Setting off a chain reaction

Sat, Nov 7 06:48 AM

Patriotism is an abstract concept and no one can measure it. However there is a crisp way to define it: anyone who puts the country's interest before one's own is a patriot. By this yardstick, Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha was a perfect fit for the title.

Bhabha was at Cambridge during the 1930s. After obtaining a degree in engineering and a mathematics tripose and then the doctorate, he worked with very famous physicists of the time like Dirac, Bohr and Pauli. This association polished Bhabha's scientific work to an international level. Some of his theories in cosmic ray physics are text book topics even now. He visited India in 1939 at this level of recognition, but could not travel back as the war broke out. To bide away his time, he continued work on cosmic rays at the Indian Institute of Science, headed by Prof C.V. Raman.

Anyone else with the stature that he enjoyed would have taken a journey back to Britain after the war. He knew the difference between the scientific infrastructure at European labs and here. Having worked with Nobel laureates all along he also knew the importance of the prize, which he could have won by a longer exposure to European or American facilities. He was already a Fellow of Royal Society, at the young age of 31. But he stayed back. This itself was a momentous decision; but there was more to it. He stayed back because he had a dream for India. Here's what he wrote to the trustees of the Sir Dorab Tata Trust in 1944, asking for a financial grant to establish a school of physics. "....When nuclear energy has been successfully applied for, in say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand". When he wrote this, no one knew about the nuclear bomb or even about the nuclear chain reaction established by Enrico Fermi in USA. When exciting stories about the developments in science came out in the open after the war, it was time to join the "mainstream". The same year his "school of physics", which he wanted to be "comparable to the best anywhere", opened in June '45. He built this Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), only with the idea of creating research facilities in India, the likes of which he had seen abroad. His example inspired more scholars to return to India and work at TIFR and at the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay ( now called Bhabha Atomic Research Centre).

The relationship between Nehru and Bhabha was extremely special. Perhaps he was impressed by Bhabha's patriotic decision to stay back in India in spite of better career opportunities abroad. Nehru was a progressive leader and wanted to be seen as such. He agreed to constitute the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to scout for the atomic minerals useful for atomic energy, way back in 1948. This small activity quickly blossomed into a full fledged nuclear programme. Bhabha ruled over the programme single handed, with a tight grip. And why not? The programme was born out of his initiative and relationships alone.

He remained as head of BARC and chairman of the AEC for 18 years and achieved phenomenal progress. When he died in 1966, there were three research reactors at Trombay and three pairs of power reactors were ordered. Fuel for the Trombay reactors was made in the country and the plan was to make that for the power reactors too. That was no mean feat then. Though he was not around, nuclear power stations at Tarapur and Rajasthan came up as scheduled, but the Madras Atomic Power Project got inordinately delayed because of the nuclear test at Pokharan in 1974, which was carried out without adequate impact assessment regarding foreign relations.

His own take on nuclear weapons was quite measured and in sync with the needs of the hour. As Nehru was a genuine votary of peace, there was no question of even a scientific curiosity about the Bomb till his death. Bhabha would never breach Nehru's trust. But things changed suddenly on October 16, 1964. China tested their first atom bomb. Nehru was no more and Bhabha promptly went on All India radio on October 24 and discussed the science and economics of nuclear weapons! The occasion, the United Nations day, was not only unconnected but patently unsuitable for a discussion on this subject! He said: " The explosion of a nuclear device by China is a signal that there is no time to be lost. Neither the United Nations nor the great powers have yet succeeded in creating a climate favourable to countries which have the capability of making atomic weapons, but have voluntarily refrained from doing so". Later he earmarked Dr Raja Ramanna for studying the physics of the device, sans any other mandate. That came later from Dr Sarabhai around '68 by way of sanctioning the project to build the PURNIMA reactor, which would help understand the phenomenon of pulsed criticality.

Bhabha's legacy extended outside the atomic energy establishments. He started the space programme and gave its charge to Sarabhai. After Sarabhai's death, ISRO separated from the Department of Atomic Energy. As Bhabha was the main contributor to the Science Policy resolution of 1958, his legacy is bound to be living in the entire scientific spectrum of activity pursued by various government departments in India. Witnessing the success of the Trombay model, where the scientists had a say in scientific administration and freedom of working, other scientific institutions have gradually changed their structres.

He died at the early age of 56 in a tragic aircrash in the Alps on January 24, '66, while on the way to IAEA, Vienna. Tributes from all over did not fail to mention his multi-faceted personality, having equal elan in music, painting, architecture apart from science and engineering. We in India must acknowledge that our internationally competitive, mammoth nuclear programme is an outcome of a unique relationship between Nehru and Bhabha.

The writer used to work at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

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