Bengal’s split personality

Hurree Chunder Mookerjee, “a hulking, obese Babu whose stockinged legs shook with fat”, was the ultimate Bengali schizophrenic. For this figure of fun who spoke what was called “Babu English” was the James Bond of his time, nursing a canny mind under his comic exterior. British India’s espionage service knew him as R.17. The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India and British secret agents (called “pundits”) in Tibet are another story.

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