What is this organisation, its structure, its role and vision?
Why was it set up? Who are the people that run it?
Set up in 1968, as a reaction to india's massive intelligence fallure during the war with China, R&AW played a crucial role in the formation of Bangladesh. It has since carried out highly successful covert operations in Fiji, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and has countered and foiled Pakistani spy agency IST'S machinations in the subcontinent. R&AW has operations in other parts of the globe too; it played an important role during the Iran-Iraq war, for instance.
No country can increase its global reach without intelligence support. That India has made enormous strides in its stature and influence is testimony to R&AW's success. Yet, public accounts of its work exist only in highly romanticised fictional stories. Investigative journalist Yatish Yadav follows the lives of real agents and maps their actions in real situations. His conversations with indian spies provide insights into how covert operations actually work. RAW: A History of India's Covert Operations is the first comprehensive account of Indian spy networks and their intelligence gathering, and their role in securing and advancing Indian interests.
For these two hundred former IB officers, the R&AW offered glamour and anonymity in uncharted territory. Those who remained in the domestic intelligence organisation continued to taunt them for the next few years.
Rameshwar Nath Kao, the founder of R&AW, knew that he and his team couldn't afford to fail. They didn't. The success of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 caused a churn within the R&AW. Eventually, it began to look for specialised intelligence operatives with skills beyond the IB legacy. The first batch of the Research & Analysis Service (RAS) officers came into being in 1971. The officers were raw talent, recruited on the basis of rigorous scrutiny involving written exams and expertise in spy tradecraft. Unlike the IB network, which was manned by Indian Police Service (IPS) officers with direct recruits for the lower ranks, the R&AW finally had its own cadre. Even IPS officers who had joined the R&AW from the IB were encouraged to join the RAS permanently.
I have also benefitted from the generous help and suggestions of many former R&AW and Foreign Service officers who shared intricate facts on some of the complex events. I owe profound thanks to my closest friends, Dalip Singh, Ajmer Singh and Gyanant Singh. This book has had many inspirations. But two people stand out for encouraging me to go beyond 800 words: Ravi Shankar, a senior journalist and Karthika V.K., the publisher of Westland. Special thanks to my editor Kushal Gulab who worked on the structure and content of the manuscript with great skill and complete devotion. I also wish to express my gratitude to other outstanding members of Westland Publications for their immense contributions, especially Niyati Bhat and Vidhi Bhargava. My family deserves special mention for accepting m abrupt absence from their lives at regular intervals since writ this book has been consuming.
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