The neo-imperialism of decolonisation: John le Carré and Cold War India

ABSTRACT

This article interrogates representations of Cold War India in John le Carré’s work. India’s preoccupation with secrecy and subversion provided fertile literary terrain for le Carré’s critiques of intelligence agencies. Engaging with debates surrounding the fact/fiction dichotomy in intelligence studies, the article argues that detaching academic explorations of intelligence from cultural representations of the secret world is reductive. It suggests that le Carré’s interaction with India mattered because it met a demand in the subcontinent to know more about intelligence. In turn, le Carré’s writing impacted intelligence practice in India and influenced popular perceptions of intelligence services, foreign and domestic.

KEYWORDS:

• India
• subversion
• conspiracy
• neo-colonialism
• anti-Americanism

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Pauline Blistène, Damien Van Puyvelde, and the anonymous reviewers for INS for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, 232

2. le Carré, Spy Who Came in from the Cold; Honourable Schoolboy; Perfect Spy.

3. Manning, le Carré.

4. Davies and Gustafson, Intelligence Elsewhere; and, more recently, a special journal edition, Richterova and Telepneva, “The Secret Struggle.”

5. McCrisken and Moran, “James Bond,” 805. See also, Blistène, “Ordinary lives.”

6. Willmetts, “Reconceiving Realism’ and ‘Cultural Turn”; and Moran and Hammond, “Social history of American intelligence.”

7. Stonor Saunders, CIA and the Cultural War; Wilford, Mighty Wurlitzer.

8. Der Derian, Virtuous War; Melley, Covert Sphere.

9. McCrisken and Moran, “James Bond,” 807; Bower, English Spy, 270; and Sisman, Le Carré, 416, 521.

10. West, “Fiction, Faction.”

11. Balachandran, “John Le Carré.”

12. McCrisken and Moran, “James Bond,” 806.

13. le Carré, Smiley’s People, 1313.

14. Wic, “Ulug-Zade affair,” 6–7.

15. Blake, No Other Choice, 167.

16. Manning, le Carré, 123.

17. Bayly, Empire and Information; Popplewell, Imperial Defence; and French, Liberty or Death.

18. Kipling, Kim.

19. UKHC Notes for Officers appointed to New Delhi, undated, c. 1960, DO35/2644, United Kingdom National Archives.

20. Maugham, Ashenden.

21. Buchan, Greenmantle; Greene, Quiet American. For a broader discussion on the influence of early twentieth-century British writers on le Carré’s work see, Cobbs, le Carré, 17–19.

22. Cobbs, le Carré, 17–18, 129; and Manning, le Carré, 136.

23. Macintyre, Spy Among Friends, 34.

24. Cobbs, le Carré, 129.

25. le Carré, Honourable Schoolboy, 464.

26. Sisman, le Carré, 12.

27. If was first published in Kipling, Rewards and Fairies.

28. Updike, “Le Carré’s Game.”

29. Sisman, le Carré, 240.

30. Booth, “Espionage Film,” 151.

31. Harling, “Near the Truth”; and Holloway, “Recent Fiction.”

32. ”Classified Ads,” The Times of India, June 16, 1966, 2.

33. ”Bleak And Brilliant,” The Times of India, June 23, 1966, 11.

34. ‘Current Topics’, The Times of India, July 2, 1966, 6.

35. McGarr, “Information Research Department” and Cold War in South Asia. Indian literature that touches upon of Western intelligence liaison with New Delhi includes, Mullik, Years with Nehru; Raman, Kaoboys of R&AW; and Nair, Rolling Stone.

36. le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, 351.

37. ‘My Vote? I would like to punish Blair’ (interview with David Hare), Daily Telegraph, May 17, 2001.

38. le Carré, Tailor of Panama; and Constant Gardner.

39. le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, 149–50.

40. Moynihan to Secretary of State, No. 12063, 10 September 1974, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, Electronic Telegrams, 1/1/1974-21/31/1974, US National Archives.

41. le Carré quoted in Sisman, le Carré, 382.

42. le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, 407.

43. Krasnov, Soviet Defectors, 116.

44. West, “Birds of a Feather,” 608.

45. McGarr, “From Russia with Love.”

46. le Carré, introduction to Call for Dead, xii.

47. Andrew, Defence of the Realm, 332–333.

48. le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, 109.

49. le Carré, Secret Pilgrim, 215.

50. Entry for 31 December 1946, Wavell, 402.

51. ”Sino-Indian War,” November 19, 1962, Meetings Recordings, Tape No. 62, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts.

52. Sisman, le Carré, 364; and le Carré, Pigeon Tunnel, 78.

53. le Carré, Pigeon Tunnel, 70–80.

54. Masters, Himalayan Concerto.

55. le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, 230–243.

56. Fanon, Wretched of the Earth.

57. Manning, le Carré, 136.

58. Rau, “Songs of India.”

59. Rotter, “Empires of the Senses,” 4.

60. Kipling, “Lichtenberg,” Collected Verse, 356; and see also, Collingham, Imperial Bodies.

61. le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, 230–243.

62. Wagner, Amritsar 1919.

63. Brendon, Decline and Fall, 563.

64. Foucault, Discipline and Punish.

65. Sarma, “John le Carré́.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul M. McGarr

Paul M. McGarr is Associate Professor in US Foreign Policy at the University of Nottingham. He works on the intersection of UK, US, and South Asia relations. He is the author of The Cold War in South Asia: Britain, the United States and the Indian Subcontinent, 1945-1965 (Cambridge University Press, 2013). His second monograph, Spying in South Asia: Britain, the United States, and India’s Secret Cold War will be published Cambridge University Press in 2023.