Nuclear India and the Global Nuclear Order

The 1998 nuclear tests conducted by India heralded yet another nuclear age. The instant response of a section of the international community was highly pessimistic. It foresaw regional instability, collapse of the global nuclear order and serious crisis in the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. As a result, overlooking India’s security imperatives, a number of countries reacted with hostility against the Indian nuclear tests. Even international organisations were mobilised against India. However, the two decades of India’s nuclearisation appear to have falsified the prediction of doomsayers. On the contrary, India has assumed the mantle of stabilising the global nuclear order and enhancing its own security in the process. Although it has not joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has accepted the norms of non-proliferation. It is promoting non-proliferation and has joined different institutions associated with it. Concurrently, the international community has also started integrating and accommodating India in the global nuclear order in general and the non-proliferation regimes in particular.