The History of Weapons of Mass Destruction in India

Sandy Leung
Physics H, San Leandro High School, 2200 Bancroft Avenue, San Leandro, CA 94577

sandyglrl@aol.com

ABSTRACT

        India first obtained weapons of mass destruction in 1958 to protect itself from Pakistan, a part of India before the separation after it became an independent country, because the United States of America had armed Pakistan with weapons to fight India. Many wars and attacks, such as the massacres by the British when India was under British colony power, have tempted the Indians to arm themselves in this nuclear cold war that the whole world has joined.

  

CONTENTS
· 1. INTRODUCTION: British Power
· 2. The Age of Revolutions
· 3. Independence
· 4. Bangladesh: The Second Wave of Revolutions
· Acknowledgments
· References
· Figures
  

1. INTRODUCTION: British Power

        For almost three hundred years the British have taken over India. The British troops arrived on India for the first time and defeated the leader, Nawab of Bengal, with the assistance of dissidents and slowly gained total control over India. As the Europeans enslaved the Indians, other Indian kingdoms and empires were also being conquered by Britain (Wolpert, 1991).
        In 1817, the British defeated Marathas after Ahmed Shah Durrani of Afghanistan weakened it. Britain ruled all of India except three plots and try to gain power over: Sindh, Kashmir, and Punjab (Brief Timeline of India, 2000). In the 1830s, the first revolution against the British power was taken place. In Bengal, Titumir and his son built a fort made of bamboo, but both men were defeated and were martyred. Britain and the Sikhs of Punjab go to war in 1845. The power-hungry British defeated the Sikhs and Punjab is annexed (Walsh, 1994).
        Next, a group of rebellious Indian members of the British army called Sepoy Biplob joined the princes in North India, Punjab, and Bengal in 1857 for a rebellion (Brief Timeline of India, 2000). The attempt to overthrow the British empowerment met a crushing defeat when the hand of the Europeans massacred thousands of Indians. The main areas of rebellion were Punjab, North India, and Bengal. In 1885, Britain also gained Burma and created the first Indian National Congress and the British dominated the congress. There was also no intention of nationalism or pro-independence tendencies.

     Fig. 1

2. The Age of Revolutions
 
        Aurobindo began the first nationalist movement in Bengal. There were underground movements and he raised revolution to a national level. Bengal was the main revolutionary area in India; there were 40,000 Bengalis rebelling that started militant activities, but many were killed or jailed. With this, Britain changed its stance to pro-independence with the influence of B. G. Tilak, another great nationalist at the time. In order to control Bengal, Britain separated the area in 1905 to control the Bengali movement (Brief Timeline of India, 2000). However, in 1911, Britain reversed the order under popular pressure. Soon after in Dhaka during 1906, a group of Muslims landlords formed the Muslim League that supported Britain, leaded by Aga Khan. The league was concerned with the independence activities, which may threaten their luxurious feudal lordships (Kamat’s Putpourri: Timeline of India).
        Even so with all the support that Britain received, underground activities of rebellion spread around India. Bihar became a central area of revolution and Punjab became more active for independence. The Muslim League changed its strategy when large amounts of Muslims were not supporting them. The Muslim League now called for independence from Britain, but they also called for murder against Gandhi, the leader of the inclusive independence movement (Wolpert, 1991). The Muslim League created the myth of Hindu conspiracy and won over the Muslims, dividing them from the Indians. This was just the kind of distraction that the British wanted. However, a great Muslim leader, Maulana A. K. Azad, was against the Muslim League and supported the unity of India. More actives of rebellion occur and the British in Amritsar massacred 300 to 400 people. But these people did not die for nothing, in 1920; the moderates took over the Indian Independence movement, which was led by Gandhi. In 1943, Subhas Bose, a leader of the Congress and called a patriot, and Gandhi created a revolutionary army of 30,000 men but failed to achieve goals of independence (Brief Timeline of India, 2000).

     Fig. 2

3. Independence

        In 1947, Britain decided to give up India due to economic and political reasons and burdens. The Europeans chose Gandhi and other moderate Congress leaders to created the deal but left out many of the real independence leaders, like Subhas Bose (Brief Timeline of India, 2000). The British used the Muslim League as leverage against Gandhi. The Muslim League instigation of the Hindu-Muslim erupts which gave Britain and excuse to separate India into two separate areas. Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, threatens Gandhi that he will either be prime minister of India or Pakistan will separate from India; however, if neither of his requests were fulfilled, there would be more riots. Since Gandhi was a peacemaker, he gave into the threat. India was separated into two different lands: India and Pakistan (India-Pakistan: Sanctions Legislation Fact Sheet, 2001).

4. Bangladesh: The Second Wave of Revolutions

        After Pakistan separated from India, India continued to have problems. India’s politics were filled with corruption and it was a moderate socialist nation with the Congress in power. Also during this time, the nationalists assassinated Gandhi (Brief Timeline of India, 2000). Taking advantage of the confusion in India, Pakistan builds up its militia and decides to attack. Pakistan is allied by the United States of America, who for some reason supported the brutal government, and armed the country with weapons to fight against civilians in Asia. As the years progress, Pakistan becomes more Islamic extremist. Soon it became the home to Islamic terrorism (India-Pakistan: Sanctions Legislation Fact Sheet, 2001).
        Terrorism in Pakistan reaches its climax in 23 years and started a campaign that planned to kill at least 3 million people in nine months (Wolpert, 1991). This Pakistan operation reminded many people of the horrifying holocaust in Germany. This was the second worst holocaust in history and the most concentrated killing spree ever recorded. Bangladesh had to fight against Pakistan in a war. Pakistan took over large areas of Bangladesh in many of the battles. The Indian troops begin to move in after Pakistan attacked Indian airfields. In Bangladesh, Pakistanis attempted to kill off all educated men. While Pakistan was waiting for U.S. navel fleet back up, the United States turned against Pakistan and allied with India and defeated Pakistan (Kamat’s Putpourri: Timeline of India).

     Fig. 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

        I'd like to thank Paul Lau and Raymond Wai on helping me find sources and pictures. I’d also like to acknowledge the help of Google.com and Yahoo.com for their superior Internet searches. But the owner of “Brief Timeline of India” should be the most credited person for his or her elaborate details in the history of India.

REFERENCES

· _1761617_attack300. Retrieved Jan. 6, 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1760000/images/_1761617_attack300.jpg
· (2000) Brief Timeline of India. Retrieved Jan. 6, 2003, http://www.oocities.org/raqta24/ind6.htm
·Chew, Robin. (1995) Mahatma Gandhi. Retrieved Jan. 19, 2003, http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95oct/mkgandhi.html
· (2001 ) ERDO Responds to India Earthquake. Retrieved Jan. 6, 2003, http://www.paoc.org/announce-archive.html
· (2001) India-Pakistan: Sanctions Legislation Fact Sheet. Retrieved Jan. 6, 2003, from Council for a Livable World: http://www.clw.org/atop/restrictions_timeline.html
· Kamat’s Putpourri: Timeline of India. Retrieved Jan. 6, 2003, http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/timeline/timeline.htmFONT>
· (2003) NTI: Country Overviews: India. Retrieved Jan. 6, 2003, from NTI: Working for a Safer World. Center for Nonproliferation Studies/Monterey Institute of International Studies: http://www.nti.org/e_research/e1_india_1.html
· Walsh, Judith. (1994) History of India: A Chronological Outline. Retrieved Jan. 6, 2003, from State University of New York/Columbia University: http://www.askasia.org/image/maps/timeind.htm
· Wolpert, Stanley. (1991). India. Berkeley: University of California Press.

FIGURES

Fig. 1 – The map of India
Fig. 2 – The moderate independence movement leader: Mahatma Gandhi
Fig. 3 – Indians with weapons standing to protect themselves during war against Pakistan
 

(This is a 3 page report; if you copy and paste onto Words: 1 inch margins all around and font 10 it fits PERFECTLY)