‘Shadows at Noon:

The Bodley Head

Shadows at Noon is an ambitious synthesis of decades of research and scholarship which explores the key strands of South Asian history in the 20th century with clarity and authority. Unlike other narrative 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.

While it tells the subcontinent’s story from the British Raj to independence and partition and on to the forging of the modern nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the book’s structure is thematic rather than chronological. Each of the chapters illuminates one overarching theme or sphere that has shaped South Asia over the course of the century. This format allows the reader to explore particular issues – such as the changing character of nationalism or food consumption – over time and in depth.

A bold, innovative and personal work that pushes back against standard narratives of ‘inherent’ differences between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Its purpose is to make contemporary South Asia intelligible to readers who are fascinated by the subcontinent’s cultural vibrancy and diversity but are often perplexed by its social and political make-up.

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.

Read an extract from Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century.

Read an interview with Joya Chatterji.