillgänglig som jag hoppades men intressant. Känner att jag har någon typ av övergripande bild nu
February 1, 2025
This was such a good and interesting book. It’s nothing like the history books I read before. It provided me with such a rich insight in the 20th century beyond politics
March 11, 2025
A wide ranging social history of India and Pakistan (with some coverage of Bangladesh) in the 20th century, and particularly post-partition.
March 11, 2025
A rich plum pudding of a book that would benefit from a good editor.
April 7, 2025
The book started with a bang, but languished in the later part, Bollywood, seriously? You can skip everything in the parentheses, waste of time reading them. Nothing about the 80s and 90s.
May 18, 2025
Incredible research and information, but badly needed an editor. Unfortunately do not recommend.
September 2, 2025
Very impressive from a technical standpoint. I often felt a little lost, but I don't have a ton of background for reference points to picture all of the different cities and regions and politicians. A little more prior familiarity with the topic would have made it a more engaging read
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February 21, 2024a strong (mostly) social history that makes a good companion to the many modern south asian histories on the subcontinent's great men and political history. even though chatterji says shadows at noon is meant to be a history from below, i still found the political history-heavy first three chapters to be compelling and the strongest in proving her thesis that the subcontinent's countries are more similar than not. as to be expected from a partition scholar, the sections on the three countries' parallel refugee policies between were particularly edifying.
while i enjoyed the sections on political history, none of this is to take away from chapters on social history, which make up the bulk of the book. every chapter was an enjoyable read, with the bollywood one (or in chatterji's phrasing, 'bombay cinema') answering many of my longtime questions. my one compliant is that these five chapters on south asian life disproportionately focus on post-independence north indian hindu (particularly bengali) life to determinant of everyone else. i get the impression this is because it's where her sources led her (it's hard to imagine there were many anthropological studies happening in the colonial period or under pakistani juntas), but i would've appreciated chatterji's takes on on muslim family structure, the evolution of culture in pakistan/bangladesh, and so on.
even with those limitations, this was a great read to start off my 2024 and i recommend it to anyone with an interest in south asian history, whether you've read too much about it or are just looking for an intro.
while i enjoyed the sections on political history, none of this is to take away from chapters on social history, which make up the bulk of the book. every chapter was an enjoyable read, with the bollywood one (or in chatterji's phrasing, 'bombay cinema') answering many of my longtime questions. my one compliant is that these five chapters on south asian life disproportionately focus on post-independence north indian hindu (particularly bengali) life to determinant of everyone else. i get the impression this is because it's where her sources led her (it's hard to imagine there were many anthropological studies happening in the colonial period or under pakistani juntas), but i would've appreciated chatterji's takes on on muslim family structure, the evolution of culture in pakistan/bangladesh, and so on.
even with those limitations, this was a great read to start off my 2024 and i recommend it to anyone with an interest in south asian history, whether you've read too much about it or are just looking for an intro.
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