Viswasghatak: The Traitor

Biswasghatak composed and first published in 1974 is a famous Bengali novel by the great Narayan Sanyal based on the invention of the Atomic Bomb under the Manhattan Project. Vishwasghatak literally means Traitor. After the end of the Second World War a scientist supplied confidential information to the USSR on his own efforts by averting the ever alert eyes of the USA Government. In the history of mankind this is supposed to be the biggest treason in terms of economic evaluation.

What, why, how and who? – that is the main topic of Vishwasghatak. It is hard to categorize the book as a novel, because it is unexpected to find a chemical equation in a novel. It can neither be called a science-oriented book, because a love story is baseless in a science book. Where the detective is not pointing out the criminal, the criminal himself is coming forward to be captured – much like the hero of the novel Crime and Punishment by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky – there is no question of categorizing it as a detective story.