ABSTRACT
How could India’s nuclear history and the role it played in global nuclear affairs be explained – as a template reflection of India’s foreign policy the way it evolved over more than seven decades or as one of the significant policy areas that were moulded by the grand strategic paradigms developed by Indian leaderships over the decades? This chapter approaches this question by examining the ‘nuclear’ leg of Indian foreign policy traversing three political epochs – post-colonial era, non-alignment phase and the realist tilt of post-Cold War – and arguing that national interest remained a constant through these phases irrespective of the ideational orientation. Through a holistic analysis of India’s nuclear history, the chapter narrates the struggles the leaderships confronted in charting a nuclear policy that mirrored its grand strategic outlook along with their sustained attempts to influence politics of the global nuclear order.
