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1 - Transfer of Power: British Intelligence and the End of Empire in South Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2024

Paul M. McGarr
Affiliation:
King's College London
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Summary

This chapter considers the process by which an intelligence transfer of power took place in British India. This event ran parallel to, but was conducted in a very different manner and resulted in quite different outcomes from, the political decolonisation of South Asia. The chapter examines plans hatched by the British Security and Secret Intelligence Services to maintain an intelligence foothold in the subcontinent and unpicks how such schemes fostered a bitter and protracted struggle for bureaucratic power and influence between MI5 and MI6. It probes debates held at the highest levels within the British government over whether covert action should be undertaken in independent India, by whom, and to what purpose. It interrogates the efficacy of Indian agency in negotiating the security challenges confronted by an under-resourced post-colonial state, and that counterparts in the West (and the Eastern bloc) saw as a valuable Cold War prize.

Type
Chapter
Information
Spying in South Asia
Britain, the United States, and India's Secret Cold War
, pp. 14 - 31
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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