From Wikipedia -
Regime change is the forcible or coerced replacement of one government regime with another. Regime change may replace all or part of the state's most critical leadership system, administrative apparatus, or bureaucracy.
My previous question was about China. Now, I am interested in India.
Did India ever try to change regimes in any country successfully or unsuccessfully?
The "obvious" one: The 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, which brought about regime change in East Pakistan/Bangladesh.
In 1971, following a devastating typhoon, rebels in what is now Bangladesh began an independence campaign. The Government, based in "West" Pakistan responded violently and a quite brutal civil war ensued.
It the end of 1971, and following attacks from West Pakistan on India, India began a full-scale military operation in support of the rebels. This resulted in the defeat of the Pakistani government in Bangladesh, and the creation of a new Bangladeshi government in that region.
The actions of India in the Indo-Pakistan war were clearly intended to bring about regime change in East Pakistan.
While there are a few cases of annexation or independence that may qualify, such as Goa in 1961 or the 1971 conflict that resulted in the independence of Bangladesh, in those cases the respective national governments, Portugal and Pakistan, continued to exist, only losing pieces of their territory.
Another candidate in modern India (since its independence from Britain) is the Kingdom of Sikkim. This kingdom had been made a British protectorate, and was reclassified as an Indian protectorate after the latter's independence, meaning that it was nominally (and in large part practically) a self-governing country, but represented by India in international affairs. In 1975, in the wake of the election of a legislature favorable to India and resistance by the governing monarchy to closer relations with India, PM Indira Gandhi sent troops into the country to take control of the palace. There was then a referendum on the monarchy held while the country was under Indian control, resulting in its elimination (a change of regime) after which the new republic was annexed by India.
Note: While India's participation in the Somali Civil War might seem to be a much more obvious case, since the coalition forces tried to broker the formation of a national government, it is unclear whether there existed a pre-existing regime to change. At the time that the coalition forces entered the war, the country was in a fairly anarchic state, with control disputed between more than a dozen armed groups.
There is also the example of the Sri Lankan civil war. India initially supported the various Tamil Militias and provided them training so as to make sure they were not wiped out in the Genocidal policies of the Sinhalese dominated govt. against them. Indian support helped them take control of vast regions of northern and eastern Sri Lanka from the democratically elected Sinhalese dominated govt. However later, after peace talks India started opposing the dominant Tamil Military group the LTTE, which killed various Sri Lankan heads of states and regional governments and even assassinated an Indian Prime Minister.
