About the Book

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, one of India’s outstanding science, shouldered the beginnings of India’s nuclear programme. He was the first chairman of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, and the builder of two of India’s most significant scientific institutions - the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Atomic Energy Establishment, renamed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1966.

A Masterful Spirit Presents the life and achievements of the man through previously unpublished letters, and photographs and paintings, and the recollections of his family, friends, colleagues and students. Designed to convey the flavour of Bhabha’s life and times, this book tells the inspiring story of a man whom Sir C.V. Raman described as ‘the modern equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci’. It acquaints us with the many facets of Bhabha’s personality: physicist, institution-builder, concerned citizen, artist, connoisseur of the arts, designer of gardens and above all, a charismatic and compassionate human being.

About the Author

Indira Chowdhury is Founder of Archival Resources for Contemporary History [ARCH!. Bangalore. Formerly professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, she has a PhD in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Her book The Frail Hero and Virile History was awarded the Tagore Prize in 2001. She translated Ashapurna Debis major novel, The First Promise in 2004. Her interest in lexicography led her to compile the Indian English Supplement included in the Oxford Advanced Leettier’s Dictionary in 1996. She is responsible for setting up the Archives of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. She has curated several archival exhibitions at TIFR including Partners in Science: JRD Tata and TlFR in 2005. In 2006, she was awarded the New India Fellowship to write an institutional history of TIFR.

Ananya Dasgupta began her career with the Telegraph, Kolkata, and has extensive experience as a journalist. She has been working as an editor with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Archives for the last three years. In 2009, she was involved in conceptualizing the Bhabha Centenary permanent exhibition The Visionary and the Vision at TIFR, Mumbai. She is currently responsible for the TIFR Oral History Project.

Contents