Encountering Hindutva, reading security, and engendering a Hindu masculinity in India's nuclear policies, late 1990s

This dissertation examines the recent nuclear security problematique in India under the Hindu Right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. It represents an analytical hybrid of realism and critical social constructivism as its theoretical framework and the concept of post-colonial "(in)security" as an interpretation of politics to explore the process through which the rise of a Hindu nationalism in India, expressed through the ideology of Hindutva, that primarily hinges on a Hindu-Muslim axis, may be used by the Indian state under the political leadership of the BJP to justify India's nuclearization.; I highlight in this dissertation that although the BJP government forwards a realist logic as a convenient excuse to justify Indian nuclearization on the grounds of certain geo-strategic/objective threats faced by the nation, which to a certain extent is valid, the government has simultaneously (as my findings suggest) manipulated Hindutva (a subjective/intrinsic factor) to "foreground" Pakistan, and conversely "moderate" China, as a nuclear threat to India and thus legitimize India's nuclear agenda. Additionally, my dissertation documents how the government, guided by the notions of a Hindu masculinity, has utilized feminism, to justify India's nuclearization. Such discourses of security based on the cultural production of danger are not coherent but entail internal contradictions and lacunae. To this end, my dissertation highlights those anti-nuclear/peace activism launched by Indian women "at and against" the Indian state, under the BJP, to oppose Indian nuclearization.; This study is an outcome of eight months of field survey in India. I have used a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods including open and closed-ended interviews, surveys, observations, life stories, and historical narratives to collect the necessary data and insight to highlight the role of Hindutva in explaining Indian.; The theoretical contribution of this study lies in appending realism with critical constructivism to study the ongoing nuclear security problematique in India under its recent Hindu Right government, with broader implications in re-reading the role of ideology, security, and gender in International Relations.