Rajesh Kochhar is the Director of National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi. His research interests include science policy as well as history and sociology of science.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (1894-1955) was, in a way, a bridge between two cultures and two eras. He came at a time when science was greeted with a sense of mission, but literature was still valued. Encouragement and recognition were sought from the colonial empire, not as an end in itself, but as a prelude to nation building. An internationally acclaimed chemist, Bhatnagar wrote Urdu poetry under the aptly chosen pen-name of Seemab (meaning mercury) and went on to compose, in Sanskrit, the ceremonial hymn for Benaras Hindu University. Notwithstanding his knighthood and the official position of director (since renamed Director-General) of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bhatnagar had the courage to publicly touch the feet of the Congress president on his release from jail. If chemical industry today is an important part of Indian economy it is in no small measure due to the scientific and managerial efforts of Bhatnagar who half in jest claimed intellectual lineage from the pioneering Indian modern chemist P C Ray, Bhatnagar’s teacher having been Ray’s early student. Chemistry was rather a laboured link with Bengal; what exercised great influence on the course of Bhatnagar’s life was the Bengal-born Brahmo Samaj movement.

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Address for Correspondence
Rajesh Kochhar
Director
National Institute of Science, Technology & Development Studies
Pusa Gate, K S Krishnan Marg
New Delhi 110 012, India.
Email: rkk@nistads.res.in
rkochhar2000@yahoo.com