Memoir of an Indian spymaster

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Notes

1. Dulat and Sinha, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years; Dulat, Sinha and Durrani, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace. For reviews, see: Shaffer, R. ‘Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, by A.S. Dulat and Aditya Sinha’; Hughes and Shaffer, ‘After Hannibal and Scipio: the spymasters of India and Pakistan reflect on years of conflict’.

2. Dulat served in Kashmir as Joint Director in the IB from 1988 until 1990. This was amongst the most troubled periods in the region since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. As one British journalist observed in 1990: ‘Horrible things are happening in the Kashmir valley. Since January, well over 600 Kashmiris – most of them innocent bystanders – have been shot dead by Indian paramilitary police, while maybe 5,000 have been arrested. The population of the valley is not large, and there are now very few families who have not in some way been directly touched by the violence’. Dalrymple, ‘Horrible things in Kashmir’, The Spectator (London), June 16, 1990. In his first book, Dulat devoted an entire chapter to separatist leader Shabir Shah, whom he described as ‘the headmaster to the rest of the militants’. Shah was the founder (and is president) of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP). Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War, 203.

3. ‘Who is AS Dulat aka “Mr Kashmir”? All you need to know about former RAW chief spotted with RaGa in BJY’.

4. Harper Collins’ promotional material claims: ‘No Indian spymaster has, until now, written a memoir.’ See: ‘A Life in the Shadows’.

5. The books include: Mullik, My Years with Nehru: The Chinese Betrayal (1971); Mullik, My Years with Nehru: Kashmir (1971). For a discussion on government reactions to his books, see: Ramesh, Intertwined Lives: P.N. Haksar and Indira Gandhi, 122–3.

6. Bhardwaj, ‘RAW ex-chief didn’t seek govt clearance for book. Why retired officers are slamming restriction’.

7. Nair, Inside IB and RAW: The Rolling Stone that Gathered Moss (2013).

8. For example, see: Rajeswar, India: The Crucial Years (2015); Manickam, Security, Espionage and Counter Intelligence (2004); Sood, The Unending Game (2008).

9. For more information about the book launch, see: Bhatti, ‘AS Dulat, scotch, poetry and romance – celebrating the shadowy world of a spy’.

10. On this book, see: Jaleel, ‘Book Review – AS Dulat’s “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years”’.

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Notes on contributors

Ryan Shaffer

Ryan Shaffer has a PhD in history with expertise in extremism and security. He has published hundreds of articles and reviews in numerous journals. Shaffer is an editorial board member for the Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism. His books include African Intelligence Services: Early Postcolonial and Contemporary Challenges (2021); The Handbook of African Intelligence Cultures (2022); and The Handbook of Asian Intelligence Cultures (2022).