Archives at NCBS
Research Fellowship Program: Public Talks
 
Revisiting the “Green Revolution”: Statecraft of Cultivating Modernity 
 
4:00 PM. Wed, May 14, 2025
Lecture Hall - 2 (LH-2), ELC, NCBS
 
Abstract:
India’s independence in 1947 was against the backdrop of a significant food crisis. The Indian state launched campaigns such as “Grow More Food” to make food available for its massive population suffering from hunger. In 1963, significant breakthroughs were achieved in improving crop yields and food accessibility, after the introduction of semi-dwarf high-yield varieties (HYVs) of wheat, “Sharbati Sonora,” by an eminent agricultural scientist, M.S. Swaminathan, and his team at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) for the first time in India.
 
Introducing HYVs of seeds, part of what is now known as the “Green Revolution”, was also a product of Cold War geopolitics, symbolising the techno-scientific visions of modernity in India. To modernise agriculture, the Indian state expressed its confidence in agricultural scientists, plant breeders and technocrats to plan and execute agriculture programs in the country. This is seen, for example, in the setting-up of experimental or demonstration farms, seed development programs, new irrigation facilities, incentives to use chemical fertilisers and so on. The talk emphasises the significance of statecraft, characterised by the state’s strategy of constructing developmental narratives, regulatory bodies, and institutional structures, in accommodating new agricultural practices and shaping the Indian agrarian landscape.
At the same time, the state actively made efforts to gain people’s trust and ensure public participation in the state-led agriculture initiatives. It launched new communication channels to convey its developmental narrative to farming communities and the masses in general. This talk will also discuss the creation of what is referred to as a “scientific public.”
 
Bio:
Abhinav Tyagi is a science historian/STS scholar. He examines the social, historical, and structural factors that influenced the development of various strands of biotechnology in the Indian subcontinent during the twentieth century. He was a research fellow at the Archives at NCBS between January - March 2025 (https://archives.ncbs.res.in/scholars), and during his tenure, he focused on research within archival papers of M.S. Swaminathan and Swaminathan's colleagues. He holds a PhD from IIT Bombay and a Master’s from TISS, Mumbai.