Most world literature defines the indian subcontinent as consisting of india, pakistan, bangladesh, nepal, and sri lanka the region has seen some phenomenal economic growth and, at the same time, has been plagued by crippling problems, like poverty and population explosion midnight's descendants is the tale of this region, written by john keay, treating it as one country, instead of five differentindia was official partitioned into india and pakistan, at the stroke of midnight on 15th august 1947 the process gave birth to two countries viz, india and pakistan the other regions of the subcontinent gained their independence within the next decade or so the author treats this entire region as a single entity, and evaluates the history and present of each of these regions he contrasts the diasporic identity of the various people of this region, and their identity in the world the conflicts that have afflicted this region form the pivotal portion of this book the author also puts in contrast, the economic conditions of the people of this regionthe author talks about some interesting facts about this region, throughout this captivating book he argues correctly that had this region remained as a single entity, its population would have been comfortably the largest in the world at 15 billion, the midnight's descendants, ie those people affected by the partition, already outnumber the population of europe and china and by 2020, this subcontinent will be home to a quarter of the world's populationenlightening and fascinating in equal measure, midnight's descendants takes a holistic view of the region, and presents its story in an unbiased manner the book was published by fourth estate in 2014, and is available in paperback.
