Rajiv Gandhi, the dashing young Prime Minister of India, and J.R. Jayewardene, the wily President of Sri Lanka, put their pens to paper on a historic agreement that would change the course of their nations' futures. The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, signed on a sweltering summer day, aimed to resolve the ethnic conflicts that had long plagued Sri Lanka. Gandhi and Jayewardene's bold move promised a degree of autonomy to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, hoping to soothe the nation's troubled conscience and bring peace to the troubled island.