PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · India & the Nuclear Question
Discuss the reasons behind India’s refusal to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 refusal of the treaty, not of disarmament — Nehru-era NWFW vision meets the 1968 “haves/have-nots” divide > “nuclear apartheid” R2 India reads the NPT as unequal → three grounds staked — discrimination – insecurity – autonomy
Body flow
discrimination: 1967 cut-off + P-5 monopoly → IAEA binds only NNWS, no Article VI timeframe → “eyewash” → Trivedi’s “disarm the unarmed” — 2026 RevCon collapse (3rd cycle, NWS resist deadline) → insecurity: China 1964 (Pant) + refused guarantees → self-help vs armed China & Pakistan → autonomy: external caps vs self-reliance
Counter-view
India upholds the non-proliferation norm (clean record, India- specific safeguards, MTCR/Wassenaar) → opposes the discriminatory treaty, not the norm → official line: no NNWS accession, “pending non-discriminatory… disarmament,’ time- bound framework
Conclusion routes
r!_ refusal both principled and realist → resistance to an unequal order, not to the goal R2 compliance reframed as a demand for a fairer order – NWFW pursued through a non-discriminatory, verifiable, time-bound route
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
