ABSTRACT
When the American atomic bombs devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Gandhi had characterized the bomb as the most "diabolical use of science".2 Why did India require them more than four decades later?3 For decades, its leaders pursued an independent and non-aligned foreign and defence policy. Simultaneously, India was critical of selective non-proliferation without disarmament. Permanent extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty without commitment to disarmament exposed the recalcitrance of the nuclear weapon states to realize a global abolition of those weapons. The unwillingness of the great powers in the post-Cold War international order to institute reforms in the United Nations system forced countries, especially those outside the alliance system, to develop national capabilities more seriously than before. Iraq and North Korea pursued clandestine nuclear programmes. China, a nuclear power with a permanent seat in the U.N. Security Council, had territorial disputes with India. France, which had given assurances that it would exercise utmost restraint in nuclear testing, regressed from its earlier moratorium.
