Author to launch biography of British-Indian scientist

Samanth Subramanian, freelance journalist and author, is in the city for the launch of his latest book ‘A Dominant Character (The Science & Politics of JBS Haldane), which will be held on December 12, at Champaca, Edward Road. His previous works ‘This Divided Island’ and ‘Following Fish’ was critically acclaimed.

“The first thing I had heard about JDS was the fact that he moved from Britain to India and became an Indian scientist, which I found very interesting. I started reading about the man. He led a very active, vociferous life. He very often wrote about how science, specifically genetics, and politics intersect. These are things that are still relevant in today’s time,” he says.

“I go after topics that interest me. I am always trying to find a good human story, in all my works. One thing that is common in all my stories is that it has human beings at the heart of it,” he says, explaining the diversity of his works.

Researching for the book was not a difficult task, he says. Haldane’s books are easily available in bookstores and his papers are available in archives,” he says. The harder papers to procure were the ones the Intelligence Agency in the UK had detained as they had Haldane under surveillance for a long time because they thought he was a communist spy. “One advantage of writing about someone who has passed away is that their work moves into the public domain. The real struggle was choosing what to keep.”