Oppenheimer and India
THE dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost 78 years ago remains the most cataclysmic event of the modern era. It has been the subject of innumerable books, documentaries and movies, the latest of which is making waves globally. The bombs were a creation of the notorious Manhattan Project and at the centre of it all was J Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist of German origin. He is widely acclaimed as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ and his complex life is now the subject of a new movie. Oppenheimer’s knowledge of Sanskrit and deep interest in the teachings of Bhagavad Gita have evoked great interest in India, and understandably so. However, Oppenheimer’s Indian connection is much deeper than his professed admiration for Indian spirituality.
Inaugurating the Indian Science Congress session in 1959, Nehru referred to Oppenheimer drawing inspiration from the Gita.
These connections are situated in the larger context of the development of modern physics in the first half of the 20th century. In this period, landmark contributions were made in the field of particle physics — the study of elementary building blocks of the universe — and nuclear physics, which focuses on the atomic nuclei and their constituents. It was nuclear physics that set scientists on the trajectory that led to the atomic bombs and atomic energy. Many of the leading figures of Indian science in this era worked in these emerging branches of physics. This galaxy of stars included Debendra Mohan Bose (and his student Bibha Chowdhury), Meghnad Saha, Satyendra Nath Bose, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Daulat Singh Kothari, Piara Singh Gill and several others. Many of them worked or interacted with the leading lights of modern physics — Wolfgang Pauli, Neils Bohr, Lord Rutherford, Paul Dirac, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Schrödinger, James Chadwick, John Cockcroft and Hideki Yukawa.
It was while working on cosmic rays at Cambridge that Bhabha became familiar with Oppenheimer (his senior at Cambridge who later worked at Berkeley). Bhabha, along with Walter Heitler, published the theory of cosmic ray showers (named the Bhabha-Heitler theory) in 1936 — a year ahead of a similar theory that Oppenheimer had proposed independently. Bhabha had intellectual and personal connections with leading physicists in the West, and at one point in 1940, he requested Pauli to introduce him to Oppenheimer to explore a research position at Berkeley. The war made Bhabha stay back and he initiated the building of a fundamental physics institute. Later, he conceived an Indian atomic energy programme and implemented it with the support of PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
Bhabha leveraged his western networks to get external help — such as engineering skills to build a nuclear reactor and enriched uranium — necessary to kickstart the Indian nuclear programme. He enlisted international support to fulfil his dream of developing the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) on the lines of Cavendish and Princeton. After the 1945 bombing, Oppenheimer had become a controversial figure, but this did not deter Bhabha from seeking his help while developing a research team at TIFR. He hired cosmic ray physicist Bernard Peters — who had been a student of Oppenheimer at Berkeley and worked on the Manhattan Project from 1942 to 1945. Another scientist whom Bhabha offered a position at TIFR was Frank Oppenheimer — younger brother of Robert Oppenheimer — who was working at Princeton. The offer was made after Bhabha consulted Robert, according to historians. Another high-profile physicist whose advice was sought by Nehru for organising the atomic energy programme in India was French Nobel laureate Frederic Joliot-Curie.
Some of these appointments faced rough weather as Oppenheimer was subjected to scrutiny for his past links with the communists. In his testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee, Oppenheimer dubbed his former student Peters a ‘communist sympathiser.’ Following this, Peters faced difficulty in travelling to India, and once in India, his presence at TIFR became a subject of controversy. Frank Oppenheimer, on the other hand, could not come to India as the American government refused him a passport. Robert Oppenheimer continued to be an important figure in America as Director of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and mentored Indian scientists. For instance, he offered Alladi Ramakrishnan, a young physicist at the University of Madras, a fellowship to spend a year at Princeton. Upon returning to India, Alladi wanted to set up an IAS-like institute — an idea which eventually led to the founding of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Madras in 1962.
Oppenheimer was on the list of foreign scientists invited to visit Indian universities and research institutes under a scheme called ‘Short visits of scientists from abroad’ — a brainchild of PC Mahalanobis and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. The list included Neils Bohr, Norbert Wiener, PMS Blackett, Joseph Needham and JBS Haldane. The invitation letters were signed by Nehru, who knew most of them and had met them. All of them, except Oppenheimer, visited and spent time at Indian Statistical Institute and other research centres, and were consulted for organising scientific research in India. Nehru publicly admired Oppenheimer and his post-1945 moralistic position. Inaugurating the Indian Science Congress session in 1959, Nehru referred to Oppenheimer drawing inspiration from the Gita. This, he said, should serve as a reminder for ‘the high priests of science’ that there were social consequences of their scientific work and discoveries.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought a dramatic end to World War II. It led to a nuclear arms race between the US and the Soviet Union as well as the ‘atoms for peace’ movement. The potential of nuclear power — strategic and peaceful — shaped the post-colonial scientific research agenda in countries like India. Developing the necessary capability in this new area of science became a top priority. India maintained that it wished to use nuclear power for electricity production, though its strategic import was clear to everybody from the beginning. It all changed in 1964 when China tested a nuclear device. Ten years later, India joined the nuclear club with Pokhran-1. Oppenheimer, however, did not live to see the land of the Gita go nuclear.
