Chidambaram Subramaniam



Chidambaram Subramanian was a prominent Indian independence activist and post-independence politician, political entrepreneur, and bureaucrat. He played a decisive role in ushering in India's Green Revolution along with Norman Borlaug and M.S. Swaminathan. An unstoppable workaholic, in post independence India he served as the minister of finance, agriculture, and defense. He was also involved in drafting India's constitution, served as governor of the State of Maharashtra and worked as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission while India had a quasi-socialist economy. Originally he studied physics and law in college and was briefly imprisoned by the British for his political activism. In 1998 he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honor.

India's Green Revolution
Subramanian was agricultural minister in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Cabinet in 1966 when he helped introduced a new Mexican semi-dwarf wheat variety to India's farmers. His advocacy ultimately allowed the nation to become self-sufficient in wheat production. India had relied heavily on wheat imports after independence as its population continued to balloon. The threat of famine lingered in everyone's mind as doom mongers in the West anticipated disaster. Subramaniam turned the lawns around his home into experimental fields, where he grew a strain of Mexican wheat that he believed would thrive in India. In 1964, he persuaded India's top politicians to embrace the production of the Mexican wheat. Within four years, the nationwide harvest had increased from 10 million to 17 million tons. India's green revolution continued until approximately the early 1990's when yearly increases in agricultural productivity began to slow down. For his work in opening the political channels to allow greater usage of new seed varieties and modern synthetic fertilizers Subramanian is sometimes called the father of "India's Green Revolution".