ABSTRACT
In late 1916, a plot to overthrow the British Empire in India was discovered on “three pieces of yellow silk with fine Urdu writing on them”, sewn into a messenger’s jacket and bound from Kabul to the Hejaz. The so-called “Silk Letters Conspiracy” caused a stir within the ranks of the British intelligence community and went on to become a celebrated symbol in the nationalist mythologies of India and Pakistan. But by the time of their discovery, the intent of the Silk Letters had been undermined by the failure of the German-Indian mission to Afghanistan and the launch of the Arab Revolt by the British and their allies in Arabia. For wartime British officials, however, whether in India or Cairo, the prospect of a seditious plot encompassing Arabs and Indians was deeply alarming. This chapter explores the reactions of British officials, in several agencies and imperial outposts, to nationalist and anti-imperial movements in India and the Middle East during World War I. It seeks to challenge the perception of a politically unified British imperial administration, as well as complicate existing narratives of both the Arab Revolt and the Silk Letters Conspiracy. It is innovative in discussing these two challenges to empire – and British responses to them – as connected phenomena.
