09 March 2013

Asian Security - Operation Lal Dora: India's Aborted Military Intervention in Mauritius

Asian Security
Volume 9, Issue 1, 2013

DOI:10.1080/14799855.2012.761208
David Brewster & Ranjit Rai 
pages 62-74

As India expands its strategic reach in the Indian Ocean, it will need friends that it can count on. The island state of Mauritius has long been one of India's closest allies in the region. This article discusses India's plans for a military intervention in Mauritius in 1983 to prevent a feared coup that may have threatened India's interests. A naval task force was readied, but the intervention did not proceed because of disagreements in India's leadership. Instead New Delhi facilitated a political solution to the crisis that firmly consolidated its special role. This previously undisclosed episode sheds light on India's thinking about the Indian Ocean, the alignment of India's interests with the United States, and India's military capabilities.

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