India & Sri Lanka

Story hook

It is 9 July 2022, Colombo. Tens of thousands of protesters storm President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence, swim in his pool, sit at his desk, cook in his kitchen. Sri Lanka — once South Asia's middle-income success story — has run out of foreign exchange to import fuel, food, or medicines. Inflation crosses 70%. Power cuts last 13 hours a day. Schools shut. Gotabaya flees to Maldives, then Singapore, and resigns on 14 July 2022.

India steps in. Over the preceding 6 months, India has extended ~$4 billion in lifelines:

• $400 million currency swap through RBI.
• $1 billion credit line for essentials (food, medicine).
• $1.5 billion in deferred ACU settlement.
• $500 million credit line for fuel.
• Donations of 270,000 MT of food, rice, medicines.

This is the largest single-country bailout of Sri Lanka — larger than Chinese contributions during the same crisis.

Three years earlier — 6 April 2019, during the Easter Sunday bombings when ISIS-linked suicide attackers killed 269 people across three churches and three hotels in Colombo, Negombo, Batticaloa — India had already shared intelligence warnings. Now economic collapse cemented India as Sri Lanka's first responder.

By 2024, Sri Lanka is run by Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) — leader of the JVP-led National People's Power (NPP) alliance — who became President 23 September 2024 and PM 3 December 2024, the first non-traditional party victory in Sri Lankan history. AKD's first foreign visit: India, 15-16 December 2024. The relationship is at a fresh inflection — but two civilisational neighbours joined by Adam's Bridge, 8.5 million Sri Lankan Tamils of Indian-origin, 3 million Indian-origin Plantation Tamils, and 2,500 years of Buddhist civilisational links — will recover.

Why this matters for UPSC

Sri Lanka is India's closest neighbour by maritime distance (separated by Palk Strait + Gulf of Mannar) — and the most strategically positioned in the Indian Ocean SLOC (Sea Lines of Communication). For UPSC:

• Prelims: 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, 13th Amendment, Tamil Eelam War, Easter Sunday 2019, Hambantota Port, fishermen issues, BIMSTEC.
• Mains GS-II: Tamil ethnic question, Chinese debt-trap, economic crisis 2022, Adani projects, energy cooperation.
• Interview: "Has India regained Sri Lanka from China?", "Should India press 13th Amendment?", "Was IPKF a strategic mistake?".