ABSTRACT
The story of Taraknath Das illuminates our understanding of Indian settlements in North America; it explains the nature of the Indian intellectual presence abroad, and the Indian freedom struggle in the West, all important strands of 20th-century cosmopolitanism in South Asia. The British Military Attache in Washington, Lt. Col. B. R. James, asked the Chief of the second section of the US Army for a confidential report about Taraknath. It is primarily America's well-known commitment to freedom and intellectual tradition that had attracted Taraknath to this land in the first place, a faith that would be broken very soon. Taraknath is conscious of his location in the US even as he surveys the position of India on the global scene. He makes a conscious appeal to his American audience and attempts to win them over to the side of the Indian cause on grounds of shared civilizational values.
