The making of the Indian atomic bomb : science, secrecy and the postcolonial state

In 1974 India exploded an atomic device. In May 1998 the new BJP government exploded several more, encountering in the process domestic plaudits, but international condemnation and a nuclear arms race in south Asia.

This book provides an historical account of the development of nuclear power in India and of how the bomb came to be made.

But what was its significance? the author questions orthodox interpretations implying that it was a product of the Indo-Pakistani conflict.

Instead, he suggests that the explosions had nothing to do with national security as conventionally understood.

He demonstrates the linkages that existed between the two apparently separate discourses of national security and national development, and offers an argument about the Indian state and its post-colonial crisis of legitimacy.