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Avarice many a times envelopes the sense of guilt and enables one to plunge head long into an enterprise he ought not to have embarked on. This was precisely the state of mind when I wanted to do a write-up on Dr. M. S.Swaminathan for the "Chennai Citizen" column. It was avarice on my part to try and compress a world figure into the narrow and stifling confines of Chennai citizenry for many reasons not excluding the vicarious pleasure of my being his "contemporary citizen".

Years back when I was a college student I had to drive down my father to a religious discourse by Brahmashri Balakrishna Sastrigal. It was on some of the parables in Mahabharatha. Jocularly I teased my father on the "uselessness" of listening to the same old story again and again. He simply remarked "it is necessary lest we forget"meaning the messages and guidelines for goodness and godliness it had to give. Similar is the current write-up on Dr. M. S. Swaminathan about whom a lot has been said, written and telecast already.

Close on the heels of the last solar eclipse of the millennium, Friday the 13th August, 99 morning was a bright patch in my 60+ years, Yes, I had a appointment to meet Dr. M. S. Swaminathan that day. As I was being ushered into his chambers in the tastefully architectured and landscaped Research Foundation Campus in Taramani, I certainly expected to see a regular run of the mill scientist – tousled hair, unkempt beard, frayed cuffs and a sardonic look from a pair of dead-pan eyes seeping through a near prism of spectacles as I had seen lots of photographs of him. Behind a table, whose top was refreshingly free of piles of files, was seated this distinguished scientist in a dark blue full sleeve safari suit which heightened the shine on his brownish red wrinkle free face and lit up the lively pair of eyes. He looked more like an aging Andalusian aristocrat. Before this eminence I was naturally tongue-tied and my whole frame of near five foot ten inch with all the hulk seemed to shrink to a handful of nothing as I slid to sit on the chair offered to me. Not knowing how to go about it, I hesitantly blurted out, I was so and so’s son. "Great man" said Dr. M. S.Swaminathan (my father Dr. T. S. Raghavan was a renowned University Professor and a scientist of standing in the same field of cytogenetics). It was indeed great of a great man like Dr. M. S. Swaminathan acknowledging greatness of someone lese. This set the tone for a fairly relaxed conversation between us, relevant details of which I do hope readers will find of value and interest.

The sacred river Cauvery has cradled many a great son in it’s stretch in the Thanjavur district whose fame and name have wafted well beyond the borders of the place of their nativity. Madhavarao though of Maharashtrian stock born
in Thanjavur district blossomed into a great administrator as Dewan of Mysore. Saint Thyagaraja of Thiruvayyaru was the undisputed king in the world of music. Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivasa Sastry of Valangiman whose mastery over written and spoken English won him the sobriquet "Silver Tongue Orator" in all the English speaking world. To this ilk belonged Dr. M. S. Swaminathan who was born in the year 1925 in Kumbakonam, perhaps with a "green thumb". A graduate in Agriculture Sciences from the famous Coimbatore Agriculture College, he excelled in  scholastics and the progressive echelons of positions, right from his first job in the Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. The years, 1972-1980, when he was Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, were perhaps the "Golden Era" for agriculture in our country. They ushered in his "Lab to Land" policy so effectively, that there was a sort of renaissance on the farm front, which paved the way for the first ever "Green Revolution", of which the acknowledged author is Dr. M.S. Swaminathan. This can be elicited from the extract of Dr. Norman Borlaug, the eminent scientist on the occasion of accepting the Nobel Peace Prize "The green revolution has been a team effort and much of the credit for its spectacular development must go to the Indian officials, organizations, scientists and farmers. However, to you, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, a great deal of the credit must go to Indian officials, organizations, scientists and farmers. However, to you, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, a great deal of the credit must go to for first recognizing the potential value of the Mexican Dwarfs (wheat). Had this not occurred, it is quite possible that there would not have been a green revolution in Asia."

Long before his meritorious stint as Director General, International Rice Research Institute in Philippines, between 1982-88, perhaps as a Philippino foretaste, he was awarded for Community Leadership, the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1971. He was the first recipient of the award installed by the Association for Women in Development, Washington D.C., USA, for outstanding contribution to activities which foster development for women. The first World Food Prize, considered equivalent of the Nobel Prize was awarded to him in recognition of his service and achievements in improving world food supply. These are just a few of the many in the long list.

Was it not Lord Birkenhead who said "An ounce of practice is worth more than a pound of precept?" If anything, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan is an epitome of this philosophy. Not for him the role of an arm-chair advisor after active service which anyone else would have found comfort in, in his twilight years. In the year 1988, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation was registered and multifarious activities in the field of agriculture, child welfare, women’s development and the like were initiated. The funds for the society in the shape of donations supplemented his own award money and royalties from books and publications. The programs of MSSRF were built on a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women foundation with a view to ensuring that development was not only environmentally sustainable but also socially equitable. Dr. M.S. Swaminathan also believed that progress in overcoming chronic social ills can be rapid provided appropriate blends of political will and action, social mobilization and technology development and dissemination can be promoted. It is to foster such a movement at both the macro and micro levels that MSSRF began it’s work ten years ago in the areas of strategic, participatory and anticipatory research, education and training, human resource development, information and skill empowerment, networking, policy advocacy and dialogues.

Very recently brinjal, jamun and bitter gourd have come into International prominance, thanks to some researchers abroad "finding" medicinal values in these products, soon to be "patented". It is a pity in this exercise of "re-inventing the wheel", that invariably scientists of Indian origin have been at the root of mischief, which by patenting provide a parchment of imperviousness to our very own traditional or household medicinal plants. The usefulness of this is elaborated in our scriptures and treatise on medicine. It started with turmeric  and now  all the three mentioned above.
Perhaps in the very near future it will also include Tulasi theertham given in Vaishnavite temples as jocularly said by Dr. Swaminathan. The attitude of MSSRF towards this problem and what it has in mind as remedial measures, can best be explained by reproducing relevant portions of it’s annual report for the year 1998 – 99. "An ecology of hope movement will become a reality only if principles of ethics and equity cover all areas of human endeavour." Nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of the Life Science industry. For e.g., what we now refer to as medicinal plants are the products of observation, selection and conservation by tribal and rural families over several centuries. Yet, these primary conservers of materials and holders of knowledge live in poverty while those who use their knowledge of breeding and bio-technological enterprises become rich. MSSRF has been working with the government of India in the development of the following two pieces of legislation:

1.Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights Act.
2.Bio-diversity Act

In the draft Act prepared by MSSRF, interests of both farmer-cultivators and farmer conservers are protected.

It is his ceaseless effort for the general welfare especially of the downtrodden that has endeared Dr. Swaminathan in the eyes of many in different fields of activity and stratas in society. He is a great believer in sustainable agriculture through workable technologies. It is his prediction that in the coming decades the farming families of India will have to produce more foodgrains and other agricultural commodities under conditions of shrinking per capita land and water resources and expanding biotic and biotic stresses. The smaller the farm, the greater will be the need for higher marketable surplus to generate the income necessary for meeting basic human needs. The farming population of the early part of the 21st century will be predominantly young. They can be attracted and retained in farming only if agriculture becomes intellectually stimulating and economically rewarding. These are the conditions which modern precision farming technology espoused by MSSRF cater to. It is indeed a great task in which apart from congenial government policies, involvement of institutions like NABARD and MSSRF duly guided by Dr. Swaminathan have a strategic role to play to usher in a super green revolution.

In all these efforts tremendous help comes forth from his wife Mrs. Meena Swaminathan. Meena is especially interested in the empowerment of women in rural areas and education of underprivileged rural children. The first ever primary school for Irula children in a mangrove hamlet in Pichavaram, Chidambaram is a standing testimony. Dr. Swaminathan is an affectionate father for his two daughters and has somehow managed to take time off his busy schedule, frequent trips abroad to spend sometime with his grandchildren. In fact the day I met him, he was getting ready to leave for Rishi Valley near Madanapalli where his granddaughter is studying, to spend a weekend with her. He is indeed a complete man in the most consummate sense. May he live long to help India march towards a healthy and enlightened future.

T.L.Raghavan

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