Shadows At Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century

** WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2024 ** ** LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024 ** This is the authoritative history of South Asia in the 20th century. 'A classic ... wonderfully enjoyable' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE 'Chatterji writes with infectious relish' DOMINIC SANDBROOK 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. Chatterji makes contemporary South Asia - its cultural vibrancy, diversity, social structures and political make-up - accesible to everyone. In so doing this bold, innovative, and personal work rallies against narratives of 'inherent' differences between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and reveals the many things its people have in common. 'The story of South Asia told with verve, wit and brilliance' ANURADHA ROY, author of All the Lives We Never Lived 'Truly magnificent' MIHIR BOSE, journalist and author of The Nine Waves 'Wonderful' SIR MARK TULLY, former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi ** WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR HISTORY ** ** SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2024 **

About the Author :
Joya Chatterji is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Emeritus Professor of South Asian History at the University of Cambridge and sometime Reader in International History at the London School of Economics. From 2010 to 2021, she was first Editor then Editor-in-Chief of Modern Asian Studies, a leading scholarly journal in the field. Between 2014 and her retirement in 2019, she was Director of the Centre of South Asian Studies at Cambridge. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2018.

Review :
With clarity, wit and charm, Joya Chatterji tells the story of the subcontinent's recent history in a fluent sweeping arc ... Wide-angled and hugely ambitious, but also highly personal and pleasingly discursive, [it] is a book she has clearly enjoyed writing and, as a result, it is wonderfully enjoyable to read ... A wonderfully original, genre-defying work that is sure to be a classic Chatterji writes with infectious relish ... It's refreshing to read a history of modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh that rises above the usual national and chronological divisions, and that ends on a surprisingly upbeat note Supremely readable ... Chatterji's scholarship and enthusiasm shine through. This account of South Asia surprises, moves and illuminates Definitive new 20th-century thematic history of the Indian subcontinent A provocative, pioneering work of political and social history… [an] invigorating book…nuanced and complex Original and revealing ... this is a book which both scholars and the wider public can dip into, enjoy and learn from A cheerful history of the subcontinent, by turns erudite, eclectic, analytical, gossipy and prolix A truly magnificent book about the history, politics and culture of 20th century South Asia ... A must read The story of South Asia told with verve, wit, and brilliance. This is a book that invents a genre: navigating effortlessly between the archives, conversations, memoir, newspapers, swooping out to make magisterial observations and zooming in to unearth nuggets of gossip. It is like riding a rollercoaster with a mesmerizing guide who can touch down on any part of South Asia that she chooses, before taking off again A wonderful book concentrating for once on what the peoples of different South Asian countries have in common. That's something South Asians and all the rest of us should now concentrate on