I have been very fortunate to meet many inspirational men and women during my life and Professor MS Swaminathan would be right up there; not just in terms of inspiration but also his contribution to India and the world over his long life.
He was born in 1925 and thus when I interviewed him in 2007 in New Delhi he was 82. I am pleased to say that Prof. Swaminathan is still with us today in mid 2020.
Like many of those who have achieved greatness in pursuing a passion rather than chasing dollars or fame, he seemed to me calm and content and certainly did not have that A+ personality or ego we often associate with successful business people.
One of the first lessons in life, he learnt from his father when he was a small boy. His father was a prominent doctor and had a deep social conscience. The shocking disease of elephantiasis was common in his village and it seemed that almost every third person had it.
His father decided to see what he could do to eradicate the disease. He knew it was carried by mosquitoes, but there was no chemical in those days to kill mosquito larvae, but he knew that they bred in still water. He instructed villagers to get rid of any still water they did not need and to poor crude oil on top of the water if they needed to keep it. The villagers trusted Swaminathan’s father and followed his instructions. Within a year the mosquitoes were gone and the incidence of the disease decreased significantly. The lesson young Swaminathan learnt was the power of ordinary people to get seemingly impossible tasks done.
His father died when he was only eleven and his father’s brother, as was the custom, took on the role and responsibility of caring for Swaminathan’s family. These were tough times. However, Swaminathan excelled in his education and was able to commence his university studies when he was only 15.
He chose to study zoology but, by the time he completed his bachelor’s degree, he knew agriculture was to be his passion. Part of the reason was that, while he was studying, the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 was in full and devastating swing, killing over 3 million Bengalis. [Compare this to the concerns we currently have about the death rate from Covid-19.] We now know the reason for the Great Bengal Famine was not the weather but a disgraceful policy of the British Government. Churchill, who was Prime Minister at the time, deliberately ordered the diversion of food from starving Indian civilians to well-supplied British soldiers and even to top up European stockpiles. Swaminathan told me, “For me it was blindingly clear that the most important thing for India after WW2 was going to be food.”
After completing a second bachelor’s degree in agriculture, a few years later he earned a PhD from Cambridge University for his work on the breeding and genetics of potatoes, so that they would be resistant to a disease that destroyed many crops during WW2. This experience taught him, not only the importance of potatoes as a basic food stuff for Europe, but led him to turn his mind to what he should do in India to secure its food sufficiency.
His research into developing a dwarf wheat variety which was resistant to disease took more than a decade but, by the mid 60’s, Swaminathan had perfected the seed and the crops gave farmers up to a 300 percent increase in their crops. This huge success created a problem which is worth understanding. From the times of the British raj, the British exported everything India could produce so that the storage facilities were all at the ports and India became dependent of food imports. New storage facilities had to be built where the wheat was grown. India’s tough and dictatorial Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi told him “We must safeguard food security for national sovereignty; otherwise I will have to surrender my foreign policy if I need to feed my people with imported food. I think she felt President Lyndon Johnson behaved patronisingly in providing India with wheat.” And I imagine in all their minds was what happened during the Great Bengal Famine.
Swaminathan impressed all who worked with him and, after the Gandhi Government fell, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture by Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Not long later Desai’s government collapsed and Gandhi returned to power. She invited him in 1980 to be Deputy Chairman of the Planing Commission. This was not a role he wanted as it took him away from agriculture.
Swaminathan then told me a story of an event in his life which I have always remembered. Not long after to took the role he was invited to become President of the International Rice Institute in Manila. This appointment was the most prestigious and important for any agricultural scientist to aspire to. You only need to consider the importance of rice as a food crop to most of the world’s population.
Swaminathan went to meet PM Gandhi who was a formidable woman to ask her permission for him to accept the appointment and resign his role as Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, which itself was an extremely important institution. He went through all of the pros of him taking the Presidency. When he had finished the Prime Minister said to him, “No you cannot go” and then, after a pause, “you are indispensable.”
This took him aback and, as he told me, he has never been good at thinking on his feet. Somehow he said the following words leapt from his mouth “Prime Minister, since you say I am indispensable, then I must leave.” She looked perplexed at Swaminathan and asked him “What did I say? Did I hurt you?” His reply to her was brilliant. He said “You said I am indispensable and I feel I must go. I must go when I am wanted not when I am not wanted.” He could see Indira Gandhi repeat these words over to her self a few times – “you must go when you are wanted not when you are not wanted.” He was very concerned as to how she was going to react as she was known to have a fearsome temper. Suddenly she stood up and said, “You have my blessings.”
During his time in Manila, Swaminathan personally received many international awards and grants for his earlier research and these funds enabled him to establish the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in 1989 following his six year term at the International Rice Institute. This is where he has spent most of his time his since and particularly focused on the environment. Because of his decades of work on the environment he has become known as the “father of the green revolution” and has been recognised around the world for his work. I think he has been awarded over 50 honorary doctorates.
As Professor Swaminathan walked me to the door of his Delhi apartment he told me everyone should have a mission in life. “When I was young I used to read many philosophical books, like Swami Vivekananda, in particular. Some 100 years ago he said, ‘This life is short, its vanity is transient; one day you may be here and another day you may be gone'”. For those of you have read my blog on the life of Shahnaz Husain you may remember Shahnaz’s father told her the same thing. As I am closing in on my 70th birthday these words resonate with me more than they probably did 20 years ago.
As Professor Swaminathan shook my hand and bid me farewell, as he was closing his front door he said to me, “Remember Mr Church, he alone lives who lives for others.” Powerful words to end my meeting and certainly a cause for reflection about my own life.
Peter Church blog 
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