This day, on 11 May 1998, India conducted declared nuclear weapons tests in Pokhran, Rajasthan. In response to India’s tests on 11 and 13 May, Pakistan also conducted atomic test explosions on 28 May 1998.

Through the years, DiaNuke has published extensive information and analyses surrounding the tests, which not only pushed the entire South Asian region into a spiral of insecurity and militarization, but also unleashed radiation-borne diseases on hapless populations living around the sites of these tests, uranium mines, and nuclear power plants.

On the 24th anniversary of these tests, we will be hosting a conversation with acclaimed documentary film maker, Anand Patwardhan, director of ‘War and Peace’ (2002) that captured in vivid detail the frenzy unleashed by the atomic tests on either side.

Watch this space for more details.

War and Peace (Jang Aur Aman) is a 2002 Indian documentary film directed by Anand Patwardhan. The film covers the Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons tests in 1998, as well as the nationalist rhetoric that accompanied these tests. It also explores the ill-effects of the Indian test on the surrounding population and the reactions to the test among the government and the public. The latter part of the film also covers the perception of nuclear weapons in Japan and the United States. Upon the film’s completion, the Indian censor board demanded that Patwardhan make 21 cuts before it could be released, including cutting all speeches by politicians. Patwardhan refused and took the matter to court; the Bombay high court ruled in his favour a year later, and the film was released without any cuts.