Defence Science Journal, Vol 44, No 3, July 1994, pp 189-192 @ 1994, DESIDOC
Professor Daulat Singh Kothari: A ProfIle
A. Nagaratnam Emeritus Scientist, Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad-500 258 and
N.S. Venkatesan 8-411, Suiya Kiran Apts, 42, Netaji Road, 8angalore-560 005 .
1. INTRODUCTION last days of his life; this association continued in an In the passing away of Professor DS Kothari unbroken fashion even when he was the Scientific (Doctorsaab, as he was generally called with affection Adviser to the Minister of Defence and the Chairman and respect), an institution, an era, and a legend have of the University Grants Commission. It is no surprise come t.O:;~ end. He was an outstanding physicist, an that the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University once said: educationist with a' vision, an inspiring teacher, the 'Kothari is the conscience of Delhi University'. architect of defence science in our country , and, above Professor Kothari was easily approachable by everyone , all, a great human being who symbolized the noblest high or low. He had an extraordinary memory for traditions of Indian culture. He combined in himself names, and an interaction with hiq1 was an unforgettable profound scholarship, simplicity to the point of experience. asceticism, humility, soft-spokenness, warmth, enlightenment, tolerance, as well as a passionate and 2. BRIEF BIODATA abiding concern for the welfare of humanity. A true Daulat Singh Kothari was born in Udaipur on 6 July lain, Kothari meticulously followed the principles of 1906. His.paternal grandfather was Mohan Lalji, who Right Conduct involving the practice of Ahimsa, Satya, was working in the Customs Department, and died in Asteya and A¥..rigraha. He was deeply read in the the 1918 plague. Mohan Lalji had a son, Fateh Lalji, Upanishads, the Gita, Buddhist and lain scriptures. He and a daughter. Fateh Lalji took his MA in English believed in a holistic approach to the individual, science from the Allahabad University, appearing as a private and society. He subscribed fully to Einsteins's dictum: candidate. He was a popular teacher, who first worked 'Science is lame without religion, and religion is blind as a headmaster in a government school at Bhilwara, without science'. An admirer and friend of Acharya and later as a headmaster in a government high school Vinobha Bhave, Kothari often used to quote the at Udaipur. (It is perhaps his father's influence tha,t Acharya's statement: 'The days of religion and politics inspired Daulat Singh to fall in love with teaching in are over; the future belongs to science and spirituality' . his later life.) Fateh Lalji's first wife died early without To Professor Kothari, knowledge was a ceaseless any child. By his second marriage to Lahar Bai voyage of realization. Throughout his life he never (nee Ordia) he had four sons (Daulat Singh, Madan ceased to be a student. He was a highly gifted teacher , Singh, Duleh Singh and Pratap Singh) and a daughter informal and personal in his approach. His love for (who died early). Among the sons, Pratap Singh is the scholarship and teaching would be evident from the fact only survivor at the present time. Mohan Singh ( b. 1909) that he was associated with the Faculty of Physics of retired from service in the government of Rajasthan. the University of Delhi right from 1934 till almost the Duleh Singh (b. 1912) retired as reader in the
Received 29 April 1994
189 DEFSCI J, VOL 44, NO 3, JULY 1994 department of physics, Udaipur University. Pratap physics department; Saha himself dictated the Singh (b. 1914) is a paper technologist who served as application which Kothari submitted the next day. Managing Director of NEPA Mills. Kothari got the offer in July 1928 as soon as his MSc -Fateh Lalji kept indifferent health and, after his results were announced. father's death, at the persuasion of his friend Bapna Kothari worked at AIlahabad for a short time. Very Sahib, the then Home Minister of the State, he went soon, he won a United Provinces (now Ut tar Pradesh) to Indore for medical treatment, where he died in government scholarship to pursue higher studies at June 1918. Bapna Sahib took Daulat Singh (who was Cambridge University. It is interesting to recall that the not yet 12 when his father died) under his care. Daulat Indian High Commission in London had first fixed his Singh matriculated from the Indore Shivaji Rao High admission at Oxford University against his wishes. In School in 1922 with science. He could not have done his characteristically modest way Kothari says that science had he stayed at Udaipur, where there was no 'through the confluence of lucky coincidences', he was provision for science- teaching at that time. After able to get the admission changed to Cambridge completing his intermediate in science from Udaipur , Universityl. S Chandrasekhar had exactly the same Daulat Singh, it appears, wanted to become a watch- problem, due to the bureaucratic approach of the High maker, but, thanks to a special scholarship awarded by Commission, and he had to put pressure from different the Maharana of Udaipur on the basis of his outstanding quarters to get the admission changed from Oxford to performance in the intermediate examination, he was Cambridge. At Cambridge, Kothari worked under Lord able to go to Allahabad University for his higher studies. Rutherford, Peter Kapitza and RH Fowler at the Daulat Singh married Sujan Kanwar (nee Surana). Cavendish Laboratory .It was here that he came into With' 'her gentle and self-effacing personality, contact with Chandrasekhar; their friendship (as well Mrs Kothari was indeed an ideal companion and as research interactions) continued unbroken life-partner for him. It is in the fitness of things that his throughout. first son, Lakshman, followed his father's footsteps. as At Cambridge, Kothari originally felt that it was a physicist; like his father he was a professor in the better to devote time to learn the new physics and physics department of Delhi University, and, like his mathematics from the great masters than to work within father, now continues as Emeritus Professor there. the narrow limits for a PhD. But, thanks to a strongly Lakshman's research interests are in the fields of worded Jetter from Professor Saha in 1932, Kothari neutron physics and solid-state physics. The second son, changed his mind. He got a 6-month extension of his Lalit, is a distinguished (retired) professor of 2-year scbolarship through the influence of the Master physiology. The youngest son, Jeevan, is a well-known of his College who was a member of the British architect. parliament. (An earlier request strongly supported by Daulat Singh took his BSc degree from Allahabad Lord Rutherford had been abruptly rejec~e.d). University in 1926 and the MSc in physics from Allahabad in 1928. It was at Allahabad in 1924, as a In 1933 he got his PhD from Cambridge University. first year undergraduate student, that he came into He soon returned to India to rejoin his post in Allahabad contact with Professor Meghnad Saha who was his University. In 1934, again at the insistence of Saha, lIe teacher. This contact proved to be a great boon for joined Delhi University as Reader in Physics. At that science in our country .Saha was impressed by Kothari's time there were only two teachers, Kothari and a diligence and brilliance. Saha not only taught him demonstrator, in the department. There were no physics but also got him interested in the history of post-graduate courses in science subjects. He was made science and philosophy. As Kothari himself recalls1, professor in 1942. One of the traditions that he set up Saha came to Kothari's room in the Jain hostel one day was that every faculty member, be he a theoretitian or in the evening of February 1927 and enquired whether an experimentalist, should participate in the laboratory he intended to appear at the competitive examination supervision of students2. He always made it a point to for government service. Saha was greatly pleased when teach at least one subject to the first year BSc class. He told by Kothari that he had no such idea, and would switch frequently from English to Hindi to immediately offered the post of a demonstrator in the communicate more effectively.
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~ NAGARATNAM & VENKATESAN: PROF DS KOrnARI: A PROFILE
On 12 July 1948 he took charge as the first Scientific 3. PHASES IN PROFESSOR KOTHARI'S Adviser to the Minister of Defence. The scale of pay ACADEMIC CAREER for the post was fixed at Rs 2000-100-2500 (at par with Professor Kothari's academic career can be broadly the pay scale of the Directors of the National classified into the following four phases ( there is no Laboratories). But Professor Kothari would agree to sharp line of temporal demarcation between them). take only Rs 1250/- as salary , which was the amount he was getting as a Professor. He also continued to reside Phase I (1930-1950): Contributions to physics and in the university campus and never missed his teaching astrophysics; classes in the university .He rejoined Delhi University Phase II (1948-1961): Establishment and development on 12 July 1952, but was specially requested by the of defence science in India (this is covered in a separate Defence Ministry to continue as Honorary Scientific paper in this issue); Adviser, a post that he held till March 1961. As PhaselII(1961-1966): Contributions to education; and Honorary SA, he was dr..awinga token pay of one rupee Phase IV (mid-1970's onwards): Involvement in a month (because it appears that if he were to exercise questions,relating to the philosophical foundations of the enormous financial powers vested in the SA, he had science, inter- relationships of science, spirituality and to get some salary from the government). humanism. 3.1 Contributions to Astrophysics In March 1961 he took charge as Chairman, University Grants Commission, a post that he held till It is for his pioneering work in the theory of pressure 1973. It was during this tenure that he was appointed ionization that Professor Kothari is internationally ChainI}a~ of the Education Commission (1964-66); the known. Professor Kothari's other interests were: report of this Com'mission, generally known as the statistical thermodynamics; quantum statistics; internal Kothari Commission report, was a landmark in the constitution of the stars; application of Ramanujan's annals of education in our country. partition theory of numbers to statistical mechanics, and interestingly, to high polymers; theory of fragmentation of large masses into stars; effects of In 1981 he was appointed Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (probably the only time radiation on the Lamb shift; theory of the magnetic an educationist adorned the post of Chancellor of an monopole ( an entity that Dirac had proposed in 1931). Indian university, which is generally the prerogative of 3.2 Contributions in the Field of Education the Governors; JNU was somewhat of an exception in that Mrs Jndira Gandhi was its first Chancellor)\" He The na.tion owes a deep debt of gratitude to continued as Chancellor for two terms, till 1991. Professor Kothari for his monumental contributions to the cause of education. The Kothari Commission's recommendations are of far- reaching import. As Dr Honours and awards came in plenty to Professor LM Singhvi aptly put it, 'The Kothari COmmission Kothari. In 1962 he was awarded Padma Bhushan and report, like Dr Kothari himself, was profound without in 1973, Padma Vibhushan. He was the General being ponderous, idealistic without being impractical, President of the Indian Sciencf- Congress in 1964. In fundamental without being fanatical'. (Dr Prem Kirpal,' 1966 he was chosen for the Shanti Swamp Bhatnagar in an article in this issue, has dealt at some length with Award of the Indian National Science Academy this aspect, interspersed with revealing personal (INSA). In 1973 he was elected Foreign Member of the glimpses of Professor Kothari's personality). USSR Academy of Sciences. During 1973-74 he was the President of the Indian National Science Academy. Professor Kothari took keen interest in the activities In 1978 he \''as awarded the Meghnad Saha Medal of of the National Council of Educational Research and INSA. Professor Kothari was a Fellow of the Third Training, and advised the NCERT on the writing of World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy, a member text books in science, and on standardizing technical of the Pugwash Conference, and a recipient of the award terms in Hindi. of the National Federation of UNESCO Associations As Chairman of UGC, he helped raise the quality in India. of advanced studies and research by providing the
101 DEF SCI J, VOL 44, NO 3, JULY 1994
, Ator... ' and 'Self, that is the inter- relationships between necessary financial inputs and facilities. Although he was ascetic by nature, he was sensitive to current trends, the external universe and the internal universe, the and in later years supported generous funding not only mind-body interaction, or, more broadly, the ror laboratory facilities but also for better pay scales, inter-relationship between science and spirituality. He residential and office accommodation. not only loved to meet colleagues and exchange His advice and guidance were sought by many thoughts with them, but he also spoke and wrote educationists and administrators. For example, the civil copiously about these basic philosophical questions. . services examinations now conducted by the Union The end came peacefully in his sleep in the early Public Service Commission are patterned on the model hours of the fourth of February 1993 at Jaipur . Professor Kothari suggested.
4. THE LAST YEARS REFERENCES Professor Kothari had been. keeping indifferent 1. Kothari, D.S. Atom and Self. M~ghnad Saha Medal health during the last 10, years of his life. Although Lecture, 1978. Proc. lnd. Natn. Sci. Acad. , 1980, ph}'sical infirmity prevented him from indulging in his 46 (1),1-28. favourite pursuit of lecturing on physics to students at 2.Panchapakesan, N. A superb teacher-Iearner: An the University, he was mentally alert to the last. He obituary of D.S. Kothari (1906-1993). Current thought profoundly about the relationship between Science, 1993, 64(7), 528.
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