India's Nuclear Titans: Biographical Tales

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

No nation debated more democratically than India on whether to get or give up nuclear power guns,' writes George Perkovich, renowned American political scientist. Right from 1948, when the Atomic Energy Commission was established to the peaceful nuclear explosion in 1974, to Operation Shakti in 1998 when India went overtly nuclear, and then the Indo-US Civil nuclear agreement in 2005, every step was arrived at after much debate and deliberation. Rejecting discriminatory treaties like the NPT, taking a firm stand on the nuclear deterrence theory and standing up to superpowers despite heavy sanctions paved the way for India's nuclear exceptionalism, thereby revealing not only the astounding brilliance and capability of the leaders and thinkers in the field but also India's strong moral and ethical value system, which has played a major role in all its decisions.

The book, India's Nuclear Titans, traces the evolution of India into a nuclear state while analysing the role played by stalwarts like Homi Bhabha, Vikram Sarabhai, Abdul Kalam, Indira Gandhi, K Subrahmanyam, and Arundhati Ghose among others. Through interesting anecdotes from the lives of these great personalities, the book aims to give a brief but complete picture of India's nuclear story.

My father, the Late Jasdev Singh, was very keen that once the original Hindi version of his It was in 2015 that we began our association with the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. We joined the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament (CIPOD) as Research Scholars. Today, as we write, the name JNU unfortunately triggers strong sentiments in the minds of readers. The fact that the book has been edited by two JNUites of the Kanhaiya Kumar period of branded 'anti-nationalism' or 'tudke tukde gang' might have created an unfavourable impression on some causing them to immediately put it down, though we hope you are not prey to such narrow-mindedness. Some may, in turn, want to know what it is that makes JNU stand apart. After all, more recently, JNU alumni have been winning accolades, including Geetanjali Shree, the first Hindi author to win the International Booker Prize!

I am happy to write this foreword for the book Nuclear Titans being brought out by two research scholars of the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament (CIPOD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The initiative to understand the evolution of the unique Indian policy related to nuclear technology through biographical tales of those who directly or indirectly contributed to shaping it is indeed a novel one.

Among various instruments of national power, technology has become the most prominent, being the key driver of critical elements like economic and military strength and public opinion, among others. Soon after the emergence of technology with very high strategic potential, restrictive control regimes usually get established by those who acquired it to secure their pre- eminence and strategic advantage and prevent the emergence of a challenge to their supremacy.

With the use of the atom bomb in the mid-1940s, power dynamics began to be determined by the absence or presence of nuclear weapons with a state. The five nuclear weapon states (NWS) - China, France, Russia (erstwhile USSR), UK and USA - leveraged their position in not just shaping the nuclear regime since the 1960s, but asserted influence in multiple forums through their acquired power, emanating from the possession of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology. While most of the world acquiesced to the nuclear order (with or without pressure), India's position on nuclear weapons was rather complicated. But before we begin with that story, let us understand what a nuclear weapon or technology really is.