Who is the architect of Indian nuclear programme?

The Bhabha of India’s nuclear plans

Whether it is used for defence or development, there’s no denying the importance of nuclear energy. Though India is not part of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the country has made significant strides in nuclear science – it is now equipped with 22 nuclear reactors in seven power plants. And it is all thanks to the efforts of people like Dr. Homi J. Bhabha, who is known as the father of India’ s nuclear programme.

Early life

Bhabha was born in Mumbai on October 30, 1909. A close relative of Dorabji Tata, a key figure in the development of the Tata Group. Bhabha’s family persuaded him to pursue mechanical engineering and join the Tata Iron and Steel Company in Jamshedpur. But Bhabha discovered his true calling was physics.

He conveyed his change of heart in an insightful letter to his family, which reflects his passion for the subject. ‘The business or job of engineer is not the thing for me. It is totally foreign to my nature and radically opposed to my temperament and opinions. Physics is my line. I shall do great things here,” he wrote.

He studied in Cambridge, where he was internationally recognized for his work with cosmic rays. Bhabha was working in the famed Cavendish Laboratory where many discoveries of the time were taking place.

World War II

Bhabha returned to India for a short vacation, where World War II broke out. Instead of going back to England, he decided to stay on in India. He joined the Noble Laureate C.V. Raman’s laboratory at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.

Bhabha strongly believed that India had to develop its nuclear capabilities so as to emerge as a power to reckon with. He said the country had to develop an atom bomb if it needed to defend itself. He convinced India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to start a nuclear programme and became the founding chairperson of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948.

Powering development

Bhabha formulated India’s three-stage nuclear power programme in 1954, which is even followed today, to secure the country’s long-term energy independence. The programme was developed around India’s limited uranium and thorium reserves found in the coastal regions of South India.

Bhabha was appointed the President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1955. He served as the member of the Indian Cabinet’s Scientific Advisory Committee.

Promoting nuclear research

Besides strengthening India’s nuclear programme, Bhabha also helped promote research in fundamental sciences and mathematics. Along with JRD Tata, Bhabha established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) on the campus of IISc. It was later shifted to Mumbai, and gained international recognition in the fields of cosmic ray physics, theoretical physics and mathematics. Bhabha built a new laboratory dedicated to technology development for the atomic energy programme. It was called Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay, in 1954, and later renamed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) after his demise.

Death and legacy

Both TIFR and BARC served as the cornerstones of India’s development of nuclear weapons, which Bhabha supervised as a director. Following rising tensions after the Sino-India war, Bhabha boasted of India’s nuclear capabilities in a famous speech on All India Radio in 1965. He said if he had the green signal, India could make a nuclear bomb in 18 months. Three months later, on January 24, 1996, he died in a plane crash when Air India Flight 101 flew into Mont Blanc in France. He was on his way to Vienna to attend a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency. While conspiracy theories about Bhabha’s death still abound, India on this day lost one of its finest nuclear scientists at the prime of his career.

Brush strokes

Not just science, Bhabha was equally fond of music and art. His superb drawing skills won him many awards at the annual exhibitions of the Bombay Art Society. Even today, his paintings along with other priceless collections of art are on display at the TIFR and BARC campuses, making them unique among scientific institutions in the world.

 

Picture Credit : Google