ABSTRACT
India’s strategic elite In reference to the works of Paul Chilton et al. (Chilton 1985) on the language of nuclear discourses, Nizamani (2000) introduced the expression ‘nukespeakers’ to refer to leaders of the nuclear discourses in both India and Pakistan. Nukespeak, in his definition, not only aims at providing an appropriate medium for expression but also creates a social reality of its own, thus rendering dissenting modes of thought difficult, if not impossible. Similarly, one of the main aims of this study is to identify this particular language and to decode its meanings. A precondition for this is the identification of the leaders of the nuclear discourse. Instead of referring to these leaders as ‘nukespeakers’, however, this study refers to them as India’s ‘strategic elite’.
