The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane

by B. Raman

This book deals largely with those aspects of the working of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), of which the author had personal knowledge while serving in the organization for 26 years. The book traverses through India’s contemporary history—most importantly the 1971 war; insurgency in the Northeast, Punjab, and Kashmir; the Emergency; the war in Afghanistan; and the intelligence imperatives and dispensation under Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, and Narasimha Rao. Written with the purpose that a knowledge of the role played by R&AW in those events would possibly enable a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses, it painstakingly avoids over-statements, exaggerations and spins.

 

Genres: India, Nonfiction, History, Espionage, Politics, Biography, Military Fiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

Bahukutumbi Raman(B. Raman) was an Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India and one-time head of the counter-terrorism division of India's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Until his death in 2013, he was the director of the Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai.



Having been one of the few surviving officers who were a witness to the creation of R&AW during 1968 by RN Kao, his analysis on Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and China have been an asset to the Intelligence community.

As a former intelligence official, B Raman regularly wrote about security, counter-terrorism and military issues regarding India and South Asia. He was a firm believer of Gandhi-Nehru rule, and had often proposed it as a solution to many of India's political uncertainties and socio-economic woes.


B Raman was also a contributor to the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG).