Overview

No Indian spymaster has, until now, written a memoir. A.S. Dulat is the first to do so, and in A Life in the Shadows he does it with considerable elan. He is one of India's most successful spymasters, his name synonymous with the Kashmir issue. His methods of engagement and accommodation with all people and perspectives from India's most conflicted state are legendary. The author of two bestselling books, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years (2014) and The Spy Chronicles: R&AW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace (2018), Dulat's views on India, Pakistan and Kashmir are well-known and sought after. Yet very little is known about him, primarily because the former spymaster has been notoriously private about his personal life. In this unusual and unique memoir, Dulat breaks that silence for the first time. This is not a traditional, linear narrative as much as a selection of stories from across space and time. Still bound by the rules of secrecy of his trade, he tells a fascinating story of a life richly lived and insightfully observed.

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Reviews

Former RAW chief, Mr AS Dulat’s memoir, ‘A life in the Shadows’ is a tale of fascinating career narrated in style. Spies operate in shadows, carefully concealed from the public gaze, quietly but surreptitiously engineering what could be consequential events. Though Dulat does not lift the veil over the ‘shadows’, he does serve some tantalising vignettes from his long journey from the pre-independent Lahore to the highest echelons of spy craft and finally to the North Block. His perceptive and empathetic insights of Kashmir and Kashmiriyat echo Vajpayee Ji’s doctrine of ‘Insaniyat, Jamhuriyat, Kashmiriyat' that remain relevant not only for sustainable peace in Kashmir but also other parts of the country with chronic civil discontent. His special affection for Giani Zail Singh and Dr Farooq Abdullah are both personal and professional. Dr. P.V. Ramesh.

Author Information

Amarjit Singh Dulat is a former head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India's external intelligence agency. After retirement, he was appointed adviser on Kashmir in the Prime Minister's Office and served there from January 2001 to May 2004. During this time, he accumulated a vast reservoir of goodwill with Kashmiris of all shades. As Jane's Intelligence Digest put it in 2001, ‘Well known for his social skills, Dulat preferred dialogue to clandestine maneouvers'. In his heyday, Dulat was referred to as ‘Mr Kashmir'. Dulat was born in Sialkot, Punjab, in December 1940. With India's partition, his father Justice Shamsher Singh Dulat relocated his family to Delhi. After schooling in Delhi, Simla and Chandigarh, Dulat joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1965, and then the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in 1969, where he served for almost thirty years. At IB he headed the Kashmir Group during the turbulent 1990s till he joined and headed the R&AW. Dulat's first book, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, was published in 2015, followed by The Spy Chronicles: R&AW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace in 2018, which he co-authored with General Asad Durrani, former director-general of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

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