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“A Dagger, a Revolver, a Bottle of Chloroform” : Colonial Spy Fiction, Revolutionary Reminiscences and Indian Nationalist Terrorism in Europe

Laursen, Ole LU (2018) p.255-271
Abstract
With British and French imperial ambitions during the First World War in mind, this chapter returns to questions of terrorism, planned violence, and porous European borders to examine W. Somerset Maugham’s short story ‘Giulia Lazzari’ (Ashenden; or, the British agent. Doubleday, New York, 1928) alongside the revolutionary reminiscences of the Indian nationalists Virendranath ‘Chatto’ Chattopadhyaya and M. P. T. Acharya. Straddling both anti-colonial and anarchist circles, the revolutionary infrastructures and networks in place in Europe in the early twentieth century allowed Chatto and Acharya to travel frequently across borders in pursuit of Indian freedom, resorting sometimes to the use of terrorism, while those networks also enabled... (More)
With British and French imperial ambitions during the First World War in mind, this chapter returns to questions of terrorism, planned violence, and porous European borders to examine W. Somerset Maugham’s short story ‘Giulia Lazzari’ (Ashenden; or, the British agent. Doubleday, New York, 1928) alongside the revolutionary reminiscences of the Indian nationalists Virendranath ‘Chatto’ Chattopadhyaya and M. P. T. Acharya. Straddling both anti-colonial and anarchist circles, the revolutionary infrastructures and networks in place in Europe in the early twentieth century allowed Chatto and Acharya to travel frequently across borders in pursuit of Indian freedom, resorting sometimes to the use of terrorism, while those networks also enabled them to escape European intelligence services. Challenging the Orientalist discourse of Maugham’s colonial spy fiction, Chatto’s and Acharya’s counter-narratives, I suggest, provide a more nuanced understanding of Indian anti-colonialism, anarchist terrorism, and the rhetoric of revolutionary reminiscences. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Planned Violence : Post/Colonial Urban Infrastructure, Literature and Culture - Post/Colonial Urban Infrastructure, Literature and Culture
editor
Boehmer, Elleke and Davies, Dominic
pages
16 pages
publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN
978-3-319-91388-9
978-3-319-91387-2
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-91388-9_15
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
1f73e598-fdab-4f38-bee6-3544802ae75f
date added to LUP
2023-10-05 15:55:11
date last changed
2023-10-09 11:42:40
@inbook{1f73e598-fdab-4f38-bee6-3544802ae75f,
  abstract     = {{With British and French imperial ambitions during the First World War in mind, this chapter returns to questions of terrorism, planned violence, and porous European borders to examine W. Somerset Maugham’s short story ‘Giulia Lazzari’ (Ashenden; or, the British agent. Doubleday, New York, 1928) alongside the revolutionary reminiscences of the Indian nationalists Virendranath ‘Chatto’ Chattopadhyaya and M. P. T. Acharya. Straddling both anti-colonial and anarchist circles, the revolutionary infrastructures and networks in place in Europe in the early twentieth century allowed Chatto and Acharya to travel frequently across borders in pursuit of Indian freedom, resorting sometimes to the use of terrorism, while those networks also enabled them to escape European intelligence services. Challenging the Orientalist discourse of Maugham’s colonial spy fiction, Chatto’s and Acharya’s counter-narratives, I suggest, provide a more nuanced understanding of Indian anti-colonialism, anarchist terrorism, and the rhetoric of revolutionary reminiscences.}},
  author       = {{Laursen, Ole}},
  booktitle    = {{Planned Violence : Post/Colonial Urban Infrastructure, Literature and Culture}},
  editor       = {{Boehmer, Elleke and Davies, Dominic}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-319-91388-9}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  pages        = {{255--271}},
  publisher    = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
  title        = {{“A Dagger, a Revolver, a Bottle of Chloroform” : Colonial Spy Fiction, Revolutionary Reminiscences and Indian Nationalist Terrorism in Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91388-9_15}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/978-3-319-91388-9_15}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}