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This book examines the development of imperial intelligence and policing directed against revolutionaries in the Indian province of Bengal from the first decade of the twentieth century through the beginning of the Second World War. Colonial anxieties about the 'Bengali terrorist' led to the growth of an extensive intelligence apparatus within Bengal. This intelligence expertise was in turn applied globally both to the policing of Bengali revolutionaries outside India and to other anticolonial movements which threatened the empire. The analytic framework of this study thus encompasses local events in one province of British India and the global experiences of both revolutionaries and intelligence agents. The focus is not only on the British intelligence officers who orchestrated the campaign against the revolutionaries, but also on their interactions with the Indian officers and informants who played a vital role in colonial intelligence work, as well as the perspectives of revolutionaries and their allies, ranging from elite anticolonial activists to subaltern maritime workers.
List of contents
1 Introduction: Imperial Intelligence and a Forgotten Insurgency?.- PART ONE Policing Revolutionary Terrorism in Bengal.- 2 The ''Bomb Cult'' and ''Criminal Tribes'': Revolutionaries and the Origins of Police Intelligence in Colonial Bengal.- 3 Surveillance, Analysis and Violence: The Operations of the Bengal Police Intelligence Branch.- 4 Intelligence Failures, Militarization and Rehabilitation: The Anti-Terrorist Campaign after the Chittagong Armoury Raid.- PART TWO The Wider World.- 5 Transnational Revolutionaries and Imperial Surveillance: Bengal Revolutionary Networks Outside India.- 6 Spies, Sailors and Revolutionaries: Bengal Revolutionaries, Indian Political Intelligence and International Arms Smuggling.- 7 Intelligence Expertise and Imperial Threats: Bengal Intelligence Officers in North America, Europe and Asia.- 8 Epilogue: Bengal Intelligence Officers and the Second World War.-
About the author
Michael Silvestri is Associate Professor of History at Clemson University, USA. He is the author of Ireland and India: Nationalism, Empire and Memory (2009), and co-author of Britain since 1688: A Nation in the World (2014).
Summary
This book examines the development of imperial intelligence and policing directed against revolutionaries in the Indian province of Bengal from the first decade of the twentieth century through the beginning of the Second World War. Colonial anxieties about the 'Bengali terrorist' led to the growth of an extensive intelligence apparatus within Bengal. This intelligence expertise was in turn applied globally both to the policing of Bengali revolutionaries outside India and to other anticolonial movements which threatened the empire. The analytic framework of this study thus encompasses local events in one province of British India and the global experiences of both revolutionaries and intelligence agents. The focus is not only on the British intelligence officers who orchestrated the campaign against the revolutionaries, but also on their interactions with the Indian officers and informants who played a vital role in colonial intelligence work, as well as the perspectives of revolutionaries and their allies, ranging from elite anticolonial activists to subaltern maritime workers.
