M.R. Narayan Swamy is no stranger to the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka. His earlier work, Inside an Elusive Mind, included in this volume, remains one of the most definitive accounts of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the founder of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In The Rout of Prabhakaran, he turns his attention to the final years of the Tamil Tigers, methodically dissecting how an organisation that once struck terror into the hearts of its enemies was wiped off the face of the earth.
This is not just a war story. It is an autopsy of a man and a movement that overestimated its strength, underestimated its enemies, and ultimately condemned an entire people to suffering.

For many, Prabhakaran was an enigma. He was a man who inspired fanatical loyalty among his followers, a ruthless commander who demanded absolute discipline, and a zealot who believed in his own invincibility. Yet, he was also a paradox, a man who doted on his own children while sending thousands of Tamil boys and girls to die in battle. He forbade his cadres from falling in love, punishing violators with death, while he himself married the woman of his choice. He claimed to be fighting for the Tamil people but did not hesitate to execute fellow Tamils who questioned his authority.
The author dismantles the romanticised image of Prabhakaran with clinical precision. Through extensive interviews and meticulous research, he presents a man who ruled through fear and deception, convinced that he alone knew what was best for the Tamil people.

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One of the biggest turning points in the Sri Lankan conflict was India’s intervention and its disastrous deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). The book provides a detailed account of how the Indian military, unprepared for guerrilla warfare, was drawn into a brutal conflict against the LTTE, an enemy that fought by its own rules.
The LTTE’s tactics were not just brutal but also morally bankrupt. This reviewer had spoken to a senior Indian Army officer who served in Sri Lanka. He was given a chilling firsthand account of how the Tigers operated. In one instance, a convoy of Indian soldiers was ambushed when a remote-controlled bomb blew up one of their trucks, causing heavy casualties.

When the area was searched, a boy was found hiding in a tree, trembling in fear, a remote still clutched in his hands. He had been given simple instructions — if he saw an Army vehicle cross between two marks on the road, he was to press the button. He had no idea that doing so would kill several people. The Indian soldiers interrogated him, but he knew nothing beyond his small role in the attack.
While this incident reflects the themes explored in the book; how the LTTE’s war machine manipulated even the youngest members of the Tamil community, turning them into instruments of destruction. Prabhakara”s biggest blunder, and the one that ultimately sealed his fate, was the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Narayan Swamy delves into the intricate planning behind the murder, the trail of evidence left behind, and how Indian investigators painstakingly pieced it all together.

It all began with an SLR camera found at the assassination site, containing images of Gandhi’s final moments, especially one of the suicide bomber, a woman strapped with explosives, leaning towards him. Prabhakaran, ever the megalomaniac, allegedly wanted photographic proof of Gandhi’s death.
With that single act, Prabhakaran turned India from a potential ally into a sworn enemy. The LTTE lost its last source of significant external support. The book illustrates how this marked the beginning of the end for the Tamil Tigers.
For all his tactical brilliance, Prabhakaran was blind to the changing realities of the world. He believed, until the very end, that the Sri Lankan Army could be defeated. He refused to accept negotiations, dismissing any settlement that fell short of full independence. He did not realise that by the 2000s, global patience for violent insurgencies had worn thin.
The author illustrates how, by the final stages of the war, Prabhakaran had become completely detached from reality. As the Sri Lankan Army closed in, he and his loyalists retreated further into denial. The man who once dictated the course of a brutal civil war now found himself boxed into a shrinking patch of land, abandoned by allies, and despised by the very people he claimed to represent.
His decision to expel thousands of Muslims from LTTE-controlled areas revealed the hypocrisy of his movement. He accused the Sinhalese of ethnic cleansing, yet he was no different. His arrogance led him to believe he could rewrite history. Instead, he became history.

The true tragedy of Prabhakaran’s legacy is not his death, but what he left behind. After 25 years of bloodshed, the Tamil cause was in ruins. Sri Lankan Tamils, once a proud and self-sufficient community, were reduced to refugees in their own land. As one former LTTE cadre bitterly admitted, “In 1983, we Tamils were at least standing on our own feet. After a quarter-century of bloodshed, today we are on bended knees”.
The only winners in the ethnic conflict were those who fled Sri Lanka and rebuilt their lives in Western countries. For those left behind, Prabhakaran’s dream of Tamil Eelam was a nightmare that never ended. The Rout of Prabhakaran is not just a book about a warlord and his downfall. It is a cautionary tale about the dangers of extremism, the perils of blind loyalty, and the devastating cost of a misguided struggle.
Narayan Swamy’s narrative is gripping, his analysis razor-sharp. He neither demonises nor glorifies; he simply presents the facts as they are. And the facts make it clear that Prabhakaran was no hero. He was a delusional tyrant who led his people into an abyss. For anyone seeking to understand why the LTTE met its brutal end, this book is indispensable. For those who still romanticise Prabhakaran, it is a necessary wake-up call.

The author is a senior journalist and columnist.