The pursuit of nuclear weapons in the Subcontinent is the moral equivalent of civil war: the targets the rulers have in mind are, in the end, their own people.
The bomb cult represents the uprising of those who find themselves being pushed back from the table. It's the rebellion of the rebelled against, an insurgency of an elite.
On 11 May, the Indian government tested several nuclear devices at a site near the small medieval town of Pokharan, on the edge of the Thar Desert. My visit coincided with the 51st anniversary of Independence, the start of India´s second half century as a free nation. As I was heading towards Pokharan, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, was addressing the nation from the ramparts of Delhi´s Red Fort – an Independence Day tradition.Driving through the desert, I listened to him on the car radio.
Vajpayee´s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, came to power at the head of a coalition in March, and the Pokharan tests followed two months later. The tests occasioned outpourings of joy among the BjP´s members and sympathisers. They organised festivities and handed out sweetmeats on the streets to commemorate the achievement. There was talk of sending sand from the test site around the country so that the whole nation could partake of the glow from the blasts. Some of the BjP´s leaders were said to be thinking of building a monument at Pokharan, a "shrine of strength" that could be visited by pilgrims.Nine days after the tests, the prime minister flew to Pokharan himself. A celebration was organised near the crater left by the blasts. The prime minister was photographed standing on the crater´s rim, looking reverentially into the pit.