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An internationally acclaimed chemist, Bhatnagar wrote Urdu poetry under the aptly chosen pen name of Seemab (meaning mercury) and went on to compose, in Sanskrit, the ceremonial hymn for Benaras Hindu University. Notwithstanding his knighthood and the official position of Director (since renamed Director-General) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bhatnagar had the courage to publicly touch the feet of the Congress president on the latter’s release from jail. If the chemical industry, along with its derivative, the pharmaceutical, is an important part of Indian economy today, it is in no small measure due to the scientific and managerial efforts of Bhatnagar, who half in jest claimed intellectual lineage from the pioneering Indian modern chemist P.C. Ray, Bhatnagar’s teacher having been Ray’s early student. Chemistry was rather a laboured link with Bengal; what exercised great influence on the course of Bhatnagar’s life was the Bengal-born Brahmo Samaj movement. He obtained his M.Sc degree in 1919, taking three years as he had done for the B.Sc. As part of his degree requirements, he studied the surface tension of water. The next two years, Bhatnagar spent at the University of London, earning his D.Sc degree on surface tension of oils under the supervision of Prof F. G. Donnan, FRS. This was made possible by the award of a scholarship by Dyal Singh Trust, thanks to the efforts of Prof Ruchi Ram Sahni, a science professor at Government College and member of the trust. (Prof Ruchi Ram was the father of the well-known botanist, Birbal Sahni) A travel grant from the British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research enabled Bhatnagar to visit France and Germany. Bhatnagar returned to India in 1921 to take up a professorship at Benaras Hindu University on the invitation of the founder, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. In Benaras, Bhatnagar focused on pure research, which stood him in good stead in his later industrial research. In 1924, 30-year-old Bhatnagar took over as Director of the newly opened University Chemical Laboratories, Lahore, having been chosen in preference to his rather ineffectual European competitor, who had been Bhatnagar’s teacher. The laboratories addressed problems in industrial and applied chemistry brought in by agriculturists and industrialists. The First World War had given a chance to Bhatnagar to do a bit of consultancy on his own for a Lahore stationer. The Second World War (1939-1945) provided him with an opportunity to build scientific infrastructure for the country. So far, India’s industrial backwardness had been Indians’ concern; war made it Britian’s handicap. Export of raw material from and import of finished goods into India stopped. India was called upon to take up the responsibility of "supplying the technical equipment of a modern army". It was a foregone conclusion that the British would leave India after the war. Indians were already in important positions in government as well as in industry and science. Though still working under British auspices, the Indians sought to dovetail their country’s post-independence interests into the British exigencies of war. In December, 1939, Dewan Bahadur Sir Arcot Ramaswami Mudaliar, commerce member in the Viceroy’s Executive Committee, visited Bhatnagar’s laboratory in Lohore, was impressed by what he saw, and advised the Viceory that Bhatnagar be appointed to head the government’s war-time science effort. Bhatnagar stipulated that he should have at his disposal a laboratory for research students, funded by Messers Steel Brothers. This was accepted and in August 1940 Bhatnagar took over as Director, Scientific and Industrial Research. He was based in Alipore, Kolkata, where a pre-existing laboratory was refurbished for his use. (The laboratory was shifted to Delhi University campus in December 1942, in view of the threat of the Japanese invasion). In the meantime, on April 1, 1940, a purely advisory body, Board of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSIR), was set up with Mudaliar as ex-officio chairman and a civil servant as the secretary. The board would receive research proposals from research institutions and advise the government on these proposals. A year later, the government agreed to sanction an annual amount of Rs 10 lakh for five years towards establishing an Industrial Research Fund for "fostering industrial development in the country." It was the first time official funding was systematically forthcoming for research being carried out by individuals and organisations outside the government system, but the CSIR was seen merely as clearing house. It is only much later when national laboratories were established that CSIR came to acquire its distinctive identity. (Excerpted from a review essay by Rajesh Kochar in the new edition of Life & Work of Sir S. S. Bhatnagar written by Norah Richards and published by Nistads.) |
Shanti
