Fishing in the Troubled Waters: Fishermen Issue in India–Sri Lanka Relations N. Manoharan Madhumati Deshpande Abstract India’s relations with its neighbours in the maritime domain have received less scholarly attention. Those studies that deal with India’s relations with its South Asian neighbours generally touch on political security, socio-cultural and economic issues. The maritime aspect is either ignored or tucked in as a part of other dimensions. The present study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by taking up the case of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is chosen as a case, not only because the island state is India’s closest maritime neighbour but also due to the existence of deep interactions between the two countries in diverse fields both at governmental and non-governmental levels. In the maritime domain, in the present context, technically speaking, there is no problem between the two countries. However, the fishermen issue remains one of the issues principally because of the Tamil Nadu factor. Analysing the issue in five phases, the study argues for a ‘comprehensive approach’ for its settlement. 1 Keywords Kachchathivu, LTTE, bottom trawling, uti possidetis juris, Wadge Bank, Rameswaram, IUCN, fisheries line, Operation Tasha, EEZ, tsunami The Context Bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka are characterised by both ups and downs. India is not only Sri Lanka’s closest but also an important and powerful neighbour in every aspect: territorial extent, population size, economic strength, military might and diplomatic standing. Relations between the two neighbours stretch to more than two millennia in wide-ranging areas—political, economic, socio-cultural and military areas. Common colonial experience under Britain led India Quarterly 74(1) 73–91 © 2018 Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) SAGE Publications sagepub.in/home.nav DOI: 10.1177/0974928417749643 http://journals.sagepub.com/home/iqq Article Corresponding author: N. Manoharan. E-mail: manoharan.n@christuniversity.in