Science and secrecy in making of postcolonial state

TitleScience and secrecy in making of postcolonial state
Publication TypeJournal Article
AuthorsAbraham, Itty
JournalEconomic and Political Weekly
Volume32
Issue33/34
Pagination2136-2146
ISSN00129976
Abstract

While much is made about the current status of India as a nuclear power very little is known about the histories which enabled this fateful outcome. This article fills the remarkable gap in our knowledge of the history of the Indian atomic energy commission, especially the period between 1947 and the early 1960s, when the AEC's shift from a civilian development-related enterprise to a national security agency was made. However, rather than see the atomic energy enterprise as an independent state activity, the article treats atomic energy as a key part of the larger effort of the postcolonial state to create a new site of legitimacy for itself after independence. Driven by the state's crisis of ideology, it is argued that the history of the AEC is embedded within a time/space dialectic captured by the terms urgency and secrecy which reinforce each other in an unstable dynamic and which cannot be sustained.

URLhttp://www.epw.in/journal/1997/33-34/special-articles/science-and-secrecy-making-postcolonial-state.html
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