Homi Jehangir Bhabha: Architect of the atomic dream

Arthur Koestler talks of two kinds of leaders, ‘The Yogi’ and ‘The Commissar’. The Yogi is the ‘contemplative thinker’ and Commissar the ‘man of action’. Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha was a unique mix of both. It was also a fortunate circumstance that Bhabha and prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru shared an exceptional bond—Bhabha addressed Nehru as ‘Bhai’. Bhabha was a renowned theoretical high energy physicist at Cambridge before joining the faculty of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and had done pioneering work on electron-positron scattering—known as ‘Bhabha Scattering’—and cosmic ray showers.