The Indian Spy,Mihir Bose, Aleph Book Company;Rs.599,Pages 350

This is a remarkable tale of a remarkable man who went by several names, was trained in espionage by the brother of the celebrated writer Ian Fleming and who undertook, among other things, the safekeeping and travels of Subhas Chandra Bose as a fugitive.

The life of Bhagat Ram Talwar, alias Silver was formed and sculpted by extraordinary macro-political events that the second Great War and the new balance of power accompanying the rise of the Axis powers and of the Soviet Union came to embody. The Indian Spy: The True Story of the Most Remarkable Secret Agent of World War II is as much the wondrous tale of an unlikely master spy as it is of the turbulent events of the 1940s associated with wartime diplomacy, socialist and nationalist aspirations that made possible a convoluted network of espionage, gun running and information gathering.

It is to the authors credit that he has mined a rich volume of archival material to tell a compelling story that isnt simply gripping, but presents aspects of the history of the war that have remained obscure. Its only drawback is that it is overwritten and dense, a quality that occasionally makes it impossible for the reader to quite tether Silver the spy in his/her impressions.

It would be unfair to give away the results of Silvers espionage — how he double and triple crossed everyone who came his way, or how he was able to extract substantial sums of money from the Germans whose espionage seems to have been strangely incompetent and inefficient. What this review will do therefore is to highlight the extraordinary milieu that unfolded in the period when a phenomenon like Silver became possible, to reflect on the various points that connected Afghanistan with India and how wartime diplomacy of the European powers intersected with the aspirations of Indian socialist revolutionary groups, thus setting the stage for figures like Silver to offer a range of services.

The exploits of Bhagat Ram Talwar, spy extraordinaire, are set in the backdrop of the 1940s, when European powers Italy, Germany, England and Russia competed to extract strategic information and relied on a network of spies and transport contractors in Afghanistan. Silver (aka Talwar) and Rahmat Khan arrived on the scene escorting Bose, the fugitive revolutionary whom he accompanied on a perilous march across Afghanistan wanting to make his way to Berlin.

This book charts the early life of Talwar, his family background, the story of his siblings and his extraordinary skills and confidence that enabled him to excel in what was an unconventional career choice. What stands out in the early sections of the book is the story of Hindu Pathan landlords, the influence and appeal of organisations such as the Kirti party, the adroitness of Talwar in working as small-time informer and then as a confident spy, and his first major operation of escorting Bose after the latters clandestine exit from Calcutta.

Thereafter, he became a quadruple agent in the Kabul intelligence game, his actions resisting any easy analysis for the future historian. Equally ingenious were Silvers lies that became evident after the great game was over and he constructed a carefully worded book that sought to reclaim his prestige and to keep intact the waning prestige of the Communist party and its paltry contribution to the independence effort.

The epilogue to the book documents the afterlife not so much of Silvers as of his narratives, and makes for good reading and serves as a useful basis for thinking about memory, veracity and history.

Trawling through the secret documents of the British government, the author has produced an important biography of an engaging spy and in the process, unearthed a complex history of the Great War and its fallout on national and transnational networks of espionage and circulation. It was in the cracks of these transnational networks that men like Bhagat Ram Talwar found their occupation, and it was their unusual felicity with language and social communications that made them masters of their craft.

The book is an excellent illustration of what historians call connected or integrated histories built around the theme of espionage and networks of sophisticated intelligence organisations. It offers an entirely unexpected set of insights on the Great War and its local ramifications in a surprising location such as Afghanistan that drew in European powers which despite their arrogance and authority, were often outmanoeuvred by local men such as Talwar.

Lakshmi subramanian
(The Book Review, December 2017)

Resurgent religiosity

The Twilight of Atheism: The rise and fall of Atheism in the Modern World,Alister McGrath, Rider;Rs.1,594,Pages 306

This thought provoking book by a noted British scholar explores the roots of the rise of atheism in the world and its visible decline today. McGrath refers to atheism as the greatest empire of the modern mind (which he unintentionally equates with the Western mind). He shows how, attracted by the appeal of atheism, huge numbers of people in the West rejected belief in all transcendental realities, and began to consider religious certainty as ridiculous, reactionary, oppressive, manipulative and enslaving. For them the abstract concept of God was an impediment to human intellectual and spiritual liberation.

Drawing on a vast array of Western sources, the author traces the growing disenchantment in Europe with institutionalised Christianity, which had been the dominant religion for centuries. With the passage of time, the power, wealth and omniscience of the Church began to be seen as a scandal. The Church acquired the reputation of an agent of exploitation and oppression, with its dogma holding back social, intellectual and political progress. Rising rational and historical criticism of the Bible led many Europeans to challenge centuries-old submission to religious beliefs that were found wanting on rational and humanitarian grounds.

The European ‘Enlightenment with its notions of ‘progress, exacerbated opposition to the Church, which over time grew into opposition to all forms of religion, and to the very notion of the Transcendent. The French Revolution (1789) gave a boost to this process, prompting many of its votaries to imagine the dawn of a new world freed of religious restraint, based on reason, and supposedly committed to the liberation of humanity from tyranny and religious superstition.

They believed that if God was ‘eliminated, a bright new future would dawn for humanity. Many in Europe warmed to this idea, writes McGrath. He narrates that people became tired of institutionalised religion and the Churchs support for oppressive monarchies, and a corrupt, fraudulent and dishonest priesthood.

Gradually, writes McGrath, atheism became a dominant worldview in large parts of the West. He does a masterly job of explaining how this happened. Soon, it was being claimed that there was no reason at all to involve God to explain ordering of the universe. A host of materialist ideologies began to emerge, united in their claim that God was a myth, that religion was imaginary, and that the liberation of humanity lay in ‘science. Votaries of hedonism, who regarded the purpose of life to simply be ‘enjoyment, virulently rejected God and religion, regarding them as barriers to fulfilling what they believed was lifes purpose.
Their claim that genuine liberation was only possible by ending belief in God won many takers, including vast numbers of people who didnt want to be restrained by moral rules, seeking unfettered freedom rather than submitting to Divine authority. Ideologies such as ‘scientism and humanism, and the idea that reason, not faith in unprovable religious beliefs, should guide human action, further undermined religion in the West. McGrath outlines the role of influential Western thinkers, such as Marx and Freud, who sought to explain away religion and belief in God.

Nevertheless, McGrath admits that contrary to expectation, ‘modernisation didnt lead to the evaporation of religion and humanitys need to believe in the transcendent. The appeal of cold, rational and soulless modernity gradually began to wane after it had reached its zenith. He admits to a noticeable religious revival, which he takes as an indication of the ‘twilight of atheism, and something that he, as a theist who was once an atheist, welcomes.

This book is a well-argued history but considering the Western experience as representing that of the entire world isnt quite right, and this is a major limitation of the book. Another point is that the growing religiosity that McGrath welcomes as the imminent triumph over atheism need not necessarily mean the rise of genuine spirituality.

Further, missing in the books perhaps too-brief appraisal of the religious situation of the contemporary world is the global rise of consumerism as a de facto religion for millions of people, including vast numbers who claim to follow one or other conventional religion.

Roshan Shah