8/3/2019 Radha Pant

1/2

The Biochemist April 2004. 2004 Biochemical Society56

Obituary

Radha Pant, who died aged 87 on

19 December 2003, was an out-

standing Indian plant, insect and

nutritional biochemist and, in

many ways, a pioneer.

The youngest of six children,

Radha was born in 1918 in Kalpathi

village, Palghat, Kerala. The

South Indian Brahmi n Iyer family,

to which she belonged, moved to

Maharashtra by the time she was of

school-going age. At this time, the

formal education of girls was

frowned upon. Radhas own older

sister, for example, had been taught

the three Rs at home and was mar-

ried while still in her teens. Thanks

to her mothers growing awareness

of the merits of a sound educationfor her girls, Radha became the first

in her family and community to

receive formal education when

she was enrolled as a boarder

at the age of about 5 in Karves

Mahilashram. This pioneering

institution for girls had been set

up by Maharishi Dhondokeshav

Karve, one of the leading supporters

of female education in India, at

Hingne, near Pune (then Poona).

Though it was both exceptional

and difficult to be separated from

her family at such a tender age,

the arrangement helped Radha to

continue her primary education

undisturbed whi le her father, an

officer in the Military Accounts

Department, was transferredto various stations in different

parts of the country.

After her primary education,

Radha became a boarder at D elhis

Indraprastha High School, where

she passed the High School exami-

nation with flying colours.

Through a combination of her

own determination and with her

mothers aid, Radha overcame the

barrier created by her fathers initial

hesitation to violate the prevailing

social norms that disapproved of

the idea of sending young girls for

higher education. An additional

problem was her desire to study

Science, not Arts, at graduate level,

a field into which female students

had not yet ventured in the early

1930s. She had to face bitter disap-

pointment as college after college,including Delhis progressive

institutions such as St Stephens

and Hindu College, refused her

admission on the ground that

they had never taken on a female

Science student.

Radhas decision to go on a

hunger strike, in the manner of

Gandhis 1920 satyagraha, made

her father approach the Principal of

Hindu College a second time and

get him to change his mind. Thus

in 1932, Delhi Universitys Hindu

College became the first to accept

a woman as a Science student to

study for a BSc degree. Unused

to having a female in their midst,

Radha was heckled and bullied

by some of her classmates. Theobjectionable behaviour of her

male classmates stopped when

Radha proved her mettle by calmly

ignoring them and by participating

successfully in extracurricular

activities, such as winning prizes

in debates and writing English

short stories, as well as excelling

in academic activities. She not only

graduated, but also obtained the

highest marks in her class. From

there, she never looked back. In

1936, she received a Masters

degree from Bombays prestigious

St Xaviers College and then a

PhD in Chemistry from Bombay

University. Her keenness to

undertake research in her chosen

field was made possible when she

was awarded a much coveted

University Fellowship for 4 years(19361940), during which time

Obituary

Radha Pant (19162003)

by Kusum Pant Joshi

8/3/2019 Radha Pant

2/2

The Biochemist April 2004. 2004 Biochemical Society 57

she synthesized 2,4-dimethoxy-

isopthalic acid and 2,6-dihydroxy-

isopthalic acid for the first time.

There then followed a period of

research at Bombays G.S. Medical

College, funded by yet another

Research Fellowship (19401942),

and later at the Haffkine Institute,

Bombay, where she worked in

nutritional biochemistry.

In 1945, Radha was headhunted

and offered the post of Lecturer in

Biochemistry at Allahabad

University. The switch from met-

ropolitan Bombay to a provincial

town was a big one, but Allahabad

University was then in its heyday

and Radha became the first womanLecturer in its Science Fac ulty.

While lecturing at Allahabad,

Radha met and married Divya

Darshan Pant, an eminent Pro-

fessor of Palaeobotany in 1946. As

one of the first women to be both a

professional and a young wife and

mother, Radha had no role models

to follow. With utmost humili ty,

she always gave the credit of her

success in balancing a taxing career

with a family life to her mother for

her constant support and encour-

agement. About a decade later, due

to support from her mother and

extended family, she was able to

avail of an opportunity to widen

her research experience when she

was awarded a Fellowship by the

British Council to conduct post-

doctoral research at UniversityCollege London. Since her husband

had also received a similar

Fellowship, they both set sail for

the UK in 1954 to pursue postdoc-

toral research for 2 years.

Upon returning to Allahabad in

1956, Radha was eager to continue

her research work with a grant

from the Council for Scientific and

Industrial Research, but had no

research facilities at all. As she has

described in her autobiography,

All I had were six bare rooms

not even a shelf or rack, not to

mention any sophisticated instru-

ments. I had no lab oratory, no

chemicals and no library!

Once again her determination

prompted her to steadily build asolid research base at Allahabad

during the 1960s and 1970s.

Funding from the University Grants

Commission and numerous grants

from the USAs USPL480 funds

helped her to achieve her goals. One

of these was achieved in 1968 when

she succeeded in introducing post-

graduate classes in Biochemistry and

also founded a new Department of

Biochemistry at Allahabad.

As a biochemist, her chief con-

tribution was to establish a vibrant

school of research in plant, insect

and nutritional biochemistry.

Here, she and her dedicated team of

researchers worked on subjects as

varied as heart disease, silkworms

and plant latex, and covered both

basic science and applied research.

The findings of the group sheheaded were published in leading

academic journals all over the

world. Impor tantly, Radhas

seminal work in developing a

simple method for extracting and

detoxifying proteins from the

non-edible, wild leguminous seeds

that grow abundantly in various

parts of India is recogni zed as a

novel and outstanding contribution

towards combating famine in the

developing world.

As her research gained recogni-

tion, Radha became a Fellow of the

Royal Chemical Society and was

invited as Visiting Professor for

collaborative research by many

academic bodies in Europe and

America. These included thePhysiologisches Chemisches

Institut at Wurzburg, Germ any,

and the Institute of Science, Halle

am Saale, Germany, as well as the

Stanford Medical Centre, Palo

Alto, CA, U.S.A. Though an avid

academic globetrotter, Radha was

firmly attached to her research base

in Allahabad and continued her

academic pursuits well after her

retirement from the University

in 1978. In the 1980s, the French

journal Sericologia published a

monograph on her important

contributions to the field of

silkworm research.

She suffered from indifferent

health towards the end of her life and

had reluctantly moved to Mumbai to

live with her sons family after her

husbands death in 2001. She is sur-vived by a son and two daughters.

Obituary