Book contents
- Spying in South Asia
- Spying in South Asia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Place Names
- Abbreviations
- 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. Krishna 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
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Silent Partners: Britain, India, and Early Cold War Intelligence Liaison
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
- Spying in South Asia
- Spying in South Asia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on Place Names
- Abbreviations
- 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. Krishna 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
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter constructs a picture of the struggle waged by Indian leaders to negotiate the seemingly contradictory demands of national security and upholding popular conceptions of state sovereignty. Attention is given to the strategies adopted by New Delhi to co-opt the assistance of MI5 in containing Cold War threats, in the guise of indigenous communist movements and external pressures from China and the Soviet Union. Britain’s intelligence agencies made an effort to transition from a role centred on subduing nationalism to that of a trusted and valued supporter of the ruling Congress Party. Establishing strong security and intelligence links with India, British governments rationalised, would help to preserve their considerable national interests in South Asia; keep India ostensibly aligned with the West; act as a barrier to communist penetration of the subcontinent; and demonstrate to the United States that Britain remained a useful post-war partner. However, ideological tensions and differences produced uncoordinated bureaucratic responses that allowed the forces of internal and external communism to claim political and geographic space in the region.
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- Spying in South AsiaBritain, the United States, and India's Secret Cold War, pp. 32 - 51Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024