India's nuclear nationalism

Achin Vanaik, India's leading campaigner against nuclear weapons, surveys the frightening implications of the recent bomb tests.

Five nuclear tests in all. Perplexity among the large majority of Indians, exultation for a much smaller but still very large number, horror and anger among the relatively small number not besotted by the myths of national "strength".

India was not pushed into this momentous step because of any sudden threat from Pakistan or China. The real reason for the tests is India's aspiration to be seen as a 'great' power and win world 'respect'.

What we have witnessed in India for some time is an insecure, tension-filled mood of frustrated and uncertain nationalism among the elite and middle classes. It is not a coincidence that the party which has pursued the most aggressive and viciously communal form of Hindu nationalism -- the BJP, the dominant force in the current coalition government -- has also been the party with the most aggressively pro-nuclear position.

Fifty years after independence there is a widespread sense within the Indian elite that the country has not 'made it' internationally. China has its economic miracle; smaller far eastern countries are greater success stories; we are a great civilisation, yet we are not listened to. These are the sentiments that dominate and the search for a short-cut to global prestige has become desperate. The sheer lack of sobriety in much of the public response and the near-hysterical character of the adulation is not only pathetic but deeply disturbing because of the out-dated mind-set it reveals.

The BJP has shown by this act that it has no democratic scruples whatsoever. The decision to test was not even discussed beforehand with its coalition partners. Yet the RSS, the so-called cultural organisation which provides the grass-roots backbone of the BJP, was clearly privy to it. Its newspaper, The Organiser, hit the stands barely one hour after the public announcement with an issue devoted to glorification of the (mainly symbolic) 1974 test.

The BJP-RSS are systematically seeking to hijack the discourses of national security and national greatness, and the tests must be seen as part of that project. This project cannot be effectively challenged by doing what the Congress and other opposition parties have done -- clamouring for a share of the credit. The feeble official response of India's two mass communist parties, the CPI and CPM, has been equally disgraceful. The protests of the small and angry band of anti-nuclear activists in India are needed more than ever.

There will be tremendous domestic pressure on Pakistan to carry out its own test in retaliation. If this happens, which is likely, the pressure on India to go a step further and openly deploy nuclear weapons will become intense. Once this occurs, Pakistan will follow suit and we will find ourselves in the midst of a regional nuclear arms race whose consequences no one can foretell.

Since the end of the Cold War there has been hesitant, uneven but nonetheless real world-wide progress to nuclear disarmament. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine (with the third largest arsenal) have given up nuclear weapons status. Three other countries, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina (unlike Israel, India and Pakistan), have given up their 'threshold' status. Strategic stockpiles have been significantly reduced, tactical missiles removed, nuclear weapons-free zones have spread and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was signed (though not by India). This momentum is threatened with the likely entry, for the first time in 34 years, of two new entrants to the nuclear club (India and Pakistan), which will encourage others (North Korea, Iran, Iraq) to do the same.

China will have to view India with new eyes and quietly reorganise its strategic nuclear preparations. Neither in word nor deed (as opposed to the fevered speculations of Indian 'experts') has China behaved as if India was a potential nuclear opponent. However, this is exactly what India has now done vis-a-vis China. By doing so it will force China to become a potential rival. The insanity of 'deterrence' has prevailed.

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