# Nuclear tests at Pokhran
**पोखरण में परमाणु परीक्षण**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/event/pokhran-tests/
- Chapter: [The Republic and its states](https://indianepics.online/chapter/republic.md)
- Track: evidence (archaeology and documents)
- When: 1974 CE – 1998 CE
- Where: Pokhran Test Range, Rajasthan (27.08, 71.73)
- Tags: science, political

## Summary

India sets off a "peaceful nuclear explosion" on 18 May 1974, then five devices on 11 and 13 May 1998, and declares itself a nuclear weapon state.

भारत ने 18 मई 1974 को 'शांतिपूर्ण परमाणु विस्फोट' किया, फिर 11 और 13 मई 1998 को पाँच परीक्षण कर स्वयं को परमाणु शस्त्र संपन्न देश घोषित किया।

## Account

Both series were fired underground in the Thar desert, north-west of Pokhran town. The 1974 shot, code-named Smiling Buddha, was called peaceful. The 1998 series, Shakti, was followed by a voluntary moratorium on further tests, and a doctrine of no first use was adopted in 2003. Pakistan tested in Baluchistan on 28 and 30 May 1998, in the Chagai hills and then the Kharan desert.

The yield claimed for the 1998 thermonuclear device has been disputed by some Indian and foreign scientists. The tests brought sanctions and, a decade later, the 2008 civil nuclear agreement with the United States.

## Sources

- Evolution of India's Nuclear Policy, paper laid in Parliament on 27 May 1998 (Conference on Disarmament document CD/1524) — https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/258962
- Perkovich, India's Nuclear Bomb (1999)


---
Content licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source repository: https://github.com/SkidGod4444/indianepics