OUR HERITAGE

The Indian civilization, among worldÕs oldest and richest,has a strong tradition of Science and Technology. Ourcontributions to astronomy, mathematics, medicine and

practical arts are not adequately acknowledged in theWestern World, either due to ignorance or prejudice. Thischapter gives glimpses of the history of our achievements

in ancient India.

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The Indus Valley Civilization, also called theHarappa Culture that flourished for nearlyeight centuries (c. 2750-1900 BC) was,according to some, the youngest but by far

the largest of the three most ancient civilizations. Itwas noted for its efficient town planning withinterlinked drainage system, dwelling houses builtwith standardized burnt bricks, tiled flooring, wheel-turned ceramics, terracotta craft, spinning andweaving, bead-making, and more importantly, copper-bronze casting by the cire-purdue or lost-wax process.Within this civilization flourished many towns andcities including Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Chanhu-daro, Kalibangan and Lothal, which have revealed anagriculture-based economy with granaries and otherstoring techniques that made for an enrichedcommunity life. While there is wide-rangingarchaeological data concerning the technical skills ofthe people, there is little or no information about theirscientific ideas relating to astronomy, mathematics,medicine and the like. This is because their script,found on nearly 3,000 seals, sealings and otherinscribed objects, is yet to be deciphered satisfactorily.

The story, however, is different from about 1500BC with what are called the Vedic people whoseliterary compositions provide an insight into theirculture-specific scientific tradition. The R. gveda, theearliest of the Vedas, describes in detail the naturallaw or order called r.ta as the governing principle ofthe universe and its events. Even the Vedic godswere not exempt from this law. In course of time,this principle gave rise to the concepts of truth(satya) and dharma, the cultural kernel of Indian

society. The Vedic seers were also keen observers ofthe sky. They were well aware of the motion of theMoon, the path of the Sun, occurrence of eclipsesand solstices, and had developed luni-solarcalendars with methods of intercalation. Moreimportantly, they formulated a stellar frame ofreference, in terms of 27 or 28 naks. atras or asterisms(star groups) lying along or near the ecliptic, inorder to follow the path of the Moon and Sun. Oneof the six auxiliaries of the Vedas -- and the earliestIndian astronomical text -- going by the name ofVedanga Jyotisa had developed a concept of a cycleof five years for luni-solar and other time

OUR HERITAGE

Sealing of a Bull, that is impression of the original

seal, Indus Valley, c. 2500-1500 BC.

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adjustments, with intercalation at regular intervals.Later, Indian astronomers adopted a huge cyclicperiod of 43,20,000 years. At the beginning of thismega-cycle, yuga, the planets were supposed to bein conjunction and, after going through integralnumbers of revolutions in relation to the earth,would accordingly again be back in conjunction.

Indian mathematics too had its origin in the Vedicpractices. The S«ulba Su-tras, a component of anotherVedic auxiliary called the Kalpa Su-tras, deal with theconstruction of several types of brick altars forsacrificial performances with the elucidation of certaingeometrical problems involving the so-calledPythagorean theorem, squaring a circle, equivalencein area of geometrical figures, irrational numbers andthe like. Yet another Vedic auxiliary, Chandah. (metrics)postulated a triangular array for determining the typeof combinations of n syllables of long and short soundsfor metrical chanting. This was later mathematicallydeveloped into a pyramidal expansion of numbers.Such an exercise, known as PascalÕs triangle, appearedcenturies later in Europe among Renaissancemathematicians. In the Vedic period, number-reckoning on an ascending decimal scale, even up to1018 (but word-numerals), was developed along witharithmetical and geometrical series. The Jainas andBuddhists too had conceived of very large numbers.

ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICS

During the three centuries before and after theChristian era, astronomy became based on

mathematics. There came up a new class of astro-nomical texts called the Siddha-ntas (final solutions),in which the now familiar twelve signs of the zodiacgradually replaced the naks. atras system, along withnew astronomical methods for determining meanlongitudes, planetary motions, eccentric andepicyclic models, and trigonometrical aspects, all ofwhich point to possible Hellenistic or Greco-Romaninfluences. The five noted Siddha-ntas are the Paita-

maha, the Vasis. t.ha, the PaulisÕa, the Romaka and the Su-rya. Of these, the last (the Su-rya Siddha-nta-) is themost accurate, according to Vara-hamihira (early

sixth century A.D.) who in his Pa�ca siddha-ntika, sum-marized their contents. In any case, this text whichunderwent some modifications continues to be usedas a major basis for traditional calendrical computa-tions even to this day.

Some leading astronomers-cum-mathe-maticians of this age were A- ryabhat.a I (c.5th AD);Bha-skara I (c.7th), Brahmagupta (c.7th-8th); Lalla(c.8th), Vat.esÕvara (c.10th); A- ryabhat.a II, SÕri

-dhara

and SÕri-pati (c.10th-11th) Bha-skara-cha-rya II (c.12th.),

Ma-dhava (c.14th), Ganesadaivajna (c.15th) and Ni

-lkan.. tha Somaya-ji and Paramesvara (c.16th).

A- ryabhat.a I gave the value of pi (3.1416 approx.), avalue used even today; worked out trigonometricaltables, areas of triangles and other plane figures;arithmetical progression, summation of series andindeterminate equations of the first order. He alsoexpounded the theory that the earth rotates uponits own axis; and the period of one sidereal rotationdetermined by him is almost equivalent to themodern value. He rejected the traditional Ra-hu-Ketu postulate regarding the occurrence of eclipsesand provided a scientific explanation instead. Vara-hamihira, too, rejected this mythical idea,despite being an astrologer influenced by Hellenicideas of the twelve zodiacal signs and associatedconcepts .

Brahmagupta, however, believed in the Ra-hu-Ketu postulate and refused to subscribe to A- ryabhat.aÕs

Athousand years before the time ofCopernicus (1473-1543), A- ryabhat.a (b 476

AD) in India made outstanding contributions toastronomy and mathematics. His contributionsinclude: the determination of the diameter of theearth and the moon, the proposal that the earthrotated on its axis to explain the daily motions ofthe fixed stars; the solution of quadratic equation;defining the trigonometric functions; stressingthe importance of Zero; and determining thevalue of pi up to the fourth decimal place.

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exposition of the earthÕs rotation, or to his scientificexplanation of the eclipses. Nevertheless, he maderemarkable contributions towards solving indeter-minate equations of the second order -- an equationthat appeared in Europe a thousand years later asPellÕs equation. His lemmas in this connection wererediscovered by Euler (1764) and Lagrange (1768).Brahmagupta is regarded as the first mathematicianto enunciate a formula for the area of a rational cyclicquadrilateral. His works, the Brahmasphut.a Siddha-ntaand the Khan. d.akha-dyaka, were translated into Arabicin the Caliphate at Baghdad under the titles Sindhindand Arkand respectively. The tradition of astronomyand mathematics continued in the years to come,preceding similar developments in Europe by a coupleof centuries in such areas as determination of theprecision of equinoxes, parallax, mean and truemotions of planets, permutations and combinations,solving quadratic equations, square root of negativenumbers and trigonometrical series brought out byMa-dhava and others of the Kerala school ofmathematics. The twelfth century witnessed the mostnotable astronomer-cum-mathematician, Bha-skara-cha-rya II. His cyclic (cakrava-la) method forsolving indeterminate equations of the second orderhas been hailed by the eminent Germanmathematician Hermann Henkel as the finest thingachieved in the theory of numbers before Lagrange.

The decimal place-value system, using ninedigits and zero, had been developed in India by aboutthe fourth century AD. It may be noted that the IndianBra-hmi- numerical forms, along with the decimalplace-value system, were also well known in theArabic world. George Sarton, the renowned historianof science, has observed: Our numbers and the use ofzero were invented by the Hindus and transmitted byArabs; hence the name Arabic numerals which we oftengive them. In this transmission, al-Khwa-ri

-zmi (c.9th),

a Central Asian mathematician who worked inBaghdad, played a seminal role through his work onarithmetic. Al-Kindi and Al-Bi

-ru-ni

-(c.11th) were the

other exponents not only of the Hindu numericalsystem, but of Indian astronomy as well.

Top: An astronomical observatory in Jaipur, built by

Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh.

Bottom: Sun dial in the astronomical observatory in

Delhi, built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh in 1724.

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In the eighteenth century SawaiJai Singh II, a rare Maharaja imbuedwith scientific zeal, erected hugemasonry observatories in Banaras,Mathura, Ujjain, Delhi, and in hiscapital city of Jaipur.He derived hisinspiration from the Maragha school ofobservatory of Ulugh Beg atSamarqand. The observatories at Jaipurand Delhi, still in good condition, are atestimony to the importance Jai Singhattached to observational astronomy.He was ably assisted by his court-astronomer, Jaganna-tha Pan.d. ita, and possibly by someJesuit missionaries in his compilation of astronomicaltables called Zize-Muhammad-Sha-hi, which hededicated to the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah.

MEDICINE

The science of the body and mind was, and con-tinues to be as important as the science of the

heavens. With its origin in the healing art of theVedic times, Ayurveda emerged as the medical sci-ence par excellence by about the fifth century BC. Itderived its theoretical sustenance from the philo-sophical systems namely the Sa-m. khya and the Nya-ya-VaisÕes.ika that dealt with certain integratedconcepts of man and nature, as also human natureitself. Its foundational matrices for systemized medicinal principles and practices was intimatelyconnected with the five elements called the pa�cama-habhu-tas -- earth or pr.ithvi

-; water or ap; light

or tejas, air or va-yu and a-ka-sÕa, or ubiquitous princi-ple; and these formed an integral part of the twophilosophical systems.

The forte of Ayurvedic thought structure is itsintegral methodological approach towards thephysiological processes within the human body as wellas the factors influencing them from outside. In thisrespect, the doctrine of five elements proved to be ofimmense value. On it was based the postulate of threehumours (tri-dha-tu-tri-dos.a concept) that encompassednot only the metabolic and other physiological processes

in the body, but also the pathogenesis of diseases.According to Ayurveda, health is the equilibrium orharmony of the three humours, while their imbalancemakes for the diseased state. Ayurveda emphasizes thebody-mind concord and the need to examine the patientas a whole, advocating both curative as well as healthpromotive measures. Its diagnostic procedure iselaborate and its materia medica extensive, comprisinglargely herbal but also mineral and animal sources.

Behind its effective materia medica lies a rareexpertise in intricate preparation of medicinalformulations of a composite character -- a carefulselection of the right plants and other ingredients,processing them with equal care, prolonged heattreatment in certain cases, and above all, the rightdosage and dietary regimen in consonance with anaccurate diagnosis. Ayurveda describes five basictreatments called the pa�cakarma, which aim at toningthe bodily tissues for effective drug action or surgicaloperation, as also for conditioning the body formedical care. To the Ayurveda, the antidote isnecessary but not sufficient, for its aim is tocompletely eliminate the vitiating roots of the disease.

The two great classics of Ayurveda, the Caraka(c.2nd AD) and SusÕruta Sam. hita-s (c.4th AD), present avivid and cogent account of the medical knowledgeand surgical practices respectively that were in vogue

Surgical instruments described in SusÕruta Sam. hita-

an ancient Indian text on surgery.

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about 1800 years ago and continue to be used inAyurveda today. Medical historian D.Guthrie records,It was in surgery, above all, that the ancient Hindus excelled.The SusÕruta Sam. hita-s which accords pride of place tosurgery describes more than three hundred differentoperations and 121 surgical instruments (20 sharp and101 accessory) such as tongs, forceps, scalpels,catheters, syringes, speculums , needles, saws, probes,scissors and the like. The outstanding feats of ancientIndian surgery related to laparatomy, lithotomy andplastic operations. The SusÕruta Sam. hita-s is regarded asthe earliest document to give a detailed account ofrhinoplasty (plastic reconstruction of the nose). It wasnot before the eighteenth century that plastic surgery

made its appearance in Europe. The Roman physician,Celsus (c. 1st AD), gave a vivid account in his medicaltreatise of lithotomy that was practised in India at thattime. Later, another noted physician, Galen ofPergamum who lived in Rome, made no secret of hisborrowing material relating to ointment for the eyesand the Indian plaster from Indian sources.

TRANSMISSION

Indian medical knowledge and surgical practiceswere known not only in the Arabic world but in

South-East Asia, Tibet and China as well. TheAbbasid Caliphate in Baghdad encouraged the trans-lations of the works of Caraka, SusÕruta-, Ma-dhavaand Va-gbhat.a in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Al-Razi, the well known physician of that time,incorporated Ayurvedic practices into his compre-hensive medical work al-Hawi, that later in the thir-teenth century was translated into Latin by Moses ofFarachi and became a standard medical compendi-um in Europe in the middle ages.

Said al-Andalusi, an Arab astronomer andhistorian of science of the 11th century AD, evaluatedthe scientific achievements of eight cultures up to histime, namely, Hindus, Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians,Egyptians, Chaldeans, Hebrews and Persians. Heaccorded first place to India and wrote appreciativeterms about the scientific inventions of the Hindusas well as their philosophical wisdom. The reasonwas not far to seek. India had made notable advancesin the fields of astronomy, mathematics andmedicine. Further, Indian texts on astronomy,mathematics and medicine were well known toArabic savants and, through their works, to learnedpersons of Latin in medieval Europe.

This transmission was not one sided. Medicineknows no barriers of region or religion. Around the13th and 14th centuries, the Greco-Arabic system ofmedicine entered India with the Muslims and beganto flourish, especially under the Mughal rule. Muslimrulers encouraged both the Unani (the name in Indiafor the Greco-Arabic medicinal system) and Ayurveda.Hakims and vaidyas worked together in hospitals

Bronze statue of a dancing girl excavated at

Mohenjo-daro, c. 2500-1500 BC.

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established by Muslim monarchs. While several Unanitreatises written in India listed a considerable numberof Ayurvedic practices, the two diagnostic methods ofUnani, namely, the pulse and urine examination, wereadopted by Ayurvedic practitioners and added to theirdiagnostic base of tridos.a and other factors.

TECHNIQUES

As for technical skills, artisans and craftsmenplayed an important role in enriching the socio-

cultural life of the people over the centuries, thanks totheir expertise in metallurgy and metal working, dyesand pigments, casting exquisite copper-bronze icons,pyrotechnics, cosmetics and perfumery. Generally,artisans and craftsmen occupied a low position in thecaste-ridden social hierarchy. Even so, some, like themetalsmith achieved recognition through excellencein their techniques. As early as in the fourth centuryBC, the metalsmith had perfected the complexprocess of extracting zinc from its ores by the down-ward distillation method that required exceptionalcare in the type of furnance, retorts and a reducingatmosphere as well as temperature management, asevidenced by the archaeological finds at Zawar inRajasthan. It may be noted that it was only in the 18thcentury that the same process was adopted in Britain,and patented too.

In the Classical Age of India, the metallurgy ofiron and copper assumed macro-dimensions. Thefamous Iron Pillar of the late 4th and early 5thcenturies AD, which is seven metres high and weighsover six tonnes, now stands serene near Qutab Minar,Delhi, having amazingly withstood the ravages oftime and clime, remaining rust-free for over 1,500years. Essentially made of wrought iron (99.7 per centiron) and forge-welded out of iron blocks ofappropriate sizes, the Pillar has 0.144 per cent ofphosphorus that aids anti-corrosion and contains nomanganese and only negligible sulphur, thecomposites that would cause corrosion. Thistechnique was not short-lived either. In the eleventhcentury, a much larger iron pillar was forge-weldedand now lies free of rust in two or three pieces at

Dhar in Central India. In the 13th century, severaliron beams were fabricated for use in constructingthe temples at Puri and Konark in Orissa. The IronPillar of Delhi, however, remains unparallelled. Evenin 1881, British economic geologist V.Ball recorded:It is not many years since the production of such a pillarwould have been an impossibility in the largest foundriesof the world, and even now there are comparatively fewplaces where a similar mass of metal could be turned out.In the field of copper metallurgy too, the huge fifthcentury copper statue of the Buddha, over two

Iron Pillar at Delhi which has remained rust-free for

over 1,500 years.

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metres in height and one tonne in weight, (now inthe museum in Birmingham) is a remarkable productof macro-technology.

An equally remarkable micro-technology, namely,the production of high quality steel now known asWootz steel (an iron-carbon alloy with 1.3 to 1.6 percent carbon was also in use). This productiontechnique was particularly prevalent in South Indiaand emerged as an accomplished metallurgicaltechnique by about the 6th century, after which Indiansteel was sought after for the production of what wastermed the Damascus sword in West Asia, around the10th century AD. Metallurgists in the Universities ofStanford and Iowa State (USA) have investigatedWootz steel with a view to reproducing the ancientIndian process. The former have even patented aprocess for the production of Utah-High-Carbon steel(1.3 to 1.6 per cent carbon ) that could be used forcertain automobile and aeroplane components.

A veritable index to IndiaÕs scientific traditionis the appreciably large number of manuscripts,mostly in Sanskrit, that have been preserved in overa hundred repositories both in India and abroad.They encompass the disciplines of astronomy,mathematics, medicine, and also such techniques asmetal-working including iconography, dyeing,cosmetics and perfumery. While the major texts havebeen studied, a considerable number of manuscriptsremain unexplored. In any case, they have fosteredscientific pursuits for over a millennium.

INDIA MEETS WESTERN SCIENCE

With its long scientific tradition, India did notview western scientific ideas and technical

practices as something alien to its own ethos. Instead,it gradually began to participate in the new movementwhen western science was introduced into India by theBritish in the latter half of the eighteenth and in thenineteenth centuries. Despite the oppressive colonialregime, in the early decades of the twentieth centuryIndian scientists came up with outstanding contribu-tions even in the frontier areas of science of the time.

In the mid-seventeenth century the Governor of

Dutch Possessions on the Malabar coast, Henrich VanRheede Drakenstein (1637-1692), investigated anumber of plants and seeds with the help of someEuropean medical men as well as medicalpractitioners of Malabar. His work Hortus Malabaricuswas published in 12 volumes (Amsterdam: 1683-1703; with 794 plates). This botanical work was ofimmense value to the then famous Swedish botanistKarl Linnaeus in the nomenclature of Indian plantsin his Species Plantarum.

The turning point in the history of botanicalinvestigations in India was the inception of the RoyalBotanic Garden in 1787 at Sibpur near Calcutta. Bythen the British had established their politicalsupremacy, having won the Battle of Plassey (1757).There were several distinguished botanists likeWilliam Roxburgh, Buchanan Hamilton, NathanielWallich, William Carey, George Govan, J.F.Royle, C.B.Clarke and George King, whose botanicalinvestigations in India added a veneer of excellenceto global botany and their voluminous publicationsenriched botanical knowledge of the times.

To further their political ambitions that alsorequired a thorough geographical knowledge of thenew land, the British colonial masters undertook atopographical survey and soon developed what wasknown as the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India.In the first half of the nineteenth century, WilliamLambton in the south and George Everest along withAndrew Waugh in the north, emerged as the mostnotable surveyors. Waugh was able to determine theheights of major Himalayan peaks, which numberedabout 80. He named the highest of these peaks (29,002ft. above mean sea level) Mount Everest after theSurveyor-General of India. Among Indian technicianswho worked with George Everest and Andrew Waugh,special mention needs to be made of Radhanath Sikdarand Mohsin Husain. The former was noted for hismathematical acumen and computing ,while the latterwas a versatile maker of mathematical instrumentswho reconstructed a theodolite (now preserved in theVictoria Museum at Calcutta) that was used by Waughand his associates.

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The mineral wealth of India was indeed asource of special attraction for the British. In courseof time, the Deccan, Central and North India, as wellas the Himalayas, were explored for their mineralwealth and geological formations alike.Palaentological studies too were undertaken in theSiwalik Hills region by Hugh Falconer and theengineer Proby Cautley . Falconer brought to lightthe remarkable fossile fauna of the sub-Himalayanrange, which earned him a distinguished positionamong palaentologists. The Geological Survey ofIndia was established in 1851. Several geologists likeThomas Oldham, W.T. Blanford, H.B. Medlicott,William King and Thomas Holland madeoustanding contributions to Himalayan geology, andto the discovery of large deposits of iron and otherores. Earthquakes were also studied. Towards theend of the nineteenth century there were two Indianofficers in the Geological Survey of India, P.N. Boseand P.N. Dutta. The former mapped the Vindhyasand the igneous rocks of Raipur and Balaghat areas,while Dutta discovered the vast deposits ofmanganese ore in the Bhandara and theChhindwara riverine area. Bose was alsoinstrumental in discovering the extensive and richdeposits of iron ore in Mayurbhanj. Later, on hisadvice, the pioneering industrialist Jamshed Tataand his son Dorab Tata took active steps for theestablishment of an iron and steel factory in the firstIndian industrial enterprise -- in Jamshedpur - whereTISCO is still located today.

Meteorological and astronomical studies alsomade some progress during this period. A notabledevelopment was the study of the law of storms, andthe term ÔcycloneÕ was coined by H. Piddington forthe serpent-like coiling of a severe storm. The IndiaMeteorological Department was established in 1875.H.T. Blanford, John Eliot and Gilbert Walker wereamong the noted meteorologists. A bright Indianassistant, Ruchi Ram Sahni, was associated with thepreparation of daily weather reports. As forastronomical studies, as early as in 1792, anobservatory was established in Madras on the

initiative of William Petrie, a member of the MadrasGovernment. John Goldingham, T.G. Taylor,H.Warren and others compiled a star catalogue ofabout 11,000 stars. N.R. Pogson made discoveries ofasteroids and variable stars, with which C. Raghoonathachary was also associated. In 1900,the Solar Physics Observatory came up at Kodaikanalin Tamil Nadu. From the older observatory in Poona,called the Maharaja Takhatsingh Observatory, K.D.Naegamvala made significant observations of thesolar phenomena, and especially of the eclipse thatoccurred in 1898. Evershed, who succeeded to theDirectorship of the Kodaikanal Observatory in 1911,studied solar prominences and their penumbra, anddiscovered the radial motion in sunspots.

ENGLISH EDUCATION

In 1813, when the Charter of the East IndiaCompany was renewed, a provision was made for

not less than one hundred-thousand rupees each yearto be spent by the Company on educating the natives.But the real turning point came when some liberalIndians like Raja Ram Mohun Roy advocated theintroduction of scientific subjects. In 1935, the colo-nial government adopted English as the medium ofinstruction, and began to encourage the promotion ofwestern learning, including science. The first threeuniversities were established in 1857 at Calcutta(January), Bombay (July) and Madras (September).The new universities functioned only as affiliatingand examining bodies in the faculties of law, science,medicine and surgery and civil engineering, besidesthe arts while their courses in scientific and technicaleducation was determined by the exigencies and self-interest of the colonial government. Towards the turnof the nineteenth century, there were five universities,including the two established in Lahore (1882) andAllahabad (1887); about 170 colleges, mostly concen-trated in cities, among which were some 40 profes-sional colleges -- about 30 for law and four each formedicine and engineering; besides some medical,engineering, agricultural and industrial schools.However, the foundation laid for scientific and tech-

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nical education left much to be desired.The colonial government did promote field

investigations to some extent and set up a fewscientific institutions besides the scientific surveyorganizations. These were mainly intended tofurther British exploitative commercial interestsand political hegemony. There emerged,nevertheless, a few isolated endeavours towardscreative science, like the law of storms and cyclonesby H. Piddington; the theory of isostasy by A. Pratt;the concept of Gondwanaland relating tocontinental dynamics; the discovery of the carrierof malarial parasite by Ronald Ross, and theEvershed Effect in solar physics. Unfortunatelythese endeavours did not generate criticaldiscussion nor did they lay a solid foundation forthe promotion of research, fundamental or applied.The colonial governmentÕs attempt at introducingwestern science in India was a formal one. But itsreal introduction was undertaken by Indianpioneering scientists and other leaders whoprovided critical inputs and inspiring leadership aswell as an innovative climate, starting from the lastquarter of the nineteenth century.

SCIENTISTS AS PIONEERS

In 1876 Mahendra Lal Sirkar (1833-1904), anenlightened medical practitioner, established the

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science atCalcutta, recognizing that the time had come whenIndians themselves should cultivate science andimbibe its rationality. It was in this institution thatover fifty years later, C. V. Raman (1888-1970) con-ducted his epoch-making research on light-scatter-ing, now known as the Raman Effect (1928) thatearned him the Nobel Prize in Physics (1930). InBombay, a rare visionary and industrialist, J. N.Tata (1839-1904) in pursuit of his avowed objectiveof national regeneration, endeavoured to set up auniversity for imparting higher education to Indianstudents. The path was by no means easy. It even-tually took the form of the Indian Institute ofScience at Bangalore (1909-1911), which began to

play a seminal role in the subsequent growth of sci-ence and technology in India.

Asutosh Mookerjee, a brilliant mathematician,became the architect of the Calcutta University inthe early decades of the twentieth century, openingup various avenues of postgraduate teaching andresearch. It was he who persuaded scholars andscientists from diverse regions of the country to jointhe faculty or accept the chairs offered. Earlier,towards the closing years of the nineteenth century,Jagadis Chandra Bose (1858-1937), the first IndianProfessor at the Presidency College in Calcutta,became a trendsetter in stretching the capabilitiesof Indian scientists. He devised his owninstruments with ingenuity and succeded in thegeneration, transmission and reception ofelectromagnetic waves of wavelengths between 5mm and 25 mm -- a pioneering contribution of thattime. He demonstrated his experiment at the RoyalInstitution in London, but was disinclined to patenthis discovery. J.C. Bose also demonstrated that notonly animal tissues but also plant tissues, underdifferent kinds of stimuli, would produce similarresponses. He also set up an institute, the BoseInstitute at Calcutta.

P.C. Ray (1861-1944), an outstanding chemist,built up a school of chemical research and initiatedeffective steps towards the establishment of certainchemicals, especially in the pharmaceutical industry.C.V. Raman, too, energized a flourishing school ofresearch in physics, both at Calcutta and at Bangalorewhere he held the posts of Director (1933-37) of theIndian Institute of Science and Head of the Departmentof Physics till 1948. He established a researchinstitution, the Raman Research Institute at Bangalore,with his Nobel Prize money and other resources.

Contemporaneous with Raman were otherscientific leaders who laid a solid foundation forscientific research. The most notable among themwere Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), K.R.Ramanathan (1893-1985), M.N. Saha (1893-1955),P.C.Mahalanobis (1893-1972), S.N.Bose (1894-1974),S.S.Bhatnagar (1894-1955) and K.S. Krishnan (1898-

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1961). Ramanujan became alegendary figure in mathematics andhis mathematical acumen is still amarvel. M.N. Saha earnedinternational acclaim for his theory ofthermal ionization and radiation,which explained the orderedsequence of the spectra of stars. Hisclassmate, S.N. Bose, a brillianttheoretical physicist, developed amethod of statistics of an assembly ofphotons in a six-dimensional phase,which was later extended by Einstein,now known as the Bose-EinsteinStatistics. The discovery of particlesthat followed this are now called ÔbosonsÕ inhonour of S. N. Bose. K. R. Ramanathan workedon the scattering of light and also madeoutstanding contributions to meteorology. P.C.Mahalanobis was renowned for his originality intheoretical statistics and later played a prime rolein socio-economic planning. S.S. Bhatanagar madea distinct mark in magneto-chemistry, its principlesand applications. K.S. Krishnan, who wasintimately associated with the discovery of theRaman Effect, was noted for his significant workon the properties of crystals.

The University system had expanded, althoughnot to the desired extent, from five at the beginningof the twentieth century to seventeen on the eve ofIndependence. Several research institutions,including those for agriculture, had also come up.During this period, the freedom movement that hadgathered momentum was a source of inspiration toscientists to pursue original research, despite theregressive colonial ambiance. The freedommovement was led by Mahatma Gandhi and hischosen political heir, the charismatic JawaharlalNehru who, though not a laboratory scientist, had abroader vision of science, its rational methods, andapplications for the benefit of people . In his book,Discovery of India, which he wrote duringimprisonment, he exhorted: Who can ignore science

today? The future belongs to science and to those whomake friendship with science. IndiaÕs friendship withscience is in no small measure due to Nehru, sincehe was convinced that science and science alonecould lead poverty-stricken India into prosperity.He emphasized the importance of the scientificmethod or temper as he called it, insisting that itshould permeate all sections of society. He wasinstrumental in setting up a sub-committee onTechnical Education and Development Research(1939) under his chairmanship of the NationalPlanning Committee (1938) and this was in the thickof the freedom movement.

In the middle of 1939, Homi Bhabha, whohad done outstanding research on cosmic rays inCopenhagen and Cambridge, was in India for ashort recess at the Indian Institute of Science atBangalore. World War II which broke out soonafter prevented his return to England. Bhabha setup a Cosmic Research Unit at the Indian Instituteof Science and the Tata Institute of FundamentalResearch at Bombay in 1945. Three years beforethis, the Council of Scientific and IndustrialResearch had been set up with Bhatnagar as itsDirector. When Nehru took over as IndiaÕs first

The old building of the Asiatic Society which also

housed INSA offices from 1935-1945.

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Prime Minister in 1947, Bhabha and Bhatnagarplayed pivotal roles in strengthening thecountryÕs scientific and technological base.Bhabha thought of ÔBig ScienceÕ (then nuclearphysics and energy) and Bhatnagar conceived ofÔScience in a big wayÕ through a chain of nationallaboratories. Both received unstinted supportfrom Nehru. In perspective, it is evident that theIndian scientific pioneers, Nehru, and otherleaders laid a viable scientific foundation well

before Independence for the multi-level growthof science and technology in Independent India. Itis , nevertheless, significant that traditionalastronomy co-exists with modern astronomy;traditional medicine is in some mannercomplementary to modern medicine. Likewise,traditional technologies have carved a place forthemselves among the plethora of new andsophisticated technologies.

In several ways, IndiaÕs past is also its present.

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