The Indian Space Programme

by Gurbir Singh

  Sarabhai was to India’s space programme what Sergei Korolev and Wernher von Braun were to the space programmes of the USSR and US, respectively.

  Figure 6‑1 Vikram Sarabhai with Son Kartikeya and Daughter Mallika. Credit Mallika Sarabhai

  Although all national space programmes rely on the contributions of thousands of individuals, history has the tendency to single out one man (and it usually is a man) as the originator above all others.[292] Following Yuri Gagarin’s breath-taking accomplishment as the first human in space in April 1961, Sarabhai wrote to the Government of India proposing a space satellite programme for India.[293] Sarabhai’s outrageous vision of how a developing nation like India could utilise space technology for social development and also the break-neck speed with which he implemented it earned him the title ‘father of India’s space programme’. Professor Yash Pal (1926-2017) recalls Sarabhai’s confidence about the development space research could bring about in areas of broadcasting and communication and the boldness with which he approached Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi and said, “We want to test whether space could be used for such purposes.” She asked, “But where are your rockets and how can you test?” He replied “I have friends; we have scientific friends in America everywhere, and so on. Let’s see what we can do.”[294]

  Education

  Today, a foreign education, especially from a recognised university in the US or Europe, is almost a routine expectation for a young Indian from the Indian middle class. This was not so in the pre-independent India. In the India of the 1930s, if you were born into a successful family business, especially as a son, your future was pretty much set.

  Convention dictated private tuition at home followed by an independent school or college with frequent involvement in the family business during holidays. By the late teens, the son would have had years of on-the-job experience even if he had not sought it. Tradition required that when the time was right, the reins of the business gradually pass from the father to the son in a casual but measured period of handover. But the Sarabhai family were not followers of tradition. As a mill owner, Sarabhai’s father, along with his siblings, had travelled extensively and seen for themselves the new industrial processes and technological innovations that were introduced in Europe and the US. Sarabhai’s father was fond of Western fashion, music and cars and was the first to own a car in Ahmedabad.[295]

  A letter of recommendation from Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who was also a neighbour at Shahibaug, secured Sarabhai a place at Cambridge to study physics and mathematics. Tagore is to India what Shakespeare is to the UK and Goethe to Germany. In 1937, along with his brother Gautam, Sarabhai set sail for the UK. The route from India to Cambridge to study physics and mathematics was well trodden by the late 1930s. Muhammad Raziuddin Siddiqui (1908–1998), Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, as well as Homi Bhabha, who would later have a direct impact on Sarabhai’s future, had all studied at Cambridge. The 1920s and 30s were a heady time for science and the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. It was the period when many of the key discoveries and inventions in physics, the principles of rocket propulsion, continental drift,[296] the internal structure of the atom, were validated for the first time through experiment. Edwin Hubble’s detection in 1929 of the redshift phenomenon in distant galaxies demonstrated that the solar system was part of an expanding universe.

  Figure 6‑2 Letter of Recommendation to Cambridge from Rabindranath Tagore. November 1935. Credit Vikram Sarabhai Archives

  The Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge was at the centre of some of the greatest fundamental scientific discoveries in the 20th century. In the 50 years preceding Sarabhai’s arrival, all three fundamental atomic particles, the electron, proton and neutron, had been discovered in Cambridge. For the first time in human history, the key components of an atom had been scientifically predicted, detected and quantified by experiment. The atom could finally be understood as a central nucleus containing positively charged protons and neutral neutrons surrounded by a cloud of the lighter, negatively charged electrons. In the decade between 1927 and 1937, scientists at the Cavendish Laboratory won Nobel Prizes almost every other year.

  In 1932, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton designed an experiment to fire high-speed neutrons at atoms of lithium. The resulting impact split the lithium atom and generated helium. This so-called ‘splitting’ of the atom, or transmuting one element into another, would result in the award of several Nobel Prizes. Others who were honoured with Nobel Prize for their work at Cavendish included Patrick Blackett for developing the Wilson Cloud Chamber, a device that revealed the evidence of positron or the positive electron, another inferred, but until then undetected, particle. Paul Dirac and Niels Bohr, who made profound contributions to the study of nuclear physics, also had strong connections to Cambridge. It was in this environment, rich in scientific accomplishment that Sarabhai came to study, first, mathematics and physics and later, cosmic rays. When he embarked on building scientific institutions in India, he would call upon some of these scientists for professional assistance. Some would also become Sarabhai’s friends.

  Sarabhai had just completed his undergraduate studies when war broke out in Europe in 1939. His father demanded that he return to India. Sarabhai had concluded that among the two popular fields of research at the time, his interest lay in cosmic rays, not in atomic fission. He wanted to investigate the physics of high-energy cosmic rays entering the Earth’s atmosphere from space. However, if he returned to India how would he conduct high-quality research, which was then available only at Cambridge? A solution emerged when Cambridge University provided special permission for him to continue his postgraduate study in India if he was supervised by the Bangalore-based C.V. Raman.[297] In 1930, C.V. Raman had won a Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the inelastic scattering of light. It is probable that C.V. Raman’s availability in Bangalore was a key factor in Sarabhai’s choice of cosmic rays as the subject for his PhD research.

  Cosmic ray research was in its early stages when Sarabhai chose it as a topic of research. The potential impact of cosmic radiation and solar flares on human spaceflight was realised soon after humans ventured into space. Cosmic rays arriving on the Earth from the Sun, stars and other galaxies are deflected by the Earth's magnetosphere or are almost all absorbed by the upper atmosphere. There are no significant consequences for life on Earth but are a hazard to astronauts beyond the protection of the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field. In 1963, two Soviet spacecraft with a human crew, Vostok 5 and Vostok 6, were scheduled to be launched on 10 and 12 June, respectively. A large solar flare raised radiation risks for the cosmonauts, and the launches were delayed by four days.[298] The Apollo flights to the Moon beyond the safe realm of the Earth’s magnetic field provided an opportunity for quantitative research. When the astronauts on the crippled Apollo 13 aborted the mission to land on the Moon and headed back to Earth, they reported seeing bright flashes. The flashes did not come from any particular direction; they did not need to look out of the windows and saw them even when their eyes were shut. These flashes, confirmed through subsequent investigations, were the result of cosmic rays impacting on the astronauts’ retinas.[299] It was the study of these cosmic rays that occupied Vikram Sarabhai’s future professional life as a scientist.

  After relocating from Cambridge, Sarabhai started his PhD in Bangalore. His first scientific paper, entitled Time Distribution in Cosmic Rays, was presented at the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1942. This was the first of the 85 scientific papers he would formally present until his premature death in 1971.[300] Prior to the Space Age, high altitude cosmic ray research used balloons and sounding rockets. In an experiment in 1943, Sarabhai climbed to an altitude of 3.11 miles (5 km) in Kashmir to measure the rate and intensity of high altitude cosmic rays using radiation detectors (Geiger counters) that he had himself modified.[301]

  Soon after the war ended, Sarabhai returned to Cambridge along with his wife to finish his PhD. The thesis, e
ntitled Cosmic Ray Investigations in Tropical Latitudes, took just over a year to write and was completed on 24 May 1947. Many senior Cambridge scientists had not survived the war or had been displaced by it. Cambridge could not facilitate his PhD oral examination, so it took place in the drab surroundings of the post-war northern England, in the city of Manchester, under the scrutiny of Professor Patrick Blackett.[302] With his experience of India, Cambridge and cosmic rays, Blackett was ideally placed as Sarabhai’s examiner. He had visited India in January 1947 at the personal invitation of Nehru, who was only a few months away from becoming the first prime minister of independent India. Blackett had studied and later done research at the famous Cavendish Laboratory under Ernest Rutherford. In 1937, he moved to Manchester as the professor of physics. Although Blackett did not know it at the time, he, too, would win a Nobel Prize for physics in 1948. Sarabhai successfully defended his thesis during his viva voce in Manchester and was awarded the PhD. His wife, Mrinalini, recalls a letter from Professor Blackett in which he recounted that day “I remember very vividly your splendid red sari contrasting so strongly with the grey gloom so characteristic of the old Manchester labs.”[303]

  To celebrate this success and the news of his wife’s pregnancy, they returned to India, making stops in the Netherlands and France on the way. Once back in India, their pace of life picked up. Sarabhai took on an increasing number of projects, building institutions of international repute. They included Ahmedabad Textile Industry Research Association, the PRL, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology.[304] His work on India’s space programme was yet to begin.

  Sarabhai Family and Gandhi

  On 12 March 1930, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 – 1948) began a 240-mile (390 km) march on foot from his home in Ahmedabad to the coastal town of Dandi with the intent of making salt without paying the tax that British law demanded. It was long and arduous, but a pivotal act of protest in Indian history. He was accompanied by around 100 supporters, including 11-year-old Vikram Sarabhai.

  Upon his return from South Africa, Gandhi had settled in Ahmedabad in 1915. He was welcomed to the city with widespread affection and enthusiasm. He was already well-known in India for his success in introducing some measure of equality for the Indian population in South Africa, though the global status he has today was still a long way away. However, when Gandhi allowed an untouchable to join him in his settlement, the caste-ridden society of Ahmedabad shunned Gandhi. Caste system still dominated the Indian society in the early part of the 20th century and was a dominant force against an egalitarian society. The sense of community Gandhi was attempting to build evaporated along with his funds. Gandhi found himself isolated and deprived of the means of continuing the work of setting up his ashram. An anonymous donor, who was later identified as Ambalal, Vikram Sarabhai’s father, provided Gandhi financial relief of Rs. 1,300, thus becoming his benefactor. [305]

  In 1917, Gandhi found himself wedged between two influential figures of the Sarabhai family on opposing sides of an industrial disagreement. One party was his benefactor and mill owner Ambalal. The other was Anasuya Sarabhai, Vikram Sarabhai’s aunt. Headstrong, intelligent and highly motivated, she had her own unique take on the political issues of the time. Atypical of women in India, she exhibited no fear of authority and did not hesitate to challenge tradition. She had gone to Britain in 1912 to study medicine but soon switched to politics, primarily to avoid animal dissection. She was drawn immediately to two of the most pressing concerns of the time, potential war with Germany and political power for women.

  An intense and radical women’s suffrage movement had established firm roots in the UK since the late 18th century. During her time in London, she was convinced of the merits of the Fabian belief that social progress comes out of gradual development rather than revolution. She returned to India in 1914, and in her first major public confrontation, she undermined her own family business. In 1917, with support from Gandhi, she led the first strike of textile labourers in Ahmedabad. Her opponents were the mill owners and industrialists of Ahmedabad, principal among whom was her brother and Vikram Sarabhai's father, Ambalal Sarabhai.

  Figure 6‑3 Mahatma Gandhi with Vikram’s sister, Mridula Sarabhai. 1942. Credit Unknown

  As trade and commerce recovered following the end of World War I, trade unionism in Europe flourished, particularly in the mill and mining towns of the industrial heartland of northern England. Deep-rooted matters of social concern resurfaced as the working classes in Europe and India sought to improve their living conditions following World War I. Ahmedabad, with its established connections to textiles, was known as the Manchester of India.[306] As the Industrial Revolution spread around the globe, so did concerns about working conditions, child labour, fair and overtime pay, discrimination, collective bargaining and workers’ rights. As technology and processes of industrialisation began to make an impact across the world, they triggered social and political unrest, which soon reached the mill workers in Ahmedabad. Gandhi stuck to the middle ground in the dispute between Ambalal, his benefactor and mill owner on one side, and Ambalal’s sister Anasuya, who championed the rights of workers on the other. He had benefited from the generosity of the Sarabhai family and campaigned for a negotiated compromise acceptable to both sides. It was here that Gandhi employed his distinctive non-violent solution of fasting for the first time. He also brought to bear his skills as a trained lawyer to achieve the final settlement. The compromise helped Anasuya in 1920 to establish the Majoor Mahajan Sangh (Ahmadabad Textile Labour Union), which celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2010. Though Gandhi never held a formal political post in the Indian government, his practice of ahimsa or non-violent struggle against colonialism and his assassination in 1948 elevated him as the father of the nation.

  The principle of fasting to achieve a specific political goal had been well established in Britain and Ireland and deployed effectively by the suffragette movement.[307] Both Anasuya and Gandhi would have been aware of fasting as the primary tactic used by the suffragette movement in London in their pursuit of women’s right to vote. Could it be that Gandhi acquired this overwhelmingly Fabian attrition-like quality of his campaigning style from Anasuya? It is interesting to speculate that in choosing this approach to resolve the conflict between Ambalal and Anasuya, Gandhi was perhaps motivated by the desire to avoid offending his patrons and only later recognised the innate righteousness of non-violent tactic.

  In August 1942, Gandhi initiated the Quit India campaign and demanded that the British simply withdraw from India in an orderly fashion. He asked for passive resistance, ‘do or die’, from Indians all over India. Surprisingly, the Quit India campaign did not result in malice against British residents or even British soldiers based in India. Harry Turner (1920–2009), a radar engineer from Manchester, who had helped establish the Manchester Interplanetary Society and had been involved in the testing of rockets prior to joining the army, found himself in Bangalore in late 1945. During a visit to a cinema to watch an Indian film, he noted “The ‘Quit India’ movement has a strong following here, yet I find the locals decidedly friendly.”[308]

  Although the Sarabhai family could not escape the dramatic politics of the Indian independence movement during the inter-war years, Vikram Sarabhai expressed no interest in politics. His family, especially his sister and aunt, were deeply involved in politics, but he resisted and maintained his links with the scientific community. World War II had dwindled the British capacity to rule India, and after the War, the independence movement surged. This crucial period coincided with Sarabhai’s completing his PhD and embarking on his professional career.

  Marriage

  Against the backdrop of the tumultuous events leading up to India’s independence, Vikram Sarabhai got married to Mrinalini Swaminathan, a Bharatanatyam and Kathakali dancer. Sarabhai had proposed to Mrinalini more than once. The uncertainty that prevailed in the midst of a revolutionary change convin
ced Mrinalini to finally accept. However, the bride’s expectations, “a grand wedding with music and classical dance to entertain the visitors who were coming from Ahmedabad”, were not to be.[309] The wedding ceremony took place in the drawing room of the bride’s Bangalore home. The journey to Ahmedabad, about a thousand miles (over 1,600 km) north of Bangalore, is a demanding at the best of times but especially problematic at the time of civil unrest. Given that the bride and groom were each from affluent families, the wedding was surprisingly austere: no large-scale celebration, no elegant dresses, no high-profile guests, no exquisite cuisine and no honeymoon.

  Sarabhai did not honour the marriage vows administered during the hastily arranged wedding. A couple of years after their marriage, during a social event, his wife introduced Sarabhai to her friend, Kamla Chowdhry, whom she had first met as a dance student in 1941.[310] Sarabhai established and maintained an intimate relationship with Kamla until his death. The Sarabhai family had repeatedly demonstrated that they were not bound by strict traditions and that they took a pragmatic (that is “doing what seemed right”) than a sacred view of the bond of marriage.[311] Vikram Sarabhai’s brother, his aunt and later his daughter had engaged in unconventional relationships. He even justified the absence of an absolute morality by drawing on the ambiguities inherent in ancient and newer texts, the Upanishads (ancient religious Hindu texts), and even special relativity.