February 24, 2009 Homi Bhabha, A
Visionary Scientist
and a Great Human Being By K.S. Jayaraman
Bangalore
When technician Narasimha Murthy, a glass blower in the Department
of Atomic Energy (DAE), developed a major heart problem, its then
chairman Homi Bhabha arranged to fly him to the United States to
receive medical care - all at government expense.
And when Bhabha saw a gardener in the DAE's Trombay campus walking
with a limp, he stopped his car, gave him a lift, and instructed his
staff that he was to be looked after.
A collection of reminiscences by Bhabha's close associates brought
out by the Indian Physics Association (IPA) on his birth centenary
year shows that the father of India's atomic energy programme was
not just a visionary scientist and an institution builder but also a
great human being.
"Examples of sensitive and human approach in his dealing with even
the lowest paid employees are numerous," said Vasudeva Iya, who was
in charge of DAE's isotope programme and one of Bhabha's hand-picked
scientists.
Padmanaba Krishnagopala Iyengar, who later became DAE secretary,
agreed with Iya. When DAE administrators, citing service rules,
denied travel money for a junior scientist to present a paper at a
conference abroad, Bhabha admonished the bureaucrats and reversed
the decision, recollected Iyengar, who knew Bhabha from 1953 till
his tragic death.
Bhabha died on Jan 24, 1966, in an air crash while he was on his way
to attend an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in
Vienna. The cause of the crash remains a mystery.
"If he had not perished in the air crash, we would have quite a
different India today," said Devendra Lal, a renowned geophysicist
who rejected a faculty job in the US to join Bhabha's team in 1960.
In a way, World War II was responsible for the strides India has
made today in the field of atomic energy. Bhabha, who came to India
on a brief holiday in 1939, could not return to England as war had
broken out. So he decided to stay back in India till the war was
over.
"That decision turned out to be a turning point not only in the
academic career of Bhabha but also for the advancement Indian
science and technology in the post independence era," writes
Badanaval Venkata Sreekantan, a cosmic ray physicist who joined
Bhabha in 1948.
Bhabha's five-year stint from 1939 at the Indian Institute of
Science here changed his plans to return to Britain.
"I have come to the view that provided proper appreciation and
financial support are forthcoming, it is one's duty to stay in one's
own country and build up schools comparable with those that other
countries are fortunate in possessing," Bhabha wrote in his famous
March 12, 1944, letter to the Tata Trust for funds to start a new
institute.
From then on, Bhabha passionately took on the task to transform
Indian science, says Lal.
"Bhabha sacrificed his personal scientific career to spend most of
his time to grow science and technology in India," Lal said. "Bhabha's
stamp is visible everywhere.... He realized most of what he dreamed
between 1939 and 1965 but was not alive to watch them grow."
He set up the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) with
support from the Tatas, and convinced then prime minister Jawaharlal
Nehru to create the DAE, both of which he managed admirably till his
death.
The Tata memorial centre in Bombay (now Mumbai), the radio astronomy
centre in Ooty and the training school in Bombay were all due to his
farsightedness, says Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan, Bhabha's close
associate and former DAE secretary.
Bhabha was also largely responsible for the introduction of the
space programme through the setting up of the Indian national
committee for space research under the chairmanship of Vikram
Sarabhai, said Srinivasan.
Former DAE physicist Ganesan Venkartaraman says that being a
visionary, Bhabha promoted everything from computers to vacuum
technology, ignoring criticism from "some narrow minded scientists"
who questioned the propriety of DAE wanting to do everything.
Renowned geneticist Obaid Siddiqui recalls that although the 1962
Indo-China war had broken out and emergency economic measures had
been announced, Bhabha encouraged him to start the molecular biology
programme at TIFR using the money the institute saved from expenses
on water and electricity. That programme has now evolved into
full-fledged National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore.
Bhabha's style of management was another thing that endeared him to
scientists. "He did not believe in micromanagement. He selected able
persons to lead and left them alone," said Lal.
One advice of Bhabha that Lal cherishes most: "Never give an
important task to one who has nothing to do. Give it to a busy
person who will find time to do it."
"Bhabha freed DAE from bureaucracy while scientists outside DAE are
still fighting this battle to be freed from stifling bureaucratic
controls," said Venkataraman.
"Goku" (M.G.K) Menon vividly recalls his last meeting with Bhabha
"to talk about some important matters" a day before his tragic
death.
The important matter was that Indira Gandhi - selected to become
prime minister only four days earlier - had asked Bhabha to be ready
to move to Delhi "to assist her in all matters related to science
and technology" with a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister.
Before embarking on his fateful journey to Vienna, Bhabha told Menon
that on his return, he planned to propose Menon to be director of
TIFR. "Everyone thought I got the responsibility because of his
death," Menon wrote, adding this was not the case. "Had he returned
from his trip to Vienna he would have anointed me his successor as
director of TIFR."
Bhabha's widely quoted remark "no power is as expensive as no power"
at the third UN conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy in
Geneva in September 1964 registered with many from underdeveloped
countries aspiring to tame nuclear energy.
"Icons like Bhabha appear only rarely," said Bikash Sinha, director
of DAE's cyclotron project in Kolkata. Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhar
Venkataraman described Bhabha as the modern equivalent of Leonardo
da Vinci.
Bhabha was so concerned about his scientists that he did not want
them to travel abroad in the same flight since, "in case the plane
crashed, it would be a big loss to TIFR", says Lal.
"Ironically, and very sadly, we lost him in a plane crash."
(K.S Jayaraman can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com)
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