The True Story of an Indian Double Agent by Enakshi Sengupta

Thanks to the Blogchatter Book Review program, I received a copy of The Silk Route Spy for review. It’s listed as a non-fiction read by Harper Collins.

This book is unlike any non-fiction book I’ve read. It is engaging from cover to cover. I did not once feel bored or count the pages remaining. Although it’s a tale that involves mention of an agent’s life, it is told elegantly. There are no crude parts even when mentioning prostitution or murder. It has a certain lightness of touch, which makes the book a hit with me.

The book is the story of a boy from a village in pre-independence India ( Nandlal Kapur) who leaves his village in search of brighter prospects and gets a job as an agent of the British who spies on India. However, being a son of the soil, he soon becomes a double agent and trades in information with Indian revolutionaries. As time passes, he moves to China and becomes like a “brown sahib”. His experiences in Kobe are also described.

The boy’s journey from village to Indian city to international destinations is described in an engaging and simple manner. Against the backdrop of the Indian independence movement, this non-fiction account reads in such a way as to impart history lessons to newer generations without making them feel that they are reading a “boring” history book.

The trick is in the author’s writing, which is great. The protagonist’s journey from boy to man is also a thread that ties the narrative together. It’s a bildungsroman that is “innocent” despite touching upon the mafia, brothels and the “seamy” side of life. It is essentially the story of a Punjabi puttar. The author is writing about her late husband’s grandfather. Readers get insights into how the revolutionaries operated in India, how organized Japanese Mafiosi worked, and there are also tender moments of love for the romantic readers. I found this book far better than several so-called fiction bestsellers. I learned about The Tortoise Society, the silk trade, about qualities essential for a spy, The book is set in several locations – Firozpur, Amritsar, Delhi, Calcutta, Rangoon, Shanghai, and Kobe. It describes voyages by sea, tram, bus, etc.

However, there are innumerable characters mentioned in the book and I couldn’t remember all of them. Some of the names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals written about. I found the character sketches good. There is a good pace in the storytelling. Family values are touched upon and the importance of one’s motherland comes through. The nationalist fervor is also described well.

What I liked best is the female gaze in the novel.

The cover design is by Amit Malhotra

Suhail Mathur is the literary agent and Bushra Ahmed the commissioning editor at Harper Collins.

MRP – 299

Number of pages – 209.

About the author – Dr. Enakshi Sengupta, is a prolific researcher and academician, who has done her MBA and Ph.D from the University of Nottingham