This day - November 7, marks the 132nd birth anniversary of Sir Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman - C V Raman, the one and only Indian Scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. Not just that, Raman also became the first Asian and a first non white Scientist to win the most coveted Nobel Prize in sciences, in the year 1930, for the discovery of the effect known after his name - The Raman Effect. Raman was born on 7th November, 1888 in a small town of Thirucherapalli, Tamil Nadu to R. Chandrasekhara Iyer and Parvathi Ammal. Raman received the coveted Nobel prize at a relatively young age of 42. Considering the fact that Raman did not start his career as a regular scientist, his achievement becomes all the more remarkable. Raman actually began his career as an Assistant Accountant General with 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, which makes his achievements that much more praiseworthy. Raman must therefore mandatorily be considered as a scientist who deserves to remain alive in our history lessons to become a source of inspiration for generations to come. I was therefore of the opinion that our Indian media will do justice to this great legend - Sir C V Raman, by remembering him and writing about him on his birthday today.
But then most unfortunately a look at the densely populated Times of India, Mumbai edition, and so also a cursory search through several other news and media, has revealed that there is no coverage of Raman’s birthday, barring a few passing reference here and there, in any of the major media, both print and electronic, which have continued to give major coverage to the Bihar and US elections and so also the Covid pandemic. What a travesty of justice and an indifference to this great scientist of India, who pushed those barriers of colonialism and 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 broke the myth that great science can only be practiced and performed in labs that invest tonnes of money on scientific research.
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 discovered the Raman Effect on the evening of 28th February 1928, to earn the coveted Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. 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. Incidentally it was on the 21st of November 1970, that Sir CV Raman left for his heavenly abode and this year also marks the fiftieth year of his punya tithi. I earnestly hope that the media makes amends for their turning a blind eye to this great legend and extend him that mandated respect and reverence and cover him extensively while commemorating his fiftieth punya tithi, which is just two weeks from now. 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 and most of the Indian scientists shy away from interacting with school students and feel that it may be a waste of time for the practising scientists to be away from their lab and scientific research work. We need role models for our children, who are a plenty when it comes to subjects like sports and cinema and these role models, be it the likes of Sachin Tendulkar or Amitabh Bachhan or the likes of Saina Nehwal and Aishwarya Rai, are covered day in and day out in the media and advertisements. The influence of such role models on young minds is there for every one to see. But then we hardly have any scientist role models, who get even a fraction of that media highlight, which the sports and cinema stalwarts receive in India and therefore it becomes that much more necessary for the practising scientists to directly interact with school students to be their role models. Raman was truly a great role model who loved to interact with school children. 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 says that a group of school children from the local school in Bangalore came calling at the Raman Research Institute, an institute, which Raman 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 ultra violet 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 also 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 in 1930. It is such experience that motivate children to pursue science as their career and that too with passion. I would therefore like to dedicate this post of my reverence to Raman to the cause of Science.
C.V. Raman, can be rightly described as one of the key architect 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, 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 the Indian Science during the pre-independence era. The period from the early twentieth century to the epoch year 1947, when India attained its independence, 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 on 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 in 1930. This year due to the Covid pandemic Raman’s birthday celebrations have been muted in most scientific institutions including in science museums. However, I am reminded of last years celebrations, which coincided with the India International Science Festival that was organised at our sister unit, Science City, Kolkata. To commemorate Raman’s birthday last year, the city of Joy chose a brilliant, Guinness Book record winning idea in which nearly 1600 students of classes VI to XI from different schools from across the country attended a lecture on astrophysics at the Science City, Kolkata, to set a new record in the Guinness Book of World Records. This was one of several events, which were organised during the fifth edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF) at Science City. Another interesting feature of the event was that all the students who participated in the event were engaged in the making of a small model of an advanced low cost spectroscope, with cardboard, during a practical experiment session that followed the lecture. The low cost spectroscope equipment was meant to inspire students that Raman produced his monumental findings using such low cost scientific instrument to discover the Raman effect. Raman had used a low cost, locally built Spectrometer at the IACS and this instrument, which costed him less than 500₹, helped him and his associates in recording their experimental readings, which led to the discovery of the Raman effect and the Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 1930.
Raman and his students developed the Spectroscope while working 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. I was honoured and privileged to be the national coordinator for this coveted exhibition. This historic exhibition was one of the major events to commemorate the India - UK year of Culture. Our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji, paid a visit to this exhibition in London in 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.
The original Raman Spectrometer is now with the IACS and it had 6 different components, namely the Mercury Vapor Lamp, Collimating Lens, the Sample holder, the Collecting lens, the Violet Filter. The original Raman Spectrometer, which was sent for the exhibition was not in working condition as the inner contraptions of the spectrometer were missing. This instrument was originally used to identify materials that display Raman Scattering, a scattering of light which 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. Sir, C V Raman got the Nobel Prize for the discovery of an effect named after him in the year 1930, using this very instrument. On completion of the exhibition the Raman Spectrometer along with other antiquity objects returned back to India and the Raman spectrometer is now in the custody of IACS, the very institute where Raman developed and used this instrument.
Raman was an extraordinarily precious 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. Raman studied in St. Aloysius Anglo-Indian High School at Vishakhpatnam 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 got two of his initial research papers published in the Philosophical Magazine UK, when he was still pursuing his MA degree in Madras. He 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 in India the best possible career opportunities for the bright students 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 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.
On his return back from office to home, Raman dropped in at the IACS office to enquire about the institute. The IACS was laboriously and painstakingly created by the legendary Dr Mahendra Lal Sircar, a nationalist 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. 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 the great Prof. Ashutosh Mukherjee, the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University who was also the father of Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, had a condition for the Palit Professorship that the incumbent of the chair must mandatorily be trained abroad. However, Prof Ashutosh Mukherjee knowing the merit and scholastics that Raman possessed for the job, managed to convince his senate to overlook this condition, which Raman did not fulfil, to offer this 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 color of the Mediterranean. He was not inclined to accept the widely believed Lord Rayleigh’s explanation that the color of the sea was just a reflection of the color of the sky. He therefore proceeded to outline his thoughts on the matter while still at sea and sent a letter to the editors of the journal, Nature, as soon as his ship docked in Bombay (Mumbai now). A little time later Raman was able to show conclusively that the color 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 measurements of light scattered primarily by liquids but also by some solids. In less than an 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) 387). 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 Krishan 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 has given, he firmly says that the credit for the discovery must mandatorily go to Raman, his guru and that he and his associates were incidental to the path breaking discovery by Raman. The controversy 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. They 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, which they had fabricated. Raman and his students, during their initial experiments, 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 on 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. True to his immodest statement of claim, which he had made while hosting a party for his election to the prestigious FRS in 1924, that he will receive the Nobel Prize in the next five years, Raman indeed was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. But then this coveted recognition 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 also 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 sidelined 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 standards research happened 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 that 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, had conceived an Institute or University, which he intended to establish in Bangalore with an objective of providing a facility for higher learning to Indians. He was motivated to think about this institute while listening to a speech by Lord Reay, the Governor of Bombay, in 1889. Finally the seeds of developing a higher learning institute of excellence, which were sowed in the minds of JN Tata, became a reality and the Tata Institute (Indian Institute of Science now) was established 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 Tatas approached the Royal Society, London, and requested them to suggest an appropriate successor, preferably an Indian, to Sir Martin Forster. Rutherford, the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, who was then the President of the Royal Society, suggested Raman's name, who by then was conferred with the Nobel Prize. 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 brining 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 these scientists including to Max Bom and Erwin Schoedinger 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 physicists fleeing the new Nazi regime and therefore he was firmly of the opinion that India too should not loose 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 Mookerjee, who was on the IISc council, was campaigning for a Bengali candidate. There were 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 equalled the combined annual contributions of the Tatas, the Government of India and the Government of Mysore to the Institute. The resulting reorganisation of the other departments, together with an emphasis on hands-on workshop training also caused resentment among the 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 was 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 under Raman. 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, the son of Ashutosh Mukherjee who had famously side stepped a mandated requirement for the appointment of Palit Professor to offer this Chair to Raman at Calcutta, 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, even after he submitted his resignation from the position of Director of the Institute, 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 Pandit 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. Raman also has to his credit mentoring two of the best minds of India - Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai who worked with Raman at the IISc. Bhabha and Sarabhai are the founding fathers of DAE and ISRO, two jewels in the Indian science. Raman was also a great mentor and a great teacher, who was so very committed to his students that it is said that he preferred to stay back with his students who were preparing their dissertation, rather than accept the invitation of the Honourable President of India to be his guest at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for receiving the Bharat Ratna award, which was bestowed on Raman. Raman also became the first National Professor.
Post his retirement from IISc, Raman spent all his time and energy for the next 22 years of his life in establishing the Raman Research Institute, with help from the Mysore Maharaja who 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 colors exhibited by minerals, the colors 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, perhaps 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, which also alludes to his patriotism and nationalistic feelings.
Today while the major national dailies and media has completely forgotten the legendary Raman’s birthday, I join millions of scientific community in India and abroad in remembering this colossal I dian scientists 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.
