Nuclear nationalism and gender: A feminist analysis of India's nuclear development

Abstract

This thesis explores India’s nuclear development through a feminist and intersectional lens to challenge dominant state-centric and masculinist narratives that normalize nuclear weapons as symbols of national power. Focusing on India’s 1998 nuclear tests and the subsequent geopolitical discourse, this research critiques the influence of deterrence theory in nuclear discourses for marginalizing the lived experiences of communities affected by nuclear development. Drawing on methodologies such as nucliteracy and feminist objectivity, this research foregrounds the perspectives of anti-nuclear activists, particularly feminist and ecological movements, to explore how nuclear development in India reinforced postcolonial emasculation, Hindu nationalism, and militarism. Through a discursive analysis of texts written in response to India’s 1998 nuclear tests, the thesis argues that not only has India’s nuclear program disproportionately impacted women, indigenous groups, and marginalized communities, but the narrative of nuclear justification through rationalities of national security and masculine strength contributes to obscuring these perspectives. By reframing nuclear history from the perspectives of those impacted by it, this work calls for a reorientation of nuclear discourse that centers gender, the human costs of militarization, and ecological perspectives.