Indo-Sri Lankan relation spans over a period of 4000 years. There are two major ethnic groups the Sinhalese and Tamils, who trace their origin to India. Both countries Share a historical bond. People of both countries joined together in struggle for freedom from British colonial rule and for a new democratic national identity. Political ties and relations during freedom movement forged new links between them. The significance of India’s interest in Sri Lanka after independence was to promote a policy of good neighbourhood.

There was a contradiction between India and Sri Lanka with relates to Tamil people who settled in Sri Lanka. The long standing problem of accepting the Tamil speaking population of Sri Lanka as its citizens and giving them regional autonomy could not be solved. Hence they protest for their rights but in vain. It resulted in the formation of extremists groups called TULF and LTTE and they opted violence path to achieve their political goal. Government of India deployed Indian Peace Keeping Force to oversee the surrender process of Tamil militants.

Bilateral relations: India and Sri Lanka signed the Free Trade Agreement on December 1998 to promote trade relations effectively between the two countries.

The bilateral trade agreements in 2000 resulted in the marked improvement in the Indo-Sri Lankan trade between 2004 and 2010. The bilateral meeting was held in 2013 and an agreement was signed to combat International Terrorism and illicit drugs trafficking.

The ethnic conflict which continued for over 30 years tore the island nation which ended on May 2009. As per the 13^th Amendment of the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, elections were held to the Northern provincial Council in September 2013 and with this a new facet of Democracy began. Indian Prime Minister visited Sri Lanka after 28 years on March 2015 and this leads to the new era between India and Sri Lanka.