Pokhran 1: Which made India the sixth nuclear power

 

Pokharan 1

Today India is a nuclear power country. Do you know how India became a nuclear power country? Today in this blog we are going to know how India became a nuclear power country. Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha was the father of the beginning of nuclear research in India. However, India was a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at that time. Under this treaty, a total of five countries were allowed to develop nuclear technology. These were America, Soviet Russia, China, England and France. Nehru did not accept this. He believed that India should develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. He also believed that as a nation, India can use it in other works and for this it does not need the kindness of any country.

The point was clear. Bhabha and other scientists gathered. Trombay Institute of Atomic Energy and Department of Atomic Energy were established. Two countries came to help - Canada and America. The US had supported India on the condition of not using its nuclear capabilities further. Canada gave the nuclear reactor named Ceres to India, for which heavy water (deuterium oxide) was received from America.

After 1967, the work towards making the atomic bomb started intensifying. Some scientists were sent to Soviet Russia where they understood Russian nuclear capabilities and reactors. Inspired from there, Indian scientists developed a reactor called Poornima which would use plutonium (the radioactive material used to make atomic bombs). On May 18, 1972, that is, about two years before the nuclear test, this reactor became critical. In common language, it means that the process of fission of the atom has started to produce energy in it.

International situation

Things were not good. The country was defeated in the war with China. In October 1964, Dr Bhabha, while speaking on nuclear disarmament on All India Radio, said that unless there is a definite work on this worldwide, India will have to develop its nuclear capabilities and there is only one way to avoid any possible nuclear attack, that the country also has this capability. Lal Bahadur Shastri said in his reply that if this happens, the country will deviate from the ideology of Gandhi. Most of the Congress members stood with him. The offer fell through.

Conditions of the country

Then Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister. The atmosphere in the country had changed. Scientists started pushing Indira Gandhi to conduct nuclear tests. In 1974, 37 nuclear explosions were carried out by different countries. Out of these, 19 were done by Soviet Russia and 9 by America. France, China and England were also included in this list.

Work started on Pokhran. The program was kept so secret that no one was aware of it except Army Chief Gopal Gurunath Bevoor and Lieutenant General of Western Command. On the other hand, it was also necessary to avoid the sight of American satellites flying in the sky. Army units were responsible for this work. Soldiers would play night and day at the test site, or do war exercises and under its guise the place was prepared for testing.

India conducted the first nuclear explosion on 18 May 1974. With the Pokhran test, India now unofficially joined the group where only five countries were ruled till now. Obviously, they had to have a problem. It was discussed all over the world. The nuclear test was condemned. America imposed economic sanctions on India. Canada and the United States cut radioactive fuel and heavy water supplies to nuclear reactors. Here, the noise of nuclear blasts in the country became so loud that the MPs gathered in the central building of Parliament to congratulate the government. It is a different matter that JP was not made of raw clay. He took his war to the end and he died only by doing 'Parivartan'.

America and other countries said that India has done a nuclear explosion. India said that Buddha is smiling. The world asked, how? The answer was that this is an experiment done for peaceful purposes and that Shanti and Buddha are synonyms of each other, hence. The world refused to accept it.