R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster
Ebook
Overview
Somewhere deep in the archives of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in the heart of New Delhi lies a set of papers that researchers and historians interested in recording the history of Indian intelligence, would love to get their hands on. Alas, those documents-transcripts of tape-recorded conversations with RN Kao, the legendary spy chief-are not going to be available until 2025, according to instructions left by him, months before he passed away in 2002.
So until those tapes and papers are made public, any biography of Rameshwar Nath Kao or ‘Ramji’ to friends, colleagues and family would have to depend on personal memories of a vast array of individuals who knew him in different capacities and their interpretation of his personality and contribution.
Where does one begin to chronicle the life and times of a colossus like Kao? Does one begin with his greatest moment of glory in contributing to the liberation of East Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh? Or the fact that he was the founder of one of the world’s best spy agency, the R&AW? Does one talk about his fiercely private personality? Or his wide-ranging contacts in the secretive world of espionage? For an author like me, it will have to be a combination of the personal and the professional to try and capture the essence of Kao, the man, the legend.
1. The early years: Allahabad, Joining IP and seconded to IB
2. IB, Nehru’s PSO, Ghana, ARC and Bandung enquiry
3. Indira Gandhi years
4. Forming R&AW
5. Early years of R&AW
6. East Pakistan crisis (working with Rustomjee, Manekshaw and PN Haksar)
7. Finest hour--1971
8. Maritime intelligence (CIA, Savak and SDECE)
9. Sikkim case
10. Mujib’s assassination
11. Emergency years
12. Falling out with Morarji (Discovering Pak’s N-secret)
13. Return to Govt in Mrs Gandhi’s govt
14. Indira assassination
15. NSG
16. Summing up
- Title: R.N. Kao: Gentleman Spymaster
- Author: Nitin A Gokhale
- Publisher: Bloomsbury India
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 200
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9789389449303, 9389449308
- Resource ID: LLS:9789389449303
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T11:32:06Z
Nitin A. Gokhale is one of South Asia's leading Strategic Analysts. He is the founder of the defence-related website BharatShakti.in. and Strategic News International (sniwire.com). Now a media entrepreneur, Gokhale has worked across print, web and broadcast mediums since 1983. He has reported on India's North-East, the 1999 Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan and the Sri Lankan Eelam War IV. Author of six books on national security affairs, Gokhale is an alumni of the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii. He teaches and lectures at premier Indian defence training institutions like the National Defence College, the Army, Air Force and Naval War Colleges, the College of Defence Management and the Defence Services Staff College, besides being a popular speaker at various seminars and symposiums on civil-military relations, insurgency/terrorism, Asian Security Affairs and military-media relations.