Dr Monkombu Sadasivan Swaminathan, 75, on whom the Indira Gandhi Award for Peace, Disarmament and Development was conferred on November 19, has been described by a former Secretary-General of the United Nations as "a living legend…a man.who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction." And to think that but for a 1949 fellowship to study genetics in the Netherlands he could well have become a police officer!

Swaminathan has been recognised as the architect of the 'Green revolution,' which radically improved agricultural yields through the introduction of genetically superior varieties, in India and beyond. Here is how Time magazine described his achievement in its issue of August 23-30, 1994:

"Swaminathan, together with colleagues in India and round the world, managed in a few short years to demolish the dire Malthusian worldview that was so prevalent, and pertinent, four decades ago….

"…a miracle was born in the mid-60s at Swaminathan's laboratory in New Delhi - and, a few years later, at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines which he later headed. Swaminathan brought into India seeds developed in Mexico by US agriculture guru Norman Borlaug, and, after cross-breeding them with local species, created a wheat plant that yielded much more grain than traditional types. Scientists at IRRI accomplished the same miracle for rice. 

"Imminent tragedy turned to a new era of hope for Asia, paving the way for the Asian economic miracle of the 1980s and 90s."

No wonder that Borlaug, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, said that Swaminathan deserved recognition alongside his own.

The cross-bred wheat plant, created in 1967, eventually transformed India, then the country with the world's largest food deficit, into a country deemed self-sufficient in food.

The recognition that Borlaug felt Swaminathan deserved has since come in ample measure. The Indian scientist received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 1971; the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986; the World Food Prize, which is considered almost on a par with the Nobel Prize, in 1987; the Tyler Prize for environmental achievement and the Honda Award in 1991; and the Sasakawa Award of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) - for his 'outstanding global contribution' to conservation and sustainable development - in 1994.

Swaminathan received the Padma Shri in 1967, the Padma Bhushan in 1972 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1989.

He has been inducted into the Royal Society of Britain and the national academies of science in the United States, China, Italy and Sweden, not to mention the erstwhile Soviet Union. More than 30 universities in India and abroad have conferred honorary doctorates on him.

Swaminathan ploughed the money he received through awards into the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, (MSSRF), founded a decade ago. The explicit aim of the foundation is to harness science and technology for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable applications.

As noted by Frontline magazine in the preamble to an interview with Swaminathan published in a recent issue, MSSRF's agenda is based on three principles: a research centre without walls, sustainable development and reaching the 'unreached.' The foundation has demonstrated that it is possible to marry the best in traditional science with frontier technology to help the poor and the semi-literate, says the magazine.

The foundation is involved in a range of activities, including ways to hook farmers up to the Internet. It is the only institution in Asia to have received the prestigious Blue Planet Prize for "solving global environmental problems through scientific research and application."

M S Swaminathan was born in Kumbakonam on August 7, 1925 He studied genetics at Coimbatore Agricultural College. In 1952 he received a doctorate in genetics from Cambridge University. This was the end result of the fellowship to study genetics in the Netherlands, which nipped in the bud a possible career in the police force. Swaminathan went to the US the same year and helped organise work at the Interregional Potato Introduction Centre at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Returning to India, he started assembling genetic material for wheat and rice in 1954. You could say that he was laying the foundation of his pathbreaking work in plant genetics.

It was as Director of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute that Swaminathan set the Indian green revolution in motion. He was involved not only in laboratory work but also in. demonstration of its results to farmers.

"In 1964," said Swaminathan in an interview to PlanetRice.net, "I was getting frustrated with the attitude of the extension workers. I made a proposal to the government …for 500 demonstrations. These demonstrations would give scientists an opportunity to go directly to the farmers, without going through the extension department." This "very successful" programme, according to Swaminathan, was a "turning point in the history of agriculture."

In his efforts to bring about the 'revolution,' Swaminathan secured the support of the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. After Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister, she gave him a free hand to organise a new agricultural programme. As Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operation, he developed a strong food security system in India.

Swaminathan was Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (1972-78) and the International Rice Research Institute (1982-88), Independent Chairman of the Food and Agriculture Organisation Council,(1981-85) and president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (1984-90). He chaired the World Food Congress in Rome in 1974.

During the course of his 45-year research career, Swaminathan has published several books and more than 250 papers in international scientific journals. A glimpse into his approach to research is offered by an interview published by ISAT gate magazine in March 1997:

"Under our demographic and socio-economic circumstances, we must promote more research…that is related to micro enterprises based on science and technology. When we developed the 'hunger-free area' programme for Dharmapuri…we brought the best in modern technology to identify the problem areas and prioritise our action plan. This is what I call ecotechnology, or ecologically sustainable technology. 

"The E stands not only for ecology but (also) for equity (both in social and gender terms) and employment generation in addition to economics. I would like to see a massive movement of science for society based upon these four Es."

 - R. Padmanabhan