Extracted from the book MS Swaminathan: The Man Who Fed India, by Priyambada Jayakumar and published by HarperCollins
Swaminathan listened to Nehru’s famous ‘tryst with destiny’ speech on the Marina Beach in Madras on loudspeakers with teeming masses of newly independent Indians jubilating around him. He was almost set to miss this historic occasion because he was enroute to the train station, on his way to Pondicherry (now Puducherry) to meet Sri Aurobindo, when India was declared independent and people thronged out of Madras Central station making a beeline for Marina Beach to be a part of this defining, yet thoroughly emotional moment in India’s history.
Shortly after, in 1947, he moved to the prestigious Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in Pusa, New Delhi, a premier research institute dedicated to the exclusive and scientific study of agriculture; as an associate for a Master’s in Cytogenetics and Plant Breeding on a non-tuber Solanum plant to which the potato, tomato and eggplant belong, with a view to improving crop yields. IARI, popularly known as the Pusa Institute, was started in 1905 by an American philanthropist, Henry Phipps Jr, in the village of Pusa in Bihar. Henry Phipps Jr was a family friend of Lady Curzon, who was the daughter of an American millionaire and the wife of Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India. Phipps stayed as a guest of the Curzons during his visit to India and left behind a donation of £30,000, which was later used to establish the institute. In 1936, the 1250-acre IARI moved to its permanent home and present location in New Delhi.
In 1948, fate would intervene and afford Swaminathan a ringside view of history when, on the day that Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, he actually found himself at Birla House in New Delhi. He was a postgraduate student at IARI and had gone to attend an all-faith prayer meeting that was regularly hosted at Birla House. He wasn’t meant to be there that day but went along last minute as an afterthought. Nathuram Vinayak Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi at twenty minutes past five in the afternoon, just as the Mahatma was on his way to the prayer meeting. Describing it as one of the ‘saddest days of his life’; he recalled hearing a sudden commotion and someone screaming that Gandhiji had been shot as he sat in the backrows taking in the prayer meeting!
A while later Lord Mountbatten arrived and confirmed that the Mahatma was indeed dead and mayhem ensued. Pandit Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, he recalled, were far too distraught and shell-shocked by this to make any immediate arrangements so Lord Mountbatten himself took over all the arrangements briefly until Pandit Nehru recovered his composure, at which point India was officially, in mourning.
A young 22-year-old Swaminathan then walked behind the cortège of Mahatma Gandhi with tens and thousands of other ordinary Indians; unbeknownst to him, as did someone else whose destiny would be inextricably linked to his for over 67 years — his future wife Mina Bhoothalingam who was then merely a schoolgirl.
But while the nation mourned, its leaders were abreast of the fact that things couldn’t be put on hold. It was, after all, still a young nation that still had to take hold of its own destiny. ‘Everything else can wait but not agriculture,’ Pandit Nehru once, very tellingly, said. The importance of increasing our own stocks of foodgrains was of paramount importance to him specifically from a national sovereignty point of view.
Focus on food security
With that end in mind, Pandit Nehru visited IARI in early 1948, while Swaminathan was still a postgraduate research student, to meet the Director and heads of departments to discuss ways to combat acute food shortages in India. Swaminathan, too was invited to this meeting as he was then Secretary of the Post Graduate Students Union of IARI.
In these discussions, Nehru maintained that it should not be difficult for India to achieve self-reliance in food. He was very democratic and went around the table soliciting everyone’s opinions on how to solve the problem. The plant breeder said his variety would increase yield by 10 to 15 per cent. The entomologist maintained that by following his method of pest control, 20 per cent more yield could be obtained. The fertilizer expert claimed that 15 to 20 per cent additional yield could be derived through the use of fertilizers. The rat control expert said that by killing rats, 30 per cent more production could easily be achieved. It all sounded much too easy, which led Pandit Nehru to jokingly ask, ‘If you do what everybody here is saying, you can double the production very quickly, so now what is the problem?!’
The problem was an appalling lack of coordination. It was clear that an interdisciplinary approach was needed, scientists from different disciplines — pathology, entomology, agronomy, soil science, physiology and breeding, all had to come together if progress was to be made. For that synergy to truly bear fruit would take an additional twenty years; in 1968, to be precise. Jawaharlal Nehru never lived to see that day.
At a crossroads
Swaminathan, yet again found himself at an important crossroads in life in 1949, just as he graduated from IARI with a high distinction in cytogenetics. A newly independent India offered many opportunities in the bureaucratic and administrative services. With almost no guaranteed income as an agricultural scientist the family, especially Swaminathan’s mother, felt that the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) would be the right fit especially for a boy as brilliant as him. The social prestige ascribed to the civil services was an equally big consideration. A very well-respected family friend, SV Krishnaswamy, the collector of Kumbakonam and an ICS (Imperial Civil Service, later on the Indian Civil Service) officer, asked him to sit for the competitive civil services exam — The Federal Public Service Commission at that time — since there was no future in agriculture! Because he was so eminent, Swaminathan agreed, albeit very half-heartedly! To no one’s surprise, he cleared it in his first attempt and was appointed to the Indian Police Service (IPS) and was asked to report to Mount Abu immediately.
Fate, however, had other plans for him. Around the same time in August 1949, he received a fellowship from UNESCO to study plant genetics at the Wageningen Agricultural University in Holland for the next nine months! He jumped at the offer, content in the belief that a future in Agricultural Sciences was the correct decision. More importantly, Holland being a prosperous country with small farm holdings would hold potential lessons for Indian agriculture, which was also characterised by small farm holdings. The future beckoned, as did innumerable voyages of learning and discovery!
Extracts published with permission from HarperCollins
Title: M.S. Swaminathan : The Man Who Fed India
Author: Priyambada Jayakumar
Publisher: HarperCollins
Price: ₹699
Published on August 3, 2025