Indian Nuclear Policy ― Oxford India Short Introductions

India's first Prime, Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundations of an elaborate atomic energy program in 1948, just a year after India's independence. Yet, it took Indian decision-makers more than 50 years to declare the country a nuclear-weapon state in May 1998. Once India crossed the nuclear rubicon, it has managed to transform itself into a major nuclear power. This short introduction provides a clear and succinct account of the evolution of Indian nuclear policy over seven decades since Independence. Situating India's nuclear behaviour in its quest for global status, demands of national security, vagaries of domestic politics and the idiosyncrasies of the individuals who led its nuclear program, it explains how India's engagement with the atom is unique in international nuclear history and politics.

Utilizing the recently declassified archival documents and oral history interviews, the five chapters follow a linear historical narrative explaining how India's nuclear pioneers established the nuclear program after independence; India's development of a 'nuclear weapons option after the Chinese nuclear test of 1964; its nuclear refrain after the 1974 PNE; its pathways to nuclearisation in the decade of 1980s and 1990s; and finally its rise as a nuclear weapons power after the 1998 nuclear test.

Harsh V Pant, Professor, Defence Studies Department and the India Institute, King's College, London,Yogesh Joshi, Nuclear Security Post-Doctoral Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Stanford University

Harsh V Pant is distinguished fellow and head of strategic studies at Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. He holds a joint appointment as professor of International Relations in Defence Studies Department and the India Institute at King's College London. He is also a non-resident fellow with the Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC. His current research is focused on Asian security issues. His most recent books include Indian Foreign Policy: An Overview (Manchester University Press, and OrientBlack Swan), Handbook of Indian Defence Policy (Routledge), and The US-India Nuclear Pact: Policy, Process and Great Power Politics (Oxford University Press). Pant is a columnist for the Diplomat and writes regularly for various media outlets including the Japan Times, the Wall Street Journal, the National (UAE), and the Indian Express.


Yogesh Joshi is a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at Center for International Security and

Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University. He has a PhD in International Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University specializing in Indian foreign and security policy. He has held fellowships at George Washington University, King's College London and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC. He has co-authored two books: The US 'Pivot' and Indian Foreign Policy: Asia's Emerging Balance of Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and India and Nuclear Asia: Forces, Doctrines and Dangers (Georgetown University Press, Forthcoming 2018). At Stanford, he is finishing a book manuscript on the history of India's nuclear submarine program.