K. Sankaran Nair (20 December 1919 – 17 November 2015), known as Colonel Menon among his colleagues, was an Indian civil servant, diplomat and the director of Research and Analysis Wing. He served as the Indian High Commissioner to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

from 1986 to 1988 and was the last surviving member of the Indian Imperial Police. He was reported to have played a crucial role in the formation of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, through R&AW operations during the Bangladesh Liberation War. His memoirs, ''Inside IB and RAW: A Rolling Stone that Gathered Moss'', published in 2008 made news for the insider details it contained about two of the highest intelligence agencies in India. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, in 1983, for his contributions to society.

Biography

Sankaran Nair was born on 20 December 1919 at

Ottapalam Ottapalam, (also spelled Ottappalam) is a town, taluk and municipality in the Palakkad District, Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ottapalam taluk. Ottapalam is located about 36 km from district headquarters Palakkad. ...

, in

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

district of the south Indian state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

and did his graduate studies at

Loyola College, Chennai Loyola College is a private Catholic higher education institution run by the Society of Jesus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded in 1925 by the French Jesuit priest, Francis Bertram, along with other European Jesuits. It is an auton ...

. Subsequently, he pursued studies in Law but abandoned it midway when he was inducted into the Indian Imperial Police. After the Indian independence, he continued at the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and in 1959, went to

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

to successfully complete the IB assignment of establishing Ghana's Intelligence Agency, returning to India after two years. In the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, he was involved in the investigations against Intelligence Bureau on allegations of ineptitude, and was reported to have submitted 65 reports to the investigation committee. When Research and Analysis Wing was formed in 1968 as a splinter agency of IB, Nair became the deputy of Rameshwar Nath Kao, the founder director of the agency. During the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, he was in-charge of the operations there and his contributions in training the

Mukti Bahini The Mukti Bahini ( bn, মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as 'freedom fighters', or liberation army), also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary ...

guerrillas are reported to have played a vital role in the successful liberation of Bangladesh. After Kao's resignation from R&AW in 1977 (reports suggest that he was forced to demit office), Nair succeeded him as the director but his tenure lasted only three months as he resigned from the post, reportedly in protest, when

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...

, the then Prime Minister of India, downgraded the position of the director of R&AW from rank of a Cabinet Secretary. He was moved to Minority Commission as its secretary from where he superannuated in December 1978. However, he was involved with R&AW operations again with the accession of Indira Gandhi to power again in 1980, and was known to have contributed to the restructuring of the agency. In 1981, he was given the responsibility of the Secretary General of the

1982 Asian Games The 9th Asian Games ( hi, 1982 एशियाई खेल) were held from 19 November to 4 December 1982, in Delhi, India. 74 Asian and Asian Games records were broken at the event. This was also the first Asiad to be held under the aegis of t ...

and four years later, in 1986, he was appointed as the High Commissioner of India to

, holding the post until his retirement from active service in 1988. The

awarded him the civilian honour of the

in 1983. In 2008, he published his memoirs, ''Inside IB and R&AW: The Rolling Stone that Gathered Moss'', which narrated his official life at Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing and the book featured many notable personalities such as

Sanjay Gandhi Sanjay Gandhi (14 December 1946 23 June 1980) was an Indian politician and the younger son of Indira Gandhi and Feroze Gandhi. He was a member of parliament, Lok Sabha and the Nehru–Gandhi family. During his lifetime, he was widely expected ...

, V. C. Shukla, Indira Gandhi, R. N. Kao, Y. B. Chavan and Rajiv Gandhi. The book discussed about the lapses during the

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

of 1962 and the

Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. The conflict began following Pakistan's Operation Gibraltar, which was d ...

as well as several inside information in Indian politics and reportedly made news. He died on 17 November 2015 at his daughter's residence in Bengaluru where he spent his last years, at the age of 95, survived by the daughter; his wife had preceded him in death three years earlier.

Biography

See also

References

Further reading