R&AW at 58: How India Built Its Eyes Beyond the Border

India’s intelligence architecture was shaped by some of the country’s most difficult security experiences.

The 1962 war with China exposed serious gaps in India’s understanding of developments beyond its borders. Three years later, Pakistan’s Operation Gibraltar and the infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir once again highlighted the importance of knowing what an adversary was planning before military confrontation began.

Until then, the Intelligence Bureau was responsible for both internal and external intelligence. But the lessons of the 1960s led to a fundamental change.

On 21 September 1968, India established the Research and Analysis Wing — R&AW — as a dedicated external intelligence organisation.

At the centre of its creation was R.N. Kao, an intelligence officer who had already played a significant role in building India’s capabilities, including the Aviation Research Centre. K. Sankaran Nair became the organisation’s deputy chief, while Prime Minister Indira Gandhi provided the political backing for the new agency.

R&AW’s first major test came soon after, amid the crisis in East Pakistan. Its intelligence networks and covert capabilities became an important part of India’s preparations for the 1971 war and the eventual creation of Bangladesh.

Its early history also includes the little-discussed Sikkim chapter. From the political turmoil surrounding the Chogyal to Sikkim’s eventual integration with India in 1975, intelligence played a role in one of the most consequential developments in India’s post-Independence history.

But the intelligence landscape has changed dramatically since 1968.

Human networks remain important, but today’s intelligence environment also involves satellite imagery, cyber capabilities, signals intelligence, open-source information, data analysis and rapidly evolving technologies.

On this week’s Defence Mantra, Neelanjana Banerjee and Nitin A. Gokhale revisit R&AW’s origins, examine its role in some of India’s defining security challenges and discuss how the mission of external intelligence has evolved over 58 years.

Because before a soldier fights a war, someone has to see it coming.