Midnight's Furies

The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition

By: Nisid Hajari

Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra

Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Nobody expected the liberation of India and birth of Pakistan to be so bloody - it was supposed to be an answer to the dreams of Muslims and Hindus who had been ruled by the British for centuries. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi's protégé and the political leader of India, believed that Indians were an inherently nonviolent, peaceful people. Pakistan's founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a secular lawyer, not a firebrand. But in August 1946, exactly a year before Independence, Calcutta erupted in street-gang fighting. A cycle of riots - targeting Hindus, then Muslims, then Sikhs - spiraled out of control. As the summer of 1947 approached, all three groups were heavily armed and on edge, and the British rushed to leave. Hell let loose. Trains carried Muslims west and Hindus east to their slaughter. Some of the most brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing in modern history erupted on both sides of the new border, searing a divide between India and Pakistan that remains a root cause of many evils. From jihadi terrorism to nuclear proliferation, the searing tale told in Midnight's Furies explains all too many of the headlines we read today.

©2015 Nisid Hajari (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A carefully restrained and delineated account makes for chilling reading." ( Kirkus)

Making up for poor American education

I am traveling to India in a week. I listened to this book to get a sense of recent history, which was not taught in school in the US. Though not a perfect account of partition, it gave a great introduction to the topic.

Five Stars all around

What did you love best about Midnight's Furies?

The book covers the creation of India and Pakistan from the British Raj in 1947-48. Brief Prelude and Epilogue reference contemporary politics in the region. It is, so far as I can tell, slanted neither to the Hindu, Moslem, nor Sikh perspective. The author Nisid Hajari gives an understanding of the politics and personalities - Nehru, Jinnah, Gandhi, Mountbatten and other Brits - of the time, but does not shirk from necessary description of the violence between factions during the Partition.The book complements other books available from Audible on the history of the Middle World for those looking for background to understand contemporary events there.

Any additional comments?

Narration by Sunhil Malhotra is outstanding - well paced, clearly spoken, with narrow but appropriate range of volume and pitch. A pleasure to listen to.

Accuracy and sources seem exhaustive?

Liked the book, good history lesson. just wonder how accurate some stuff is when comparing it to what we heard from our parents who lived that time period and were in college in Lahore. Have even more questions that I will be asking my Uncles as my Dad just passed away.

Heavily biased, but insight into Pakistani biases

What made the experience of listening to Midnight's Furies the most enjoyable?

Overall this book is interesting to learn about Pakistani delusions and biases, but it is clear from the beginning to anyone with a knowledge of South Asian history that the author is heavily biased towards Pakistan. The familiar narrative of Pakistan being the victim of all of its problems coming from machinations of outside powers, not its own deceit and shortcomings readily present.

The book does make an attempt to seem unbiased, but presents information favoring only one side. One would expect better from a prominent author who is also a Bloomberg editor, but because of all of this it does give good insight into the deluded teaching and thinking of Pakistan.

captivating

excellent book. the narration was pretty good the only criticism I have is for the butchering of Indian names by the narrator.

very informative. I learned a lot

great book, well read. I learned a lot more than I anticipated. got me interested to know more

This is why India and Pakistan conflict never ends

Nisid Hajari has done his research and provided a good amount of details on India and Pakistan partition. I remember my grandfather telling me some of these accounts and how it was very tense moment in history of India's independence. I was able to relate to many of those incidents that my grampa was telling me that Nisid has put together in this book. I certainly recommend this book if you are a History buff or just interested in India and Pakistan independence time. You will know why certain conflicts never end.
Sunil Malhotra has done an okay job. His pronunciations of certain India and Pakistan city names and people names are bad. Other than that, he keeps it interesting.

Great history on a total disaster...

Really enjoyed hearing this big part of indian history. And the mistake made. Good narration by Malhotra.

Amazingly detailed account of this tragedy i gigan

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This book is badly needed successor to Freedom at Midnight. Very well researched and detailed account of the atrocities committed by both sides: Sikhs and Hindus on one side and the Moslems on the other side. The detailed account of the most tragic figure in this Drama: Mohammed Ali Zinnah, and the ultimate irony. He wanted to build a secular Pakistan. The characters, personalities and the relationship between Pandit Nehru ad Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel is very revealing.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Midnight's Furies?

The tragedy that played out over the lives of literally 10s of millions of people, was crafted by a British bureaucrat only over a month's time, with practical no knowledge of India. The calousness of the British government how they left India is beyond imagination.

Which character – as performed by Sunil Malhotra – was your favorite?

Nehru & Patel

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I practically did.

Any additional comments?

Thank you Nisid

Good book, great performance

The writing style is very incident-based, and therefore can be a bit dense. I was really impressed that the reader was able to take this material and make it much easier to listen to then I would have imagined. Other than a general wish for more analysis in the writing, I felt that this book satisfied my reason for choosing it: to learn more about the history of the Pakistan/India conflict.