‘With verve and wit, Amit Majmudar weaves the story of Mohan and Jin as they come together and
grow apart, Mahatma and Qaid, Great Soul and Great Leader jousting for freedom, and rupturing,
irrevocably, a land and its people.’
—Manreet Sodhi Someshwar, author of The Radiance of a Thousand Suns and The Partition Trilogy
***
‘You cannot force two nations to live together any more than you can force two people,’ he says quietly.
Fatima smiles, feeling a slight thrill of victory. ‘Divorce.’
‘Pakistan.’
Two intense, inflexible personalities duel over a question that will decide the fate of millions: one
nation—or two?
Jinnah, the consummate, ruthlessly analytical gentleman in a tailored suit, starts out sceptical of those
who come to his door proposing a ‘Land of the Pure’, but ends up founding exactly such a country.
Gandhi, the religious visionary in homespun khadi, experiments with Truth in his quest for one India—
only to witness, in anguish, the bloody birth of two nations.
The Map and the Scissors is a novel about the epic origin story of modern South Asia, brought to life by
two London-educated lawyers, mirror-image rivals who dreamt the same dream of freedom—in
catastrophically incompatible ways.
***
Author Amit Majmudar says: ‘I was inspired to write The Map and the Scissors after I came across a rare
interview Lord Mountbatten gave in his last years, where he mentioned that though Jinnah was the
primary reason for Partition, his role in the process is scarcely mentioned. My research revealed Jinnah
to be the perfect foil for the far more familiar Gandhi. History had written itself with dramatic
contrast—-all I had to do was give it dramatic form. I’m delighted to work with HarperCollins India on
this novel that braids them together. In an era of rising communal tensions, understanding this fraught
history is crucial to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.’
Prema Govindan, Senior Commissioning Editor, Literary, HarperCollins India, says: ‘While we’ve
seen a lot of literature about the political machinations that got India her independence and
partitioned her in the process, the clash of personalities between Gandhi and Jinnah—the architects of
the event(s)—hasn’t got the kind of attention it deserves. Amit Majmudar’s novel does a brilliant job
throwing into sharp relief the hearts and minds of the two men who had astonishingly similar
backgrounds, but who couldn’t be more dissimilar in the way they saw the world—and changed it.’
***
About the Author:
Amit Majmudar is the author of five critically acclaimed novels, four collections of award-winning
poetry, a translation of the Bhagavad Gita with commentary, as well as a forthcoming memoir and a
three-volume retelling of the Mahabharata. The former first Poet Laureate of Ohio as well as a
diagnostic and nuclear radiologist, he lives in Westerville, Ohio, with his wife and three children.
About HarperCollins Publishers India:
HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the
world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more
than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including
the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti
Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live! Award, Gaja
Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and
Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world
including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and
Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India is now the recipient of five Publisher of the Year Awards – in 2021
and 2015 at the Publishing Next Industry Awards, and in 2021, 2018 and 2016 at Tata Literature Live.
HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers.
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