The Silk Route Spy: The True story of an Indian Double Agent- Enakshi Sengupta

 

The Silk Route Spy: The True Story of an Indian Double Agent - Enakshi Sengupta

There are stories from around the world that can simply make a common human mind surprised, enlightened and shocked. The Silk Route Spy by Enakshi Sengupta is one such thrilling adventurous real -life ride that can give the reader the much- needed reading enlightenment. The book is not about travel or adventure but about a Spy from the British era. The story starts in the British era India and comes to an end decades later in the Independent and thriving India.

The story is based upon the real -life events of the principal character, Nandlal Kapur. It is a true story of an Indian Double agent from the British era India who ended up contributing to the freedom movement indirectly in his own peculiar way. The author of the book is the third generation from the family of the person about the whom the entire book is about.

This is not story of deceit or action. It is a story of Nandlal Kapur who wanted to travel the world for his own adventure and in the way ended up becoming a Double agent. The base of the story is from the various accounts of the person that has been passed on from the generations to the current one. Reading through the pages of the life of the person that has been written by a family member itself gave an unending thought about the times through the central character of the book must have gone through.

The story begins during the 1920’s when Nandlal Kapur has been recruited by the British government as one of the secret spies to report to them about suspected revolutionaries. However, Nandlal does help the Britishers but in a small manner, his actions are more towards the revolutionaries and ends up helping them plan actions and strikes to impact the British government. As Nandlal gets promoted, he shifts cities from Firozpur to Amritsar to Delhi to Kolkata. In between Nandlal meets people whom he is unable to forget for the rest of his life.

The turning point in the life of Nandlal takes places when he is assigned to Rangoon on the orders of the British government. From this point onwards, the life of Nandlal takes so much of twists and turns that he himself questions his quest to the travel the world. From Rangoon he is transferred to Shanghai and from Shanghai he lands in Kobe, Japan and from there to Malay Peninsula and finally back to India. It is the journey of a lifetime and the events and the situations will give the reader a lot to know about the geographical and political scenario of those years for not only India, but also China and Japan and the current day Singapore.

The writing has been kept very simple to connect to the average common reader. The intention of the author is not to showcase her literary knowledge but to tell the story in the most connecting way for the reader. The events, twists and turn around have been beautifully placed. The narrative is fast paced and the reader will not get bored.

Reading through the events, one would surely get some knowledge about How the British empire used local people as their informants and how many of the locals in fact turned out to be double agent ultimately helping the freedom movement.

Another aspect that the reader will enjoy are the geographical descriptions about the different countries and cities. Events that take place in Rangoon, Shanghai and Kobe throw light on the larger picture of those years that was impacting the British empire not only in India but also in Europe and Middle East. A good amount of History is used in the story telling.

The Prologue to the book describes the basis on which the author has written the book. How she came to know about the events and the story of one such hero who indirectly fought for the Indian Freedom struggle but his name is not mentioned anywhere in history. Readers will surely connect emotionally to the character, especially in the chapter that describes the last years of his life.

Names of most of the other characters have been changed. However, the characters remain true to the actual events.

The Silk Route Spy by Enakshi Sengupta is a good read about times and years that have been lost in the pages of history. The Story of Nandlal Kapur will surely stay with the reader for times to come. It is also a read that would make the reader think about lot of other aspects of that era.

Quote from the book

“With his death, the Silk Route Spy’s life was lost. No one remembered his contributions to the freedom movement. There was no plaque, no shawl, no certificate for him. The spy had vanished quietly, just like he had lived, a handsome man who blended into any part of the world he chose to be in.”