होमी जहांगीर भाभा Homi J. Bhabha
Ideas
Self-reliance in science and technology
He wanted India to grow its own experts before it needed them. His 1944 proposal argued that when nuclear power arrived India should not depend on foreign scientists. BARC still describes self-reliance in every area of nuclear science and engineering as his aim.
India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand.
Proposal to the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (March 1944)
Department of Atomic Energy: A brief history · Bhabha Atomic Research Centre: About BARC · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009)
Three stages to thorium
India has little uranium and much thorium. He cited over 500,000 tons of thorium against uranium reserves of less than a tenth of that. Stage one burns natural uranium and yields plutonium. Stage two uses that plutonium to turn thorium into uranium-233. Stage three runs on breeders. He presented the plan in 1954 and the government adopted it in 1958.
People first, then buildings
He hired scientists before he had a permanent home for them. He brought the mathematician D. D. Kosambi into a physics institute and built a school of mathematics around K. Chandrasekharan. He believed outstanding scientists take a decade or more to grow. Indira Chowdhury’s history of TIFR is titled Growing the Tree of Science.
a large number of mediocre or second rate workers can not make up for a few outstanding ones
As quoted in Growing the Tree of Science (2016)
Bhāvanā: Review of Growing the Tree of Science (April 2018) · Founding Fuel: The birth of a model scientific institute (15 May 2021)
Fundamental research as the foundation
He saw basic physics as the ground on which applied atomic energy would stand. He told the Tata Trust it was his duty to stay in India and build world-class schools of research. TIFR began with cosmic rays and theoretical physics and grew into mathematics and electronics.
build up schools comparable with those that other countries are fortunate in possessing
Letter to the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (12 March 1944)
Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009) · Wikipedia: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research · Founding Fuel: The birth of a model scientific institute (15 May 2021) · Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha
Science and art together
He painted all his life and loved opera and Western classical music. He backed the Progressive Artists’ Group and repeatedly invited Picasso to India. In 1952 he edited an issue of Marg on Leonardo da Vinci. He began the TIFR art collection in the early 1950s. He wanted his scientists to engage with art and the wider culture.
It is no use telling Beethoven ‘You must be a scientist for it is great thing’
Letter to his father, as recalled by U. R. Rao
Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009) · DNA: Seeking the Renaissance Man · The Tribune: Review of Homi J Bhabha: A Life (June 2023) · Bhāvanā: Review of Growing the Tree of Science (April 2018)
Atomic energy for development
He saw nuclear power as the answer to India’s energy gap. Coal lay mostly in the east and hydropower depended on the monsoon. At Geneva in 1955 he set out the case on a world scale. His address linked energy supply to population and growth.
Department of Atomic Energy: A brief history · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009) · Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha
A small high-powered body close to power
In April 1948 he proposed an atomic energy body answerable directly to the Prime Minister. The AEC got full executive and financial powers on the lines of the Railway Board. Nehru wrote to him as “My dear Homi” and always made time for him.
Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · British Journal for the History of Science: Unfriendly guardians, India’s first nuclear leadership change in 1966 (2021) · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009)
Seeding electronics, computing and space
He did not stop at reactors. TIFR had its own electronics production unit by 1954 and built TIFRAC in 1957. He chaired the Electronics Committee on India’s electronics industry. He helped Vikram Sarabhai found the space committee and the AEC funded its first projects.
Wikipedia: Homi J. Bhabha · Wikipedia: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research · Virendra Singh (TIFR): Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Architect of Modern Science and Technology in India (2009)
Overview · Life · Ideas · Books · Videos · Debates · People I learn from