Jawaharlal Nehru Asked Physicist Oppenheimer To Settle In India On This Person’s Request

The protagonist of Christopher Nolan’s recent film, Robert J. Oppenheimer, was an American physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb.” With the release of the movie, curiosity about the scientist’s life has increased. And a just-published book asserted that J. Robert Oppenheimer had been urged to relocate to India and establish himself here. A 723-page biography of Homi Jehangir Bhabha, published in April of this year, was written by Bakhtiyar K. Dadabhoy, who made the disclosure.

The book discusses Mr. Oppenheimer and Mr. Bhabha’s cordial connection. “In all probability, Bhabha met Oppenheimer after the war had ended and the two became good friends. This was hardly surprising since Oppenheimer like Bhabha was a highly cultured man. He had studied Sanskrit and was also conversant with Latin and Greek,” Mr Dadabhoy said in the biography ‘Homi J Bhabha: A Life’, according to New Indian Express.

According to the BBC, Mr. Oppenheimer was shaken when the atomic bomb he developed was used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. He had allayed his colleagues’ ethical concerns about creating the potent bomb throughout the development stage by reassuring them that they were merely carrying out their duties and not making decisions about how the weapon should be utilised.

However, after the act was completed, the physicist opposed the creation of new weapons, particularly the hydrogen bombs, which could be possibly made following his research.

According to the BBC, Mr. Oppenheimer’s security clearance was revoked in 1954 as a result of his altered viewpoint, which led to an investigation by the US government and the suspension of his ability to participate in policy decisions.

Additionally, Mr. Oppenheimer and his wife Katherine were accused of having connections to communists.

On Mr. Bhabha’s urging, the then-prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru reportedly awarded him Indian citizenship in this context.

“When Oppenheimer lost his security clearance in 1954 it was presumably on Bhabha’s intervention that he was invited by Jawaharlal Nehru on more than one occasion to visit India, and even immigrate if he so wished,” Mr Dadabhoy said about the issue.

But according to Times of India the physicist refused as he felt that it would not be right for him to leave US until all the charges against him are removed.

“He feared that permission would not only be refused, but also that it would only increase suspicion about him,” as per Mr Dadabhoy’s book.

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