Interview with Kandury Subramanvam, 1987

Kandury Subramanvan (Subrahmanyam) was an official in India’s Ministry of Defense. In the interview, he offers his views on China’s 1964 test, determining immediately that India should get a device of its own. He then explains why India should get a bomb, even though its own preference was for disarmament. At the time, he acknowledges, the Indian government did not take very seriously Pakistan’s declared intent to develop a bomb. Although India participated vigorously in preparing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it did not eventually sign it because of feelings of discrimination. The Bangladesh crisis of 1971 cemented the realization that India faced a potential combination of powerful forces – the United States, China, Pakistan, for example – that elevated the country’s concern about its security. In part, he says, this explains India’s friendship treaty with the USSR. When India exploded its test device in 1974, his reaction was “at last ... the people have done it.” He discusses Indira Gandhi’s motivations for the test and the gains it produced for the country. He then responds to several questions about nonproliferation in the 1960s and 1970s, Pakistan’s enrichment program, and other countries’ nuclear activities, then comments on broader issues concerning India’s current security needs, why countries pursue nuclear weapons, and how he sees the next decade of the nuclear age. He closes by concluding Pakistan possesses the bomb but that it is more likely to bring about stability than increase tensions with India.