India's first Prime, Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundations of an elaborate atomic energy program in 1948, just a year after India's independence. Yet, it took Indian decision-makers more than 50 years to declare the country a nuclear-weapon state in May 1998. Once India crossed the nuclear rubicon, it has managed to transform itself into a major nuclear power. This short introduction provides a clear and succinct account of the evolution of Indian nuclear policy over seven decades since Independence. Situating India's nuclear behaviour in its quest for global status, demands of national security, vagaries of domestic politics and the idiosyncrasies of the individuals who led its nuclear program, it explains how India's engagement with the atom is unique in international nuclear history and politics.

Utilizing the recently declassified archival documents and oral history interviews, the five chapters follow a linear historical narrative explaining how India's nuclear pioneers established the nuclear program after independence; India's development of a 'nuclear weapons option after the Chinese nuclear test of 1964; its nuclear refrain after the 1974 PNE; its pathways to nuclearisation in the decade of 1980s and 1990s; and finally its rise as a nuclear weapons power after the 1998 nuclear test.