Murderer, The Monarch And The Fakir by Appu Esthose Suresh | Priyanka Kotamraju

Book Summary

The Murderer, the Monarch and the Fakir presents a deeply researched reinterpretation of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, upending the familiar narrative of a lone fanatic. Using previously unseen intelligence reports, police files, and interviews, the authors trace a conspiracy that appears to extend beyond served hatred—back to princely state politics, hyper‑masculine elitism, and militant right‑wing networks active well before January 1948.

The investigation reconstructs the timeline from August 8, 1947, leading to Gandhi’s murder on January 30, 1948, exposing how entities like Maharaja Tej Singh of Alwar and his minister N.B. Khare could have been intertwined with extremist agendas. By highlighting these deeper structural forces, the book challenges conventional myths—such as the assassination being motivated solely by disputes over payments to Pakistan or Muslim rehabilitation—and posits that Gandhi’s death was part of broader ideological and political power plays.

Critics praise its academic framing and evocative writing, though note that nearly half the book engages contemporary debates (e.g. CAA-NRC), which some say stretches the main thesis. Still, many readers find it a gripping, modern case-study in political intrigue and historical re-evaluation—“one of the best crime mysteries” they’ve encountered, even while some found the ending predictable 

About the Authors

Appu Esthose Suresh is a veteran investigative journalist celebrated for his coverage of communal violence in India, earning the Mumbai Press Club’s 2015 RedInk Journalist of the Year award. A former editor at Hindustan Times, Indian Express, and Mint, he was also part of the ICIJ investigating offshore accounts. He is now a Senior Atlantic Fellow at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute and founder of the Gandhi-inspired social platform 💡Pixstory, aimed at combating hate speech and misinformation.

Priyanka Kotamraju is a Gates Cambridge Scholar and doctoral researcher in sociology at the University of Cambridge, as well as a Senior Atlantic Fellow at LSE. Formerly editor of the grassroots publication Khabar Lahariya and co‑founder of the feminist research collective Chitrakoot Collective, she brings rigorous research credentials and socially engaged storytelling to the work