India & Its NeighboursBook note
India's Nuclear Bomb
Description. A short description of a book from my bookshelf, not a review.
Perkovich's detailed history covers India's nuclear programme from Homi Bhabha's early work under Nehru through the 1974 'peaceful nuclear explosion' at Pokhran to the tests of May 1998. He follows the scientists, politicians and officials who drove or resisted the programme over five decades.
His central argument is that domestic politics, national identity and the pursuit of status mattered as much as external threats from China and Pakistan. Based on extensive research and interviews, it remains the standard scholarly account of the subject.
From the bookshelf · read 2019–2020