Book Review | Family folklore about a patriotic British informant

Elakshi Sengupta’s The Silk Route Spy is a compelling novel and it makes for an engaging read for several reasons. For one, it revisits the territory of literature concerning India’s Independence such as Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World and R.K. Narayan’s Waiting for the Mahatma and narrates the real life story of Nandlal Kapur who was a spy and a double agent, working for the colonial rulers but helping the freedom fighters in secret. Second, the prose is terse and compact and helps the reader situate themselves with ease into the politically-charged region of Southeast Asia that was in turmoil during the 1930s at the time of the struggle for India’s Independence. Unlike the several strands of emotional intrigue that characterise the former works, Sengupta’s novel is centred, however, on the character development of Nandlal Kapur and his journey through India from Amritsar to Kolkata (then Calcutta) to Burma, China and Japan as he meets with revolutionaries and discovers his moral fibre.

The plot is well-designed with elements of the bildungsroman as Nandlal searches for his sense of purpose being torn between living a life of adventure that is funded by the British and doing the right thing by his country. What strikes the reader are the vivid descriptions of the cities that he visits and they are momentarily transported to places like the Grand Hotel of Calcutta and the Shanghai Club. The friendships that he forges along the way help him survive a life of isolation and secrecy.

The book examines the true nature of patriotic ideals as well as Nandlal shifts from his life as a farmer to that of an informer who works for the British. Then he becomes a merchant who values the lives of his wife and children above his own. There are poignant moments when the native begins to distinguish between the different attitudes of the colonials. Nandlal reflects, ‘Until now he had been lucky to find benevolent bosses. Even Charles seemed to be kinder than this man, for whom people not of his race and colour were merely coolies whom he could throw coins at.”

However, what motivates him to take action for his country is the realisation of injustice and exploitation that afflicts his countrymen rather than his own sense of hurt pride. This is what contributes to the charm of his character, reimagined from the oral reminiscences of his grandson, who was her deceased husband, by the author.

The Silk Route Spy

Enakshi Sengupta

HarperCollins India

pp. 224; Rs 299