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Patrick Blackett in India: Military Consultant and Scientific Intervenor, 1947-72

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Patrick Blackett in India: Military Consultant and Scientific Intervenor, 1947-72 Patrick Blackett in India: Military Consultant and Scientific Intervenor, 1947-72. Part One Author(s): Robert S. Anderson Source: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 53, No. 2 (May, 1999), pp. 253- 273 Published by: The Royal Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/532210 . Accessed: 09/05/2011 11:52 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rsl. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Royal Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. http://www.jstor.org Notes Rec. R. Soc. Lond. 53 (2), 253-273 (1999) © 1999The Royal Society PATRICKBLACKETT IN INDIA: MILITARYCONSULTANT AND SCIENTIFICINTERVENOR, 1947-72. PARTONE by ROBERTS. ANDERSON SimonFraser University,Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada VSAIS6 ([email protected]) SUMMARY Invitedto lunchat the Nehruhome in January1947, PatrickBlackett was seatedbeside the actingPrime Minister. Jawaharlal Nehru knew of Blackett'sexperience in war and military affairs, and asked him how long it would take 'to Indianizethe military', meaningboth its commandstructure and its weaponsproduction and supply. He was not yet the PrimeMinister and India was not yet an independentnation. Blackett's reply was a challengingone, obligingNehru to exploretwo differentkinds of strategyand thus two differentmilitary set-ups. For the 'realistic'strategy Blackett preferred, he toldNehru that Indianizationcould be completedin 18 months;this wouldprepare India for conflictwith other similarpowers in the region. For the unrealisticstrategy, in which India would preparefor conflict with major world powers, Blackett predicted it wouldtake many, many years. Nehru liked his approach,and wrote to him soon afterwardsto ask Blackettto advise him on militaryand scientific affairs.From this invitationmuch followed. In thispaper, the firstof two aboutPatrick Blackett in India,I examinethe recordfrom his perspectiveupon his workwith and for the military.He was regularlyin touch with militarydevelopment in Indiabetween 1947 and roughly 1965, advisingthe Chiefs of Staff,the Ministerof Defence and the PrimeMinister himself. He carriedwith him the experienceand opinions generated from his militarycareer beginning in the FirstWorld War,and most particularlyhis assumptionsabout the applicationof science to warfrom 1935 untilhe went to Indiain 1947. He keptinformed about military development right throughto his lastjourney to Indiain 1971, followingthe end of his termas Presidentof the Royal Society. INTRODUCTION In describing some of Blackett's activities in India and relationships with Indian leaders and their problems,my purpose is to convey-mostly in his own words-the problem, as he perceived it, and the solution he advocated.Through this we get an understandingof the changing context in which he worked,and the evolution of his 253 254 RobertS. Anderson thoughtand practiceas a consultantand intervenor. Twentyyears after he first set foot in that country,Patrick Blackett was thinking abouthis influenceon militaryand scientific developmentsin India.In a free-ranging interview with B.R. Nanda in 1967, he selected his influence as military consultant as probablymore importantthan his other roles as scientific intervenor.1This is in markedcontrast to Indianperceptions of him, which focused mainly on his influence on large scientific researchorganizations. There is truthin both views, as I will show. But Blackett rightlypoints to his relationshipwith Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru as crucialto his influencein both spheres.Nehru identified with Blackettbecause both had been to Cambridge,held favourableattitudes to 'political' socialism, and were cautiousabout the same kinds of people, including 'the Americans'.In turn,Blackett acknowledges Nehru to be unusually receptive to his ideas and approaches,more receptivethan his own British prime ministersof the period to 1964. What Blackett does not say is that Nehru acted on his ideas, not just because of Nehru's personal receptivity,but also because Blackett's ideas were acceptableto a handful of other influential people in India, namely the scientists Homi Bhabha and Sir Shanti Bhatnagar,and to a lesser extentD.S. Kothariand seniormilitary officers like General J.N. Chaudhuri. Few of these people would have been untouched by Blackett's multitudeof interestsand torrentof energy,and would thereforehave paid attention to his presence. But more importantly,Blackett articulatedideas they had, supported them in their efforts and made connections to people outside India for them. And finally, his influence coincided with and extended the work of his old Cambridge colleague A.V Hill, who had been deeply involved in India since 1943 and continued to play a role among scientists similar to Blackett's. To this nexus of trusting and increasinglyfamiliar relationships should be addedthe force of a numberof material factors and ideas, making what Blackett said and did even more acceptablein elite Indianpolitical and scientific circles. This British expert became sought after precisely as the sun was setting on the Empire, as physics was taking a strategic turn, and as military development was becoming a national and commercial complex in which university-basedscientists graduallyplayed a more marginalrole, particularlyin contrastto Blackett'sexperience in Britainover the previous 10 years (that is from about 1938 to 1948). In 1947-50, when his reputationwas deepening in India, the full consequence of the way the Second WorldWar ended was evident. The British presence in India had to end, but did so too slowly for Britain'sreputation in India. The Indianadjustment to the new worldpower, the USA, was complicatedby the suddenemergence in 1947 of Pakistan. The USA was a major power in Asia too, with bases in Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.When the first Soviet atomic bomb was exploded in 1949 (years before the old Allies predicted it), military bases in northern Pakistan acquired a new significance to Britain and America. When the victory of the Communistforces in China was finalized in 1949, a great arc of land from the Baltic to the Pacific, and diversepopulations 'marching to a differentdrummer', lay to the northof India.The Anglo-Americanapproach to India would have been complicatedenough after 1947 without Pakistan,a Soviet bomb and a communistChina. With these factors, it was PatrickBlackett in India. Part one 255 Figure1. Blackettwith scientistsand military officers in Delhi, early 1950s. very complicated.India was usually a secondaryconsideration to the greatpowers as the Cold Warevolved, but was occasionally a sharpand pressing consideration.And as a stage on which to demonstrateanother kind of development,India became rather central,both fromthe rivalrousview of the greatpowers, and for the Indiangovernment which Blackett served. It is difficult to give a measure of Blackett'sinfluence in India. Blackett'spapers in the Royal Society seem incomplete, and we do not have a thoroughrecord of all of his activitiesin India.We cannoteasily calibratehis experiencein Indiawith his other activities and relationships in the rest of his large life. In the 1967 interview he remarked'I had no official status in defence mattersexcept as an adviserto Nehru.' Since his reportswere marked'Secret', and his consultationswere not widely known, it is understandablethat his public reputationwas largely in the field of scientific research institution building and not in strategic development. In tracing his relationshipswith key Indianfigures and institutions,I often learnedmore aboutIndia thanI did aboutBlackett. It is his appraisalof others,usually very decisive,that reveals most abouthim. Blackett'sfather's brother was a missionary in India,his motherwas the daughter of Sir CharlesMaynard, an officer in the IndianArmy around1857, and his mother's uncle was a tea planterin Assam. Perhapsbecause of these associations, or in spite of them, Blacketthad not reallywanted to go to Indiabefore it achievedindependence, 256 RobertS. Anderson andthough he was proudto be thereduring that great change, he was soon to discover both how old lines of dependencewere maintainedand new lines of interdependence were established.He was thus an earlyharbinger of the whole discourseon the proper role of science and technology in newly independentdeveloping countries. THE PROFESSORAND THEPRIME MINISTER Hewas a superbleader. But he didnot know how to getthings done very well. (PatrickBlackett, 1967) Few primeministers
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