One Man Against an Empire

M.N. Roy, British Intelligence and the Colonial Surveillance State

The compelling story of the hunt for one enigmatic foe of the British, birthing an entire colonial surveillance network and an Empire-wide intelligence strategy.

The compelling story of the hunt for one enigmatic foe of the British, birthing an entire colonial surveillance network and an Empire-wide intelligence strategy.

Manabendra Nath Roy was the prime focus of British paranoia in the 1920s and ’30s. For the colonial establishment and its intelligence services, there was no greater covert threat than this charismatic globe-trotting revolutionary anti-colonial activist, and founder of the Communist parties of Mexico and India. From the moment he left India in 1915, seeking arms to launch a full-scale revolution against the subcontinent’s colonial overlords, he was doggedly tracked; his every move surveilled and reported. Everyone he met came under the scanner. His collaborators were harassed, coerced and bribed. His lovers were followed and harangued.

Roy played a significant role in the Communist Party of Great Britain during its early years, and his influence in the imperial capital was seen as greatly inimical. Lenin and the Comintern, who bankrolled Roy handsomely in the 1920s, hoped he would galvanise the Indian proletariat and strike a mortal blow against the British Empire.

This compelling book narrates the untold story of M.N. Roy’s persistent clandestine attempts to undermine British authority through a network of agents, and the massive security establishment that thwarted his efforts in response.

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