The Burma Circle of the Geological Survey of India and their Contributions to the Geology of Myanmar

EPISODE:46

HARBANS LAL CHHIBBER

Professor LD Stamp founded and headed the Geology and Geography Department at the University of Yangon in 1923, inviting HL Chhibber in 1924. Dr Chhibber succeeded him as head of the department and served until 1928, after which he joined the renowned Burma Circle of the Geological Survey of India. Prof Chhibber’s research on the geology of India and Burma remains pioneering in the field. Alam Sarfaraz described HL Chhibber as follows: -

Family and Education

Harbans Lal Chhibber was born on 4 December 1899 in a Mohyal Brahmin – also known as Hussaini Brahmin family of Shahpur district of then-undivided India. He was married to Shrimati Vidya Vati Chhibber, and they had two sons and a daughter.

HL Chhibber received his early education in Jammu from the erstwhile Prince of Wales College (then affiliated with Punjab University, Lahore, and now renamed as Government Gandhi Memorial College), completing his Bachelor of Science in 1921 and Master in Geology in 1923. During those days, the college was renowned for its teaching and research in the field of Geology. He got the opportunity to be taught by some of the most outstanding and inspiring teachers of that time. He received his first lessons in geology from distinguished professors like DN Wadia and BK Bose, and he received his first lessons in chemistry from Prof Prabhu Dial Dhavan. Among other distinguished teachers who taught him were RS Suri, the Principal of the college, Prof Manak Chand Khosla, and Dr S Varman Chhibber, who never shied away from acknowledging the contributions of his teachers in shaping his career and inspiring him to opt for teaching and research as a profession.

As a student, Chhibber was an extraordinary talent in the college. He won the prestigious Pratap HV Cobb Gold Medal for standing first in the BSc Examination at the Punjab University. No wonder Prof DN Wadia considered him as his best student at the Prince of Wales College. In 1927, he obtained his Doctorate in Science (DSc) degree from the Punjab University. The topic of his research thesis was The Rhyolites and Rhyolitetuffs of Thaton District, Lower Burma. He completed his PhD in 1933 from the University of London and obtained a Diploma from the Imperial College (DIC), London, in 1934. He was awarded a DSc from the University of London in 1937.

Professional Achievements

Soon after passing post-graduate with first class in 1923, HL Chhibber joined the Department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as an Assistant Professor. On the invitation of Prof Lawrence Dudley Stamp, HL Chhibber joined the newly created Department of Geology and Geography, University College, University of Rangoon, in 1924. Prof LD Stamp was the founder and head of the department. In collaboration with Prof Stamp, he conducted rigorous fieldwork and produced research works of the highest quality. But this partnership ended soon when, in 1926, Prof Stamp left for England to join as Sir Ernest Cassel Reader in Economic Geography at the London School of Economics. Dr Chhibber succeeded him as the head of the department and served in the same capacity till 1928 when he left the university.

After leaving Rangoon University, Dr Chhibber joined the Geological Survey of India on 4 January 1928 as Assistant Superintendent. His interest in the geology of Burma led him to join the famous Burma Circle of the Geological Survey of India in 1928, where he got the opportunity to interact and work with some of the distinguished geologists of that period like Mr ELG Clegg (in charge), Messrs EJ Bradshaw, VP Sondhi, Dr MR Sahni, and LAN Iyer. As a member of the Burma Circle, he undertook field surveys in many parts of Burma, including that of unhealthy and hostile jungles, where he fell ill on several occasions during the course of his field visits. Dr HL Chhibber also joined the Hukwang Valley Expedition during March-May 1930. He conducted geological studies in the southern Shan States during 1934. He conducted geological studies in the southern Shan States during 1934. Henzada and Bassein districts, west of Rangoon, were the other areas of Burma where he conducted his survey.

Dr HL Chhibber also conducted fieldwork as far as 150 miles from the Myitkyina railhead in the north-eastern frontier of Burma and the areas adjacent to China, including Khewra and Warchha. However, his most intensive study was the Jade Mines area of Myitkyina district, which was the result of two years of hard work from 1928 to 1930. His work on jade mines is rated very highly by experts. Several of the localities were photographed, and samples were collected for analysis. The immediate results of these surveys were published in successive general reports by the Director of the Geological Survey of India. This fieldwork provided materials for some of his most significant research contributions.

Dr Chhibber resigned from the Geological Survey of India in 1935 on account of ill health. According to JB Auden (1956), Chhibber ‘went into seclusion’ for over five years. However, his frail health failed to extinguish his academic spirit. During this time, he kept working independently. In 1937, he was awarded a DSc from the University of London. Subsequently, he undertook an ambitious project of writing a comprehensive book on the General Geography of India. Later on, his works were published in three volumes.

In 1941, Dr KP Rhode left the Geology Department of BHU to fill his vacancy. Dr Chhibber was appointed as Assistant Professor on 24 November 1941. In no time, he started shouldering the academic responsibilities of the department by participating in class teaching and field and laboratory work. Dr HL Chhibber was given an extension as a temporary Assistant Professor of Geology up to 31 March 1944. In the meantime, he was appointed as a permanent Assistant Professor of Geology on 16 January 1944. Dr HL Chhibber was appointed as Professor of Geology and Geography in the College of Science of the University on 16 July 1944. He was in charge of geography at the undergraduate stage.

Research Contributions

Prof HL Chhibber had eclectic and diverse academic interests. Although a geologist by training, his research interests comprised as varied themes as physical geography, climatology, geomorphology, soil geography, and biogeography. Moreover, he worked on the economic geography of India and Pakistan.

Needless to say, travelling and fieldwork are prerequisites to excel as a researcher of earth science. He had received excellent training in field observations from his illustrious teachers at the Prince of Wales College, Punjab University. Since then, travelling and fieldwork have become his passions. Besides observations of physical features, he used to interact with local people to understand their relationship with the environment. For his research, he did extensive fieldwork in Burma and the Himalayas. He also travelled to the length and breadth of India and Pakistan. As an Assistant Professor of geology and geography at Rangoon University, HL Chhibber travelled extensively all over Burma from Mergui to Myitkyina and from the Shan States to Akyab Province from 1924 to 1928. As a member of the Burma Circle of the Geological Survey of India, Dr Chhibber travelled extensively throughout the length and breadth of Burma. Some of the noteworthy places he visited and made observations of include the Thongwa-Rangoon area, Hanthawaddy, Insein, Pyapon, and Tharrawaddy districts, Jade Mines in the Myitkyina district, and Hukawng Valley.

Prof HL Chhibber was perhaps the only scholar in India whose contribution to the field of both geology and geography is so profound and substantial that he was concurrently eligible for holding the post of professor in these departments. Space does not permit him to discuss his contributions to research in these fields at length. Therefore, a brief account of some of his important research contributions is presented here.

Geological Works

Prof Chhibber’s research works on the geology of India and Burma are still considered pioneering on the subject. Soon after joining Rangoon University, he got involved in research. In collaboration with L Dudley Stamp and other colleagues, he conducted fieldwork and produced some of the best quality works, as JB Auden (1956) has put it: -

“A period of intensive research activity followed, which involved touring throughout much of Burma and resulted in the publication of no less than ten papers in 1927. The main studies were petrological, being devoted to the volcanic rocks of Mount Popa, in Central Burma, and the serpentines of Henzada and Bassein districts, west of Rangoon.”

Dr HL Chhibber, along with Prof L Dudley Stamp (1926), is credited with coining the name of a rock consisting of pillow-shaped concretions, exactly comparable with grains of oolites and pisolites in structure and origin and differing only in being larger in size. They observed this kind of rock formation while doing fieldwork in the Irrawaddy basin and Mount Popa in Burma.

After joining the Burma Circle of the Geological Survey of India in 1928, he, along with CJ Brown and P Leicester, investigated a major area of Burma, including the Pegu Earthquake of 5 May 1930. In his later works, Chhibber concluded that the movement of the Sagaing fault caused the earthquakes in the region. The Sagaing fault is an active strike-slip fault that stretches across the entire active fluvial plains of Burma for 1,000 kilometres. This fault plays a major role in Burma’s tectonics. Later, researchers confirm the existence of geological evidence on the relationship between this fault and seismic events.

As far as the acceptability of Prof Chhibber’s works is concerned, he is considered one of the outstanding authorities on the physical geography, geology, and mineral resources of Burma. His classic books, particularly Geology of Burma and Mineral Resources of Burma (1934), are highly rated books on the subject. The publication of these books helped establish his international reputation as the most celebrated scholar of the geology of Burma. There is an interesting story about these books. Dr DN Wadia, then Assistant Superintendent in the Geological Survey of India, was to have written on the geology and mineral resources of Burma. But he passed on the work to Dr HL Chhibber, whom Prof DN Wadia considered to be his best student at the Prince of Wales College, for the mere asking. These books represent an invaluable combination of personal research and fieldwork and a minute and critical examination of the existing literature.

His most famous book is Geology of Burma. The book is organized into two parts. The first contains an account of the main physiographic features of the country’s landforms, river systems, lakes, earthquakes, hot springs, mud volcanoes, denudations, limestone caves, and coastlines, while the remaining part is devoted to stratigraphy. The book also contains a discussion on igneous activities concerning tectonics. It has mapped and described the geotectonic features of the country.

In the Mineral Resources of Burma, HL Chhibber has systematically described all the country’s mineral resources, their modes of occurrence, how they are worked, and their uses and trade. It is worth noting that Burma at that time was the most important province of the British Empire in India from the point of view of mineral resources. The book describes the geology of oil fields. Other important mineral deposits, such as lead-zinc-silver deposits of Bawdwin, tin and tungsten deposits of Tavoy and neighbouring regions, rubies, other precious stones, jade, and amber, are also occurring. It also contains a chapter on soil and water resources. His description of occurrences of the formation of jadeite and amphibolites is most interesting and complete. He considers jade rocks to be a unique petrographical type. The jadeite-albite rocks occur as dykes and sills, intrusive into serpentinized peridotites. Chhibber considers these rocks as products of interaction between a soda-granite-aplite magma and the wall rock under high pressure, so high that the molecules that would normally have crystallized as nepheline were unstable and reacted with albite to form jadeite molecule. The excess of silica combined with the olivine of the peridotites to form amphibolites, which is commonly associated with jadeite. He also gave a detailed historical account of the working of jade mines. The book went to five editions in English between 1934 and 1942. (To be continued).

By THAN HTUN (GEOSCIENCE MYANMAR)

References:

Alam Sarfaraz, 2016: Harbans Lal Chhibber, Banaras Hindu University, Research Gate.

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