Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World: Imperial Intelligence and Revolutionary Nationalism, 1905-1939 (Britain and the World)

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. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Imperial Intelligence and a Forgotten Insurgency (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 1-21 Front Matter ....Pages 23-23 The “Bomb Cult” and “Criminal Tribes”: Revolutionaries and the Origins of Police Intelligence in Colonial Bengal (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 25-73 Surveillance, Analysis, and Violence: The Operations of the Bengal Police Intelligence Branch (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 75-125 Intelligence Failures, Militarization, and Rehabilitation: The Anti-Terrorist Campaign After the Chittagong Armoury Raid (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 127-183 Front Matter ....Pages 185-185 Transnational Revolutionaries and Imperial Surveillance: Bengal Revolutionary Networks Outside India (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 187-231 Spies, Sailors, and Revolutionaries: Bengal Revolutionaries, Indian Political Intelligence, and International Arms Smuggling (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 233-278 Intelligence Expertise and Imperial Threats: Bengal Intelligence Officers in North America, Europe, and Asia (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 279-325 Epilogue: Bengal Intelligence Officers and the Second World War (Michael Silvestri)....Pages 327-339 Back Matter ....Pages 341-362