Scientist of the soil

A new book commemorates the birth centenary of MS Swaminathan, on August 7, by shining light on the life and legacy of the man who transformed India from abject scarcity to absolute abundance

- SANJEEB MUKHERJEE

"The future belongs to nations with grains, not guns." This was one of MS Swaminathan's favourite lines, according to his upcoming biography, The Man Who Fed India. The doyen of Indian agriculture firmly believed that neglecting agriculture was akin to neglecting India's future.

To be released next week to commemorate the centenary of the Father of India's Green Revolution, the 380-page book brings forth many unheard and unseen anecdotes, quotes, stories, and events from the life of one of India's greatest scientists, thinkers, and institution-builders. "I realised there was an urgent need to humanise him to bring out the man beyond the agricultural corridor," says the author, Priyambada Jayakumar, about Swaminathan, her paternal uncle.

The book's first part traces Swaminathan's journey from his birth to his early career at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), his interactions with the legendary American agronomist Norman Borlaug, and beautifully captures the life of a young scientist settling in New Delhi with his three daughters and his illustrious wife, Mina. The first flat the couple rented in Delhi after their marriage in 1955 was in Patel Nagar. The monthly rent was 130; Swaminathan's salary at IARI was ₹450.

Mina Swaminathan, daughter of India's finance secretary S Bhoothalingam, was more than just her lineage-she was outspoken, independent, patriotic, and driven by a missionary zeal to serve those on the margins of society.

The book also offers intriguing insights into how Swaminathan and Mina's paths had crossed long before their formal introduction through common friends in Cambridge. Unknown to each other, the two had marched with teeming crowds behind Mahatma Gandhi's cortege after his assassination. At the time, Swaminathan was a postgraduate student at IARI, while Mina was still at the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Delhi.