Indians, starting with members of the strategic community, are peeved at Sri Lanka granting permission for the dual-purpose Chinese naval research vessel, Yuan Wang 5, to dock at Hambantota Port despite continuing efforts by New Delhi to mitigate the hardships caused by the continuing economic crisis in the island-nation. But were they alive to the realities of bilateral strategic relations – both in the distant past and the present – they would not have as much cause for complaint.
It is thus that the majority Sinhala-Buddhists have not forgiven the Chola rulers for allegedly plundering and ravaging their kingdoms a thousand-plus years ago. In more recent times, they feared in the midst of the ‘Bangladesh War’ (1971) that they would be the next target of the ‘hegemonic India’; a decade later, India did begin supporting and training Tamil militant groups, including the LTTE.