Bhagat Ram Talwar (1908—1983), a Hindu Pathan from the Northwest Province of British India, was the only quintuple spy of World War II.[1][2]
Bhagat Ram Talwar | |
---|---|
Born | 1908 |
Died | 1983 |
Nationality | Indian |
Known for | Active role in India's freedom struggle |
Spouse | Ram Kaur |
Relatives | Gurdas Mal Talwar (father; died 4 July 1931), Mathura Devi Talwar (mother), Hari Kishan Talwar (elder brother) |
He played an active role in India's freedom struggle. Also known by the alias Silver, he was a freedom fighter and a peasant leader from the North-West Frontier Province in present-day Pakistan.[3] While some authors believe his ancestors were of Punjabi descent,[4] it is known that he was a Hindu Khatri,[5] and identified as a Hindu Pathan.[3][6]
He was an agent and prominent figure of the Kirti Kisan Party.[7]
Bhagat Ram Talwar's older brother, Hari Kishan Talwar (born 2 January 1908), was sentenced and hanged on 9 June 1931 by the British for his assassination attempt on the British Governor of Punjab, Sir Geoffrey de Montmorency.[8]
Talwar is famously known for his role as the friend of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.[9] Talwar helped Bose escape from house arrest in January, 1941. They made the dangerous journey from Calcutta to Kabul and Netaji eventually made it to Germany and unknown to Bose then Talwar was a British spy.[10][11] Ian Fleming's brother Peter Fleming was his handler.
Bhagat Ram Talwar, also known as Rahmat Khan spied for Germany, Japan, USSR, Italy and British-ruled India for 5 years. Subhas Chandra Bose nominated him to work with the Italians but months later he started working with Germany, Italy's Axis partner. He took money both from Germans and Italians but when Adolf Hitler introduced Operation Barbarossa to invade the Soviet Union, Talwar or Khan worked for Russians to fool the Nazis. Later on, Talwar worked for the British who gave him the codename Silver.
Mihir Bose wrote a book on Bhagat titled "The Indian Spy: The True Story of the Most Remarkable Secret Agent of World War II" published by Aleph.[12]
Bhagat Ram Talwar, later known as Silver, was the only quintuple spy in World War-II, working for the British, Russians, Germans, Italians, and the Japanese. Silver, who identified as a "Hindu Pathan," was born and raised in the northwest region of the subcontinent bordering Afghanistan.
It was, in fact, on the edge of this landscape, near Peshawar, that our morally agnostic protagonist was born in 1908, into a family of Punjabi descent.
There was also a pucca house belonging to a Hindu Khatri family which owned some land and had taken to farming as a profession. This family of the Talwars was destined to play an unforgettable role not only in the struggle of the local peasantry against the rapacious nawab but also in the larger sphere of national struggle of the Indian people for freedom from foreign bondage.
Born a Hindu Pathan in the North-West Frontier Province of undivided India, of nondescript appearance, armed with broken English but with a limitless talent for deception, Silver ranks with Garbo (Allies), Sorge (Soviet Union) and Cicero (Nazi Germany) in the pantheon of the great spies of the Second World War.