Will India’s acquisition of nuclear weapons enhance the country’s security? Has the decision to go nuclear prevented war between India and Pakistan? What was the politics behind the Indian government’s decision to conduct the nuclear tests of May 1998? Did the scientific community pressurise the Indian government to go nuclear? Have Indian scientists been unethical in embracing the nuclear weapons programme? Is China a threat to India’s security? How do China and Pakistan perceive India as a nuclear weapons state? What are the economic consequences of India’s acquisition of nuclear weapons? Can a command and control system contain the risks inherent to nuclear weapons? What are the environmental costs of India’s nuclear programme? In this volume, some of South Asia’s best minds address these and related questions on the political, scientific, strategic, economic and environmental aspects of India’s decision to proceed with the nuclear weapons programme. The writers include Kanti Bajpai, Admiral L. Ramdas, Amartya Sen, Amulya Reddy and Jean Dreze. While much has been said in India, in defence of the nuclear tests of 1998, there is also a strong body of opinion which questions India’s decision to become a nuclear weapons state. The essays in Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream are representative of this critique. They have been written for the general reader concerned about the important issue of the production of weapons of mass destruction in South Asia.
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