25th anniversary of Pokhran-II: India’s journey to become a nuclear power

25th anniversary of Pokhran-II: India’s journey to become a nuclear power

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Nuclear energy

Context:

India successfully conducted three nuclear bomb test explosions at the testing site in Pokhran on May 11, 1998. While these tests caused an international outcry at the time, they cemented India’s status as a nuclear power

India’s Nuclear Journey:

• India’s nuclear programme can be traced to the work of physicist Homi J Bhaba. In 1945, after Bhaba’s successful lobbying of India’s biggest industrial family, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was opened in Bombay. TIFR was India’s first research institution dedicated to the study of nuclear physics.
• Post independence, with continuous effort from Homi J Bhaba in 1954, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was founded, with Bhabha as director.
• A pivotal moment in India’s nuclear journey came after it suffered a crushing defeat in the 1962 Sino-Indian War and China’s subsequent nuclear bomb test at Lop Nor in 1964.
• Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri first tried to attain nuclear guarantees from established nuclear weapons states, when such guarantees did not emerge, a different route had to be taken.
• Things were further accelerated, when in 1965, India went to war with Pakistan once again, with China openly supporting Pakistan this time. Effectively, India was surrounded by two unfriendly nations, and needed to take steps towards building self-sufficiency.
• By the 1960s, discourse around nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation had shifted to the mainstream as the Cold War arms pushed the US and the USSR to great extremes.
• After China successfully tested its own bomb, there was increasing international consensus among the big powers regarding the need for a non-proliferation treaty.

The “discriminatory” NPT

• In 1968, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into existence.
• The treaty defines nuclear-weapon states as those that have built and tested a nuclear explosive device before January 1, 1967 – the US, Russia (formerly USSR), the UK, France and China – and effectively disallows any other state from acquiring nuclear weapons.
• While the treaty has been signed by almost every country in the world, India is one of the non signatories.

Pokhran-I and its aftermath

• By the 1970s, India was capable of conducting a nuclear bomb test. Bhaba’s successor at the DAE, Vikram Sarabhai had worked to significantly broaden India’s nuclear technology.
• On May 18, 1974, with support from Indira, India carried out its first nuclear test at the Pokhran test site. Pokhran-I, codenamed Operation Smiling Buddha, would be billed as a “peaceful nuclear explosion”, with “few military implications”.
• However, there was near-universal condemnation and countries like the US and Canada imposed significant international sanctions on India. These sanctions would be a major setback for India’s nuclear journey, and majorly decelerate its progress.
• In 1983, the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) funding was increased and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was put in charge of India’s missile programme.
• That year, India also developed capabilities to reprocess plutonium to weapons grade. Furthermore, throughout the decade, India exponentially increased its plutonium stockpiles.
• With the fall of the USSR in 1991, India lost one of its biggest military allies, since the time Indira Gandhi had signed a 20-year security pact with it in 1971.
• Furthermore, the US continued to provide military aid to Pakistan despite its own misgivings with its nuclear weapons programme.

Pokhran-II: projecting India’s strength

• In March 1998, Pakistan launched the Ghauri missile – built with assistance from China. Two months later, India responded with Operation Shakti.
• While the 1974 tests were ostensibly done for peaceful purposes, the 1998 tests were the culmination of India’s nuclear weaponisation process. Consequently, the Indian Government declared itself as a state possessing nuclear weapons following Pokhran-II.
• While the tests in 1998 also invited sanctions from some countries (like the US), the condemnation was far from universal like in 1974.