REMEMBERING DR N S RANDHAWA (1927–1996)
Today (26th November 2022) is 26th Death Anniversary of Dr Narinder Singh Randhawa. He was the first Professor from a State Agricultural University to rise to the position of Director General (DG), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Secretary to Government of India (GoI), Department of Agricultural Research and Education in 1985. He helmed the ICAR for five years.
Randhawa was born at Naushehra Pannu (District Amritsar, India) on March 13, 1927. After early education at village schools, he matriculated from Lahore High School. Together with GS Kalkat and AS Atwal, he completed B.Sc. Agri. from Agriculture College and Research Institute, Lyallpur (now Faisalabad in Pakistan) in 1947. He obtained M.Sc. from Panjab University. In 1964, he completed Ph.D. from University of California, Davis.
Randhawa’s first job was as a Research Assistant (RA) in Central Water and Power Centre in 1948. He joined Agriculture Department as a RA in 1949 and was transferred to Government Agriculture College Ludhiana [which served as the nucleus of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU)] in 1954. He was promoted as Assistant Soil Chemist in 1960. He was an Associate Professor, Professor & Head, and Senior Professor before elevation as Director of Research at PAU. In 1974 he became Agriculture Dean. He became Director of Research (Soils, Agronomy and Engineering) in 1975. Randhawa joined ICAR as a Deputy Director General (DDG) in 1979.
Randhawa exemplified a rare mix of strong academic leadership with a humane perspective. A collaborative and innovative thinker, he saw challenges as opportunities. In 1950s of primitive facilities and fund scarcity, he initiated arduous research on micronutrients requiring precision analysis and expensive glassware. He soon emerged as a leader on trace element research. He was entrusted additional responsibility as National Coordinator when All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Micronutrients was launched in 1967. When wheat crop suffered wide spread zinc deficiency in 1970, he developed strong rapport with the farmers, explaining deficiency symptoms and amelioration measures in chaste Punjabi.
When Randhawa was promoted as Professor & Head, Soil Science Department in 1967 at Hisar, there was only one Full Professor in every Department at any of the three campuses — Ludhiana, Hisar or Palampur. He toiled hard to develop the Department at Hisar. On bifurcation of PAU, he developed Soil Science Department at Ludhiana as a Centre of Excellence in the country.
DEVELOPING WORLD CLASS FACILITIES AND INTELLECTUAL ECOSYSTEM
Randhawa’s time as Professor & Head (1967–1973) coincided with major reorganization and expansion of ICAR. His grantsmanship, determination and national linkages, in conjunction with faculty competence and enthusiasm ensured that Soil Science Department not only got a centre of every Soil-Related-AICRP but also others (like Model Agronomic Trials) which could have gone to other Departments. Similar was the story for bagging major chunk of funding from Punjab Government, fertilizer industry, national and international agencies. His recipe was encouraging scientists to write winning grant proposals and relentless follow-up with the funding agencies. Very expensive modern instruments were procured and put to effective use to quickly diagnose and ameliorate rapidly emerging soil-related problems in land-water-plant-animal continuum and to undertake undergirding blue sky fundamental research. He had the foresight to start the construction of the first separate building of a Department at PAU with a grant of Rs 2 crores from DCM Fertilizers followed by liberal funding by Punjab Government and other agencies. The building was appropriately rechristened as ‘Dr Narinder Singh Randhawa Soil Laboratories’ in 1988 (Photo 2).
State-of-the-art infrastructure was supplemented with an intellectually stimulating environment by making the Department a magnet for attracting and retaining top notch talent. When he left the Department, 38% faculty were Ph.D.s as compared with about 20% overall in PAU. Of the 73 scientists, 22 had completed their degrees from USA, USSR, Germany, Belgium, Philippines, Canada, IARI, IIT and Pant Nagar Agri. Univ. Four had carried out advanced post-doctoral research abroad. Other departments were far behind in diversity, critical for imparting quality education. He passionately treated colleagues and students as members of his extended family, drawing immense pleasure from their achievements.
Together with his trusted deputy GS Sekhon, Randhawa deployed a smart strategy to attract top students to Soil Science Elective and Post-Graduate (PG) programmes. Essential ingredients were outstanding teachers offering compulsory courses to B.Sc. Agri. students, freedom in selection of research guides, liberal financial support, opportunities for publishing in reputed foreign journals, and bright employment prospectus. In 1969–70 alone, nine Department students were selected for ICAR fellowships (Photo 3), an unmatched record to this day. He taught Introductory Soil Science course and nudged colleagues to raise the bar for teaching. One example: often telling decorated scientist S S Prihar “Dr Prihar, you are an outstanding researcher, but SS Brar (Soil Microbiology) is ahead of you in curriculum delivery.” The message to students was if you face financial or other hardships, we will help you but do not expect any relaxation in rigour of evaluation.
Over time the competition became very stiff and brilliant students with 3.7 and higher GPA (Max 4) often struggled to get B grade in elective courses, forget about As. The situation was not any different in PG programmes. Consequently, post-1975 student interest waned although a few toppers continued opting for soil science.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS AGRICULTURE DEAN
Randhawa’s brief stay as Agriculture Dean was remarkable. He organised a successful College Silver Jubilee. Student Aid Fund was liberally used to help needy students. Substantial funds were mobilised to institute merit-cum-means scholarships. Special coaching classes were organised for nationally competitive ICAR junior fellowships. To help students who could not afford food expenses, a special cheap mess was started in Hostel No 6 open to all students. Food and nutrition experts were roped in to prepare nutritious diet charts using cheaper ingredients, including PAU farm produce and bulk purchase from the famous Super Market.
To recruit meritorious students, principals of rural high schools were tapped. One such student was B S Bhullar. He made it to Indian Forest Service in 1985 and joined Indian Administrative Service in 1986. He retired as Director General, Civil Aviation and Secretary to GoI. Randhawa regarded self-made Bhullar, respected for his competence and integrity, as one of the bright stars produced by PAU. The lad from Varnala had acclimatised in PAU environs at Randhawa’s residence. Due to quirk of fate, Balwinder did not get Ph.D. degree despite completing most of the requirements.
PATIENCE AND RESILIENCE REWARDED
When A S Atwal was appointed Officer on Special Duty in 1973 to set up an Agricultural University in Jammu & Kashmir, Randhawa was expected to succeed his topper classmate. There was stunned silence when Vice Chancellor MS Randhawa announced appointment of Director of Research (DR) Sukhdev Singh as Agriculture Dean at Atwal’s farewell dinner. Randhawa was elevated as DR. A few months later, he became Agriculture Dean as Sukhdev Singh shifted to ICAR. Dr JC Bakhshi succeeded him. It was a lapse of VC Randhawa’s administration to fill up Dean position as a regular vacancy instead of a leave vacancy since Atwal was on secondment to J&K Government and had the right to return.
Political churning in J&K put Sheikh Abdullah in Chief Minister’s chair. He shelved the planned Agri. Univ. named after his political adversary. Atwal returned as Agriculture Dean, resulting in an embarrassing situation. The DR position was split, carving out a position of Director of Research (Soils, Agronomy and Engineering) for Randhawa. Bakhshi was upset as his domain had considerably shrunk. Randhawa was also given additional charge of Home Science Dean. Urgent additional work also landed on his desk. He meticulously carried out the assigned tasks without any resentment or malice.
Randhawa’s perseverance and achievements were handsomely rewarded. When DDG (Soils, Agronomy and Engineering) ICAR [predecessor of present DDG (Natural Resource Management)+DDG (Engineering)] was advertised, Randhawa was ideally primed for the coveted position by virtue of his national standing, accomplishments, and relevant administrative experience. His remarkable contributions as DDG (1979–1985) catapulted him to the top position in agriculture research and education in the country.
SOME PERSONAL GLIMPSES
Although not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Randhawa belonged to a relatively well-off family. His grandfather was a Kanungo (land revenue officer) of Lahore region. His father was a graduate, working in Forest Department. His pious mother managed a dairy herd of 80 buffaloes. Foreseeing bad times, they had shifted to East Punjab before the horrors of partition. Throughout his life Randhawa remained a God-fearing, compassionate, and merit-promoting person. Some examples:
Unlike some persons who do not hesitate to use fair or foul means to get ahead of others, Randhawa believed in fair play. He never tried to benefit from his father’s position in Agriculture Department in post-independence Punjab. He and DR Bhumbla were appointed Class II Officers on the same day in 1960. He submitted his joining report in the forenoon. On learning that Bhumbla’s joining was delayed, he grabbed and tore his joining report. He did not want to become senior to Bhumbla whom he treated like his older brother.
When Bhumbla shouldered additional responsibilities as DR, Director Students’ Welfare and Agriculture Dean, G S Sekhon was given the charge of Department Head. Randhawa never grumbled against this. A few months later, Randhawa became Professor & Head, without any resentment by Sekhon. He not only delegated considerable administrative responsibility to Sekhon but also created a rare position of Full Professor for him. By mid-1970s, the Department had more than five Full Professors. Many years later, Sekhon would proudly reminisce that without their mutual respect, Soil Science Department would not have achieved the national prominence. The duo internalised the concept of plateau at the top, building on their synergies and complementarities while some of their contemporaries in other departments did not hesitate to hit below the belt.
In the mornings Randhawa always rushed to the farm, often ferrying students and research assistants on his bicycle. He worked late at night clearing files or working on manuscripts. Peon Dhanna Ram always prepared a strong cup of tea in the evening, often on Coal Angithi (due to power outages) to energise ‘Sahib’. It was not uncommon to see Randhawa rushing home in late evenings to catch a train to Delhi as he preferred night travel to use daytime for work. Even in his sixties, he used stairs in 4–5 floor buildings. He was always ready for undertaking tough physical work. His Lyallpur hostel room-mate Kalkat often told me “Narinder enjoyed eating many Rotis.” These were necessary to replenish his energy!
Despite the difficult situation resulting from return of Atwal from Srinagar, they remained mutually respectful colleagues, striving for the good of PAU. Although it may sound like a commercial on self, I am quoting one instance. For my hiring as an Assistant Professor, selection committee recommended six advance increments in 1978 although the advance increments were discontinued in 1976. I was surprised when Registrar SP Karkara told me “Kakajee (Young man) I do not know you. Both Dr Atwal and Dr Randhawa have spoken very highly of your exceptional merit and specialised training in Australia. This is the first time they have asked me to get a job done. I cannot guarantee but I will try my best to get approval of the Board of Management.”
Always keen to inculcate scientific temper, reviewing the thesis of an Agronomy student on transplanted wheat, Randhawa commented “Barkhurdaar (Son)! You should have injected some science in this work. After all, this is a Ph.D. dissertation.”
Randhawa tried convincing soil science elective topper Surinder Sud to continue for M.Sc. instead of joining the first batch of Master of Agricultural Journalism. A decade later, he was glad Surinder stuck to the right choice and emerged as a respected journalist at Business Standard.
Among many examples of suo moto recognising merit, was Ex-Agri. Engg. Dean SD Khepar. One fine morning he was surprised to see Randhawa at his gate and telling him “Dr Khepar, I have recommended you for the National Professor. You should accept it when ICAR contacts you.”
Gifted with photographic memory, Randhawa could reel out statistics. When agriculture-related data was needed, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi often looked towards the Sardarjee ICAR DG in meetings. Spotting him at ‘The Beating of Retreat’ in Rashtarpati Bhavan, after announcement of Padma Bhushan award (Photo 4), Rajiv Gandhi walked to him and smilingly said “Dr Randhawa another feather in your cap.” (Photo 5).
As DG ICAR, Randhawa was upset when the first subject-specific Horticulture University in the country was established in Himachal Pradesh. He was concerned about avoidable high costs of administrative super structure and fragmentation of education and research programmes while the end users — farmers — required integrated services as the vast majority simultaneously grew crops and reared livestock. He would not have imagined that soon the fund-starved State Governments will go on a spree to establish agriculture, veterinary and horticulture universities with their night-marish-intricately-enmeshed-entities on the same campus, without providing minimal funds to meet committed liabilities.
Having seen the pivotal role of tube well irrigation at the command of the farmer in raising crop and livestock productivity, post-retirement Randhawa was worried about declining water table, deterioration of quality and extravagant wastage of water. Water policy and water management became an obsession. After four decades, he had come full circle from his first job as a rookie Research Assistant searching solutions to the problems of water resource mapping, water-borne transport, coastal and harbour engineering.
Often leaders make difficult choices and cannot please everyone. Randhawa was no exception. Some people thought certain persons known to him got ahead of more deserving candidates, and long-term sustainability of some programmes was not fully factored-in. Such cases perhaps represented an honest error of judgement.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Dr NS Randhawa’s distinguished career earned him several awards and recognitions, including Padma Bhushan, National Citizen, and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Awards. Kanpur Agri. & Technol. Univ. and PAU conferred D.Sc. (Honoris causa) degrees. He was a Fellow of Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Under his leadership, ICAR received King Boudin International Development Prize of Euros 200,000. The prize money was used to create an endowment for instituting ‘Best Agricultural University Award.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Part of the information was synthesised from PAU Biography Series ‘Dr. Narinder Singh Randhawa’ by Sumedha Bhandari. Photos are courtesy Manjit Singh, SPS Brar and Ruby Waraich.
