A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait - were bound together under a single imperial banner, an entity known officially as the -Indian Empire-, or more simply as the Raj.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 encompassing the largest Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities on the planet. Its people used the Indian rupee, were issued passports stamped -Indian Empire-, and were guarded by armies garrisoned forts from the Bab el-Mandab to the HimalayasAnd 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, for the fi
