Global Thinker Award 2007
M S Swaminathan
Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (M S Swaminathan) is an Indian agriculture scientist, born on August 7, 1925, in Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu. He was the second of four sons of a surgeon. His ancestral home is the island village of Monkompu, Alleppey District, Kerala.
M. S. Swaminathan’s childhood was happy and secure and he was strongly influenced by the strong moral character and work ethic of his parents. When Swaminathan was 11 years old, his father died unexpectedly. Swaminathan bonded with and learned much from his uncle, a teacher and scholar of English literature, Tamil and Sanskrit at Madras University. His early schooling was at the Native High School and later at the Little Flower Catholic High School in Kumbakonam. He was only 15 years old when he graduated from high school in 1940. He went to college at Maharajas College in Ernakulam and earned a Bachelor’s degree (B.Sc.) in zoology.
Swaminathan was strongly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s belief in ahimsa or non-violence to achieve Purna swaraj (total freedom) and swadeshi, (self-reliance) on both a personal and national level. During this the time of wartime food shortages, he chose a career in agriculture and enrolled in Coimbatore Agricultural College where he graduated as class valedictorian with another B.Sc, this time in Agricultural Science. He learned an important lesson while doing field extension work at Coimbatore: Men and women toiling daily in the fields know their jobs better than a scientific expert. "Trust the judgement of farmers.
He is wildly known as the ‘Father of the Green Revolution’ in India for his leadership and success in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is founder and Chairman of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, leading the 'Evergreen Revolution'.
