Shanti Swaroop Bhatanagar, popularly known as S.S. Bhatnagar, was born on 21 February 1894, in Behda village of Shahpur district in Punjab, which is now in Pakistan. He had a very troubled child hood. His father lost his share of the family property and was disinherited because he had embarrassed Brahmo Samaj. After the premature death of his father, when Shanti Swaroop was only eight months old, his mother took him to her father’s place in Sikanderabad in Uttar Pradesh. Bhatnagar stayed there with his maternal grand father who was an engineer.

            Beginning his studies in a private Maktab in 1901, he studied upto the year 1907 in A.V. High School in Sikanderabad. Lala Raghunath, the principal of Dayal High School in Lahore was his father’s close friend. He brought the young Shanti Swaroop to Lahore and admitted him to Dayal Singh High School.  This was the turning point of Bhatnagar’s life. He secured a scholarship in open competition and also used to earn his living by teaching young boys privately. Under the guidance of his science teacher Moulvi Talib Ali Paband he would often experiment with gadgets. As early as 1911 young Bhatnagar published a letter in Leader of Allahabad on a method of making substitute carbon electrode for a battery by heating molasses and carbonaceous matter under pressure. In 1911, he passed his matriculation examination and joined Dayal College.

            After passing out intermediate in first division from the Dayal College in 1913 , Bhatnagar joined the Forman Christian College for the B.Sc. degree but was failed by the examiner. He had written in physics paper that X-ray can be reflected, refracted and polarized in light. This was  the recent finding of research that he had read , but it contradicted the prescribed Mellor’s text book. Next year he passed with Honours in physics. There is a very interesting story about Bhatnagar. During his under- graduate studies he did not have money to pay his examination fees. During this period, financially and professionally rewarding was the consultancy work he did for a leading Lahore stationary . The store could not import gelatin-duplicating pads from Germany because of the second world war. The store Manager approached a chemistry Professor who referred to Bhatnagar. The solution fetched him Rs.150.00 and Bhatnagar paid hid examination fees.

            After passing his B.Sc. in 1916, Bhatnagar took up a job as demonstrator in Physics and Chemistry in Forman Christian College and later moved to Dayal Singh College. In 1917 he studied his M.Sc. in Chemistry as a private student and completed in the year 1919. With a scholarship from the Dayal Singh College Trust for postgraduate research  Bhatnagar went to England. He joined the Ramsay Laboratory of Prof. F.G. Donnan , FRS, of the London University. He was awarded D.Sc. Degree in April, 1921.

            Bhatnagar returned to India in 1921 to take up a professorship at Banaras Hindu University on the invitation of Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya. In Banaras Hindu University, he focused on pure research .  In 1924, 30 year old Bhatnagar took over as Director of the newly opened University Chemical Laboratories, Lahore, having been choosen in preference to his influential European competitor who had been his teacher. Bhatnagar remained here till 1940. The laboratories addressed problems in industrial and applied chemistry brought in by agriculturalists and industrialists , such as Sir Ganga Ram, Lala Shri Ram, JK Mills, and Tata Oil Mills.

Bhatnagar and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( CSIR)

The first world war had given Bhatnagar to do a bit of consultancy on his own for a Lahore stationery. The second world war ( 1939-45) provided him with an opportunity to build scientific infrastructure in our country. Bhatnagar got the opportunity during this period to start the era of scientific and industrial research in India. In December 1939, Dewan Bahadur Sir Arcott Ramaswami Mudaliar, commerce member in the Viceroy’s executive committee visited his laboratory at Lahore and was highly impressed. He advised the Viceroy that Bhatnagar be appointed to head the government’s war time science effort. In 1940 Bhatnagar took over as Director , Scientific and Industrial Research. He was based in Alipore , Kolkata where a pre-existing laboratory was refurbished for his use. The laboratory was shifted to Delhi in December 1942. During the period the Government sanctioned Rs.10 lakhs for five years towards establishing an industrial Research Fund. Accordingly, on March 1942, a legal entity called a registered society under the name Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( CSIR) with Mudaliar as the ex-official founder –president. During 1943, the post of vice-president was created. Sir M.S.Akbar Hydari, ICS, served as the vice-President till 1940. The first vice-president after independence was Dr.Syam Prasad Mukherjee who hold office during 1947-1950. By virtue of his position in the government , Bhatnagar was the key figure in the Board and the Council. In February 24, 1944 , the government gave a grant of Rs.1 crore to CSIR. With this money five laboratories were set up stage by stage. The foundation stone of Central Glass and Ceramic was laid on December 24, 1945 ( Kolkata), Central Fuel Research Institute, ( CFRI) Dhanbad , November 17, 1946, National Metallurgical Laboratory , ( NML) Jamshedpur, November 21, 1946, National Physical Laboratory ,( NPL) Delhi  January 4, 1947 and National Chemical Laboratory , ( NCL) Pune , April 6, 1947.

            Being the solitary scientific organization of its time, CSIR nurtured many initiatives. Thus as early as 1946, it set up an Atomic Research Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Homi Bhaba. It funded research on biological aspects of atomic research.. It also funded research to the Research Institutute of Indian Academy of Sciences, directed by C.V.Raman. The building of the Physical Research Laboratory , Ahmedabad, was designed by the council.

            Bhatnagar also held a number of posts in the government. In 1948-49, he worked as Secretary to the Ministry of education, and was the educational adviser to the government of India. He was also choosen as the first secretary to the ministry of natural resources and scientific research in 1951. He was also the Secretary of Atomic Energy Commission and later became the Chairman of University Grants Commission. He also received a number of awards. In 1936, the British Government conferred on him the Order of the British Empire. In 1941, he was made the Knight Bachelor by the British Government. From the scientific point of view, great recognition came in 1943, when he was elected as the Fellow of the Royal Society of London. Independent India honored him with Padma Bibhusan in 1945.

            Bhatnagar was a great poet. While traveling on holidays, he would compose verses on scraps of paper and pocket them. His wife shared his poetic interest. Often on Sundays, the Bhatnagars played host of poets, inviting them to recite their poems and actively participating in the proceedings. On his wife’s death in 1946, Bhatnagar, was moved to discover that she has collected many of his poems and carefully preserved them. As homage to her, he got the anthology published naming ‘Lajwanti’ after her, and giving his own name simply as Shanti.

            Bhatnagar died on January 1, 1955 after a massive heart attack .  He was, in a way a bridge between two cultures. He came at a time when science was greeted with a sense of mission, but literally 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.