Shadows At Noon

byJoya Chatterji

The South Asian Twentieth Century

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This book tells the story of South's Asia's twentieth century in eight chapters. Unlike standard narrative histories of the subcontinent that concentrate exclusively on politics, here nature, objects, technologies, cultures, and people's changing relationships to them and to each other, are central preoccupations.

The structure of the book is unorthodox. Unusually for a work of this kind, it is thematic rather than chronological. Chapters address specific questions that might arise in the minds of a 'lay', but thoughtful, reader; but each chapter is chronological within itself, analysing change over a century in one particular sphere. This format allows the reader to explore particular issues - say, the changing character of nationalism, migration or consumption - over time and in depth.

Shadows at Noon is a bold and innovative work that pushes back against standard narratives of 'inherent' differences between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The purpose of the book is to make contemporary South Asia intelligible, while sharing with the reader its infinite colour and excitement. The book does not 'talk down' to the reader or attempt, in facile ways, to simplify the history of a vast, and almost mythically intricate, society.

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

William Dalrymple, Observer

About Joya Chatterji

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.
Details
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • ISBN: 9781529925555
  • Length: 864 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 38mm x 130mm
  • Weight: 616g
  • Price: £14.99
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