India's atom man - Dr.
Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha
He laid the foundation of India's huge atomic energy
establishment almost singlehandedly, nurturing and expanding it with
his dynamic vision. Thanks in no small measure to Homi J. Bhabha's
dream, India's atomic energy programme has acquired global stature
today, capable of designing and testing
weapons and aspiring to meet its growing demands for nuclear energy.
Friday will mark the birth centenary of the physicist.
Born to Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha and Meherbai on Oct 30, 1909, in
the young Bhabha led a sheltered and emotionally secure childhood.
The very first glimmerings of a keen and inquisitive mind became
apparent when a specialist told his very worried parents why he
slept little -- a hyperactive brain that kept him awake at nights.
Exposure to music, books and cultural influences made him a
well-rounded personality. Momentous events shaped his formative
Excellent family ties with the Tatas and their association with
national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and
Jawaharlal Nehru and also with the British imbued the sensitive boy
with a sense of nationalism and perspective.
In 1924, Homi Bhabha passed the Senior Cambridge exam at the age of
15. But by then he had grasped the complexities of Einstein's Theory
as well as the intricacies of classical painting.
His arrival in Cambridge, a fount of nuclear physics, three years
later in 1927, permitted his native genius to bloom for the next 12
years, where he obtained his PhD in physics with specialisation in
cosmic rays, in 1934. He was just 25 then.
Bhabha met many of the greatest physicists of the time, namely Niels
Bohr, James Franck, and Enrico Fermi, who played key roles in the
Anglo-American atomic weapon programmes.
The budding physicist also befriended W.B. Lewis at Cambridge, who
as chairman of the Canadian energy programme later, became
instrumental in the programme to build Cirus, the heavy water
reactor for India.
During a short vacation to India in 1940, Bhabha decided to stay
back, as World War II had already broken out. He joined the Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore, as a reader in theoretical physics,
under Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman. Vikram Sarabhai also served
there for a short stint.
In March 1944, even before the world acquired a nodding acquaintance
with the mighty potential of nuclear energy, Bhabha, then a
professor, wrote to Sir Dorab J. Tata, who headed the Tata Trust,
proposing an institute for nuclear physics in India.
"When nuclear energy has been successfully applied to power
production in, say, a couple of decades from now," Bhabha wrote with
remarkable prescience, "India will not have to look abroad for its
experts but will find them ready at hand."
Thus the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) came into
being on Dec 19, 1945, just four months after Hiroshima and three
years before Indian independence.
Bhabha served as its first director, which placed him at the
commanding heights of the country's nuclear future, until his
premature death in a plane crash in the Swiss Alps on Jan 24, 1966.
Bhabha was very particular about maintaining excellence. Addressing
the then National Institute of Sciences, Bhabha said: "This is a
field in which a large number of mediocre or second rate workers
cannot make up for a few outstanding ones, and the few outstanding
ones always take at least 10-15 years to grow."
As the new nation's prime minister, Nehru entrusted Bhabha with
complete authority over all nuclear-related affairs and programmes.
Both of them shared a close rapport. In April 1948 at Bhabha's
bidding, Nehru agreed to legislate the Atomic Energy Act in the
Constituent Assembly, creating the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).
On Jan 3, 1954, the IAEC decided to set up a new facility, the
Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET). In August the same
year, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) came into being with
Bhabha as its secretary. Till date, it remains answerable only to
the prime minister. Prime minister Indira Gandhi renamed AEET the
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
Bhabha visualised building an Indian nuclear weapons capability,
according to Raja Ramanna, cited by Raj Chengappa in his book
"Weapons of Peace: The Secret Story of India's Quest to be a
Bhabha told Ramanna that "We must have the capability. We should
first prove ourselves and then talk of (Mahatma) Gandhi,
non-violence and a world without nuclear weapons."
Bhabha recruited and supported many of the principal players in
India's successful efforts to develop and test nuclear weapons. Homi
Sethna, P.K. Iyengar, Vasudev Iyer, and Raja Ramanna -- all were
appointed by Bhabha in 1949.