Prisoners of the Nuclear Dream/edited by M.V. Ramana and C. Rammanohar Reddy. New Delhi, Orient Longman, 2003, xiii, 502 p., tables, ISBN 81 250 2477 8.

            Contents: Preface. Introduction/M.V. Ramana and C. Rammanohar Reddy. I. Issues of strategy and foreign relations: 1. Strategic threats and nuclear weapons: India, China and Pakistan/Kanti Bajpai. 2. Nuclear weapons and national security/Admiral L. Ramdas. 3. A nuclear tiger by the Tail: problems of command and control in South Asia/Zia Mian. 4. Managing nuclear weapons in South Asia: in search of a model/Ejaz Haider. 5. China—India relations/Ye Zhengjia. II. Issues of science and ethics: 6. India and the bomb/Amartya Sen. 7. Designing nuclear weapons: the moral question/Amulya K.N. Reddy. 8. La Trahison des Clercs: scientists and India’s nuclear bomb/M.V. Ramana. 9. A mandate for nuclear prudence: International Court of Justice on nuclear weapons/Siddharth Mallavarapu. III. Issues of militarisation, politics and economics of nuclear weapons: 10. Militarism, development and democracy/Jean Dreze. 11. The politics of the bomb: some observations on the political discourse in India in the context of Pokhran II/V. Krishna Ananth. 12. Nuclear frames: official nationalism, the nuclear bomb, and the anti-nuclear movement in India/Srirupa Roy. 13. Nuclear weapons versus schools for children: an estimate of the cost of the Indian nuclear weapons programme/C. Rammanohar Reddy. IV. Issues of environment and health: 14. The price we pay: from Uranium to weapons/M.V. Ramana and Surendra Gadekar. 15. The last deadly sin: effects of nuclear weapons on humans/Thomas George. Bibliography. Index.

·        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.”  (jacket)