South Asian cultures of the bomb : atomic publics and the state in India and Pakistan / edited by Itty Abraham.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Abraham, Itty, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear weapons--Government policy--India.

Nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons--Political aspects--India.

Nationalism--India.

Nationalism.

Military policy.

Civil society.

Nuclear weapons--Political aspects.

Nuclear weapons--Government policy.

India.

Civil society--India.

India--Military policy.

Nuclear weapons--Government policy--Pakistan.

Nuclear weapons--Political aspects--Pakistan.

Nationalism--Pakistan.

Pakistan.

Civil society--Pakistan.

Pakistan--Military policy.

Physical Description:

222 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2009]

Summary:

India and Pakistan became independent nations early in the world's atomic age. Nuclear power and nuclear weapons have been present from the beginning as key features of nationalism and the public sphere in each country. Yet the relationship between nuclear arms and civil society in South Asia is seldom taken into account in conventional security studies. What explains the fascination of Indian and Pakistani elites with nuclear weapons? What accounts for the absence of a mass antinuclear movement in either country? What do people outside New Delhi and Islamabad think of nuclear weapons? In these original and provocative essays, scholars from India, Pakistan, the U.S., UK, and European argue that if we are to find answers to these important questions it is crucial to understand nuclear power in South Asia beyond the narrow confines of strategic studies. The contributors stress the political and ideological components of national drives to possess and test nuclear weapons, incorporating approaches from history, political theory, sociology, anthropology, media studies, art history, and post colonial studies. A distinctive feature of the volume is the attempt to provide equal coverage for comparable issues in both India and Pakistan, resulting in a genuine intellectual dialogue across this contested boundary.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Nuclear Power and Atomic Publics / Itty Abraham 1

2 Fevered with Dreams of the Future: The Coming of the Atomic Age to Pakistan / Zia Mian 20

3 India's Nuclear Enclave and the Practice of Secrecy / M.V. Ramana 41

4 The Social Life of a Bomb: India and the Ontology of an "Overpopulated" Society / Sankaran Krishna 68

5 Pride and Proliferation: Pakistan's Nuclear Psyche after A. Q. Khan / Ammara Durrani 89

6 The Politics of Death: The Antinuclear Imaginary in India / Srirupa Roy 113

7 Pakistan's Atomic Publics: Survey Results / Haider Nizamani 133

8 Gods, Bombs, and the Social Imaginary / Raminder Kaur 150

9 Nuclearization and Pakistani Popular Culture since 1998 / Iftikhar Dadi 173

10 Guardians of the Nuclear Myth: Politics, Ideology, and India's Strategic Community / Karsten Frey 195.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780253352538

0253352533

9780253220325

0253220327

OCLC:

216935803