MS Swaminathan-Jagadguru of Agriculture Revolution in India

The whole world, and our country, has received with great sadness, and sorrow, the news of the demise of Professor MS Swaminathan. The Professor was, in the true sense of the word, a ‘Jagadguru’, as far as the agriculture sector in the world is concerned. As for myself, I regard myself as but a speck of sand, in the ocean of knowledge, and experience, that he was.

Swaminathan occupied various high positions in India and in international institutions.

He served as the Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and concurrently, Secretary to the government of India. Soon thereafter, in a rare move for a scientist, he was also elevated to the rank of a Principal Secretary. He was subsequently made a Member of (what was then known as) the Planning Commission.

One of the positions he occupied with distinction was the coveted post of the Director of the International Rice Research Institute at Los Baños, in Philippines.While on a visit to the Philippines to attend a workshop on rural development at the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in the Cavlte province, I joined the others, attending the workshop on a visit to IRRI. we all were truly struck at the awe in which the management and the staff held Swaminathan and his leadership.

He was named the first World Food Prize Laureate, one of the highest honours in the field of agriculture, for his work in that Institute, and for developing and spearheading the introduction of high- yielding wheat and rice varieties in India. He received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award for biological sciences, apart from being bestowed the ‘Padma Vibhushan’ by the government of India. He was also the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay award for community leadership and the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal. The United Nations Environment Programme described him as “the Father of Economic Ecology

“It was a privilege, and an honour, for me to have the Professor release two of my books. He took the trouble, of travelling all the way to Hyderabad, to release my book on the proceedings of a workshop conducted by the regional office of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, at Bangkok, on agricultural extension, titled, ‘Forgiving Earth’, in a function arranged at the Raj Bhavan, in the presence of the then Chief Minister Dr.Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Once again, he was gracious enough to agree to preside over a function arranged in the premises of the M. S .Swaminathan Foundation at Chennai where Kamal Kishore, Member of the National Disaster Management Authority of India, released book on Disaster Management authored by me.

One presentation, which Dr. Swaminathan invited me to make, in the premises of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, IARI at Delhi, became the foundation, for erecting a superstructure of sweeping agriculture reforms, in the programmes of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, of the Ministry of Agriculture, government of India.

Subsequently, when I was Chief Secretary to the government of Andhra Pradesh, he was also good enough to associate me with the Indian Science Congress, which was organised at Hyderabad, where the Director General of FAO was also present. In the days when he was a Member of Parliament, he would invite me frequently to his flat in Delhi to participate in discussions regarding the future of agriculture in the country.

Along with Norman Borlaug, he is rightly regarded as the father of the green revolution in the country, a development that saw the nation move away from the so-called ‘ship to mouth’ existence to today’s situation of embarrassing surpluses.

Whenever we met he would fondly referred to me as ‘Kanda-ji’. I had the rare good fortune of having him visit my house at Chanakya Puri in Delhi and visiting him in his home at Chennai.

On many an occasion, I was surprised, and pleased, to see some of the senior most agriculture scientists, literally prostrate themselves at his feet. Such was the regard and respect he commanded, from even those who occupied the highest positions in the echelons of the agriculture administration of India and other countries.

Despite the enormous respect in which he was held the world over, and his closeness to heads of State and Governments of many countries notwithstanding, he remained a simple person. Exuding warmth and affection, and endowed with a charming personality. he made everyone comfortable in his presence.

In his passing away, the country has lost one of her greatest sons. I console myself, however, in the thought that he led a full life, making an enormously significant contribution to the development, and welfare, not only of his country and its citizens, but also to the world at large.

It is only rarely, in the history of the world, that people such as the Professor are born, destined to contribute that leads to a quantum jump, in the pursuit of happiness by mankind.

Although I have known her but for a short while, I have no doubt at all in my mind that, being a chip of the old block, his eminent and distinguished daughter Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, will not only continue the great work of the Foundation, but carry it to many more dizzying heights in the future.

Her vast experience in the international academic world, and in the United Nations Organization will certainly add great value to the contribution of the organisation.

Our sincerest condolences, and deepest sympathy, are due, to her and the other members of the bereaved family.

May the Almighty rest the departed Soul in peace and give them the strength to bear this irreparable loss with fortitude.