Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ has reopened the floodgates to conspiracy theories surrounding the atomic bomb. This time, the connection in question is the apparent link between the film’s code gray protagonist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and his ties to India.
While many are familiar with his admiration for the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, not many are aware of his association with Jawaharlal Nehru. Famously, Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavad Gita after successfully testing the atomic bomb. In a televised interview, he uttered Krishna’s words: “Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
“Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds” J. Robert Oppenheimer, crying, describing the feeling of seeing the first detonation of an atomic bomb… There may be no better example of The Duality of Men than this 45-second clip.pic.twitter.com/Cmb0lYcyh2
—Nick Wolf (@wolfnick10) July 21, 2023
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- Nehru offered Oppenheimer the option of immigration to India
- The ‘top secret’ exchange of letters
Nehru offered Oppenheimer the option of immigration to India
As for his speech with Nehru, a recent biography of Homi Bhabha, written by Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy, reveals that PM Nehru had actually invited the controversial scientist to seek refuge in India.
Wikimedia Commons
This was after Oppenheimer was stripped of his security clearance in the United States in 1954. At the time, the “Red Scare” was rampant in the United States, with the McCarthy era at its height. The physicist was accused of being a communist ally and was stripped of the high horse he had been given after his success with the atomic bomb.
Homi Bhabha, who was a well-known Indian physicist at the time, had close ties to Oppenheimer. The two often dined together. According to Bhabha’s biography, Oppenheimer had turned down Nehru’s offer out of fear that his country would further vilify him.
However, some of the footage allegedly shows how Nehru and Oppenheimer had other communications through Nehru’s sister and India’s ambassador to the US at the time, Vijayalakshmi Pandit.
The ‘top secret’ exchange of letters
Wikimedia Commons
Vijayalakshmi Pandit received an agitated phone call from Oppenheimer on February 10, 1950. Pandit subsequently wrote to Nehru in a top-secret letter that the scientist had contacted her and wanted to convey something of a serious nature to her, but was unable to communicate it on the line. She would send a go-between.
Oppenheimer’s message told Nehru that the United States was working on building its nuclear weapons and would therefore want to obtain thorium. He mentioned that they would surely communicate with India, either directly or through Britain. They wanted to accumulate all the thorium.
Oppenheimer allegedly pleaded with the “Indians in the name of humanity” to uphold their non-alignment policy and not be swayed by any pressure from the West. Nehru apparently responded to Pandit’s letter and insisted that the Indian government did not intend to take any action regarding the thorium and took steps to hide the identity of the informant.
After skimming through his life and even Nolan’s film, it’s fascinating to note that Oppenheimer had such elaborate ties to India.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn