Harsh V Pant - Indian Nuclear Policy: Oxford India Short Introductions

OXFORD
INDIA SHORT
INTRODUCTIONS

INDIAN NUCLEAR
POLICY

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OXFORD INDIA SHORT INTRODUCTIONS

INDIAN NUCLEAR POLICY

HARSH V. PANT

YOGESH JOSHI

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Contents

India has travelled a long distance from being a nuclear pariah to a de facto member of the nuclear club. As India continues to search for its complete integration into the global nuclear order, this book explores the trajectory of Indian nuclear policy from the early days since Independence to the present. In so doing, it hopes to underline key debates, both policy and conceptual, that have shaped this trajectory.

This is a huge subject but the constraints of Oxford India Short Introductions (OISI) series forced us to be more focused and disciplined in our approach. We would like to thank the editors at Oxford University Press for patiently working with us on the project till completion. Thanks to Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, where both of us were based during the conception and completion of the project. We are especially thankful to Gaurav Sharma who generously shared his PhD dissertation on India and nuclear disarmament with us, as well as to Akshay Ranade and Ketan Mehta for their help in preparing the bibliography. This book would not have been possible without the time so many members of the Indian scientific, defence, and foreign policy establishment gave us, sharing their views and ideas. Finally, we owe a deep debt of gratitude to our respective families whose support has kept us afloat in more ways than one.

This book is dedicated to our teachers who have shaped our intellectual trajectories. Nothing would have been possible without them.

Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundations of an elaborate atomic energy programme in April 1948, less than a year after Indias independence. Yet, it took Indian decision-makers more than 50 years to declare the country a nuclear weapon state in May 1998. For the first five decades of Indias independence, its nuclear policy remained highly ambivalent. On the one hand, it continuously strived to develop all aspects of atomic energy, including an explosive nuclear capability. On the other, it maintained a moral and political commitment to peaceful uses of nuclear energy and vouched vehemently for nuclear disarmament. This ambivalence was partly situated in the duality of the atom: it could be used for peaceful as well as destructive purposes. It was also a result of the ideological dimension of Indian foreign policy and Indias relative lack of material power. In fact, this ambivalence continued despite changes in Indias security environment and transitions in domestic politics and individual leadership. Yet, over the years, the weight of all these factors shifted continuously towards a point where ambiguity could not be sustained further. Therefore, rather than consciously choosing a nuclear weapons path, India was almost forced into being a nuclear weapons state. And once India crossed the nuclear rubicon in May 1998, it managed to transform itself into a major nuclear power. Also, within two decades of this event, India is not only making rapid technological advancement in its nuclear capability but has also managed to get accommodated in the global nuclear order. It is the only nuclear weapon state apart from the five established nuclear powers which is legally allowed to have both a nuclear weapons programme and a civilian nuclear energy programme. India is determined towards full integration in the global nuclear order, evident in its bid to become a member of technology control regimes such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). This transition in Indias nuclear identity has been accompanied by its transformation into a major economic power and underlines a pragmatic turn in its foreign policy thinking since the end of the Cold War.