The uses of weapons

The second chapter begins by considering one of the key challenges facing an independent India – how to balance developmental needs with that militarization. The paradox of militarization was an acute one for a country leading an international movement of peaceful and ‘non-aligned’ co-existence. This paradox provided rich material for the science fiction of the era, where ‘super-weapons’ were often represented in comic-ironic key rather than the dystopic-apocalyptic register familiar to most readers of its Euro-American counterparts.