Labeling Hasina’s forced resignation a “ color revolution ,” these Indian conspiracy theorists suggested that something similar could be attempted in New Delhi. They aimed to discredit India’s political opposition and possible protests against Modi; the alleged role of the United States in destabilizing Hasina’s government made the United States a convenient scapegoat.

When Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned under pressure amid mass student protests in August, some of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist supporters were quick to blame—without much evidence—the CIA.

The book cover for Spying in South Asia: Britain, the United States, and India’s Secret Cold War

Labeling Hasina’s forced resignation a “color revolution,” these Indian conspiracy theorists suggested that something similar could be attempted in New Delhi. They aimed to discredit India’s political opposition and possible protests against Modi; the alleged role of the United States in destabilizing Hasina’s government made the United States a convenient scapegoat.

This was a throwback to a period during the Cold War when popular discourse in India fixated on the threat of a “foreign hand” in New Delhi. In his latest book, Paul M. McGarr, a lecturer at King’s College London, examines the history of Western intelligence agencies’ work in India and the tough response of the country’s political leadership to threats—both real and imagined.

Spying in South Asia: Britain, the United States, and India’s Secret Cold War brings a fresh perspective to an important subject that has rarely been studied through an academic lens. McGarr argues that Cold War interventions in India by both the British and U.S. agencies proved “largely self-defeating” and actually undermined Western influence, slowed down democracy, and amplified a “national culture of conspiracism and paranoia” in India that still remains.

Discounting the personal biases of narrators and the nationalist impulses of official accounts, McGarr depicts a period in which contradictory impulses guided India’s interaction with Britain and the United States. These tensions are reflected in the Indian political landscape today. A close reading of McGarr’s work would help policymakers in Western capitals realize the limits of close cooperation with New Delhi and perhaps arrive at more nuanced intelligence assessments to craft more achievable political objectives.

A woman stands in front of a bunch of microphones. People stand around her.

After gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India pursued a policy of non-alignment, maintaining friendly ties with major powers and refusing to become a member of either the Soviet-led communist bloc or the so-c