Strange as it may sound, many a times nations end up ignoring their greatest minds. Those talented souls are left to wander, disowned and banished, as nations carve their heroes, most ironically, out of outright mediocrity. Dr Abdus Salam was one such name, whose greatness was acknowledged internationally, yet he remained a ‘foreigner’ to the land of his birth. To a common Pakistani, he always cut a mysterious figure, and mention of his name almost always invited long stares and sullen remarks. It was hence a pleasant surprise to encounter a biography written by a Pakistani, honouring Dr Salam and offering him the place he rightfully deserved. Perhaps it was long overdue!
The Inspiring Life of Abdus Salam has been authored by Dr Mujahid Kamran, who is an eminent physicist and a renowned educationist of Pakistan. Dr Kamran did his PhD in Physics from University of Edinburgh, where he got an opportunity to interact with many contemporaries of Dr Salam. He also remained in contact with Dr Salam through the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), which allowed him to establish a lifelong personal relationship with Dr Salam. Kamran’s penning of this biography, as a physicist and a lifelong admirer of Dr Salam is thus extremely befitting, as he is uniquely competent to portray Dr Salam’s scientific and human achievements. Through this work, he is able to transport his readers through the life of the great man, a journey of diligence, discovery and of transformation. Only Dr Kamran could have done it.
The book is systematically divided into 15 chapters capturing the different periods of Dr Salam’s life. The book begins by tracing the roots of Dr Salam. His humble beginnings in the plains of Jhang are presented, where a young Salam is shown reading keenly, aloof to the happenings in the surroundings. Jhang, the city of poets and that of folklore, was thus to nurture a man of science this time. The city of Heer Ranjha, the city of passion, was to give birth to a man of reason. According to Kamran, Dr Salam’s brilliance could be traced to the immense attention given to him by his parents. The prodigy would always reciprocate with the most brilliant results.
Readers would be pleased to notice that Dr Kamran, for the first time, has been able to collect the original transcripts showing the academic results of Dr Abdus Salam, confirming his undeniable brilliance. Perhaps for many it would be surprising to learn that Dr Salam’s parents wanted him to be a bureaucrat! As luck would have it, the Indian Civil Service examination was suspended owing to the breaking out of World War II. Thanks to the war, otherwise the world would have lost one of the most illustrious scientists of the 20th century to the contours of bureaucracy.
After expounding upon his academic achievements from Government College, Lahore to Cambridge in England where he eventually obtained his PhD, the reader is then introduced to the professional life of Dr Salam. Dr Salam started as a professor of Mathematics at Government College, Lahore, and had declined a fellowship at St John’s in Cambridge. The country had paid for his education and for him it was payback time. And a heavy price he would pay indeed. Back in Lahore, Dr Salam was a consistent target of those uncalled for innuendoes from the administration of the college and the then education department. On top of this, there was little opportunity for any meaningful research and the facilities for any scientific enquiry were woefully inadequate. With a heavy heart, he decided to go back. Dr Kamran poignantly reminds his readers that academic talent needs to be preserved and nurtured in state-of-the-art laboratories and libraries instead of being sent to take care of the college’s football team, as had happened with Dr Salam at Government College, Lahore.
In England, Dr Salam was back in business, Dr Kamran notes. The book has thus celebrated his accomplishments as a scientist and lucidly elucidated the transformation of Dr Salam into a world-class scientist. He was a prolific researcher, always willing to experiment with eccentric ideas, incidentally discovering new realities in the world of science. His scientific views would get published worldwide, subsequently earning him international acclaim in the world of physics, that also at a very young age. He eventually laid his hands on the most coveted Nobel Prize in 1979, although he could have had the same in 1957, but for an unfortunate turn of events that led to a delay in the publishing of his scientific discoveries, hitherto not being understood by his contemporary physicists.
Dr Salam was not just a man of science, the book reveals. He was also blessed with a spirit of activism and a passion for changing the world order. Reading of the book shows that he displayed great concern at the ever-widening gap between the west and the east. He was also a critic of the imperialistic policies of the US and he wanted the people of the Third World to be empowered through science. In line with this view, he founded the ICTP in Trieste, Italy. It was an attempt to link scientists from the developing world with the First World, in fact, a grand endeavour for the emancipation of the Third World through research and development. Dr Salam’s vision is aptly summed up in the book:
“Looking back at my own period of work in Lahore, as I said, I felt terribly isolated. If at that time someone had said to me we shall give you the opportunity every year to travel to an active Center to Europe or the United States for three months of your vacation to work with your peers, would you then be happy to stay the remaining nine months at Lahore, I would have said yes. No one made the offer. I felt then and I feel now this is one way of halting the brain-drain, of keeping active men happy and contented within their own countries.”
The book also clarifies that besides being a man of science Dr Salam was a staunch believer in the existence of God. He remained engaged in intellectual battles, with a view to reconciling the institution of religion with science. He also vehemently negated the view that development of science was a western project, and promoted the Muslim contribution to science. The book directly quotes Dr Salam on this count:
“I have myself never seen any dichotomy between my faith and my science, since faith was predicated for me by the timeless spiritual message of Islam, on matters on which Physics is silent and will remain so. It was given meaning to me by the very first verse of the Quran after the opening: “This is the Book/Wherein there is no doubt/A guidance for the God-fearing/
Who believe the Unseen’’The Unseen,’ ‘Beyond the reach of human ken;’ The Unknowable.”
After reading this, one wonders why Dr Abdus Salam was never owned by the very state that had given birth to him. This is the theme that runs throughout The Inspiring Life of Abdus Salam, yet the author leaves the conclusion to the judgment of every smart reader. Why was Dr Salam, a PhD from Cambridge, asked to be in charge of a mere football team? Why could the proposed International Centre for Theoretical Physics not be founded in Pakistan? Who blocked the nomination of Dr Salam for the Secretary General of UNESCO, while all countries were backing him unopposed? These are the questions that would haunt almost every reader of this book.
The Inspiring Life of Abdus Salam is a fascinating account of a genius forgotten, rejected and denounced. A story of extreme hard work, that of international fame and also that of national betrayal. It is the story of a man who found himself on the wrong side of ‘history’ for no fault of his own.
One must congratulate Dr Mujahid Kamran that in an era of life-threatening religious bigotry and extremism, he has mustered the courage to put the record straight for the coming generations. This is a bold move. The Inspiring Life of Abdus Salam is thus a must read for students of physics and also that of history. It is as much a story of a monumental mind as a story of a decaying nation incapable of owning its own sons.
The reviewer is a lecturer at the Punjab University, Lahore