War and Peace in the Nuclear Age; Interview with Lakshmi Jha, 1987
Description:
Lakshmi Jha held several senior posts in the Indian government in the 1960s and 1970s, including Secretary to the Prime Minister, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and Ambassador to the United States. The interview touches on a series of events affecting India during this period and their impact on India's thinking about nuclear weapons. He describes some of the personal relationships involving key politicians and scientists such as Prime Ministers Nehru and Shastri, and the physicist Homi Bhabha. In his view, a number of regional events, notably the Sino-Indian war of 1962 followed by China's 1964 nuclear test, dramatically altered India's sense of its own security "for the worse." Jha played a part in the development of India's attitude toward the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, adopted by Indira Gandhi, which held that the superpowers would be granted a monopoly over nuclear weapons to the potential detriment of local powers. The alternative he proposed was to get the superpowers to agree to come to the aid of any country threatened by a nuclear power. The interview touches on Jha's interactions with the British, Soviet and U.S. governments over the years, and briefly covers events such as the growth of Pakistan's nuclear program and India's own "peaceful nuclear explosion" of 1974. Looking ahead, Jha expresses "grave fears for the future of mankind" based on unfolding nuclear and political developments.
