Conversation on ‘Spies, Lies and Allies’ | NLS Faculty Dr. Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav With Kavitha Rao

Dr. Vanya Vaidehi Bhargav, Assistant Professor, Social Science, NLSIU will be in conversation with author and journalist Kavitha Rao about her new book, ‘Spies, Lies and Allies,‘ at the Bangalore International Centre on April 2, 2025, at 6:30 pm.

About the book

Spies, Lies and Allies is a thrilling tale about two forgotten revolutionaries who led lives that defy belief. It takes the reader on a wild ride through Kolkata, Hyderabad, London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Mexico City and Moscow. One was Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, the brother of Sarojini Naidu. The other was M.N. Roy, the founder of Indian communism.

Chatto and Roy met spies, dictators, femme fatales, assassins, revolutionaries and bomb-makers. They encountered Lala Lajpat Rai, Veer Savarkar, Vladimir Lenin, Sun Yat-Sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Joseph Stalin, Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. They travelled in disguise and survived assassination attempts by the British secret service. They had tumultuous love affairs with suspected Communist spies. They flirted with anarchism, then became communists, and Roy would eventually end up founding his own philosophy: humanism. Chatto’s sister Sarojini would distance herself from his journey, and his friend Nehru would eventually follow the Gandhian path. Roy would be ignored in newly independent India. But if Chatto and Roy were failures, they were magnificent ones. They battled for their ideas, and their ideas lived on, even if the pair died mostly forgotten.

If you are interested in attending the talk, RSVP here.