How India became a nuclear power nation? Operation Smiling Buddha
Today, India is a nuclear power country, but it was not so easy to get nuclear power in India’s hands. You need to know the history that India has become so strong today despite the strong opposition of the world’s powerful countries. In fact, it is a natural human tendency that I would never want anyone else to become more powerful than me. This is what is happening in world politics. The five powerful countries of the United Nations always wanted only them to be nuclear powers and no one else. But India never wanted to become a nuclear power to harm other countries. India has always pursued the goal of peace but India’s stand is very clear that anyone who challenges India’s internal security will be dealt with with strong hands. If any country uses nuclear force on India to interfere in India’s internal affairs, India must respond with nuclear force. Besides, India’s position was very clear that India will never use nuclear power against those countries which do not have nuclear power. But even though India made its position clear, powerful countries like the United States of America never wanted India to become a nuclear power. They always had a keen eye on India and even had many intelligence officers and spies moving between India and India who gave them all the internal information inside India. India’s nuclear powerhouses have a long history behind them.
In fact, before World War II, no one had practically any idea that nuclear power could become so harmful to human civilization, but after World War II, when everyone in the world came to know, especially when everyone saw the harmful condition of Japan, nuclear power became a part of everyone’s mind. Negative thinking started to work and the US took this thinking more in their favor. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the United States issued directives to every country that would face severe sanctions if they tested nuclear weapons, and as a result, many countries did not even dare to consider nuclear power. But not afraid of the USA, India successfully conducted its nuclear test in 1974 and became a nuclear power nation. Not many people know this history, the atomic program was started in India during the British occupation in India, although the initiative was very faint. India’s famous atomist Homi Jahangir Bhava created a nuclear-related institute, It was called Tata Institute of Fundamental Nuclear Research. However, India’s nuclear program did not advance much during the British presence in India. India then gained independence from the British and passed the Atomic Policy Act in 1948 which clearly stated that India would pursue its nuclear policy for peaceful purposes. An initiative was then taken by the United Nations, controlled by the world’s most powerful country, the United States of America, to require all countries to sign and stipulate that they would not develop any nuclear weapons in their countries, although there was strong pressure on India to sign the treaty. However, India did not surrender and India did not sign any of the two treaties. At that time, however, many smaller countries were forced to submit to strong pressure from the United States and sign the Nuclear Treaty stating that they could not use any type of nuclear weapon or conduct any kind of nuclear testing. But nowhere in this agreement was it written that the United States of America cannot continue its nuclear tests, that is, no one except the powerful countries of the world can think of nuclear energy. But India did not listen to USA and they started implementing their own policies. In the 1950s, when 14 and a half was going on around the world, India took advantage of the opportunity, that is, no one had time to look at India and during this time India got the opportunity to expand its nuclear power. During this time, a separate organization called the Department of Atomic Energy was established by the Government of India with Homi Jahangir Bhava as its head. Many say that this was the boldest step taken by the Indian government at that time towards India becoming a nuclear power nation. Initially, the Indian government allocated a small amount of its total budget for this project, but gradually the amount of money allocated increased, which means that the Indian government was gradually realizing the need for nuclear power. And within a few days India spent one-third of its total military budget just to implement this project. India then entered into an agreement with Canada and the United States to build a nuclear reactor. The agreement stipulated that the nuclear reactor would be used only for peaceful purposes. India refused to take all the raw materials required for this reactor from Canada. And India told the whole world that they would produce the raw material required for this nuclear reactor themselves. In fact, it was a diplomatic move by India because if India produced uranium directly in its own country, it would have to face the American family, but if it uses uranium in the name of that nuclear reactor, then the United States of America would have nothing to say.
Although India secretly continued its nuclear program, soon the powerful countries of the world became suspicious of India and they began to monitor India, so India was forced to stabilize the pace of its nuclear program towards the end of the decade. Many areas of India went to China ie they read India very badly in that war then India realized that they have to develop a powerful weapon and that can’t be better than nuclear power and especially when India gets help from Russia. Russia could not help India when it went for While Russia was busy solving its own crisis. At this time Russia was involved in the Cuban Mission crisis so it was not possible for her to help India. If India has to implement its nuclear program anyway, India will never be able to stand up to the world powers. So he took huge measures to implement the nuclear program as soon as possible but the death of Jawaharlal Nehru soon put the project on hold. Lal Bahadur Shastri was sworn in as Prime Minister after his death. He was actually a Gandhian. During the few days he was in power, the work of this project did not progress much. But the nuclear program gained momentum when Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister, she secretly allowed the program to go ahead. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi therefore recruited 75 highly trusted scientists to implement the project, and by 1970 she had secretly built a platinum reactor that would provide the raw materials needed for the project. The project was carried out in such secrecy that even the then Defense Minister did not know anything about the project.Only Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her trusted team of 75 scientists and some trusted high-ranking army officers knew about the project. Because Mrs. Indira Gandhi knew that if somehow America or the outside world came to know about these cells then this project would just stop and India would have to face severe sanctions as a result of which the Indian economy would be completely destroyed. India used to produce very little uranium and it was not enough to use nuclear weapons. So this raw material was coming from the nuclear reactor agreement between the whole of India and the United States of America, but no one knew that it was coming very secretly. Even the place where this experiment was conducted was a complete desert and no work was done during the day and all the work was done at night so the project work was surrounded by tight security. It was given a time when India’s nuclear weapons were developed and then it was time to test it to see if it was actually effective. An area called the Rajasthan pokhran was chosen, which was actually a desert. The first nuclear weapon to be tested, called Pokhran 1, weighed about 1400 kg. This empty area in Rajasthan was chosen for the underground test and the atomic bomb was free of radiation as it was being tested only.
The day chosen for the nuclear test was 18 May 1974, which was a holiday and the day was Buddha Purnima, so the operation was named Smiling Buddha. At exactly 8:05 AM, India declared its nuclear test successful. After that, criticism started coming from different countries against India and even the Indian government had to bear criticism from different political parties in its own country because a large part of the people in the country thought that maybe America would impose sanctions on India after that, although actually they imposed sanctions. Although France initially congratulated India, it later withdrew under American pressure. Even the Cannada accused India of violating the treaty with them, so they would not be bound by any treaty with India. Initially, America strongly opposed India but later accepted everything because many people assume that at that time several American projects were going on in India and America did not want those projects to stop working. However, within a few days of this successful test, Pakistan announced that they had successfully conducted the nuclear test and Pakistan was revealed as a nuclear power nation in the world. However, out of the five permanent members of the United Nations, India was the first country to become a nuclear power. That was the story behind me that India is a nuclear power country but it is said by many that the Indian government took a lot of risk at that time if for some reason India’s nuclear test was not successful then India’s economy would have been destroyed by America because of that time the Indian government took a bold step. Today we in India can stand tall in front of Pakistan or the whole world thanks to the government of that time who took this bold step thinking about our future generation.
