India “Developed” the Bomb; Pakistan “Deceived” the World
The asymmetry becomes even more revealing when the two South Asian nuclear programmes are narrated differently. India’s programme is often presented as a strategic development. Pakistan’s is described through the vocabulary of deception, religious danger and criminal cunning.
That narrative becomes difficult to defend once the history of South Asian proliferation is examined honestly.
India conducted its first nuclear explosion in 1974 using plutonium produced from fuel irradiated in the Canadian-supplied CIRUS reactor, whose operation also depended upon heavy water supplied by the United States. The technology and material had been transferred for peaceful purposes.
India’s test did not merely precede Pakistan’s public nuclear tests. It helped transform the global non-proliferation architecture. The Nuclear Suppliers Group was established in response to the lesson that civilian nuclear cooperation could be diverted into a weapons programme.
Pakistan’s strategic decision cannot credibly be explained without India’s 1974 test, the conventional imbalance between the two states, the 1971 war and Pakistan’s resulting loss of confidence in external security guarantees. Context does not absolve every subsequent decision, but removing that context leaves the audience with propaganda rather than history.
Pakistan conducted its 1998 tests after India carried out a new series of nuclear tests that May. Even contemporary United Nations discussions recorded Pakistan’s argument that its tests sought to restore the strategic balance disturbed by India.
The chronology is not ambiguous.
| Strategic development | Year | Regional significance |
|---|---|---|
| India establishes its Atomic Energy Commission | 1948 | Institutional beginning of India’s nuclear programme |
| Pakistan establishes its Atomic Energy Commission | 1956 | Institutional development of Pakistan’s civilian nuclear programme |
| India conducts its first nuclear explosion | 1974 | Alters South Asian strategic balance and triggers tighter supplier controls |
| Nuclear Suppliers Group emerges | 1975–1978 | International response to diversion risks exposed by India’s test |
| India conducts further nuclear tests | May 1998 | Openly changes the regional deterrence environment |
| Pakistan conducts nuclear tests | May 1998 | Publicly demonstrates a counter-deterrent in response |
The claim is straightforward: India nuclearised the strategic environment first; Pakistan answered an established threat.
What the Nuclear-Security Data Actually Shows
The strongest test of DW’s thesis is not whether Pakistan has religious extremists, political prisoners or military influence. The real test is how specialist institutions evaluate its nuclear-security arrangements.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative’s 2023 index assesses security conditions across countries possessing weapons-usable nuclear materials and those operating nuclear facilities. Pakistan received a Secure Materials score of 49 out of 100 and ranked 19th among 22 states possessing at least one kilogram of weapons-usable material. Its facilities-protection score was 61, ranking 32nd among 47 assessed countries. These numbers do not place Pakistan at the top of the world, but they also do not support a cinematic picture of an unguarded arsenal awaiting extremist capture.
More importantly, NTI identified Pakistan as the most improved country in the 2020 materials-security assessment, citing new on-site physical-protection and cybersecurity regulations alongside stronger insider-threat protections.
The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad’s 2024 review further noted that Pakistan ranked one position above India in the 2023 NTI Secure Materials category and ranked ahead of India in protection of nuclear facilities. The brief records Pakistan at 19th versus India at 20th for secure materials, and Pakistan at 32nd versus India at 40th among 47 countries for facilities protection.
| NTI 2023 category | Pakistan | India | What the comparison indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secure Materials rank | 19 of 22 | 20 of 22 | Pakistan ranked one position above India |
| Protect Facilities rank | 32 of 47 | 40 of 47 | Pakistan ranked eight positions above India |
| Pakistan’s score change since 2020 | +3 | — | Continued improvement following larger 2020 gains |
| 2020 assessment | Most improved country | — | Improvements linked to regulation, physical security, cybersecurity and insider-threat controls |
These rankings are not certificates of perfection. Nuclear security is never a finished task, and every nuclear state must continue adapting against insider threats, cyberattacks, sabotage and emerging technologies. But the data reverses the documentary’s preferred hierarchy: Pakistan is portrayed as uniquely reckless while a recognised international index places aspects of its security performance ahead of India.
