Spying in South Asia
Britain, the United States, and India's Secret Cold War

The first examination of secret interventions made by the intelligence services of Britain and the United States in post-colonial India.

Paul M. McGarr (Author)

9781108843676, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 September 2024

358 pages
23.5 x 16.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.67 kg

'A highly recommended read.' Dan Lomas, International Affairs

In this first comprehensive history of India's secret Cold War, Paul McGarr tells the story of Indian politicians, human rights activists, and journalists as they fought against or collaborated with members of the British and US intelligence services. The interventions of these agents have had a significant and enduring impact on the political and social fabric of South Asia. The spectre of a 'foreign hand', or external intelligence activity, real and imagined, has occupied a prominent place in India's political discourse, journalism, and cultural production. Spying in South Asia probes the nexus between intelligence and statecraft in South Asia and the relationships between agencies and governments forged to promote democracy. McGarr asks why, in contrast to Western assumptions about surveillance, South Asians associate intelligence with covert action, grand conspiracy, and justifications for repression? In doing so, he uncovers a fifty-year battle for hearts and minds in the Indian subcontinent.

Introduction
1. Transfer of power: British intelligence and the end of empire in South Asia
2. Silent partners: Britain, India, and early Cold War intelligence liaison
3. India's Rasputin: V. K. Krishan Menon and the spectre of Indian communism
4. Quiet Americans: the CIA and the onset of the Cold War in South Asia
5. Confronting China: the Sino-Indian War and collaborative covert action
6. Peddling propaganda: The Information Research Department and India
7. From Russia with love: dissidents and defectors in Cold War India
8. The foreign hand: Indira Gandhi and the politics of intelligence
9. Battle of the books: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Seymour Hersh, and India's CIA 'agents'
10. Indian intelligence and the end of the Cold War
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]