India, Sept. 18 -- Agricultural development and reforms represented a major justification for the British occupation of India. However, agrarian reforms in colonial India proved to be checkered, complex, and uneven. They scrimped on mass education and did not transform capital markets.

A few scientists and officers, however, worked hard to endorse reform ideals and streamline agricultural education in India. One of them was Dr Harold H Mann, who was the first Principal of the Poona Agricultural College after its separation from the College of Science.

Mann was, during his lifetime, not only an acknowledged authority on applied science and agriculture in England, the Middle East, and India, but was also equally distinguished by his work ...