Anti-Nuclear Struggle in South India: the Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind

Gabriele Dietrich

Gabriele Dietrich is the Convener of the National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), India.

She can be contacted at reach.gabriele@gmail.com

In the present situation, one of the most striking ecological struggles in India is the struggle against nuclear reactors. The Indian government has a policy regarding “peaceful” nuclear energy. This position is, of course, highly questionable, because whoever has studied the history of nuclear energy production would know that it was the nuclear research during World War II which served the interest of producing a nuclear bomb “against fascism” which brought nuclear energy into being. While World War II had factually ended in early May 1945 because of the conquest of Germany by the Allies, the Americans, after the experience of the attack on Pearl Harbour, could not resist the opportunity to try out the explosion of nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. After this incredible devastation, it became difficult to believe in “peaceful” nuclear energy.

In the meantime it has become very obvious, especially since the accidents in Chernobyl in 1986 and the melt-downs in Fukushima Daichi in 2011, that this is an incredibly hazardous technology. Apart from this, the very process of using uranium produces plutonium which creates a problem of nuclear waste which radiates for thousands of years and cannot be safely disposed of. Nobody has as yet claimed to have found a solution for this predicament. The so-called “developed” countries, who have a very high energy consumption, were initially relying quite heavily on nuclear energy, e.g. France used this option for over 60% of its energy needs. Only in recent times there is stronger resistance against this option. Of late, France has imported energy from Germany.

In India, there was an explosion of a “nuclear device” in 1974 under Indira Gandhi. It was not admitted then that this served the development of nuclear weapons. It was only in 1998 under the NDA regime (a coalition), which gravitated towards Hindutva, that a nuclear bomb was detonated with fanfare in Pokhran in the Rajasthan desert under the code name of “The Buddha is smiling”. Of course this was a great insult to Buddhism and to Dalits (who believe that they were Buddhists originally) and the anti-nuclear movement got a new impetus at that time. Despite all this the Indian government under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh, has signed the 123 agreement with the U.S on import of nuclear technology, which serves the expansion of nuclear reactors. This contract became a prestige issue and any serious debate on nuclear options either in parliament, or in public, was strictly avoided. The absurdity is that nuclear energy is depicted as a “clean” energy option as opposed to thermal energy which enhances the burden of CO2 in the atmosphere.