Centenary tribute to Vikram Sarabhai : The Father of Indian Space Program

Centenary tribute to Vikram Sarabhai : The Father of Indian Space Program

This day the 12th of August, is special on many counts; First it happens to be the Eid Ul Adha, the auspicious festival of sacrifice that commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's unstinting devotion to God, Second, the much hyped episode, Man VS Wild, featuring Bear Grylls with our Prime Minister, will be premiered tonight on the Discovery Channel and lastly and most importantly, today also happens to be the 100th birthday of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian Space Program, who was born on this very day in 1919 in Ahmedabad. This post of mine will confine only to Vikram Sarabhai, courtesy my colleague Ramdas Iyer, who in his yesterday’s FB post tagged me to write a tribute to Sarabhai. Incidentally Google too is honouring Sarabhai today on their site. Sarabhai, most shockingly, like his illustrious predecessor Dr Homi Bhabha who died at an young age of 57 years, in an air crash in 1966, also died at a very young age of 52 years while holidaying with his family in Kovalam, Kerala. Just before his untimely death Sarabhai had witnessed firing of a Russian rocket and inaugurated Thumba railway station before retiring for the night, which was to be his last. There are several controversies doing the rounds, which compare his so called natural death in sleep to that of Lal Bahadur Shastri. I shall not delve into this emotive issue here.

Unity in Diversity - the often used phrase for India that all of us have grown up living with - is one of the greatest attributes of our country, which is inseparable to this great nation, notwithstanding the unending differences and diversity that exist in our country that gets played out during the heated debates on the news channels. Unity in Diversity an unique attribute of India - the worlds largest democracy - is vividly visible and is exemplified through the medium of Cinema, Cricket and Chilly, which connects we Indians, without exception, to one common nationhood. ISRO has now become the fourth common connecting chord for all of us, the evidence of which came to the fore when the entire nation was seen united in hailing the successful launch of the Chandrayaan 2, by ISRO. On-board this historic mission is the Vikram Lander, named after the founding father of ISRO, Vikram Sarabhai, whose centenary the nation is celebrating and in whose honour ISRO is organising over 100 events in 100 selected cities across India, starting with a mega event at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad which will be launched today.

The PRL was a kind of a crucible for ISRO, which was started in the backyard of Sarabhai house in Shahibagh, Ahmedabad before moving to the MG Science College and finally to its Navrangpura campus where ISRO was conceived on third floor of the PRL building. PRL churned out the idea for the Space programmes for India and was also the place where prominent ISRO scientists, Sarabhai, U R Rao, Kasturirangan, Prof Yashpal and others were groomed and ISRO culture cultivated. It was Vikram Sarabhai who put Ahmedabad on the world map of scientific and industrial research by establishing several institutes and organisations in various fields, notable among them include the PRL, Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research Association (ATIRA), Indian Institute of Management, National Institute of Design (NID), and Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VSCSC). Darpan Art and culture centre was also started by the family (Mrinalini Sarabhai). The famed Space Application Centre (SAC/ ISRO) was set up at Ahmedabad courtesy Sarabhai and PRL, which acted as the intellectual springboard of ISRO. Incidentally most of my Museum friends will also recognise PRL for the dating of their antiquity objects, which most often were carried out at the PRL.

Vikram Sarabhai - visionary, businessman, scientist and also an art connoisseur - the sixth child among the eight children born to the illustrious parents Ambalal and Sarladevi Sarabhai, was born on the 12th of August 1919 in Ahmedabad into an illustrious Gujarati Jain business family. He had a privileged childhood and grew up in ‘The Retreat’ a colonial style mansion in which the Sarabhais lived. Among the decorated luminaries who visited the Sarabhais at the Retreat, included Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Bhulabhai Desai, Rukmini Arundale, J Krishnamurthi, Prithviraj Kapoor and others. It is therefore no wonder that Vikram Sarabhai had great vision for his country, the seeds of which were sown early on in life by the visits of such great nationalist stalwarts to his house. Nehru and Indira Gandhi also visited the Sarabhai mansion as guests.

Tagore, incidentally, wrote a recommendation letter for Vikram Sarabhai's admission to the Cambridge University. Aged 17, Sarabhai enrolled at St. John's College in Cambridge in 1936 and completed his natural science tripos in 1939. The onset of World War II forced him to return to India. After coming back to India from Cambridge he joined the Tata Institute (now Indian Institute of Science) Bangalore to carry out research on cosmic Rays, the subject that was assigned to him by his illustrious teacher Sir C V Raman. It is here that he met his would be wife, Mrinalini Swaminathan and Dr Homi Bhabha. He published his first scientific paper ‘Time distribution of Cosmic Rays’, in 1942 while studying at the Tata Institute. After the end of the World War II, Sarabhai once again returned back to Cambridge to finish his doctoral dissertation, which he completed at the age of 28 years. After attaining his PHD from Cambridge, Sarabhai returned to India in 1947, by when India was an independent nation. Sarabhai, like Bhabha, set out to carve his own space for the nation development and persuaded charitable trusts controlled by his family and friends to endow a research institution near home in Ahmedabad and the result was the formation of the the Physical Research Laboratory. Barely twenty-eight years old, Sarabhai had set out to transform India and its space aspirations and true to his prophetic vision, PRL went on to play a pivotal role in the formation of ISRO.

Vikram Sarabhai, a man of passion for science and its benefits to human society, was appointed the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in May 1966, after the sudden death of Homi Bhabha in an air crash. Sarabhai envisaged harnessing the power of space science to find solutions to the problems India was facing in the field of communication, meteorology, and education. Sarabhai was instrumental in the setting up of the Indian Space Research Organization on 15 August 1969 under the Department of Atomic Energy. Sarabhai used his stature to connect with NASA, leader in space science, to start the first experiment of commencing TV programs in rural villages in India and the result was the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). The SITE, program was launched in 1975 and became the first major India-US partnership in space, which has grown from strength to strength, notwithstanding the cold era period and the sanctions that India endured. SITE was India’s first attempt to use technology for education through TV broadcasts. Courtesy the success of the SITE, India began launch of communications satellites beginning with the INSAT 1 and also brought about a revolution in establishing Low Power Transmitting TV stations from 1982, which helped India in taking giant leaps in the field of mass communication particularly the TV transmission.

Indian Space programme has now come a very long way from the humble beginning of the launch of our first launch vehicle - SLV- and the satellite Aryabhatta, to the current era in which ISRO creates, builds and launches gigantic rockets, including the most successful PSLV - the work horse- and the GSLV, which carry Indian and international payloads, satellites, and complex spacecraft not just for our country but also for several other countries. Projects like the Chandrayaan, Mars Orbit Mission, built at frugal costs, not only exemplify Indian excellence in Space but also kindle an outstanding sense of Indianness among the people. Today, courtesy Sarabhai’s vision the Indian Space programme can rightfully claim to be in the elite club of nations. Sarabhai had a deep belief in India and her people. He was inspired by India’s yearning to be self reliant and not dependent on other nations for our every need. He did not want India to be vulnerable to pressures that would make us take decisions that would harm the nation or our people. He had a great belief in people and his people in ISRO have proved him right and continue to behold a sense of needing to contribute for the nation.

Sarabhai was a doting and hands-on father to Kartikeya and Mallika, who followed their parents’ footsteps to become India’s celebrated luminaries in their own ways. Mallika Sarabhai, the eminent daughter of Vikram and Mrinalini Sarabhai, has in one of her interview said that Vikram Sarabhai used to attend most of the parents meeting. His wife the noted Bharatnatyam dancer, Mrinalini Sarabhai, travelled extensively performing all across the world and it was left to Vikram Sarabhai to attend most of the parents meeting. The fatherly love and affection of Sarabhai can be seen in the way he guided his children, which Mallika has alluded to in one of her interviews where she says “I grew up as papa’s daughter, not as Dr Vikram Sarabhai’s. He was papa. With little time but loads of love and fun. He would whistle ‘Bridge On The River Kwai’ and have me marching around the carpet”. The lessons that he taught to his children to think independently is something which holds value even today. He too was fallible and human and his relationship with Kamla Chaudhury throws light on his being human.

On this historic day I join Google and a billion plus countrymen in paying our rich tribute to this great visionary, who died so early at the age of 52 leaving behind so much of his unfinished vision for the nation. I truly believe he would have contributed much more to the nation and influenced our path as a nation differently had he been alive a little longer. Fortunately the organisation he built and the people who he mentored have left no stone unturned to live up to his expectations in contributing to the nation. May ISRO continue to live up to the ideals of this great Visionary for eternity. Rest in Peace.