In January 1981, a frail professor lay on a wooden bed in Kolkata as his student, a Nobel laureate from Pakistan, placed the coveted medal around his neck.
‘Sir, this is yours, not mine,’ said Dr. Abdus Salam to his teacher, Prof. Anilendra Ganguly, who had taught him mathematics in pre-Partition Lahore.
Abdus Salam: Pakistan’s First Nobel Laureate
Abdus Salam had won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory, becoming Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate.
Yet, instead of celebrating alone, he sought to share the honour with the teacher who had nurtured his love for mathematics decades earlier.
The meeting was not easy. After requesting Indira Gandhi’s help, Salam waited two years before finally being able to visit his old mentor in Kolkata.
By then, Prof. Ganguly was too weak to rise, but Salam’s gesture, placing the medal around his neck, immortalised their bond as one of learning, gratitude, and respect across borders.
Architect of Pakistan’s Scientific Institutions
Born in 1926 in Jhang, Punjab (now in Pakistan), Salam had shown brilliance from a young age, publishing a research paper at 17.
He went on to become a key architect of Pakistan’s space and nuclear research institutions, advising the government between 1960 and 1974, and establishing the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology.
Yet his life was also marked by exile. As a member of the Ahmadiyya community, he was declared a non-Muslim by Pakistan’s Parliament in 1974 and forced to leave the country he had served.
In the West, he continued his research, eventually founding the Salk Institute for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and contributing to global science until his death in 1996.
Complicated Recognition in Pakistan
Recognition of Salam’s achievements remained complicated in his homeland. While Pakistan issued a postage stamp in his honour in 1998 and named the National Centre for Physics after him, public celebration of his legacy has been muted due to his religious identity.
Dr. Abdus Salam’s story is more than a tale of scientific brilliance: it is a lesson in humility, the enduring power of teachers, and the tragedy of prejudice.
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