Once permanently stationed in Almora along with Gertrude, Boshi began to expand the areas of focus in his scientific practice. In the initial years, Boshi had followed his mentor J.C. Bose’s approach of working with whole tissues but he later shifted to physiological study of single plant cells. His research in these years had focussed on structure of living protoplasm in single cells, measurement of the permeability of plasma membrane of cells and changes induced by external stimuli, the effect of different chemical substances on the structure of living protoplasm, and effect of vernalisation of seeds. Boshi, always thinking that his practice as a scientist should bring succour to the lives of millions of poor Indians, later shifted his research focus to the vast space of practical agriculture.
He had doubts lingering in his mind even while being abroad in the late 1920s,when he mused, “Shall I be able to do anything in the way of Swamiji’s work? Here I am away from India over two years. I work steadily but the objective is not reached. What have I been able to do? Nothing to speak of. It has all been a series of disjointed activities. I have been busy with the minute discoordinated pieces of investigation. I see their futility….I think i am sincere when I pray that I want to be used as an instrument, but how difficult it is to realise it in detail. The little self with its million mischief tries to tarnish the instrument and even break it. Swamiji’s idea of work was to serve without any hope or urge for self, neither name nor fame.”
One can see he was feeling conflicted, but from there emerged the new contours of his work.
Once permanently settled in Almora, his work gradually began to cover the whole gamut of plant introduction, plant breeding, production of hybrid seeds of maze and jowar, bajra, and onion, and several other initiatives in course of the subsequent decade. The Government allotted to the Vivekananda Laboratory two hundred acres of land at Hawalbagh near Almora. The laboratory buildings came up in 1943.
The Bengal Famine of 1943, that had taken away lives of around five million people, had strengthened Boshi’s resolve to work for food sufficiency. He also remembered Vivekananda’s dictum that, ‘even if a single dog be hungry, my religion will be to feed him.’
With time, he had also gathered a team of dedicated researchers and assistants. As soon as adequate trials were carried out on field plots at Almora and Hawalbagh, seeds of new and improved strains on which Boshi had been working were freely distributed for comparative trials to various state agricultural departments, research centres in other parts of India, and to farmers interested in experimentation. These initiatives blazed trail in their own remarkable way much before the ‘Green Revolution’ that followed in the 1960s.
Boshi had also made remarkable progress in the field of vernalisation by a systematic study of responses on Indian wheat and cross of Indian and foreign strains. He was also working with mustard, barley, soyabean, and various other crops.
Besides this, he always kept a track of latest innovations and developments in seed technology and agricultural practices throughout the world. He imported many seeds from different parts of the world like long staple cotton from America, Kudzer vine from Japan, and Tung oil tree seeds from China, and had them used in India. Boshi brought lemon grass from Kerala. He introduced a long and strong fibre called Ramie, something which is used in a big way for making fabric in Korea.
But even before he had proper farmland in 1943 to undertake more extensive experiment Boshi had had undertaken some very interesting initiatives. He had the vision to link livestock to the rural people who were almost solely dependent on farming. He realised that good quality of fodder had to be developed for the livestock. Towards this he imported seeds of Star Grass from Africa which he thought could serve as an excellent source of fodder. He made active efforts for the propagation of Star Grass and successfully impressed upon the authorities that every province in India be suggested to obtain seeds or cuttings of Star Grass and start the cultivation of this wonderful source of fodder.
During the second forces the British Indian army needed considerable quantity of fodder to feed its mules on the Eastern front but there was not enough to meet the requirements. The Colonial Government had neglected any research on fodder and neglected its growth across several parts of the country. The highest authorities in the government came to know that a private individual in his small Lab in Almora was the only person in India who had worked on fodder and could provide the seeds. They soon requested him to help.
Another experiment he did during the War years was with date palms. Boshi also found that right from the Kosi river in Almora till Kathgodam – the rail terminal at the Kumaon foothills, there were an nearly fifty thousand trees of date palms, which however did not produce any dates of commercial value. Boshi, experimented on the possibility that the trees could, nevertheless, be a source of sugar. He thought this could be a way of enhancing incomes of local hillsmen as also reduce the dependency on sugar brought from the plains. It was anyway the period of Second World War and commodity shortage was a common phenomenon.
In 1946-47, Boshi received Watumull fellowship which enabled him along with Gertude to visit several universities in the United States. He visited and worked in New York, Princeton, Cornell, and Texas.
An important project successfully undertaken at the Laboratory was mushroom cultivation. By acquiring spawn from US, England, and Switzerland high quality mushrooms were produced.
In the independent India, the Government too endeavoured to employ Boshi’s abilities and experience in several ways. He was already regarded as a seasoned hand in the field and served as a Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences, the Botanical Society of India, the Indian Society for Plant Physiologists and the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding. He also served on the Committee of Plant Projects of the Planning Commission of India.
Boshi’s contributions were also known widely across the world in his field. He was selected a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of Physiological Society of Great Britain, the Faraday Society, the Society of Experimental Biology, Mushroom Growers Association of Great Britain, the American Society of Plant Physiology, and the American Society of Agronomy. He had also been a delegate to several international physiological and botanical congresses in the US, England, Holland, and the Soviet Union.
In 1955, Boshi was selected as one of the two Indian scientists to attend the first course opened to foreigners in peaceful use of atomic energy., held at the National Atomic Establishment, Oak Bridge, Tennessee.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1957.
In 1961, small samples of seeds of wheat, jowar, mustard, sent from the Vivekananda Laboratory were subjected to thermal neutron irradiation at Oak Bridge and gamma irradiation in Cobalt 60 at Delhi.
In same year Prime Minister Nehru, entrusted Boshi to set up a high altitude agricultural research centre was opened at Leh in Ladakh. This later developed into a full-fledged agricultural research laboratory under the auspices of the Defence Ministry. On the request of Government of India, Boshi also visited North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), now Arunachal Pradesh, to advise on agriculture in that area. He was also sent by Government to Nagaland.
It was Boshi who started the work on hybridization in maize in India. VL54, a hybrid strain which still continues to be the best maize performer in hilly areas of India was evolved through his efforts. Hybridization work in Jowar was undertaken in 1959 and Bajra in 1963, again for the first time in India.
More than two hundred scientific papers covering work in fields of cellular physiology, biochemical studies, plant breeding, and agronomy were published by Boshi and his small band of associates in journals in India and abroad.
But Boshi’s experience of working with the Government machinery even in independent India was not always pleasant. In the years preceding the ‘Green Revolution’,’ he had once suggested to the ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) that if they wanted an equivalent produce of an additional million acres of land with wheat they could try his seed varieties. They merely scoffed at the idea. He was always furious at the policy pursued by the Pantnagar University, created with the purported mission of helping poor farmers, of selling their seeds at prices that ensured that the University made handsome surpluses. The Vivekananda Laboratory always gave out seeds at dirt cheap rates anywhere in India. In a state od exasperation, he once told the Vice Chancellor of the Pantnagar University that if profit chasing was the motive of a Government University why did they not go and rob a bank than exploit poor farmers!
M.S. Swaminathan, the man chiefly behind the ‘Green Revolution’ knew Boshi closely. In the foreword he wrote in Mr Mehra’s biography of Boshi and Gertrude, Swaminathan has noted Boshi’s pioneering and vast contributions. Swaminathan was aware of Boshi’s reputation as a leading plant physiologist in India, but came to know him personally in the late 1950s. He had first met Boshi when he visited the Wheat Breeding Station at Bhovali, near Nainital while heading the Division of Botany of Indian Agricultral Research Institute (IARI.) Boshi also used to visit the IARI to collect a wide range of seeds of temperate vegetables, legumes, barley etc.
During the time when Boshi was working on the Ladakh project, Swaminathan found him fascinated by the opportunity for green house horticulture in the Ladakh region. Swaminathan remembered that Boshi ‘used to bring huge cauliflowers and cabbages from Ladakh and explain how long days (i.e. over twelve hours of sunshine) and mild temperatures help plants to exhibit a high degree of physiologic efficiency.’ Swaminathan mentioned that even then, Boshi, who was already past seventy, ‘exhibited an enthusiasm which, unfortunately, we do not see in scientists half his age today.’
Swaminathan once brought a leading agriculture scientist, Glen Andersen from Canada, who was to be a collaborator in the ‘Green Revolution’ to the ‘Kundan House’ where they stayed overnight. They joined Boshi during his prayer and at the end Boshi placed a relic containing hair of Swami Vivekananda, wishing that the ‘Wheat Project’ be a great success. And indeed it turned out to be that way.
By the Wheat Project was meant what later came to be known as the ‘Green Revolution’ that enabled India move towards food sufficiency. Towards this Swaminathan had been ‘India’s Man’ who collaborated and worked greatly on the advice of Nobel Prize wining agronomist Norman Borlaug, who is hailed internationally as the ‘Father of the Green Revolution.’ Borlaug had first done extensive research in Mexico and then helped countries across the world to usher food sufficiency. The efforts of this man, whose name is unfortunately not known much outside specialist circles was responsible for pulling close to a billion people out of hunger. Swaminathan had closely collaborated with Borlaug, brought him to India, and encouraged by the Government of the day, helped launch massive initiatives to enhance food sufficiency. Swaminathan had chiefly worked with varieties of Lera Rojo 64-A and Sonora 64 and was greatly assisted by Borlaug throughout this project that changed India considerably in years to come. Incidentally, Boshi received Honoris Causa (the Honorary Doctorate) from the Pantnagar University along with Norman Borlaug.
Swaminathan visited and stayed with the Sens a few times with his wife and daughters, including Saumya who was a small girl then, and who is at present, indeed throughout the challenging time of the Corona Pandemic, the Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation, one of toughest assignments in the world, one would imagine, during this time.
Boshi was offered prestigious positions in various eminent universities all over the world like in Oak bridge, Cambridge, Holland, and the Soviet Union but he declined them all saying that India that had fewer scientists than the West was in much greater need of his services.
A true Karmayogi, Boshi Sen till his last days kept thinking and working on new initiatives that had the potential to ameliorate the condition of the poorest of his countrymen. He had come a long way from the days of the Kitchen Laboratory in the rented house of Bosepara where he had started his journey to answer the call that Swami Vivekananda had given to his and several future generations to come – to serve the ‘Divine in Man.’
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