It was 49 years ago from today when the Buddha ‘finally smiled’ in India – a message delivered, ironically, after the country performed its first nuclear test.
Operation Smiling Buddha was touted as a “peaceful nuclear explosion” with “few military implications,” possibly in an attempt to allay the uneasiness of the international community.
What happened in the test?: Operation Smiling Buddha, or Pokhran-I, was conducted at Rajasthan’s Pokhran test site on May 18, 1974, establishing India as a nuclear power. A nuclear device was detonated, with a yield of 12-13 kiloton of TNT. “The Buddha has finally smiled,” Raja Ramanna, the then director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), had conveyed to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after the test’s success.
A view of the site at Pokhran, India’s underground nuclear test in Rajasthan. (Express archive photo)
The political context: Under the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi, India became the sixth country in the world to conduct a nuclear test, and the first nation outside of the United Nations Security Council’s permanent members to do so. The test came at a time when the economy was in bad shape and discontent against Gandhi’s government was growing, and helped fortify her strength.
The global fallout: There was near-universal condemnation of India’s nuclear advancement, with Canada imposing significant sanctions on India. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a multi-nation export control body, …
