J.B.S. Haldane Centenary Lecture

Abstract

I have great pleasure in participating in the birth centenary celebrations of Professor J.B.S. Haldane for many reasons. First, Haldane was a great scientist with a very few parallels in the depth of his scholarship, intellectual versatility and prodigious memory. Haldane’s fundamental contributions covered a variety of fields — genetics, statistics, biochemistry, and the social applications as well as popularization of science. Second, he was a foreign scientist who had a genuine love for India. He was known to have championed the cause of India in Britain at the time of the British rule. He came to India a few years before his retirement from the University College London against the advice of his colleagues, and took Indian citizenship. He saw in India natural resources and, perhaps, a good deal of human talent which could be utilized to advance natural knowledge. Third, he placed India on the genetic map of the world by starting research on human genetics and motivating and inspiring a number of Indian scholars to do research in India. Before Haldane’s arrival in India, there were only two centers of genetical research in India, one in Bombay and the other at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta. The research at these centers were mainly confined to anthropometric and blood-group surveys. Haldane initiated research in many other directions utilizing local resources and minimum equipment. He advocated pursuing research that was inexpensive, and, if one prefers, non-violent in nature, and showed how such research can yield results of far-reaching importance. Finally, Haldane was a faculty member of the Research and Training School of the ISI, of which I was the Director. I share the credit along with Professor P.C. Mahalanobis of attracting such an intellectual giant as Professor Haldane to the ISI. Perhaps it is appropriate to mention an anecdote connected with Haldane’s employment at the ISI. Professor Mahalanobis and I decided that Haldane should have the designation of a Research Professor and that he should be given a high salary consistent with his international reputation and outstanding contributions. The amount we decided was substantially higher than my own salary as the Director of the Research and Training School. When Haldane learnt about this, he protested stating that as an employee of the Research and Training School, he would not accept a salary higher than that of the Director. I tried to persuade my boss, Professor Mahalanobis, to increase my salary, but he was unable to do so. Haldane’s salary as a was then fixed at the same level as mine.