Twenty years ago, starting from the night of 29 July 1987, India hurriedly deployed the Indian Army in Sri Lanka. This book provides an in-depth look at the Indian military deployment and operations in Sri Lanka from July 1987 to March 1990, which was independent India’s first major foreign-policy determined overseas campaign, and which turned into modern India’s longest war to date. It has been India’s most intense period of interaction with the island of Sri Lanka after the mythological Ramayana and the much-later invasion of the island by raja karikala Chola, the Chola king of Tamil Nadu, in about 100 CE. Unlike those two well-known military campaigns, however, the modern endeavour by the Indian state failed, or more charitably, was unable to attain its stated politico-military objectives. Why did India’s foreign -policy venture fail? This book has the answers. it provides the necessary background to the Indian internal and Sri Lankan political situation and its perceived ramifications and implications for India, which led to the highest-level political decision-making in India and Sri Lanka. The military deployment and its tasking, both envisaged and as they actually became later, and the operations themselves, form the core of the book. Insights into the LTTE’s operational direction by its supreme leader Vellupillai Piabakaran are provided through the interviews given by him. The actual narration of the dramatic military events as they unfolded are given, both by vivid first-person accounts by some of the key participants, as well as summarized from the vast literature now available on the subject.
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