An Evergreen Figure

A CENTENARY TRIBUTE THAT CHARTS THE SWEEPING LEGACY OF M.S. SWAMINATHAN, THE SCIENTIST WHO HELPED STEER INDIA AWAY FROM HUNGER

- Sopan Joshi

This biography marks the birth centenary of India's most celebrated agricultural scientist, M.S.

Swaminathan (MSS; 19252023). The author Priyambada Jayakumar, a historian by training, had privileged access to MSS; her mother and the scientist were first cousins. This brings an up close-and-personal feel to the book's opening.

The idea for the book emerged during the pandemic, as much from the frustration of being boxed in as a response to the humanitarian crisis in general and the lack of access to food in particular. MSS himself was driven to agricultural science by another crisis-the Bengal famine of 1943.