Why did I pick up “Redlines Redrawn: Operation Sindoor and India’s New Normal?” Firstly, I thought that the book coming out after six months would lift the veil of some fake claims from both sides of that period. Secondly, having deployed in active CI Operations in and around Pahalgam including the first protection of the Amarnath Yatra in 1990 was to get me back to my memory lane. Lastly, having dealt with the subject of Terrorists and their Camps in Pakistan in early 2000s was keen to know about the changes. 

In War, truth is the first outright casualty; it is more often buried under competing narratives, selective leaks, emotional rhetoric of claims, counter claims and strategic deception. This was the case in this short conflict as well. Redlines Redrawn: Operation Sindoor and India’s New Normal arrives in precisely such a contested information environment. Appearing several months after the short but intense India–Pakistan confrontation of May 2025, the book seeks to move beyond headlines and propaganda to reconstruct what happened, why it happened, and what it signifies for the future.

For a reader unfamiliar with the complex historical, political, and military context of the subcontinent, this volume performs an essential service. It explains not only the operational details of Operation Sindoor, but also the deeper strategic logic that underpinned India’s actions and the doctrinal shift they represent. It is best read as a carefully argued case that India has entered a new phase in managing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism—one that fuses military precision, technological maturity, and calibrated escalation control.

Authored by Major General (Dr) Bipin Bakshi, Air Marshal Rajesh Kumar, Ambassador Anil Trigunayat, and Brigadier Akhelesh Bhargava, the book brings together four practitioners from distinct domains: land warfare, airpower, diplomacy, and strategic analysis. Their collaboration gives the narrative both a technical depth and policy relevance through a smooth flow of events duly documented with references rather than fragmented events.

The book has been chapterized into Eight Chapters starting with State-Sponsored Terror. The opening chapter establishes a fundamental premise: Operation Sindoor cannot be understood in isolation. Since the mid-1980s, Pakistan’s military establishment has increasingly relied on “Proxy War through Terrorism” as an “Instrument of State Foreign Policy” against India. Having failed to........

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