Verghese Kurien: Remembering the “Milk Man of India” on his birth centenary

                         Verghese Kurien: Remembering the “Milk Man of India” on his birth centenary

Images : Courtesy Amul, Wiki Commons and Nehru Science Centre.

It was on this day, 26th November, 1921, that Varghese Kurien, the milk man of India, who transformed the dairy movement in our country was born. He ushered in the white revolution by empowering small and marginal farmers and landless labourers to partake in the revolution that he brought about to make AMUL truly the taste of India and today, as the nation celebrates his birth centenary, I wish raise a toast in memory of Padma Vibhushan Verghese Kurien and pray for his memories and contributions to be ever etched in the hearts and minds of all Indians and in the annals of the Indian history. The reverence that the nation has for Kurien stems from the fact that his contributions impacted on the lives of millions of cooperative dairy farmers - including the marginal farmers - not just economically but also socially and politically. Dr. Kurien believed that where agriculture was concerned, the farmer was the most important part of the entire food cycle. Without the farmer there would be no role for the processor, market maker and the distributor. Hence, he should get the highest share of the market price of milk. The profundity of the belief that Dr. Kurien laid of the importance of farmers is now poignant in the current context of the famers protest.

The impact of the cooperative dairy movement in India and how it empowered our famers and brought out a paradigm shift in benefitting the famers, can serve as an example to other sectors is something which it is necessary for us to understand in the light of the current continuing farmer’s agitation. Even after the Honourable PM of India has announced the roll back of the three farm laws, the agitation seems nowhere near to getting completely resolved, thus creating more inconveniences to the people – farmers included. Today when we are seeing an unending debate and a cacophony of political noises made on the issue of farmer’s agitation and the demand for a legislation on MSP - all with a purported motive of benefiting our farmers -, it is pertinent to recall the contributions of Dr Verghese Kurien and how his path breaking dairy movement in India relied on the favourability of the liberalised markets on the growth of the dairy sector, rather than the government support and interventions. May be the success of agriculture segments like horticulture, dairy development, fisheries - which grew by an average 10% annually with little or no intervention of the government on the market - can help the stakeholders of the farmer’s agitation to convince the farmers to have a relook on their demands. It is also pertinent to note that during this very period when sectors like milk, horticulture and fisheries were growing at 10% annually with little or no intervention of the government, the growth rates in cereals and other agriculture produce for which MSP is being demanded, grew at just about 1%, which could be an outcome and uncertainty of the intervention by the government.

There are many essays written on the pros and cons of the farmer’s demand for the legislation on the MSP, and how, prime facie, it appears that the cons of the MSP can be quite detrimental to the very interests of the farmers in the long run. Therefore, today when we are celebrating the birth centenary of Dr Verghese Kurien, it may be pertinent to highlight the contributions of Dr Kurien in bringing about a revolutionary change in the lives of the people through his dairy moment and how this movement impacted the lives of the marginal farmers. The white revolution which the country witnessed was in fact, a by-product of the empowerment the Dr Kurien brought about through the Amul-model (also known as Anand-pattern) dairy cooperatives.

On the birth centenary of Dr Verghese Kurien it is an honour for me to be sharing my tribute to the legendary nation builder who touched the lives of millions of people by empowering them. I am tempted to open my tribute to Kurien by recalling that extraordinary moment when I had the honour to meet Dr Kurien in person at his karma bhumi – Anand – sometime during April 2003. I was accompanied by my colleague Nitin Pradhan, from the Nehru Science Centre, for an important task of conducting an interview with the milk man, Dr Verghese Kurien for use in the National Agriculture Science Museum (NASM) a project which our parent body NCSM was assigned for completion on turnkey basis at New Delhi, inside the ICAR campus. I was then working as the Curator and head of Electronics and Computer section at the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai.

I vividly remember that I had written a request letter to Dr Verghese Kurien and addressed it to him as the Chairman of Institute of Rural Management, Anand, and asked for an appointment for the said interview. His Secretary, one Mr Jacob Fernandes (I hope I got his name right) wrote back to me asking for more details before he could try and fix an appointment. I spoke to Mr Jacob and briefed him about our requirement and he somehow became quite friendly with me. Mr Jacob also helped me to speak to Dr Kurien over phone and I had the honour to brief him of the NASM project and our requirement of his interview in the Dairy section of the museum. He was so very kind to inform me that although he is normally averse to such interviews, considering the cause he agreed to give me an interview and asked me to coordinate with Mr Jacob. By then I became friends with Jacob, who gave me lot of background information and also narrated about an incident when Dr Kurien got so very angry with a journalist who had come completely unprepared to interview him. He cautioned me to come well prepared for the interview. I requested Mr Jacob if he could also arrange for a visit to the milk collection centres and for an interaction with some of the small and marginal farmers who are contributing at the milk collection centre, which he did.

My colleague Mr Nitin Pradhan and I visited Anand and we were accommodated at the IRMA guest house and were pleasantly treated as the guests of Dr Kurien, courtesy Mr Jacob. We had a full day visit to the milk collection centres, which we witnessed at around 5 in the morning, where we could meet the foot soldiers of this massive milk revolution and record their impressions. We also visited many other facilities of NDDB and had an opportunity to interact with some of the very senior officers at all the places courtesy Mr Jacob who had briefed them all that it was at the instance of Dr Kurien that we are visiting these facilities. I can never forget this visit, which gave me an idea of what a profound transformation that Dr Kurien brought about at Anand, the place from where his tryst with Indian dairy movement began. We also had the honour of visiting some historical places in the NDDB campus including the small room where the young Verghese Kurien stayed when he first arrived at Anand. With inputs from Mr Jacob and so also my own research I was fairly well prepared for the interview with Dr Kurien. Yet, my tension and apprehension was palpable, more so since Dr Verghese Kurien had walked out of an interview with one of the journalists who had come to interview him few months before.

The momentous occasion came and my colleague Mr Pradhan and I had set up the camera and made all arrangements for the interview and we were waiting for Dr Kurien to arrive. We got up in reverence when Dr Kurien entered and we exchanged greetings with him. He asked me to brief him about the NASM before conducting the interview and I was very well prepared on this and I explained in great details the importance of the Agriculture Science Museum, which we were tasked to develop on turnkey basis at the Pusa campus of the ICAR. He seemed quite satisfied with the background information that I gave to him. It was now the time for action and we had an excellent freewheeling interview, which though scheduled for just 20 minutes went on for more than an hour and he appeared to be impressed with the ground work and research that we had done for this interview. Even after the interview he spent some more time with us including narrating some of those nostalgic memories including of his initial reluctance to be at Anand, a place where the culture of the city was completely in divergence with the place where he had grown up and how this very town become integral to him. Although he was aged 85, yet, his memory was very sharp and so was his intellect and also the vision that he continues to hold for the nation. Soon after the interview he called his PS, Mr Jacob, and asked him to arrange for our visit to the high mast musical clock tower, a unique feature which was commissioned at the IRMA campus at his instance, which we had the honour to experience. When we left the campus for our return journey, the visit and our interaction with Dr Kurien had left a lasting impression on us that even today while I am penning this tribute, those moments are crossing my mind so vivaciously. When I spoke to my colleague Pradhan about our visit to Anand this morning, I had a pleasant surprise waiting. He not only recalled the visit he also informed me that he will try and search a copy of the interview and therefore asked me to wait before posting this on the Blog. By this evening he had searched his archive and found the interview. Seeing the interview those memories of our interaction with Dr Kurien have become so very fresh and has made me quite nostalgic and I am including couple of images drawn from the video interview in this blog.

Dr Kurien was born on November 26, 1921 at Kozhikode (Calicut) in the district headquarter of Malabar, which was then the part of the Madras Presidency. His father Puthen Parakkal Kurien, was a Civil Surgeon and a well-to-do doctor. Kurien had a blessed ambience at home and he had good schooling and graduated in Science from the Loyola College in 1940. He subsequently enrolled for subject of his passion – Engineering - and obtained his engineering degree in Engineering from the Guindy College of Engineering in Chennai. This was a time when India was passing through freedom struggle and the world was witnessing the dreaded WWII. There were limited opportunities and among them one of the best was TISCO. Kurien joined the TISCO Technical Institute as a graduate apprentice in 1943 and after his training at the institute he started his career as an Office Apprentice in TISCO. The end of the WWII was a period when the British had decided to award nearly 1000 scholarships to bright graduates to be trained in the best of institutions in England and US and among those who were its beneficiary was Dr Kurien. Prof Satish Dhawan, whose birth centenary was celebrated last year was another beneficiary of this government scholarship and rest is history and he ended up as one of the key architects who helped transform the vision of the father of Indian Space Program – Dr Vikram Sarabhai in to reality. Dr Kurien was one of the beneficiary of this prestigious Indian scholarship. By then Kurien had spent two years at TISCO and had realised the importance of technology. He left TISCO when he obtained the Govt. of India’s scholarship to study Dairy Engineering. Unfortunately, he was more interested in studying mechanical engineering, however he was happy to take what he got, since this was a prestigious scholarship that could shape his future. Before taking up his studies in dairy engineering in US, Kurien decided to undergo some specialized training at the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Bangalore for getting acquainted with this new subject. Fortunately for Kurien, the college that he was awarded for his studies did not have a specialized dairy engineering department in the US. He left for the United States to take up his scholarship from where he completed his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with Dairy Engineering as a minor subject from the Michigan State University in 1948. He was quite happy that he had an opportunity to study the mechanical engineering subject which he relished. The government scholarship which Kurien and many others got had a clause for the recipients. They were expected to execute a bond with the government to serve the government at the place of their posting for at least a minimum of 6 months. Accordingly, Dr Kurien was asked to join the Government Creamery to serve his bond with the government on his return from US. This was located at Anand in Gujarat. It was this assignment, which he assumed reluctantly, that turned out to be his tryst with his dairy movement and with the city for the rest of his life.

Kurien arrived at Anand on Friday, the 13th May 1949 and all he had in his mind when he landed at Anand was to serve his bond period and move out of Anand for a greener pasture post his mandated bond period at Anand. By the time he ended his bond period working with the Government Creamery and he received his relieving order and as he was getting ready to move to Bombay (now Mumbai), as destiny would have it, he came in contact with his future guru and mentor, Shri Tribhuvandas Patel, the then Chairman of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union (KDCMPUL), which later went on to become the house hold name across India Amul. Incidentally the sudden growth in the Anand model of cooperative was the reason for finding a new name to KDCMPUL. When Tribhuvandas and his compatriots were contemplating on a new name for their dairy, the word ‘Amul’ was suggested by a chemist, around 1957. The roots of this word came from a Sanskrit word “Amoolya”, which means priceless. Fortuitously this word also stood as an acronym for Anand Milk Union Limited.

Tribhuvandas Patel was a freedom fighter and also an associate of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He managed to convince Kurien to stay on in Anand for some more time and help him in commissioning some of the equipment which he had ordered for Amul. Tribhuvandas had bought new machinery, which were aimed at increasing the capacity of the cooperative from 200 litres of milk in 1948 to around 20,000 litres in 1952. The offer sounded quite interesting to young Kurien, who had immense interests in machineries. Therefore, Kurien decided to stay back for a few more days until commissioning of the new equipment for the cooperative. Kurien was under the impression that he was staying back to help Tribhuvandas with whom he had befriended. But then his involvement of commissioning the equipment at the dairy exposed him to the social service of Tribhuvandas and how his vision was aimed at empowering the poor and marginalised farmers. The more Kurien got to know Tribhuvandas and his social works, the more interest he started taking in his works and he slowly started imbibing the spirit behind the dairy and the co-operative society that his Guru Tribhuvandas Patel had started. As fate would have it, those few extra weeks that Kurien had decided to spend at Anand for the commissioning of the dairy equipment turned out to be the most crucial period in his life, which motivated him on to stay at Anand forever and the rest that happened is now history.

The Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (KDCMPUL), which soon came to be popularly known as Amul Dairy, was formed in 1946. It heralded a new dawn for the marginalised farmers who were exploited by the Britishers who controlled milk production by Polson. Kurien, Tribhuvandas Patel and Kurien’s friend and dairy expert HM Dalaya changed all that. Dalaya, invented a method of making milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo milk. This new concept revolutionised the Indian dairy industry, since until that point such processed items could be made only using cow’s milk. This success of the Amul Dairy was soon replicated in many of its neighbouring districts of Gujarat. The ground breaking works of Kurien, Tribhuvandas and Dalaya prompted the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri ji to establish the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). NDDB was established in 1965 to replicate the cooperative movement of Amul and expand it across India.

Kurien from mantling the role of an engineer at AMUL was groomed into a General Manager of the company and Kurien immersed himself in fighting for the cause of poor farmers. He occupied various positions in his career in Anand, starting from Executive Head of Kaira Union in 1950, to becoming the Founder Chairman of National Dairy Development Board from 1965 to 1998, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, from 1973 to 2006. Dr Kurien, in the year 1979, established a dedicated institute “Institute of Rural Management” in Anand (IRMA), which was primarily aimed at grooming professional managers for the management of the cooperatives. He served as the Chairman of IRMA from 1979 to 2006. It was at the office of the Chairman IRMA that we conducted the interview of Dr Kurien. Dr Kurien dedicated his entire professional life in empowering Indian farmers through co-operatives. Dr Kurien, in the year 2006, quit the position of the chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) following dwindling support from new members on the governing board and mounting dissent from some of his own protégés, who had termed his working style as being dictatorial. Some of these moves, however, were backed by political forces that sought to make inroads into district unions of the cooperative dairy.

By the time he quit the position of the Chairman of GCMMF, Dr Kurien had laid an extraordinary and a robust foundation for developing a democratic enterprise at the grass roots and had translated his profound vision of ensuring economic empowerment of the people involving the very people in this movement, in to a reality. An engineer at heart Kurien believed that by placing technology and professional management in the hands of the farmers, the standard of living of millions of our poor people can be improved and the results are there for the world to see and acknowledge.

For his extraordinary contribution to the cooperative movement and for the empowerment of the people and so also the success of Amul and the GCMMF, Dr Kurien was awarded the prestigious World Food Prize for the year 1989 - $200,000 annual prize –, which is instituted by the prestigious World Food Programme (WFP). Incidentally the WFP was awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize (2020) "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict." The WFP, in its citation of the award for Dr Kurien, recognised the contributions of Dr Kurien as “a global dairy distribution leader, who turned the milk shades of India into a cooperative system owned and managed by milk producers who are the producers, processors and market milk for the urban centres of the country”. As a prime mover of the dairy movement in India and so also the architect of “Operation Flood”, the largest dairy development programme in the world, Dr. Verghese Kurien has enabled India to become the largest milk producer in the World. Dr Kurien with an extraordinary vision for benefitting the farmers, particularly the marginalised farmers, devoted a lifetime to realizing his dream – empowering the farmers of India - and befittingly came to be hailed as the “Father of White Revolution”.

Dr Kurien was also befittingly conferred with all the three Padma Awards in recognition of his relentless service to the dairy and farming communities, He was awarded the Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966) and Padma Vibhushan (1999). He also was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1963), and World Food Prize (1989). He has received innumerable other national and international awards including honorary doctorate from various universities. He is also the recipient of the International Person of the Year Award by the World Dairy Expo in 1993, Ordre duMerite Agricole by the Government of France in 1997, the Regional Award from the Asian Productivity Organization of Japan in 2000, Dr. Kurien has received several honorary Doctorates and Fellowships from leading foreign and Indian Universities / Academic Institutions.

It was therefore no wonder that Dr Kurien’s outstanding achievement and his ability to lead a successful people’s movement and to help the farmers of Anand motivated internationally acclaimed film maker Shyam Benegal to portray the dairy movement and the role of Kurien on the celluloid. Benegal made a film titled ‘Manthan’ which was based on the milk movement in India and the man behind it — Verghese Kurien. Interestingly this film was crowd-funded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs. 2 each for the making of this film, which is another innovation kind of a sort. Kurien believed that “Innovation cannot be mandated or forced on people,”. He said. “It is everywhere, a function of the quality of the people and the environment. We need to have enough skilled people working in a self-actuating environment to produce innovation.”

Dr Kurien’s services were also used in innumerable other ways by the government including in some non-descript, yet highly pertinent, areas like growing of trees and even to salt farming. His services were also used in the Oilseeds Grower’s Cooperative Project, which was established in 197, to established a direct link between the producers and consumers of oil thus reducing the role of oil traders and oil exchanges. The outcome of this project was to stabilize oil prices, and to provide an incentive to the oilseed grower to raise production and reduce India’s dependence on oil imports. Dr. Kurien revolutionized the edible oil business by introducing ‘Dhara’, which is now a well-known edible oil brand in the market.

Dr Kurien after serving for more than seven decades died from an illness at the age of 90 years on 9th September 2012 at Nadiad Hospital, near Anand. Paying rich tributes on the passing away of the doyen of the dairy cooperative movement in India, the then President, Pranab Mukherjee and the then Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh publicly acknowledged the extraordinary contributions of Dr Kurien to the rural upliftment and for empowering the people and substantially increasing the agrarian economy.

It is the self-less and untiring efforts and contribution of such great passionate nation builders like Dr Verghese J Kurien and others that has helped India in passing through those early times of trials and tribulations - including having to depend on alms in the form of PL480 for the shipload of wheat to arrive for feeding our hungry population - to the current era where we are not only self-sufficient in feeding our population but India is well set on a path towards becoming a developed nation. On the occasion of the birth centenary of Dr Verghese Kurien, I join all our countrymen in remembering with reverence the contributions of all the founding fathers of our nation, who worked tirelessly in our nation building and we must commit ourselves to continuing their path for seeing a developed India.

On the occasion of the birth centenary of Dr Kurien it is an honour for me to pen this tribute and to join the nation in saluting this great nation builder. May you continue to rest in peace in the heavenly abode which is now home to you Dr Verghese Kurien and may you continue to inspire generation of youngsters and may several of them tread the path which you have shown.

Indira Gandhi & the First Indian Satellite in Space - Aryabhatta.

Indira Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India, whose birth anniversary we are celebrating today ( born on 19th November, 1917), had a major role in the early part of the Indian Space program including choice of the name for the first Indian Satellite - Aryabhatta. Today when India is celebrating Smt Indira Gandhis birth anniversary, it is heartening to narrate an anecdotal story - perhaps one of those not popularly known - about her role in christening the name of the first Indian first satellite as Aryabhatta.

By the early 1960s the geopolitical relation between the two communist nations and the erstwhile comrades - China and USSR - had gone very sour due to their intractable ideological differences between Marxism & Leninism, which the two leaders -  Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev - were strong advocates of. Mao Zedong denounced the communism practiced by USSR and Khrushchev as the work of revisionist traitors and it was this animosity between the two warring comrades that, in a way, helped India launch its first satellite - Aryabhatta. 

It was on the 24th of April, 1970 that the People’s Republic of China became the fifth nation to successfully place a satellite in to earths orbit. The Chinese satellite was flown purely for propaganda purpose, using a tune generator to play the 'East is Red' patriotic anthem. The Chinese satellite weighed 173 kilograms. The Chinese propaganda and their rejoicing of the success of their satellite launch and pretending to rub shoulders with USSR that  prompted the then USSR to nudge the Indian Ambassador to USSR - Mr DP Dhar, to inform Smt Indira Gandhi of the intent of USSR to support India launch an Indian satellite. India was in its infancy stage in space technology, when the Russians offered to piggy back an Indian satellite on their rocket. It was the father of the Indian Space program, Dr Vikram Sarabhai, who had tasked Prof UR Rao (who later went on to become the satellite man of India) with the assignment of preparing a consolidated plan for the launch of Indian satellite, which Prof Rao did earnestly. Unfortunately, Dr Sarabhai died prematurely on 31st December 1971. However, at the behest of Prof MGK Menon, who was then the Director TIFR - who was also tasked to temporarily take additional charge of the Indian Space Research Origination - that Smt Indira Gandhi invited Prof Satish Dhawan, who was on a sabbatical to Caltech from IISc, to return back to India and mantle the role of head of ISRO. Smt Indira Gandhi even agreed to the two conditions put forth by Prof Dhawan that he will continue to be the Director of IISc and that the headquarters of ISRO be moved to Bangalore. Due to credit must be given to the late Prime Minister for agreeing to the conditions of Prof Dhawan.

One of the top priorities for Prof Satish Dhawan, when he assumed the charge of ISRO, was to accept the offer of the then USSR for launching an Indian satellite. However, there was a catch in the offer that was made by the USSR. In a meeting of the ISRO scientists and the Russian officials in Delhi, there was just one condition that Russian team put in return for a free launch of an Indian satellite. The condition was quite tough. The Russians wanted that the weight of the Indian satellite must be more than that of the Chinese Satellite (174kg). The Russians wanted to prove a point to their erstwhile ally turned foe that they can facilitate a novice - India - to lanch a satellite, which weighed more than the propaganda driven first satellite that the Chinese had launched. 

Prof UR Rao and his team set out to redesign the satellite with complete details and finally arrived at a weight of 360 kilograms, which was more than double the weight of the Chinese satellite. The site chosen for building the satellite was three sheds in the Peenya area in Bangalore and not Thumba, which was an obvious choice then. Interestingly Prof Rao and his team were not absolutely sure about what the cost of the satellite would be, which they had roughly estimated would cost about Rs 70 Lacs. However, noticing that the estimate was ridiculously low, they arbitrarily increased the estimate by around 5 times and gave an estimate of approximately Rs 3 Crores, which the Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi approved without a blink of an eye and even promising for higher allocation if it so warranted. 

In the early 1970s, India had other social priorities, which among other things included providing ‘Roti, Kapada aur Makan’ to the citizens, the political slogan which had won Mrs Gandhi a major mandate to be elected as the Prime Minister of India. It was also the period when India continued to rely on a scheme called PL 480 under which the Americans sent ship loads of wheat for feeding our countrymen. Therefore, it was quite obvious that during those early years, investment in Indian space program was considered by many as not just a luxury but also a wasteful expenditure. It is in this context that the support of Mrs. Indira Gandhi for the Indian Space program including according an approval of Rs 3 Crores for the launch of the Indian satellite is highly credit worthy. What is more creditable is that Dr Sarabhai the architect of the Indian Space program had died and India had nothing other than launching some sounding rockets to boast of as an achievement in Space technology. It was her strong belief in Prof Satish Dhawan and his chosen team, led by Prof UR Rao, which helped India usher in to Space age. Of course she had for support her ally the USSR who offered free launch of the Indian satellite.

Three names were short listed by the Indian scientists for the Indian satellite - Jawhar, Maitri and Aryabhatta. The first choice was obviously in memory of the founding Prime Minister of India and a man who had special love for Science, the second choice was Maitri, which highlighted an extraordinary friendship between India and USSR and the last choice was Aryabhatta, in honour of the great ancient Indian mathematician. Lo and behold when almost everyone presumed that Smt Indira Gandhi will chose her fathers name, Jawahar, for the first Indian satellite, she took every one by surprise and in no time choose  the last name Aryabhatta and the rest is history.

Aryabhatta weighing 360 kilograms - more than two times the weight of the first Chinese satellite - was successfully launched by the Russian Rocket from Kapustin Yar rocket launch station from the then USSR, on April 19, 1975. Signal from the Aryabhatta satellite was received by the ground stations and the satellite functioned perfectly to plan for four days but most unfortunately, other payloads that were planned with the satellite could not be tested due to the error in the solar panels. However India had successfully launched their first satellite Aryabhatta, which remained in orbit for 17 years finally re-entering earth's atmosphere on February 11, 1992. 

Today when we are celebrating the 104th birth anniversary of Smt Indira Gandhi, who was befittingly hailed as Ma Durga by Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the successful liberation of Bangla Desh from Pakistan in 1971, I join all my countrymen in paying my respect to Smt Indira Gandhi and in hailing her for the confidence that she reposed on Prof Satish Dhawan, Prof U R Rao and their entire team from ISRO in launching the first Indian satellite and naming it as Aryabhatta. Today, ISRO can rightfully rub shoulders with NASA and others in their extraordinary space achievement and that too at frugal cost and for this we must owe our gratitude to Smt Indira Gandhi.

C V Raman – Remembering the Legend on his 133rd Birth Anniversary

Sir C V Raman – Remembering the Legend on his 133rd Birth Anniversary

Images - Courtesy Raman Research Institute and Wiki Commons

Sir Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman -  C V Raman – holds the unique distinction of being the first Asian and the first non-white to win the coveted Nobel Prize in Sciences and the one and only Indian Scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1930, for the discovery of the effect, known after his name - The Raman Effect. CV Raman was born on 7th November, 1888 in a small town of Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.

Imagine you shine a light on an object, and most of that light simply bounces back, but a small part of the light changes its colour (wavelength) slightly and this change is dependent on the nature of the molecules with which it interacts. This change in color or the wavelength of the scattered light is what we call the Raman Effect. When light interacts with molecules, some of the light’s energy can cause the molecules to vibrate or move. These vibrations can make the scattered light change its colour or wavelength. By studying this change, scientists can learn a lot about the molecules and their behaviour, which causes this change.  In simple terms, Raman Effect is like our unique ADHAR card number, which establishes each of our identities based on our fingerprint and iris scan. Raman Effect is a fingerprint of molecules, helping scientists understand the world at a tiny, molecular level by looking at how light interacts with these molecules.

Raman was born on 7th November 1888 in the small town of Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu to R. Chandrasekhar Iyer and Parvathi Ammal. Interestingly enough Raman did not begin his career as a professional scientist, rather, like most other brilliant students of the era, he too was attracted to the Indian Civil Service (ICS), which unfortunately he could not undertake owing to the medical restrictions for his travel to England to appear for the ICS exam. He chose the next best option and succeeded in becoming the Assistant Accountant General in the colonial Indian Finance Department in Calcutta in 1907 and served this post for nearly a decade before resigning from the post to start his full-time career as a Palit Professor in Physics at the Calcutta University in 1917. During the period from 1907 to 1917, Raman worked part-time at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, where he pursued his research and passion for science. Raman had barely worked for 13 years as a regular and professional scientist, before receiving his coveted Nobel Prize at a relatively young age of 41 years, and that too singularly. Raman pushed those barriers of colonialism and a slave mindset to make a mark not just for himself but also for our entire country and that too in the field of sciences, which was believed to be the sole fiefdom of the whites who had loads of money. Raman also broke the myth that great science can only be practiced and performed in labs that invest loads of money in scientific research. Raman must therefore be considered as a scientist who deserves to remain alive in the hearts and minds of people for which his achievements must continue to be hailed and communicated to the people, particularly to the student community.

 It is now a legend that Raman started his scientific career as a part-time activity in a nondescript building - with unkempt and ill-equipped laboratory -  at the Indian Association for the Cultivation Science, Calcutta (IACS). It was here that Raman created his tryst with scientific destiny and conclusively discovered the Raman Effect on the evening of 28th February 1928. The IACS, an eponymous Institute, was famously and laboriously created by yet another great Indian nationalist, Dr Mahendra Lal Sircar, who envisaged building an institute of excellence in science where Indian students could perform science in the very Institute created by an Indian for the Indians. It was here that Raman looked at light differently and laid the foundation, with his other illustrious fellow scientists, for the emergence of modern Indian science. Raman, though not a believer, was firmly grounded in his beliefs in Indian ethos and traditions and sported his religious sacred thread conspicuously on his bare chest and that quintessential symbolic ‘pigtail’ was dangling behind his head, which was almost always covered by that trademark Raman Head gear.

 As a science communicator and a science museum professional, what appeals to me most about Raman was his love for taking science to the children. Notwithstanding the fact that he was the most famous scientist in India, Raman loved to invest his time and interact with school children, a much needed attribute for scientists, particularly in India where scientific research is mostly public funded. Unfortunately, that is not the case with most of the Indian scientists who shy away from interacting with school students. One of the incident, which a renowned photojournalist TS Satyan narrates, highlights Raman’s interest in children and speaks of the extraordinary quality of Raman to connect very easily with children. Satyan recalls a visit of group of school children from the local school in Bangalore to the Raman Research Institute, an institute, which Raman painstakingly created with help from the Mysore Maharaja, where he continued his research, post his retirement from the Indian Institute of Science, until his last (1948-70). Satyan writes ‘Raman bubbled over with joy in the company of school children answering their questions in his characteristic, simple way’. Raman later guided them to a room saying: "I will show you something beautiful." One of the research interests of Raman, while spending his time at the Raman Research Institute, was in minerals, stones and gems. Raman guided the students to one of the rooms in the Institute where he had stored a variety of stones of many sizes and shapes, besides crystals, diamonds and minerals, which were beautifully displayed in the dark walled room. Raman then suddenly switched off the lights in the room. Standing in the centre of the dark room, he switched on a portable ultraviolet lamp and directed his lamp on the stones and minerals, which were exhibited in the room. The stones and minerals came alive and began to glow in breathtaking bright colours - violet, indigo, blue etc. and in their myriad combinations. A bright little girl screamed in joy "Alice in Wonderland". Delighted, Raman joyously hugged her and planted a soft kiss on her tender cheek. Such was his innate love for children and he was quite innovative in exciting the young minds to the fascinating world of science. Having shown the children, the beauty of nature, which for Raman was central to scientific research, Raman went on to explain the scientific basis of the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence. He also took children around the campus showing them colourful flowers and spoke about the discovery of what came to be known as the Raman Effect, which concerns the molecular diffraction of light that won him the Nobel Prize for Physics. It is such experience that motivates children to pursue science as their career and that too with passion.

 C.V. Raman, can be rightly described as one of the key architects who laid the foundation for modern science in India. Raman and some of his illustrious colleagues at Kolkata, which included among others, JC Bose, P C Ray, MN Saha, and S N Bose, are befittingly credited to be the founders of the Indian Scientific Renaissance, a period of great reckoning for science in India. They excelled in scientific research, bringing in name and fame to Indian Science during the pre-independence era. The period from the early twentieth century to the epoch year 1947, when India attained its tryst with destiny, is of great importance for Indian science. Although it is considered that the inception of Western science in India is of recent origin, it is a matter of records that India did produce eminent scientists during the pre-independence period and the scientific research that emanated from India during this period is of international repute. Raman and his colleagues made their mark in the world of Western science by their original contributions during the early decades of the twentieth century. Raman was amongst the pioneers of that period, self-taught and fully self-trained, who, while pursuing research on his own, created a new ambience and a new school of thought for scientific research in India.

 Raman’s association with the city of Joy, Kolkata, is legendary. It was in this city that Raman once again fell in love with his passion for science on seeing the historical ‘Indian Association for Cultivation of Science (IACS)’ board, while travelling in a tram on way to his office as the Assistant Accountant General, a highly lucrative job of the Indian Financial Services with the British Indian Government. The rest, what they say, is history, which ultimately led Raman to the most coveted Nobel Prize in Physics.

Raman and his students developed an indigenous Spectroscope at the IACS some times during the period from 1924 to 27.  The path-breaking experiments, which were carried out at the IACS using this instrument, culminated in the publication of the findings of a ‘new light’, which was first published in the renowned international magazine, Nature, in 1928. This very instrument, which won Raman the Nobel Prize, was one of the six precious antiquity objects that were sent from India to be a part of the historic exhibition ‘Illumination India - 5000 years of science and Innovation’ that was exhibited at the London Science Museum from October 2017 to April 2018. Fourteen significant objects of importance were sent for the exhibition from India, which included six antiquity objects - including Raman’s original Spectroscope, and 8 other non-antiquity objects. Yours truly was honoured and privileged to be the national coordinator for this coveted exhibition. The original Raman Spectrometer, which was displayed at this exhibition which is now with the IACS, had 6 different components, namely the Mercury Vapour Lamp, Collimating Lens, the Sample holder, the Collecting lens, and the Violet Filter. It was used by Raman and his students to identify materials that display Raman Scattering, a scattering of light that will depend on the medium through which the light gets scattered and the wavelength of the scattered light will change according to the medium and will be higher or lower in frequency. This was completely a path-breaking finding, which befittingly won Sir, C V Raman the Nobel Prize.

 Raman was an extraordinarily precocious child, excelling in academics all through his career. Raman’s father served initially as a school teacher and later became a lecturer in mathematics and physics in a college in Vishakhapatnam where Raman studied in St. Aloysius Anglo-Indian High School from where he passed his matriculation examination at a very young age of 11 years, in 1899. At the age of 13 he passed his F.A. examination (equivalent to today’s intermediate examination) with a scholarship. He then moved to Madras and joined the Presidency College in 1902 from where he completed his B.A. in physics in 1904. He topped the exams and won the gold medal. Three years later, he earned his M.A. degree in 1907. His interest in science was kindled from a very young age. Raman successfully managed to publish two of his initial research papers in the Philosophical Magazine, UK, when he was still pursuing his MA degree in Madras. Raman was interested in music from his childhood days and it was

the sound of the veena which inspired him to try and understand how the musical notes of the veena is produced and what the significance of the Bridge was in generating the musical notes in the Veena. His research on Indian musical instruments led him to publication of several papers including his paper ‘Acoustic Knowledge of Ancient Hindus’.

The first paper that Raman published, while he was still a student in Madras, was in the prestigious Philosophical Magazine, one of the oldest scientific journals in London. Raman had worked on this paper and sent a copy to one of his professors asking for a review. Unfortunately, the Professor had not bothered to look at Raman’s paper, and therefore Raman dared to directly send his paper, under title Unsymmetrical diffraction-bands due to a rectangular aperture directly to Philosophical Magazine in London. His paper, which was about the behaviour of light was accepted by the magazine and was published in the year 1906 when he was still a student. Interestingly, Raman received a letter from Lord Rayleigh, the eminent scientist, addressing Raman as “Professor Raman”, not knowing that Raman, the author of the paper, was still a student and was just nineteen years of age.

 During this period, the best possible career opportunities for the bright students in India were the Indian Civil Services, the former avatar of the modern day Indian Administrative Service - IAS, which continues to be a coveted career even today. But then for competing for the ICS it was mandatory for the aspirants to travel to London for appearing for this exam. Unfortunately, Raman was too frail and the doctors had advised his parents that Raman will not be able to endear this long and arduous sea journey. Therefore, Raman’s father advised Raman to try for the next best possible career option, which was the Indian Financial Services. Raman qualified in the Indian Financial Services Exam and was selected to serve as the Assistant Accountant General in the British Government. His first posting was in the city of Calcutta. He moved to Calcutta in the year 1907 and joined the British government service as the Assistant Accountant General. Serendipitously, one day while travelling in the tram to his office, Raman came across a board on the Bow Bazar Street titled ‘Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science’ (IACS), which completely changed the career path of Raman in the years ahead.

 Raman’s love for experimental science bloomed in the dusty ambience of IACS, which in a way is inextricably linked to the Indian Renaissance in science. It was this very place where Raman worked, part time, painstakingly on his passion that compelled him to let go of a highly lucrative career with the British Government in the financial services, to settle for a lesser salary job at the Calcutta University - as the Palit Professor. Interestingly enough the Palit Professor position, which was offered to Raman by Professor. Ashutosh Mukherjee, the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University who was also the father of Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, had a condition that the incumbent of the chair must mandatorily be trained abroad (Europe). However, Prof Ashutosh Mukherjee, knowing the merit and scholastics that Raman possessed for the job and so also his passion for science, managed to convince his senate to overlook this condition, which Raman did not fulfil, to offer the Palit Professor position to Raman. Raman had never travelled abroad nor did he have any western training in science. This new opportunity, so graciously given by Prof Ashutosh Mukherjee, provided Raman a chance to represent the Calcutta University in a conference in England in the year 1921.  By then Raman had already produced some of the best scientific works at the IACS and he had already attained some reputation in the study of optics and acoustics. Raman’s works were known to the English physicists J. J. Thomson and Lord Rutherford, who gave Raman a warm reception in England, during his tour. Raman’s specialty had been the study of the vibrations and sounds of stringed instruments such as the violin, the Indian veena and tanpura and so also the Indian percussion instruments, the tabla and the mridangam, which he had proved had some unique characteristics that produced pure harmonics unlike the western percussion instruments. Raman made an impression on his western counterparts including the legendary JJ Thomson and Rutherford during his stay in England. 

 It was the return trip from London to Bombay, aboard the SS Narkunda that would change forever the direction of Raman’s future interest in science. During the fifteen-day return voyage, Raman became fascinated with the deep blue colour of the Mediterranean. He was not inclined to accept the widely believed Lord Rayleigh’s explanation that the colour of the sea was just a reflection of the colour of the sky. He therefore proceeded to outline his thoughts on the matter, while still at sea, which he had arrived at experimenting using a Nicol’s prism. He sent a letter to the editors of the journal, Nature, as soon as his ship docked in Bombay (Mumbai now).  Under the title “The Colour of the Sea” Raman wrote ……. “the view has been expressed that “the much-admired dark blue of the deep sea has nothing to do with the colour of water, but is simply the blue of the sky seen by reflection. This is what was believed in wake of a paper published by Lord Rayleigh, whose scientific paper published in Nature in 1910 had articulated this idea. Raman in his letter to the Nature questioned whether the blue of the ocean is due to the reflection of the sky. He wrote the reason for blue of the sea “is really true is shown to be questionable by a simple mode of observation used by the present writer, in which surface-reflection is eliminated, and the other factors remain the same”. This was the beginning of his tryst with the scattering of light works with his Raman fell in love ultimately winning the coveted Nobel Prize for his discovery of a phenomenon that is now called the Raman scattering.

Raman was able to show conclusively that the colour of the sea was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules. Raman then became obsessed with the phenomenon of light scattering. Immediately on his return to Calcutta, he and his group began an extensive series of experiments and started measurements of light, scattered primarily by liquids but also by some solids. In less than a year after his return from England - in 1922 - Raman published his work on the “Molecular Diffraction of Light”, the first of a series of investigations with his collaborators, which ultimately led to his ultimate discovery, on the 28th of February, 1928, of the radiation effect which bears his name (“A new radiation”, Indian J. Phys., 2 (1928). One of his collaborator for this work was Dr K S Krishnan, who some people believed must have been recognised equally for the Nobel Prize. As a matter of fact, although Krishnan and others worked with Raman on this subject at the IACS, it was truly Raman who firmly believed that the scattered light was a new radiation, which produced higher or lower frequency in the scattered light depending on the medium through which it passed. In one of the interviews that Krishnan had given, he firmly says that the credit for the discovery must mandatorily go to his teacher and mentor Raman, his guru and that he and his associates were incidental to the path breaking discovery by Raman. Unfortunately, the controversy to pit Raman against Krishnan gained impetus, courtesy some politics, which provided momentum to the issue, after Raman was conferred the Nobel Prize.

It was on the 16th March, 1928 in Bangalore that Raman for the first time talked about their new discovery, in a public function.  Raman began his lecture in Bangalore with these prophetic words “I propose this evening to speak to you on a new kind of radiation or light emission from atoms and molecules.” Professor Raman delivered this lecture to the South Indian Science Association in Bangalore. Raman, during the course of his lecture, described the discovery that, according to him, resulted from a deceptively simple experiment. This famous experiment was conducted by Raman and his colleagues at the IACS, Kolkata, far away from those great centres of scientific research in the Western world. Raman and his students had used the simplest of inexpensive equipment for their measurement. Although Raman’s original experiments were done by visual observation, precise measurements were made with their low cost spectrograph. Raman, during the initial experiments, had used only a mercury lamp, a flask of benzene, and a direct vision pocket spectroscope. The results that they obtained went on to capture the attention of scientists around the world and bring many accolades, including the Nobel Prize to Raman.

Raman was known for his immodesty and one such instance, which exhibits his immodesty was witnessed in Calcutta. Raman’s travel to London in 1921 and his interaction with the scientists had ensured that his works at IACS were recognised and Raman was nominated for the Fellowship of the Royal Society, London. He was subsequently elected to this prestigious body in 1924. During one of the reception parties that Raman attended in 1924 in recognition of his election to the coveted FRS, Raman is believed to have famously and immodestly stated that in less than five years he will be awarded the Nobel Prize, which later turned out to be a reality.  Raman’s immodesty, his famous ill-tempered, autocratic and “arrogant” approach was probably also responsible for some of the antagonism, which in a way continued to trouble him later in his career.  This coupled with politics and parochialism led to Raman’s ouster from the institute he loved most, the IACS. The coveted recognition of Nobel Prize for Raman was the beginning of a long standing rivalry between him and Meghnad Saha another great scientist from Bengal. Saha too was an aspirant for the Nobel Prize, which most unfortunately eluded him. Moreover, Saha had to move out of Calcutta to take the teaching position in Allahabad and it was not until Raman moved out of Calcutta that Saha could return back to his city, Calcutta. Saha believed that Raman was patronising South Indians at the IACS and that was at the cost of the Bengalis. All these incidents were to have a long lasting impact on the relationship between Raman and Saha. The Bengali Bhadralok’s in Calcutta started a movement in the name of Bangla Nationalism to get rid of Raman. The Nobel Prize also added to the accentuated immodest behaviour of Raman, which only complicated the matters. By the end of 1932 the fissures started coming out in the open and there were letters to the editor in the local newspapers against Raman’s management of the IACS and the Palit Professorship. The accusations were that he had only south Indians around himself as scholars, and that physics was given too much prominence, to the exclusion of other sciences. Adding to the allegations were the major grouse that Bengalis were being side-lined in their own state. This ultimately resulted in Raman’s decision to hesitantly move out of Calcutta, the city he had made home, once and for all. In 1932 he permanently shifted to Bangalore after spending 25 long years in Calcutta.  Raman was at the receiving end of his behaviour and political opportunism of his detractors even in Bangalore. 

By the time Raman left Calcutta, the IACS and the School of Physics in the University of Calcutta had made spectacular progress in several areas. Raman’s stay at Calcutta was a ’golden era' for Physics in India. Several monumental and international quality research was produced in the field of Physics at Calcutta, including works on musical instruments and of course the Raman Effect. In one of the short biographies published on Raman by P. Krishnamurthy, in 1938, he gives a list of about eighty-five students who worked with Raman at Calcutta. He also lists some of the prominent areas in which Raman and his collaborators were engaged in research and the list also includes the number of research papers in these areas which are shown in parentheses. Vibrations and Sound (31); Theory of Musical Instruments (30); Wave-optics (65); Colloids (20); Molecular Scattering of Light (65); X-rays and Electron Diffraction (45); Magnetism and Magneto- optics (40); Electro-optics and Dielectrics (10); Raman Effect (100); Viscosity of Liquids (16); Atomic Spectra (8); Optical and Elastic properties of Solids (20). Krishnamurthy also states that among these published papers Raman was co-author of about 170 papers. It was not just the vast number of papers which are creditworthy but the quality of research was truly international and it caught the attention of the leading scientists of the world.

JN Tata, a benevolent industrialist par excellence and a nationalist with the spirit of humanism, started the Tata Institute (Indian Institute of Science now) in Bangalore in the year 1909. The institute started with three departments, which were primarily focusing on applied sciences. Most of the faculty at the institute were Europeans, primarily the British including the Director of the Institute. In the year 1931, in anticipation of the fact that Sir Martin Fraser, who was the Director of the Institute, was to retire from the post of Director in early 1933, the Tata’s approached the Royal Society, London, and requested them to suggest an appropriate successor to Sir Martin Forster.  Rutherford, the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, who was then the President of the Royal Society, suggested Raman's name. Raman’s name for the post of Director of the Institute was later approved by two selection Committees, one in England and one in India.  Raman took over the Directorship of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore in July 1933 shifting his base completely from Calcutta to Bangalore.

When Raman assumed the charge of the Director of the IISC, the institute did not have a Physics Department. Moreover, the research output of the Institute was not significant either by way of quality or quantity. Raman, having been a witness to the quality and quantity of the scientific research that was produced at Calcutta in IACS and the Calcutta University, felt that the IISC had become quite a ‘sleepy place’ where little work was done by a large number of “well paid people". He therefore was in a hurry to act quickly and reorganize the functioning of the Institute so that results could be seen and seen fast. Subconsciously the first thing that came to his mind to improve the situation was to start a Physics Department. He also set out to reorganise the existing Departments including the workshops. This was a time when scientists from Germany were prepared to move out of Germany. He also believed that bringing in non-British European scientists to work for the institute will be beneficial to the restructuring of the Institute. Raman therefore sent out request letters to some of best scientists including to Max Born and Erwin Schrodinger and asked them to visit or even take up long term appointments at the IISc. Although his objectives were for the larger good of the Institute, there was resentment amongst the British faculty in the Institute, against this decision of Raman, to invite non British Europeans as faculty members at IISc. Raman knew that most nations were making attempts to recruit German scientists fleeing the new Nazi regime and therefore he was firmly of the opinion that India too should not lose this opportunity. He therefore had managed to attract Max Born to Bangalore in 1935 on a temporary readership, which Raman intended to convert into a new chair in Mathematical Physics.

The appointment raised hackles among the faculty. An English professor of Electrical Engineering described Born as a “second-rate foreigner”. Others with nationalist commitments wanted an Indian appointed – Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was on the IISc council, was campaigning for a Bengali candidate. There was other reason for friction between Raman and his detractors one of which was the resentment building against Raman’s emphasis on physics. Raman had established Physics department even while the institute was facing budget cuts in the era of the Great Depression. Raman had established the physics department with a capital that nearly equaled the combined annual contributions of the Tata’s, the Government of India and the Government of Mysore to the Institute. The resulting reorganization of the other departments, together with an emphasis on hands-on workshop training also caused resentment among the class-conscious faculty members.

The Director of the IISc was to function under the aid and advise of IISC Council, which most unfortunately had several of Raman's detractors, including Professor Meghnad Saha and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee with whom Raman had developed serious differences while at Calcutta. Therefore, Raman’s plans for the improvement of the IISc did not go well with his detractors. His plans to invite non-European scientists, though very well intentioned, became an Achilles heels for Raman and eventually on the issue of appointing Max Born, as Professor of Mathematical Physics, the Council outvoted Raman and got a Review Committee appointed to look into the affairs of the Institute. Here too Raman was at a disadvantage. The Committee mostly consisted of Raman’s detractors and included Sir James Irvine, Vice- Chancellor of St. Andrews University, Dr. S.S. Bhatnagar, Professor of Chemistry in Punjab University, Lahore and Dr. A.H. Mackenzie, Pro-Chancellor of Osmania University. The outcome of the committees finding became a foregone conclusion even before the committee submitted its formal report. When the report was submitted by the committee, it was not at all charitable to Raman and the politics was evident in its report. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee played a role which was diametrically opposite to the patronage that his father provided to Raman. All this led to the inevitable resignation of Raman from the position of the Director of the Institute. Raman was baselessly targeted for some ill doings in the institute. Raman could serve as the Director of the Institute for just around four years from 1933 to 1937. However, Raman continued to work at the institute as Professor of Physics until his retirement in 1948, from the IISc.

Raman had major differences even with Pundit Nehru and he firmly believed that Nehru had his priorities wrong in investing majorly in institutes like the CSIR, which was the brainchild of Bhatnagar. He cautioned Nehru that major investments in CSIR, Atomic Energy etc., will be at the cost of the university research, which he felt would be adversely effected. He coined the phrase “Nehru- Bhatnagar effect” to describe the mushrooming of CSIR laboratories in the 1950s, predicting they would achieve little despite the massive sums spent.

Post his retirement from IISc, Raman spent all his money, time and energy, for the next 22 years of his life, in establishing the Raman Research Institute. The Mysore Maharaja helped him with 11 acres of land for the establishment of the RRI. Raman continued to remain active with his research at RRI and he was also associated with the activities of the Indian Academy of Sciences, an institution, which he had founded in 1934. Raman, apart from his sustained interest in the standard fields of Optics and Acoustics, was also engaged in other areas of science, which included varied topics such as the structure of crystals (especially diamond), the plumage of birds, the colours exhibited by minerals, the colours of flowers, the perception of light by the eye and the theory of hearing, the science of meteorology and so on. Perhaps, the most well-known contribution, which Raman made during this period was on the diffraction of light by high frequency sound waves, now known as the Raman - Nath theory. 

Raman did not participate actively in freedom movement nor was he actively engaged in any of the political activities. But then that in no way must take away the merit of his nationalistic feelings. Raman, in one of his interviews has said ‘National awakening has got other fields than politics in which it can show itself. ... I think scientific endeavour has certainly a national value, and I have heard it said that what Indian scientists, particularly physicists have done, has helped more to raise the esteem of India in the world than recent political events.” He made this statement in an interview to the Free Press of India after he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Raman had his own way to show his patriotism. There is also an apocryphal belief that Raman had tears in his eyes while receiving the Nobel Prize at the Nobel Ceremony standing under the Union Jack and not under an Indian Flag.

Raman received many Prizes and honours including the Fellow of the Royal Society (1924), Nobel Prize in Physics (1930), Hughes medal (1930), Franklin Medal (1941), Bharat Ratna (1954), Lenin Peace Prize (1957) and honorary doctorates from several prestigious universities. After serving for eight decades, Raman died of a cardiac arrest on November 21, 1970, at the age of 82. He has left behind a scientific legacy which continues to inspire generations of scientists and the Raman Research Institute (RRI), which he painstakingly built and the Museum within the precincts of the RRI - that he was personally involved in setting up including partaking in the design and commissioning of the wooden cabinets – houses a treasure trove of materials that relate to the life and works of CV Raman. The Raman effect will continue to perpetuate the legend of Raman for eternity. Today, on the occasion of his 133^rd birth anniversary let us join in remembering this colossal Indian scientist whose contributions will ever remain etched in golden letters in the annals of history of modern science in India.

May you continue to remain in the hearts and minds of people, Prof Raman.

 

 

 Wishing you a very happy Deepawali - A Festival which resonates with all Indians.

Deepavali or Diwali, is a major Hindu Festival celebrated by over a billion Indians and expats across India and in other lands wherever they are home to. The ancient celebration of Deepavali is linked to multiple mythological stories in religious texts, and it is extremely difficult to say which of the stories came first, or when exactly did the celebration of Deepavali begin. One thing though is certain about this festival that it is a major festival of India, celebrated all across the country with great fervour. Deepavali is the festival of lights, which marks and celebrates the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. There are different ways in which this festival is celebrated across the country and the diversity of the ways in which this festival of light is celebrated across different regions of India, in a way, is an embodiment of that adage that we all use to represent our vast and culturally, historically and religiously rich country - Unity in Diversity. Deepavali or Diwali is a five day long festival, which is celebrated in diverse way across India with one central theme of the festival - victory of good over evil.

Derived from Sanskrit dipavali, which means “row of lights,” Deepavali or Diwali, is a Hindu festival known for the brightly burning clay lamps (Diyas in their creative best colours and vibrancy) that the celebrants line up outside their homes. The time, period and dates when this festival is to be celebrated is determined based on the Hindu Lunar Calendar, which marks each month by the time it takes the moon to orbit Earth. Deepavali begins just before the arrival of a new moon between the Hindu months of Asvina and Kartika —which typically falls in October or November of the Gregorian calendar. This year (2021) Deepavali festival has commenced on November 2, and the most important festival day of this five festival is celebrated today, 4th November. This five days long Festival of Lights - Deepavali - is marked by colourful Diyas, prayers, feasts, fireworks, family gatherings, and charitable giving. For some, Diwali is also the beginning of a new year of book keeping. One common connect for the celebration of Deepavali is reverentially honouring and remembering the incarnations of Lord Vishnu (Bhagwan Ram and Bhagwan Krishna) and Goddess Lakshmi. 

Diwali is also observed with same reverence and fervour among Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhists, who have their own significance to this Festival of Lights. The Sikhs recognize Diwali as a celebration of the release of their Sixth Guru, Hargobind, who was one of their spiritual leaders, from captivity by the Mughal Emperor Jehangir. In his reverence, it is said that Guru Hargobind’s followers decorated and lit up the entire path, all the way to the Golden Temple, with colourful and decorative lamps. The festival also has a significance for the Jains in India. For them, Diwali is the day Lord Mahavira, the last of the Jain Tirthankaras, achieved moksha or enlightenment/nirvana.

The Buddhists too have their own significance for celebrating the Festival of Lights. They celebrate Deepavali as Ashok Vijayadashami day and they believe that it was on this day that King Ashoka the Great embraced Buddhism as his faith and it was he who helped in spreading this new religion across the present day India and beyond. 

The Hindi heartland of India - North Indians - commemorate the festival of Diwali to mark that historic event when the people of Ayodhya joined the welcome celebration, by lighting the auspicious lamps (brightly burning colourful clay lamps), of their favourite reverential king, Bhagvan Ram, back to the city of Ayodhya. Bhagwan Ram returned back to Ayodhya after those gruelling 14 years of Vanvas during which Bhagwan Ram had vanquished the demon King Ravan who had deceitfully kidnapped Ma Sita. In this part of our country, the five day festival of Diwali begins with Dhanteras and ends with Bhratri-dwitiya or Bhai-dooj after full five days of celebration. 

This year Dhanteras was celebrated on 2nd November followed by Chhoti Deepavali on 3rd November and today is an occasion to celebrate the main Diwali festival when Laxmi Puja is also performed across homes praying Ma Laxmi to grace their homes. Homes across north India are brightly light with burning clay lamps (Diyas in their creative best colours and vibrancy) and also modern day electric lamps and LEDs, which are lined up outside every home. Today is also the day when fire crackers are bursted, although this tradition has unfortunately been at the receiving end of the environmental activists over the years. Tomorrow is the day when Govardhan Puja is celebrated, when Lord Krishna is invoked through Govardhan Puja and on this occasion the venerated cattle’s are also worshipped and this tradition of veneration for cattle finds special mention all through the centuries including finding a mention in article 48 of the Constitution of India under the Directive Principles, which directs the state to make efforts for banning animal slaughtering of cows and calves. The last day of the five day festival, which will be celebrated on 6th November, is celebrated as  Bhratri-dwitiya or Bhai-dooj and that brings an end to the Diwali festival. It is customary for people to acquire some expensive items like gold and jewellery or even a household object on Dhanteras. These age old traditions helped in ensuring that the artisans who are involved in the making of these ornaments are fruitfully engaged and rewarded to partake their shares of the agricultural wealth.

In Southern part of India Deepavali is celebrated as the victory and vanquishing of the high and mighty Narakasura by Bhagavan Krishna, another incarnation of Bhagwan Vishnu. Bhagwan Krishna was supported by his beloved wife Sathyabhama in the killing of Narakasura and freeing some 16,000 women who were held hostage by this Rakshas. The mythological story of Narakasura, the son of Bhumidevi (Mother Earth), reveals that although he was the son of a divine spirit, he gave into wicked temptations of power and greed, and became evil in his thoughts and actions. Narkasura was a curse to the people of his kingdom, who caused all round destruction on everything around him. He misused his divine gifted strength to conquer neighbouring kingdoms including Svargaloka. His unstoppable misadventures led him to kidnapping all the beautiful young women in the kingdom of Svargaloka. The residents of Svargaloka sought divine intervention from Bhagwan Krishna, an incarnation of Bhagwan Vishnu, to save them from Narkasura’s terror. Krishna fought in a fierce battle and helped by his beloved wife Sathybhama he could defeat and kill Narakasura thus helping people of Svargaloka to celebrate victory of good over evil.

There is also a mention of the importance of Diwali in the Vedas. According to the Vedic legends, it was on the night of Diwali when Goddess Lakshmi chose to marry Bhagwan Vishnu. In the western parts of India, particularly in Gujrat, Diwali is celebrated as a new year day and old accounting systems continue to treat this day as the beginning of new accounting year and on this day they worship not only Goddess Lakshmi but also Lord Ganesha, whose worship is considered to bring good omen for the new year. In some parts of western India, the Diwali festival marks another story in which Lord Vishnu banished the demon King Bali. People of East India, particularly Bengal, associate Diwali with Goddess Durga and her fierce Ma Kali avatar. 

Deepavali - the festival of light - which is celebrated over five days in its diversity across India embodies the spirit of India as a land of righteousness and piety whose age old values and traditions are timeless and have continued to perpetuate unhindered even while we were invaded innumerable times over centuries. This festival therefore has always been of paramount importance to Indians from historic times, who have celebrated it as a festival  of light, which commemorates the victory of good over evil. It is a festival which is celebrated with diversity and observed not only by Hindus, but also by Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhists.

Diwali is therefore a quintessential festival of India which exemplifies India as a country of diversity with many different cultural customs and traditions, with a common connect that touches the chord and resonates with all Indians. In that sense the festival of Diwali embodies the poetic expressions of the incredible plurality and diversity of India. Deepavali festival exemplifies the process of unity in diversity through which the extraordinary unity of Indians has been stitched into the very fabric of our Indianness, that is blessed from a land of virtuousness and piety. This is evidenced in the rich diversity in which the festival Deepavali or Diwali is celebrated in all its diversity across India with one central commemoration - Victory of Good over evil and Light over darkness.

Images - courtesy Wiki Commons.

Happy Deepavali 🙏🙏