Commemoration and culmination of the 150th Birth Anniversary of the Mahatma : Gandhi and Science

 Commemoration and culmination of the 150th Birth Anniversary of the Mahatma : Gandhi and Science.

Gandhi ji is perhaps the most prominent leaders of the world on whom unending essays, books, films and documentaries have been written and produced the world over, yet, strangely, not much has been written or documented on Gandhi and his interest in Science and Technology and even lesser, his interest in Astronomy. Therefore we made an attempt to connect Gandhi with science during this years Gandhi Jayanti celebrations. Among other events programmes and activities that we organised, as a tribute to the Mahatma there were two webinar lectures, which were delivered by Dr. Ratnashree, Director Nehru Planetarium, Delhi on ‘Gandhi and Khagolshastra’ and Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni, Author and Columnist, on ‘Gandhi and Science and Technology’, which were organised on 29th September and 1st October. respectively. Dr. Ratnashree, shed light on Gandhi ji’s interest in Astronomy - star gazing. In fact, his liking for astronomy became so intense that for some time it became an obsession for him. Sudheendra Kulkarni ji, based on his extensive research and monumental study and his publication of a book ‘Music of the Spinning Wheel - Mahatma Gandhi’s Manifesto for the Internet Age’, delivered an inspirational lecture on Gandhi and Science. He unravelled the enigmatic Gandhi ji and his association and interest in science, with his well reasoned articulations of Mahatma Gandhi’s Life and Work.  His lecture was so very insightful that it is bound to dispel the myth, which we all have that Gandhi ji was anti science and anti-modern, which is based on our apocryphal beliefs. Here is a brief summary of Gandhiji’s association with astronomy and science based on the two lectures.

Gandhi ji had an unprecedented influence on people and that influence perpetuates even todaय। His principles, for which he is known globally - सत्या और अहिमसा ( Truth and Non Violence), are relevant, rather more relevant, even today. It was his strength of character and of practice, as distinguished from precept, that enabled Gandhi to influence so deeply his thought on millions of his followers, not just in India but globally. Therefore, for us, the science communicators, Gandhi’s interest in science and technology and stargazing is an interesting new attribute of the Mahatma, which must mandatorily be communicated to the people, particularly the youngsters, to kindle their interest in sky observation and science and technology.  Mahatma always believed that science and technology must be used for larger social good of human society.

 

Notwithstanding the fact that so much has been written and documented about the Mahatma, yet, Gandhi ji, in a way continues to be an enigma, with so much more to know about him and his extraordinary life that touched the lives of tens of millions of people. Interestingly enough even though so much is known of the Mahatma, and that there is hardly any private life for Gandhi ji, yet there is that much more, which we can learn and be inspired from him. During the two years celebrations of the sesquicentennial birth anniversary of the Mahatma, which started on 2nd October 2018 and will be ending today, the Government has initiated many projects to bring Gandhi ji closer to the people. One such project, which was announced in the budget speech of the honorable Finance Minister was the Gandhipedia project, which I had the honour to prepare the detailed project report and get it approved from the Ministry of Culture. Incidentally this artificial intelligence based web portal that has been developed by IIT Kharagpur and IIT Gandhinagar, is likely to be launched very soon and it is hoped that this will provide a much needed platform for the Gandhian researchers to dive into understanding Gandhi ji better with AI based search that the web portal will provide to the people, when launched. There is also another exhibition ‘A Digital Tribute to the Mahatma’, which too will be opened at the Nehru Science Centre very soon. Speaking of Gandhi ji, I am reminded of a famous Poet, Bhavabhuti who had said, “Who, indeed, can claim to know the mind of the Great?" Mahatma Gandhi, in that sense, fits into the Poets classification. Although Gandhi had laid bare his life and mind in its fullness before his people and had permitted no secrecy or personal life of his own, yet there is much of an enigma that remains attached to the Mahatma, particularly when it comes to knowing him from the stand point of science.

 

Gandhi and science perhaps have not been much talked about and therefore in my limited language understanding and inability to use better words, I would say Gandhi and Science were considered  as an oxymoron.  Fortunately post the two lectures of Dr Ratnashree and Sudheendra Kulkarni, which we organised, there will be a better understanding of the Mahatma when it comes to his association with science and technology and these lectures may inspire younger generations to research more on this subject. Gandhi continues to be a role model for the nation and particularly for the students who wish to become political and social scientists but then lack of our understanding of Gandhiji’s feelings for science have not helped the scientific community in making Mahatma a role model for those who aspire to be scientist and technocrats. Hopefully  this will change with better understanding of his views in science and help us use the name of Mahatma to influence the interest of our audience in science and technology and how it can bring about transformational changes in society, which was what Gandhi ji aspired all his life.

It was also generally believed that Gandhi ji was against use of technology, which is evidenced from his sayings like Industrialise and Perish and his advocacy against industrialisation,much to the consternation of people like Sir M Visvesvaraya, whose thoughts were diametrically opposite to the Mahatma. Visvesvaraya used the slogan Industrialise or Perish to oppose the views of Gandhi ji. Despite such diametrically opposing views of Gandhi and Sir MV, both of them had the highest respect for each other’s position and often Sir MV cited his seniority in age to drive home his position but not with much success. Gandhi ji is perceived as a saintly person who had always valued faith more than reason. However, Sudheendra ji reveals that Gandhijis opposition to the ways of modern western civilisation did not imply his lack of interest in science and scientists. Sudheendra ji highlighted that the Mahatma was not anti-science and that he was always appreciative of the great scientists and how science benefits society. Incidentally it was Gandhi ji on whose instance Pandit Nehru requested Sir M V to inspect Odisha and study the floods and  suggest technological measures to combat Orissa floods. The reservoir across Mahanadi – The Hirakud dam, is an outcome of Sir Visvesvaraya’s recommendation for the construction of the reservoir, to Pandit Nehru who called such works temples of modern India.

Gandhiji’s opposition to industrialisation or over reliance on science and technology is legendary and therefore it is no wonder that little is known about Gandhiji’s interest, albeit-short-lived, in star gazing and astronomy. Mahatma Gandhi ji, during his jail term in Yerwada jail, Pune, took sudden and keen interest in astronomy. He likened the observation of unending expanse of stars and the celestial bodies to a spiritual experience, which humbled him and made him feel how insignificant he is in comparison with the vast and unending expanse of the universe, about which he seemed-to have some basic understanding. His interest in astronomy was created by the company of Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar popularly called Kaka Kalelkar, a graduate in Philosophy-from the Fergusson college. Kaka Kalelkar too was a political thinker who used to write for a nationalistic Marathi paper -‘Rashtramat’, and is believed to have walked on foot to the Himalayas. He became a follower of Gandhi and was one of the residents of the Sabarmati Ashram. Gandhiji, while incarcerated in the Yerwada Pune Jail, briefly had the company of Kaka Kalelkar, who was deeply interested in astronomy, which he rubbed on to the Mahatma. Kaka urged Gandhi to use the telescope to observe, closely, the celestial objects and this use of optical technology - Telescope, mesmerised Gandhiji and kindled his interest in astronomy. In the brief period that he spent in Pune jail, during February to May 1932, Gandhiji acquainted himself with sky charts and maps and also ended up reading quite a number of essays and books on astronomy. Gandhiji used to often sleep in the open air with his fellow jail mates Mr Desai and Sardar Patel and looked at the night sky and engaged his associates with his new found hobby of sky observations. There is also an anecdotal reference of the jailor not permitting technical persons to visit Yerwada Jail for the assembly of the new telescope, which Gandhiji wanted in the Jail. Fortunately Gandhiji appealed against the decision and managed to get the telescope commissioned.

 

Gandhiji prepared articles on his new found hobby of sky observation and titled them “Watching the Heavens I and II”, and distributed his writings to the inmates of the Sabarmati Ashram, urging his followers to observe the twinkling stars and other planets in the night sky. Mahatma, believed that a look at the unending expanse of the sky, with hundreds and thousands of twinkling stars, made him experience that humbling feeling, which was a ‘spiritual' experience for him. He even prepared some sketches of the group of constellations like the Orion constellation. Gandhi jis liking for star gazing can be appreciated in one of his statements where he says ‘My room may have blank walls; and I may even dispense with the roof, so that I may gaze out at the starry heavens overhead that stretch in an unending expanse. What conscious Art of a man can give me the panoramic scenes that open out before me, when I look up to the sky above with all its shining stars? He adds, ‘These beauties of a sunset or a crescent moon that shines amid the stars at night’ are truthful, in as much as they make me think of the creator at the back of them. How else could these be beautiful, but for the Truth that is in the center of creation? Dr. Nandivada Rathnasree, Director of Nehru Planetarium, has done fair amount of research on the interest that Gandhi ji developed during his stay at the Yerwada Jail and has managed to dig out some rare archival material from the NMML library records, which she has used to develop a new full dome planetarium show that she has tilted ‘ Gandhi and Khagolashastra’.

This new planetarium show extensively quotes Gandhiji and one such quote of Gandhi says  “Astronomy has always interested me. Now it has become a passion with me. Every free minute I get, I devote myself to it. It is a wonderful subject…”. There are records which suggest that there were two large-sized telescopes, which were placed in the open yard of the Yerwada central prison, which were used by the Mahatma for star gazing, while he was incarcerated at the Yerwada Jail. While sending the articles Gandhi wrote on astronomy ‘Watching the Heavens I and II’ to his ashram inmates in 1932, Gandhiji advised them to take up regular observations of the night sky. According to Rathnasree, Gandhiji “combines his view of the celestial objects… with practical instructions for sky observations and even sketches of the Orion constellation. Following the sketch, he goes on to say that none of the sketches he has seen in print show all the stars which he can see in the constellation and advises ashram inmates to make their own sketches, one reason being…that the constellation as seen from different locations on Earth would have differing orientations. He exhibits his understanding that sky charts vary from place to place. The “possibility of a measurement of time by looking at the changing position of the Saptarshi asterism” was also raised by the Mahatma in his article. Gandhiji also desired that lucid books be written on the life of great astronomers and their discoveries. Nehru Planetarium along with NCSM have taken initiatives to highlight Gandhiji’s writings on astronomy and his wonderment at observing stars, through Bapu Khagol Mela, which was spearheaded by Dr Ratnashree.  

As a lifelong seeker of truth, Gandhiji’s interest in astronomy was genuine and to him sky observation was a deeply spiritual experience. But the same sky observation for Meghnad Saha, was different. Saha’s observation was quest for the hidden laws of nature using the methods of modern science, which resulted in the development of the Saha Ionisation equation.  Although Gandhi ji is known to have been adversarial to use and implementation of technology for national progress, yet Sudheendra ji in his evocative lecture highlights how receptive Gandhiji was for new technology that would change the lives of the common people. Sudheendra ji even highlights a technology challenge or a competition that Gandhi ji announced and allocated a hefty prize amount of Rs 1 Lacs ( equivalents to present day 4 Crores of Rupees) for any one who could develop a improved spinning wheel that would help improved efficiency and productivity for the people. This, Sudheendra ji says, conclusively proves that Gandhi ji was not ‘per say’ opposed to the technology. All he wanted was that technology must and should serve the people in the bottom of the pyramid.

He argued that Gandhiji has often admitted that there have been contradictions in his life. Gandhiji far from excusing himself for them, he has stated, ‘I have never made a fetish of consistency. I am a votary of truth and I must say what I feel and think at a given moment on the question, without regard to what I may have said before on it’.  So one can’t summarise that he was a compulsive opponent of science or technology, rather Gandhi was a prime follower of the principles of science - ability to question and reason. 

Ratnashree briefly talked about the new planetarium show - ‘Bapu and  khagol shastra’ which is based on Gandhis interest in sky. The program uses Gandhi’s quotes, which  were curated after months of research into Gandhi jis collected works. Volume 90 of the collected works of Gandhi (CWG), which are now in public domain, says Gandhi asked his ashram inmates to observe the skies regularly as a “peace and health-giving exercise”. The works also reveal that Gandhi ji arranged for the telescope in Yerwada Jail and this was was facilitated by the Poona observatory. The archival records of the CWG show that Gandhi ji lamented about not having enough time or the wherewithal to observe the magnificence of the heavens, as much as he would have wanted. Dr. Rathshree in her illustrated lecture also showed a letter of Gandhi written to Kelkar in August 1932, where he advises Kaka Kalelkar that his book on astronomy "should give the names and short lives of Western astronomers, some of whom, were men of great courage and spirit and of noble character".  He went on to add that the book on astronomy, which he wishes to publish, should be as perfect as possible and should give an account of all discoveries to date in the field. Gandhi ji also mentioned that the book should give some knowledge about physics. All this clearly and unambiguously establish the fact that Bapu was well aware, not just about the positional astronomy aspects of watching the stars, but also his reading had allowed him to realise that physics underlay an understanding of stars. In a letter to Mathuradas Trikumji, Bapu lamented that he came rather late to this appreciation - astronomy. He says “I myself have been watching the stars every night and enjoy the experience immensely. I have woken up in old age. But what harm can there be in waking up even on death-bed if watching the stars helps one to have a glimpse of the soul?"

Sudheendra Kulkarni recalled an incident, when Bapu was at the Yerwada Jail, when reporters from the Associated Press set foot inside the Yerawada Jail premises to interview Gandhi. The reporters have quoted that they saw two large-sized telescopes placed in the open yard occupied by Gandhi in the Yerawada Jail and this sight presented an unusual spectacle amidst the severe simplicity of the Jail surroundings. This is also chronicled in the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi - CWG. Gandhi told the reporters. "Astronomy has always interested me. Now it-has become a passion with me. Every free minute I get, I devote myself to it. It is a-wonderful subject, and more than anything else impresses upon me the mystery of god-and the majesty of the universe. To be lying on your back in the open air on a starry night and regarding universe after universe in the immeasurable expanse, you cannot help becoming a worshipper of God. My mind leaps with joy as I do so. Oh, it is marvellous, this incident has been quoted in a report in The Hindu, published on April 3, 1933.

Ratnashree also spoke of Gandhi jis inquisitiveness to observe a celestial object called  'Parijata', by Gandhi ji, which he was unable to do. However Dr Ratnashree was unable to connect whether the Parijata, which Gandhi ji was referring to was a star or constellation. May be researchers can throw more light on this with better study and understanding of Gandhi jis works. There are other interesting facts about Gandhi and his love with sky. Bapu has recorded practical instructions for sky observations and has even sketched the Orion constellation. Bapu writes that none of the sketches, which he has seen in sky maps and prints show all the stars that he could see through the telescope. He also says that the sky maps or sketches, vary from one region to other and cites the reason for it and says it is because the constellation as seen from different locations on earth would have differing orientations. Therefore Bapu advises the beginner stargazers to observe from a fixed place at a fixed time, and sketch the constellations. He further adds  that once they are familiar with the constellations, they would be able to identify these even if their locations and the constellation orientations change. Bapu also discusses the possibility of a measurement of time by looking at the changing positions of the 'Saptarshi', Ursa Major constellation. All this clearly shows that Gandhiji was in love with astronomy and advocated his followers to learn about it. Dr Ratnashree also said that Gandhiji refers to the constellations of Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor,Lepus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, the Pole star, as also the imaginary creatures that are seen in the mythologies, which are connected with these constellations. He also immediately clarifies that the mythological creatures of constellations are "beautiful fancies", and that there are no such real figures in the sky. 

Sudheendra Kulkarni discussed  many phases of Mahatma Gandhi’s Life and Work at various levels. Based on this he articulated that Gandhi ji was not anti-modern, as many still believe. He also addressed several questions which are normally raised when speaking about Gandhi and science and technology.  ‘Was his philosophy of self-sufficiency anti development? Has the Age of Information and Communication Technology altered the meaning of swadeshi?  Has it altered the meaning to the extent of making it meaningless? Based on his research he dispels each of these myths which are associated with Gandhi and argues that Gandhi was always in sync with reality and technology for him was a life enabler, what he argued was that it must be used to change the lives of the people at the bottom of the pyramid and not used to create a larger difference between the haves and the have nots. He argued that Gandhi his thoughts on technology are more relevant in the modern world when sustainable development goals are of primary concern for the world. He recalled the prophetic statement of Gandhi ji who had said ‘Nature provides everything to fulfil the needs of the people and not their greeds’, which is so very relevant even today when we are speaking of issues like climate change, which is primarily man made. He highlighted the support that Gandhi ji advocated for telegraph and juxtaposed it to modern times to say that Bapu would have been a great advocate of the Internet which has democratised information. He highlighted how this technology can be harvested by Indians in the fourth industrial revolution which he seems to be a great advocate of. 

Kulkarni said that Gandhi can under no circumstances be dismissed as an eccentric, stuck with the Spinning wheel. Rather he must be associated with progress but a progress which is beneficial to the last man in the developmental ladder. He shared his thoughts that in the course of his studies,  he had discovered that Gandhi was not against elaborate machinery. Indeed, Gandhi is quoted as saying that he would favour the use of such machinery if thereby India’s paupers could be thereby saved from poverty. Kulkarni said that the spinning wheel may have been symbolic in the early twentieth century but actually the Mahatma would have discarded it if someone had showed him a better way of making a person self reliant. Gandhi’s primary concern was the chronic unemployment of millions of people in India’s villages and therefore Gandhi ji used the spinning wheel as  a means, to gaining economic freedom. Sudheendra ji argued with reasons that If the Mahatma was alive today, he would have embraced the Internet. 

I was one of those who had gone by those here say opinion that Gandhi and science had no commonality but after the two lectures and my own study which was compelled based on the two lectures, I am fairly convinced that Gandhi ji was a man of science who believed in questioning and central to science is asking questions and considering none but reasons and logic to be canonical. Long live the ideals of the Mahatma. On this birth anniversary of the Mahatma it is also time to celebrate the birth anniversary of another greatest leaders of India Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose slogan Jai Jawan Jai Kissan continues to reverberate in the hearts and minds of people and it is this monumental saying which kick started the green revolution in India and helped India to be self reliant on food production.

Jai Hind.

Centenary Tribute to Prof Satish Dhawan: The man who steered ISRO into the space trajectory.

Centenary Tribute to Prof Satish Dhawan: The man who steered ISRO into the space trajectory.

Image Credits : ISRO and Wiki Commons.

 The years 2019 and 2020 are special to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), an institution which has entered the hearts and minds of all Indians. These two years - 2019 and 2020, mark the birth centenary years of the founder of Indian Space program - ISRO, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and the man who steered and successfully placed the Indian Space program on the right space trajectory - Prof. Satish Dhawan respectively. Prof Satish Dhawan was the key architect who headed ISRO during those early testing and difficult times, which ISRO had to endear, post the sudden and untimely death of its founder, Dr. Sarabhai, on 31st December 1971. Although the foundational seeds for ISRO were sown by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, it is a matter of fact that the man who is mandatorily to be credited for the current success of ISRO must be Prof. Satish Dhawan, the founding architect of ISRO who succeeded Dr. Sarabhai and steered ISRO to the modern times, where success and ISRO have become quite synonymous. The nation has paid a year long centenary tribute to Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the visionary of Indian Space, however we must not forget that it was Prof Satish Dhawan who lent substance to Dr Sarabhai’s vision and built the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) brick by brick. Today ISRO is rightfully known as an institution of international excellence and scientists from ISRO can rub shoulders with their counterparts in NASA and other reputed space agencies across the world. This day - 25th September, 2020, marks the birth centenary of Prof Satish Dhawan, who was born on this day in Srinagar in 1920 and as ISRO celebrates his birth centenary we as a nation must join them and raise up in reverence to this national hero of ours. 

ISRO, in a befitting tribute, is commemorating the birth centenary of Prof Dhawan by organising a centennial program in his memory, which was beamed live on You Tube this afternoon. The event started with the garlanding of the portrait of Prof Dhawan at the ISRO headquarters by the dignitaries led by ISRO Chairman, Dr. Sivan. Honorable Prime Minister of India shared his message in honour of Prof Dhawan and this message was read by the Chairman ISRO. Other distinguished guests who joined in commemoration of this event and shared their valuable thought included, Dr. Kasturi Rangan, Prof Roddam Narasimh, A S Kiran Kumar, and several other dignitaries including the beloved daughter of Prof Satish Dhawan – Dr. Jyotsna Dhawan.  

 

The best way to begin a tribute to the legendary Satish Dhawan is to recall what the former President of India – Peoples President – Dr. Abdul Kalam and Prof Roddam Narasimh had to say about their ‘Guru’ Prof Satish Dhawan with whom they worked very closely. Dr Kalam worked very closely with Prof Dhawan during his association with ISRO. They said “Professor Dhawan in his professional career has been engineer, teacher, research scientist, technologist, manager, leader and adviser — often all at the same time! His great human qualities, combining intense personal charm with a deep commitment to social values and an extraordinary objectivity in management, have led several generations of students, colleagues and administrators to efforts that they would otherwise not have taken.” In his book “The Wings of Fire” Dr. Kalam has paid flowing tributes to Prof. Dhawan and has quoted several anecdotal references of Prof Dhawan’s par excellence leadership and humane qualities. Coming from the Sainik School background where we were taught that for being a successful officer and a leader, who must command respect and not demand,  “the responsibilities must go from top to bottom and benefits from bottom to top”. Prof Satish Dhawan was an embodiment of this tenet. He stands out in these qualities and therefore it is no wonder that scientists across a broad spectrum, who worked with Satish Dhawan, vouch that Prof Dhawan was a staunch votary and a practitioner of this exemplary leadership qualities. Dr. Kalam, who was the project in charge of the SLV 3 project, which failed in its maiden attempt in August 1979, talks about how the failure and its consequences were directly handled by Prof Dhawan who shielded Dr. Kalam from the preying eyes of the journalists who had assembled to share their pound of flesh by targeting ISRO and Dr Kalam for this failure. Prof Dhawan owned up complete responsibility of the failure and took all those hard and tough questions and brickbats from the media. But then when the SLV 3 was successfully launched immediately thereafter in early 1980, here was Prof Dhawan who ensured that all that glory of success and media highlight on the success of the SLV launch went to Dr. Kalam and he preferred to lie low. Such was his exemplary leadership qualities, which shaped and sculpted the very culture of ISRO.

Similarly, Dr. Kalam quotes other anecdotal reference of Prof Dhavan’s benevolence and true leadership qualities. In one such incident, Dr Kalam says that he was again the beneficiary of Prof Dhawan’s exemplary benevolent leadership quality. He states that he had to attend a mandated meeting in Delhi with Prof Dhawan and others from the Planning Commission, for presenting a roadmap of ISRO and getting it approved. Unfortunately for Kalam, this important and unavoidable meeting coincided with the marriage of his niece. Prof Dhawan on learning why Kalam was quite stressed even after the successful meeting, immediately made arrangements for Kalam to fly from Delhi to Chennai by Indian Airlines and from Chennai to the venue of his niece’s marriage by a special helicopter, which Prof Dhawan had arranged through his contacts in defense. Dr Kalam could make it in time for the marriage of his niece courtesy Prof Dhawan. In another instance, Dr Kalam recalls that the entire team of scientists in ISRO were so very committed to their works, courtesy the infectious work and commitment ethics of their leader Prof Dhawan that almost always most of scientists forgot their commitment to their family, while working on their committed projects. Dr Kalam narrates an incident when Prof Dhawan arranged a car and a person to go to the home of a scientist who had forgotten his family commitment of taking his family on a outing on the birthday of their son. Unfortunately the scientist got so involved with his works that he forgot his sons birthday and his commitment to take him out for a dinner. Prof Dhawan knew of this but did not want to disturb the scientist who was completely engrossed in his works. He therefore preferred to send a car and a person to the scientist home for fulfilling scientists commitment to his family. The family was told that since the scientist was involved in an unavoidable work he has sent the car and the person to take them out for dinner. Interestingly the scientist knew nothing of this and when he was returning home from his office, he remembered his promise, which he thought he had failed to meet and was so very worried. Lo and behold on reaching home, the family thanked him for fulfilling his commitment even when he was so very busy, much to the embarrassment and delight of the scientist. Such was the humane leadership qualities that Prof Dhawan excelled in and therefore it is no wonder that ISRO has inherited this culture and continues to excel in what it does.    

  

Prof. Satish Dhawan was born on 25 September, 1920 in Srinagar to the distinguished parents and his father was a respected Judge, who worked in Lahore in undivided India. Prof Dhawan has an interesting mix of education, which cuts across different disciplines and is a novel mix of sciences, arts, and engineering. Prof Satish Dhawan graduated with a bachelors degree in science in Physics and mathematics from the University of the Punjab in Lahore, (now in Pakistan). He then completed a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and followed it up with a Master of Arts in English Literature. He then went abroad for pursuing his Master of Science in aerospace engineering, which he completed from the University of Minnesota. He then obtained an Aeronautical Engineering Degree from the famous Caltech - California Institute of Technology, US, which was followed by a double PhD. On completing his doctorate, Satish Dhawan returned back to India in 1951, and joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore as a senior scientific officer. His commitment and passion helped him climb up the ladder and pretty soon he became the Dean and head of the department of Aeronautical Engineering at IISC. Under his stewardship, the aeronautical engineering department quickly became the epicenter of experimental fluid dynamics research in India. His achievements in the aeronautical engineering department helped him with a very sharp raise and by 1962, Prof Dhawan became the Director of IISc. He was the youngest person ever to have been appointed to the position of the Director of IISc when he was just 42. This coveted position was previously held by the likes of the great Nobelist Sir C V Raman. Prof Dhawan continued as the institution’s longest-serving director for 19 long years (1962-81) even while he held the additional charge of the Chairman and head of ISRO from 1972 to 1982. 

 

After serving in IISc for nearly two decades (1951-70), Prof Dhawan had taken a sabbatical to Caltech, from where he had completed his double PhD. He was scheduled to spend two years on sabbatical at Caltech during 1971 and 1972 for his committed academic works. However, his plan was short lived. December 31, 1971 was a tragic day for India. The founder and visionary of the Indian Space Programme – Dr Sarabhai died suddenly while holidaying in Trivandrum. Under such compelling circumstances, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called on Prof Dhawan to return back to India cutting short his sabbatical to take charge of the Indian space program. The circumstances were so very tragic that Dhawan immediately accepted the offer of Mrs. India Gandhi and prematurely ended his sabbatical at Caltech to return back to India. Prof Dhawan, however put two conditions to the PM for his acceptance: that the headquarters of the space program be in Bengaluru and that he be allowed to continue as the Director of IISc. Mrs. Gandhi agreed to both his conditions and Dhawan returned to India in May 1972 to mantle the position of the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and to head the Space Commission as the Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Space, while also retaining his Directorship at IISc. Prof Satish Dhawan shouldered this additional responsibility of heading ISRO but took no  benefits whatsoever from ISRO. He drew a notional salary of Rs 1 for shouldering the responsibility of heading ISRO.

In the early 1970s, India had other social priorities, which among other things included providing ‘Roti, Kapada aur Makan’ to the citizens, the political slogan which had won Mrs Gandhi a major mandate to be elected as the Prime Minister of India. It was also the period when India continued to rely on a scheme called PL 480 under which the Americans sent ship loads of wheat for feeding our countrymen. Therefore, it was quite obvious that during those early years, investment in Indian space program was considered by many as not just a luxury but also a wasteful expenditure. Although Mrs. Indira Gandhi - the PM of India, had personally hand picked Prof Dhawan for the task, yet it was not an easy task to accomplish. There were too many critics who were highly vocal in their criticism of the Indian governments decision to invest in space program. The critics argued that the government had misplaced priorities and that space technology, which was rid with great challenges and failures that are an integral part of Space, is not the right priority for the government to be spending money on. Instead, the critics argued the government must spend on health and education and such other areas. It was under these testing times that Prof Satish Dhawan took charge of the Indian Space program.

One of the first important decision that Prof Dhawan took, after assuming the charge of Indian Space program, was to requisition the services of Dr. Brahm Prakash from the Department of Atomic Energy to head the newly formed Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram). This was perhaps the best decision, which helped ISRO immensely. Brahm Prakash helped in restructuring the facilities at VSSC into a dynamic structure, which was capable of producing tasked results time and time again. Dhawan worked hand in hand with Brahm Prakash to create the VSSC, which continues to be one of the great technology centres of modern India and has served as the mother institution and has become the birthplace of many subsequent ISRO centres and activities. Interestingly enough Dr APJ Kalam who was working with Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), had trained under Prof Satish Dhawan at IISC in designing a hovercraft for the ADE, one of Dr Kalam’s first assignment. Prof Dhawan, however had no connection then with either ISRO or ADE. He had seen the passion and commitment of Dr Kalam when it came to applying himself for the project assigned to him. When Prof Dhawan became the Chairman of ISRO he discussed his plans to requisition the services of Dr Kalam for ISRO, with Brahm Prakash and the duo hand picked A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to lead the project that developed SLV-3, India’s first launch vehicle. They also convinced Prof U.R. Rao to return back to India to head the team that made the country’s first satellite, Aryabhata. When the SLV-3 put a small 40- kg Rohini satellite into orbit in 1980, India truly entered the space age and the major credit for this achievement must go to Prof. Satish Dhawan. 

 

Prof Dhawan was convinced that if the Indian space program is to succeed it needed the continuous patronage of the government. Therefore notwithstanding major opposition from several of his contemporaries and colleagues, he worked towards bringing ISRO under the Government of India and thus created the Department of Space. Knowing well the drawbacks of the government departments, Prof Dhawan had to create a different structure for the functioning of the newly constituted Department of Space. He therefore commissioned a new body called the Space Commission, which enjoyed a separate book of financial powers and this body had a direct link to the Prime Minister. Thus he successfully created specific mechanisms, which could help the newly developed department to address the challenges that ISRO faced. He also ensured that there will be one combined office, which shouldered the responsibility of the offices of Chairman of ISRO, Chairman of the Space Commission and Secretary for the Department of Space and that there will be one person who will head this office, which ensured seamless integration between conceptualization and funding of programmes with delivery of technologies, launchers, satellites and applications. This major policy decision, which he not only conceptualised but also successfully implemented continues to help ISRO in achieving the stiffest challenges even today. His decision to locate the ISRO headquarters away from the national capital, a condition which he had placed before Mrs. Gandhi, has also benefitted ISRO.  Although one of the reasons for Prof Satish Dhawan to position the ISRO headquarters in Bangalore was guided by his passion to be associated with IISc, but there were other reasons too, which made him chose Bangalore. These reasons included the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited HAL and National Aeronautical Laboratory, which were in Bangalore. Prof Dhawan knew that both these institutions will be of immense benefit for ISRO. Prof Dhawan hired staff for ISRO Headquarters, who were young, bright and dedicated professionals, all of who were hand-picked by Dhawan himself. The continuing success that ISRO is now known for stems from this strong foundation, which Prof Dhawan designed and developed. Even today the robustness of this design is visibly seen and appreciated by all the ISRO chairman’s who have succeeded Prof Dhawan. 

Armed with all these foundational edifices, which were developed by Prof Dhawan, ISRO began designing the first Satellite Launch Vehicle – SLV 3, which was indigenously designed and built by ISRO under the leadership of our former President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. As discussed earlier in the essay, the first attempt to launch the SLV 3 failed. The improved version of the SLV the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle - the ASLV, built by ISRO, also started on a wrong note with many failures. These early failures did not miss the attention of the Indian media and other intelligentsia who went hammer and tongs and highlighted the ‘misplaced priorities’ of the government and its decision to back the ISRO. The media also invented and coined a very catchy phrase to draw the attention of Indian public to oppose the Indian government to support ISRO. They  termed the early launch vehicles of ISRO - the SLV and ASLV experiments, as ‘Sea Loving Vehicles’ and ‘Always Sea Loving Vehicle’, in consideration of the fact that the SLV and the ASLV launch vehicles more often than not failed and ended up in the sea rather than going into the space. It was during those early turbulent years that the grit and determination and the ISRO Culture was incubated and shaped by Prof Satish Dhawan. 

Prof. Dhawan was the first to set up the supersonic wind tunnel in India and pioneer research on relaminarization of separated boundary layer flows, three-dimensional boundary layers and trisonic flows. He also carried out pioneering experiments in rural education, remote sensing and satellite communications. His efforts led to operational systems like INSAT- a telecommunications satellite, IRS - the Indian Remote Sensing satellite and the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the work horse of ISRO, which has placed India in the league of space faring nations. Most of what ISRO does so well today – the IRS and INSAT satellites with their associated Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) systems — are outcomes of these carefully thought out processes. Prof Dhawan was a great advocate of indigenous development. From the very beginning, he emphasised on the importance of developing indigenous industry and including them in the projects of ISRO. Today, hundreds of industrial units, both in the public and private sectors, manufacture a wide range of space-quality hardware for ISRO to make ISRO ‘Atmanirbhar’.

Today, ISRO receives a national reverence and every Indian is so very appreciative of the achievements of our space scientists, who have made India proud and for this we must credit Prof Satish Dhawan whose exemplary leadership and resilience to stay on course, even under adverse conditions, has made this possible. ISRO now has developed an extraordinary resilience to face any challenge even in the face of a few setbacks here and there, thanks to the early culture and outlook that was shaped by Prof Dhawan. It is therefore befitting that following his death in Jan 2002, the Indian satellite launch centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, has been renamed as the Prof. Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SHAR. 

Courtesy the ISRO culture, which Prof Dhawan helped in establishing, ISRO today is able to achieve some of the most eye catching successful space programs that have caught the attention, not only of all Indians but also the global community including space experts in NASA and the European Space Agency. These space missions include among others ; Chandrayaan 1 and 2 and the Mars Orbiter Mission, which India could successfully launch in its maiden attempt and that too at frugal cost. These space missions and so also several other successful missions of ISRO have not only inspired many young people and given the nation a sense of justifiable pride in the achievements of the Indian space programme, but it has also provided the nation its rightful place in the international space arena. Amidst the euphoria surrounding such glamorous space successes and events, on this special day, which happens to be the birth centenary of Prof Satish Dhawan, it is our rightful duty that we remember the gentle yet a colossus leader who made all this possible - Prof Satish Dhawan. 

It must also not be forgotten that all through this period, when Prof Satish Dhawan was heading and steering the ISRO, he also served as the Director of the Indian Institute of Science, the position he held from 1962 to 1981. Dhawan loved teaching and research. Perhaps it was his love for teaching that compelled him to pose a condition to the Honourable Prime Minister that he will continue to be associated with IISc and that ISRO must be headquartered in Bangalore and not Delhi, which could have been a natural choice. Dhawan, notwithstanding his immense and stellar contributions to ISRO, always believed that his most productive years were spent at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, which always remained his first and greatest love. Dhawan during his nearly two decades of service as the director IISc, transformed the institution and he also managed to bring some fresh faces to IISc prominent among them include the great Prof GN Ramachandran and Prof CNR Rao. He established several new areas of multidisciplinary research at IISc. 

Prof Dhawan had an extraordinary interest in nature and in particular he admired the flights of the birds. This passion for observing and falling in love with bird flights led him to undertake a comprehensive study the ‘flight of birds’. He was often found roaming around the Pulicat Lake, Nelapetu and other bird sanctuaries near ISRO’s Sriharikota Range, which were frequented by lot many birds. His hobby or a casual interest in observing birds flight turned into a professional study, which resulted in the publication of a classic monograph called ’Bird Flight’. In the seventy plus pages article, which he published in 1991, Dhawan writes humbly in his preface : “I lay little claim to originality and acknowledge my debt to the many distinguished researchers on animal flight who have made the subject a new branch of science. I am no less indebted to the birds...”. Many of the drawings of birds that appear in this monograph were sketched by Dhawan himself.

The handsome and elegant Prof Dhawan had an extraordinary impact on all those who he interacted with, which he never seemed to realise. His impact was so very profound that most of them ended up doing whatever he wanted them to do. Prof Dhawan has received innumerable awards and accolades and primary among them include the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards from the Government of India, fellowships of all the Academies of Sciences in India and several from outside the country. He is also the recipient of the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration and the distinguished alumnus award from the Indian Institute of Science and Caltech. Prof. Dhawan after serving the nation for more than eight decades left for his heavenly abode on 3rd January 2002. The Indian Academy of Sciences, of which he served as the President, in one of its publications ‘Resonance’, has carried a befitting tribute to Prof Dhawan in its October 2003 issue where stalwarts like Dr Abdul Kalam, Dr Kasturi Rangan, Prof Roddam Narasimha and others have written flowing tributes to Prof Satish Dhawan. Today when the nation is celebrating the birth centenary of Prof Satish Dhawan, which was kick started by ISRO this afternoon,  it is time for all of us to raise in reverence for this great nation builder, who selflessly and tirelessly worked towards our nation building. 

May you continue to rest in peace in the heavenly abode which is now home to you Prof Dhawan and may you continue to inspire generation of youngsters and may several of them tread the path which you have shown. 

Sainik School Bijapur Celebrates its 57th Foundation Day - Admiral Srikanth, our Classmate, was the Chief Guest.

 Sainik School Bijapur Celebrates its 57th Foundation Day - Admiral Srikanth, our Classmate, was the Chief Guest.

This day the - 16th September, marks an important day in the annals of the Sainik School Bijapur and I am privileged to be one the proud alumnus of this school, popularly referred to as SSBJ. It was on his historic day in 1963 that the Sainik School Bijapur was founded and ever since, this day is commemorated as the ‘Foundation Day’ and this year it is a special day for our batch - the batch of 1970-77, since our very own classmate Vice Admiral Srikant was honoured to be the Chief Guest for this years Foundation day. I am therefore motivated to write about our school SSBJ.

Before I attempt to sketch our school, permit me to start with a quiz question for all the readers. The Commanding Officer who led the final assault of the famous Tololing Capture that paved the path for the historic Kargil victory for the Indians during the Kargil conflict in 1999, the Revolutionary founder of the low cost Deccan Airlines, the current Corps Commander of Kashmir -  an extremely sensitive and a prestigious position, the CEO of National Rainfed Area Authority who is also the architect for the scheme for the doubling of farmers income, the Head of the erstwhile Karnatak Special Task Force who along with his men were ambushed by the Sandalwood mafia - Veerappan, but managed to survive his fatal bullet injury, and lastly the eminent Advocate who is currently defending Rhea Chakravarti and is hogging media headlines, have a common connect. Any guesses, what the connect could be? Yes you are absolutely right all the six of them - Col Ravindranath, Captain Gopinath, Lt Gen B S Raju, Ashok Dalwai, IAS, Gopal Hosur, IPS and Satish Maneshinde, respectively, are the alumni of our Sainik School Bijapur, whose 57th Foundation day was celebrated in a new norm. And our motto - Ajeet Hai Abheet Hai, reverberates in the hearts and minds of all the alumni - the Ajeets, of this school each day and every day of their life. Incidentally Honourable Pranab Mukherjee, the former President of India, was the chief guest for the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the founding of our school. 

I am blessed to be among those very few privileged alumnus of this prestigious residential school - the Sainik School Bijapur (SSBJ), in the state of Karnataka. There are a chain of Sainik School across India and the importance of these schools for the nation can best be contextualised with the recent events, which hogged national headlines - the Rafale fighter planes and the martyrdom of our brave soldiers in the Galwan Valley. Four of the five pilots who flew the Rafale fighter planes from France to India are the products - former students, of the Sainik Schools. One of them, Wing Commander Arun Kumar, is from our school, Sainik School Bijapur.  The Commanding officer of the Bihar Regiment - Col. Santosh Babu, who was martyred along with 21 of his men in a dastardly act by the Chinese PLA in the Galwan Valley, is also an alumnus of the Sainik School Korakunda, Andhra Pradesh.

The Sainik School scheme was launched by the government of India (Ministry of Defence) in 1961 to bridge the gap that existed in the rank of the military officers from  certain sections of the Indian society.  The scheme was conceived by V. K. Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister of India, with an aim to rectify the imbalance caused by religion, class, and creed among the Officer cadre of the Indian Military and to prepare students for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA). This scheme was a God sent scheme to most of the lower and middle class parents across India, who aspired for giving the best of education to their wards at almost no cost. I am one of the beneficiaries of the vision of Krishna Menon. My father, a primary school teacher, with a large family (seven children), could never have afforded education in such extraordinary schools had it not been for the free scholarship, which covered all our expenses. During my time, when I joined the Sainik School Bijapur in class 5, in the year 1970, at an young age of 9 years, our education was completely free and we had a scholarship of ₹ 2400/- per annum, which was quite substantial, later it was enhanced to ₹ 4800.  Most of the Sainik Schools, during our time, provided 100% scholarship to the students who were selected through entrance exam. These residential schools were meant primarily for boys ( fortunately they are now open for the girls as well) and were aimed at imparting the best of quality education with majorly military bias. 

Every Sainik School is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi and has a common curriculum, system of selections and examinations. The primary aim of the Sainik Schools are to prepare boys academically, physically and mentally for entry into the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla (Pune) and also to be the leaders in other walks of life. Currently there are about 31 Sainik schools in India where an estimated 3000 students join every year. The entry into the Sainik Schools is through a competitive entrance exam for admission to 6th class and few for 9th class. Every year, entrance tests are conducted all over India for entry into any one of the 31 Sainik Schools and over 8-10 Lakhs children, from across India, appear for the Sainik School Entrance Exams. The premiership of the Sainik schools can best be seen when we compare the competition for entry into these schools to that of the internationally acclaimed Indian Institute of Technologies - the IITs - in India. There are a total of 23 IITs and for the session 2019, they offered 11289 seats. The number of students who appeared in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for the entrance test for the IITs is around 10 lakhs each year, which means the competition for entry into the Sainik schools is as stiff or more stiff than the IITs.

Although the scheme for starting of the Sainik school was announced in 1961 but it took two years for the Sainik School to start functioning in Karnataka. The first choice for the location of this prestigious school in the state of Karnataka (then the state of Mysore) was obviously the city of Mysore itself, the capital of the Wodeyar kingdom, which incidentally was fairly well developed in comparison with parts of the state primarily due to the extraordinary works done by the Nation Builder Deewan of Mysore - the legendary Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. Fortunately for many of us, particularly from the relatively less developed north Karnataka region including least developed districts in the Hyderabad Karnataka area - Raichur, Gulbarga and Bidar, which were under the Hyderabad Nizam, that one of the political leaders of North Karnataka, Shri S R Kanthi expressed his strong views that this school should not be established in the already developed city of Mysore and instead must be located in the lesser developed city and thus was chosen the city of Bijapur for housing the prestigious Sainik School in the then state of Mysore. 

The SSBJ started its operations on this historic day, 16th September, 1963, from the make shift shelters in a small corner of the Vijaya College Campus in Bijapur. The management of the college were kind enough to lend a small section of their building where the facilities like the morning assembly of students, library and the classrooms for the students were housed. The foundation stone for the SSBJ was laid by Smt. Indira Gandhi on 2nd July 1963 and the school started its operation from this make shift building on 16th September, 1963. Courtesy the local political class in Bijapur and the visionary, Shri S R Kanthi and others, land measuring 406 acres was chosen for permanently housing the SSBJ in the current campus on the Athani Road. The students who were initially enrolled in the SSBJ in the Vijaya College campus moved to this new site in November 1966, and this new school campus, where we joined, was formally opened on 17th December, 1966 by Dr Zakir Hussain, Vice President of India. 

The SSBJ, spread across a vast campus of 400 plus acres, provides an outstanding infrastructural facilities, which include among others the best os sporting grounds in the country, athletics, swiming and gymnastics, horse stable, International quality cadets mess, six houses named after the six dynasties that ruled the state of Karnataka - Chalukya, Hoysala, Adilshahi, Vijayanagar, Wodeyar and Rashtrakutas ( there were five when we joined) where around 500 plus cadets are housed and innumerable other facilities that help students hone their intellectual, artistic, creative, scientific and to top it all, military skills. The rigours in which the cadets are trained from a very young age helps them live that often spoken adage - when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Every batch of the alumni of the SSBJ will have scores of tales to tell including some of the most heroic acts of their batchmates who have joined and are serving in the army and so has it been for our batch where several of our batchmates have joined the defence forces and Vice Admiral Srikant, who was given this years honours to be the chief guest of the Foundation day ceremony of SSBJ, is continuing to serve the Indian Navy. One of our batch mate, Col Ajit Bhandarkar, Shaurya Chakra awardee, made the supreme sacrifice in service of the nation in the true spirit of our motto Ajeet Hai Abheet Hai. Incidentally two years back all of our classmates joined hands in paying our respect to Col Bhandarkar. As a mark of our remembrance, our batch came together to construct a separate entrance dwar, the Ajit Dwar, in memory of our classmate Col. Ajit Bhandarkar, Shaurya Chakra, who was martyred in service while fighting the terrorists in Kashmir. I have separately written a blog where I have described about the valour, which he exemplified while making that supreme sacrifice before he was martyred. 

Ever since the starting of our school - the SSBJ students are referred to as Ajeets, whose camaraderie remains exemplary and the umbilical connect that each of the Ajeets have with other is a given and remains for life long. Every student is given a roll number and is attached to a particular house, when they join the school and this roll number and the house, to which they belong, stays with them for life and the fighting spirit to win and bring laurels to their house and school is legendary. Our batch - the batch of 1970-77, was perhaps the largest at the time of joining (around 96), and our roll numbers were from 491 to 587. The batch consisted people from most parts of Karnataka, including few from neighbouring state of Maharashtra and a handful from North India as well. Ours was the first batch to join the fifth house in school - the Wodeyar house. The other four houses included the Chalukya, Hoysala, Adilshahi  and Vijaynagar. Our school was witnessing widespread construction when we joined and most of the buildings were on the verge of completion, which included the Wodeyar house, swimming pool, auditorium, Gymnasium and the horse stable. Our batch was lucky that most of these facilities were completed and thrown open for use by the cadets within one year of our joining, enabling us to enjoy every single of these facilities from almost the very start of our school days. I have already written about our batch in a separate blog and will not repeat it here. 

I am giving  herewith a you tube video link at the end of the article to the celebration of the 57th Foundation Day of our school and from the 37th minute onwards you can listen to the speech of our classmate Vice Admiral Srikant and I am happy to share a brief bio of admiral Srikant. Vice Admiral Srikant is an alumnus of the Sainik School Bijapur who studied from 1970-77 and was in the Hoysalas House. Srikanth was an all rounder and besides his interest and achievements in academics he also actively took part in school Drama and was very good in sports.  He was always adventurous and while at school he used to catch snakes alive and gave it to biology labs. Never say quits was his great attribute. He was also declared medically unfit post his SSB interview by the Command Hospital in Bangalore, which examined him medically. However he challenged this report by travelling all alone to Delhi where he was once again medically examined and declared fit and rest is history. He joined the NDA and rose to a very high level rank of Vice Admiral a three star General. 

Srikanth served as the Flag Officer, Submarines which again was a crucial position which he held. Srikant has also served in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, which is considered as one of the most prestigious postings for any military officer. He has also served as a naval attache to the Governor of Karnataka. Srikant has  commanded the destroyer, Indian Naval Ship Delhi. He also held many prestigious Command and Staff Appointments including Command of Submarine Shalki and Indian Naval Ship Ranvijay. His shore appointments include that of Deputy Director, Submarine Operations and Naval Intelligence. He served as Naval Advisor (Islamabad) and Project Manager, Advanced Technology Vessel Program, New Delhi. Srikant held the most prestigious position of the Commandant of  The National Defence College (NDC), Delhi a pioneering institute of its type in Asia. 

On this occasion of the 57th Foundation Day of SSBJ, on behalf of all my batchmates and so also all the Ajeets - our respected seniors and fellow Ajeets,  I take this opportunity to place on record our profound respect to all our teachers and other stakeholders of the Sainik School Bijapur who have been responsible in shaping our careers and ensuring that all of us succeed in life. 

Long live SSBJ and all other Sainik Schools and continue to shape men out of boys who can contribute to nation building.

Ajeet Hain Abheet Hain

Jai Hind and Jai Hind  ki sena. 

https://youtu.be/R3D5tPOQIYQ

Alan Turing - Father of Artificial Intelligence & a Victim of Archaic Law, A Tribute

 2nd Anniversary of Decriminalising Archaic Law (Section 377 of IPC) : Remembering Alan Turing,  the Victim of this Law.

Images : courtesy Wiki Commons, Nehru Science Centre and Turing website.

This day, two years ago, 6th September 2018, a historic and an unprecedented judgment was unanimously passed by the the five member bench (including the CJI) of the Supreme Court of India, which  decriminalised the archaic law - Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The hype and activism leading up to the judgment day was palpable and therefor it was not wonder that this judgment was covered in the media headlines in a sensation manner. “ INDEPENDENCE DAY - II” hailed the front page headlines of the Times of India. The significance of this judgement can be fathomed by contextualising its impact from the LGBT community - “not an aberration but a variation” (the words so astutely used by Justice Indu Malhotra) -  points of view.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was introduced in 1861, during the British rule in India. Like the British Buggery Act of 1533, section 377 made sexual activities "against the order of nature" illegal. This legislation was drafted by Thomas Macaulay around 1838 and it was brought into effect in 1860 in light of the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ - the  First War of Independence, 1857. The Section 377 of the IPC in British India was modelled on the Buggery Act 1533, which was enacted under the reign of King Henry VIII. This law defined ‘buggery’ as an unnatural sexual act against the will of God and man. It was only after seventy one years of the British leaving India and India attaining independence that this law was archived. Speaking of this law I am motivated to once again write about an extraordinary genius -  Alan Turing - who had an innate connect with India. He was one of those who was at the receiving end of this archaic law. Alan Turing has an innate connect with India - his father served in India and so did his grand father - mother’s father.

Alan Mathison Turing, the World War II hero and a great mathematical genius and the father of modern computers, belonged to the LGBT community and was therefore at the receiving end of the Section 377. He committed suicide leaving behind the half eaten poison ridden apple behind. Innovative, forward thinking and brave in the face of prejudice, Alan Turing was an ‘enigma’ in his own life time. Science was an extra-curricular passion for Alan, which led him to become an undergraduate at King's College, Cambridge – and it was here that homosexuality became a definitive part of his identity.

Alan Turing’s sexual orientation haunted him all through his life. Not withstanding his WW II heroic contributions, he was publicly ostracised, castigated and put through the most insulting humiliation of chemical castration to avoid imprisonment. The genius Turing could not handle such humiliation and unfortunately took the extreme step of poisoning himself to death with cyanide on the 7th of June, 1954, at a very young age of just 42 years. It is however unclear whether he consumed cyanide laced apple by intent or by accident. The half eaten apple lying by the side of his dead body could not conclusively indicate the death was by intent or accident. However, the half eaten apple, which was lying by the side of his body, has gone down in history as the most valued brand in the form of an unwitting logo of Apple, the company which epitomises the vision of Turing. Whether Steve Jobs the Apple founder who was instrumental in introducing the famous logo for his company was guided by the incident of Turing’s death will also continue to be another ‘enigma’, a term which is inextricably linked to Alan Turing. 

The Turing family including, Alan Turing, have had a historic linkage and tryst with India, the association of which dates back to the early 18th century. Several members of the Turing family, from Scotland, served the British empire in India and Robert Turing was perhaps the first to do so dating back to 1729. Alan Turing also had a very strong India connection. Alan’s father, Julius Turing, passed the Indian Civil Service (ICS) exams in 1896 and joined his duty at Madras (now Chennai) in the erstwhile Madras presidency. Alan’s mother, Ethel too has an Indian connection. Julius Turing, Alan’s father, married Ethel, his mother, in 1907. She was the daughter of Edward Waller Stoney, the chief engineer of the Madras Railway Company. Stoney, designed the Tungabhadra bridge, located in my state - the state of Karnataka - and wrote treatises on mountain railways and bridges. He made quite a fortune in India including building a bungalow at Coonoor near Ooty, which incidentally has been bought by Nandan Nilekani - the cofounder of Infosys and a key architect of the UID - Adhar.

Alan’s parents, Julius and Ethel spent a lot of their time in India, and their first son John was delivered at the Stoney bungalow. It is also believed that Ethel conceived Alan Turing in Orissa, then a part of Madras Presidency. She however, delivered the baby boy -Alan- in England on June 23, 1912.

Alan was a precocious child. He received his distinguished degree in 1934, which was followed by a Fellowship of King's College in 1935 and a Smith's Prize in 1936. He also spent two years at Princeton University enrolled as a graduate student. His remarkable talent came to the fore when British joined the war and Turing took up full-time work at the wartime cryptanalytic headquarters, Bletchley Park.

Turing was an extraordinarily genius mathematician who helped in cracking the enigmatic German codes. During World War II, Turing's work at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire helped Allied Forces to read secret German messages sent by their Enigma machines. For years, the efforts of thousands of codebreakers, working in small huts in the grounds of a large mansion somewhere in Buckinghamshire, was kept as one of the biggest secrets of the Second World War.

The modern day computers and a range of associated technologies and processing devices - that we are inextricably surrounded with - are operated by coded instructions. This cardinal principle, which we now take for granted, was a revolutionary contribution from Alan Turing. He introduced this abstract idea in his publication, “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem” in the year 1936. Turing referred to these devices as 'computing machines'. However the American logician Alonzo Church called them the “Turing machines”. Alan’s publication pioneered the idea, which are essential to the modern computer—the concept of controlling computers and other computing machine's by means of a program of coded instructions stored in the machine's memory. This work had a profound influence on the development, in the 1940s, of the electronic stored-program digital computer. Most historians of computers often over look the contributions and influence of Alan in the early development of the electronic digital computers and credit only Neumann for this development. 

The end of WW II enabled Turing to shift his focus on his other passion, long distance running. He developed his strength in cross-country running with frequent long distance training and top-rank competition in amateur athletics. He would shock his colleagues with his timing and often ran to his scientific meetings, arriving before his colleagues, who travelled by public transport. But for injury, he was a serious contender to be the part of the British team in the 1948 Olympic Games. He was never secretive about his sexual orientation. His outspokenness costed him dearly.

Turing was working at the University of Manchester when he developed a homosexual relationship with a 19 year old, Arnold Murray. Turing was arrested and was put to trial on March 31, 1952, after the police learned of his sexual relationship with the young Arnold. He was later prosecuted for homosexuality, a criminal offence in Britain. During sentencing, a judge offered Turing the choice of prison or “organo-therapy,” a type of chemical castration via estrogen injection that killed a man’s sex drive. He chose the later. Turing's conviction resulted in his loosing the security clearance and therefore he had to stop work at Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the post-war successor to Bletchley Park. All this played on the psyche of Turing and he became highly depressed and perhaps it was this depression, which led him to his death in 1954. A modest obituary spoke of Alan as a pioneer and a creator of the new electronic calculating machines. He liked long-distance running, chess and gardening, and nurtured an idea that “electrical computators” would one day “do something akin to thinking.” No one at that time could fathom the true nature of Turing’s life and genius. 

Fast forward to 2020. Turing’s profound idea is now central to all modern day computers and other thinking devices, which have ushered us in to the “so called” era of “4th Industrial Revolution”. It is for this reason that we at the Nehru Science Centre have immortalised Alan Turing by crediting him to be the father of modern computers and artificial intelligence and have commissioned his statue in the centre of the “Machined to Think” gallery that provides a birds eye view in to the futuristic technologies that Alan envisaged, which include Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR), the Internet of Things etcetera. 

While we celebrate the second anniversary of the scrapping of the archaic Law - Section 377- by the honourable Supreme Court of India, let us spare a thought for Alan Turing and several other unheard of people who were at the receiving end of this most inhuman law. The homosexual Alan Turing, in flesh and blood, has gone but his unprecedented contributions to the field of artificial intelligence and computers,  will continue to keep him alive through the machined to think devices and innumerable other Artificial Intelligence gadgets that have now become integral to our modern lives.

Long live Alan Turing.