IPKF - The Forgotten War

Major Ramaswamy Parameshwaran - The Only IPKF PVC

Major Parameshwaran is the sole PVC recipient from Operation Pawan - India's peacekeeping mission in Sri Lanka (1987-1990). Ambushed by LTTE militants, he charged into them, snatched a rifle from the militant who shot him, and killed him. The IPKF mission cost India over 1,200 soldiers - a forgotten sacrifice.

The Forgotten War

Between 1987 and 1990, over 100,000 Indian soldiers fought in a war that most Indians have forgotten. Not on their own soil, not against Pakistan or China, but in the jungles and villages of northern Sri Lanka. They fought against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - an organization that had mastered guerrilla warfare and would later become the world's most sophisticated terrorist group.

This was Operation Pawan - India's peacekeeping mission in Sri Lanka. It was meant to be a simple intervention to enforce peace. It became India's Vietnam - a brutal, grinding conflict that claimed over 1,200 Indian lives and wounded more than 3,000.

From this forgotten war emerged one hero who received India's highest wartime gallantry award - Major Ramaswamy Parameshwaran of 8 Mahar Regiment.

The Road to Sri Lanka

By 1987, Sri Lanka was in chaos. The civil war between the Sinhalese government and Tamil separatists had created a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of refugees fleeing to Tamil Nadu. India initially supported the Tamil cause but grew alarmed at the LTTE's ruthless methods and its destabilizing effect on the region.

The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 1987 was meant to end the conflict. India would send a peacekeeping force to disarm the militants and ensure a peaceful transition. The LTTE initially agreed to surrender weapons.

But peace was not what the LTTE wanted. Within weeks, they had resumed fighting - this time against the Indian Peace Keeping Force. The IPKF found itself in an impossible situation: fighting a guerrilla war in unfamiliar terrain, against an enemy that looked like the population they were meant to protect, bound by rules of engagement designed for peacekeeping rather than combat.

Major Ramaswamy Parameshwaran

Major Ramaswamy Parameshwaran - "Parry Sahib" to his men - was born on September 13, 1946, in Bangalore. He was commissioned into the Mahar Regiment in 1972 after graduating from the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai.