Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World
Imperial Intelligence and Revolutionary Nationalism, 1905-1939
Authors: Silvestri, Michael
Free Preview- Advances research on the imperial origins of British intelligence in the interwar period
- Shows how intelligence practices were diffused throughout the British Empire, highlighting the imperial contribution of British intelligence before the Second World War
- Explores how the British Empire came to define anti-colonial resistance as ‘terrorism’, offering new insights into the historical roots of terrorist movements and uses of intelligence
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- About this book
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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.
- About the authors
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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).
- Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Introduction: Imperial Intelligence and a Forgotten Insurgency
Pages 1-21
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The “Bomb Cult” and “Criminal Tribes”: Revolutionaries and the Origins of Police Intelligence in Colonial Bengal
Pages 25-73
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Surveillance, Analysis, and Violence: The Operations of the Bengal Police Intelligence Branch
Pages 75-125
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Intelligence Failures, Militarization, and Rehabilitation: The Anti-Terrorist Campaign After the Chittagong Armoury Raid
Pages 127-183
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Transnational Revolutionaries and Imperial Surveillance: Bengal Revolutionary Networks Outside India
Pages 187-231
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Policing ‘Bengali Terrorism’ in India and the World
- Book Subtitle
- Imperial Intelligence and Revolutionary Nationalism, 1905-1939
- Authors
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- Michael Silvestri
- Series Title
- Britain and the World
- Copyright
- 2019
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-030-18042-3
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-18042-3
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-18041-6
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-18044-7
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XIII, 362
- Number of Illustrations
- 2 b/w illustrations
- Topics