The shortcomings of colonial technical education and role of CET (College of Engineering and Technology) in their rectification.

1. Introduction

Technical education during colonial period refers to the science and technology developed during colonial period. Many include the nationalist science activities and science achievements considered as product of colonial rule. According to George Basalla colonial science is the arrival and acceptance of European science in the colonies where there was not a semblance of science before European colonisation of India. Both are unhappy explanation of colonial science and Basalla’s Eurocentric view cannot go unchallenged. What happened in India was not transfer of science and technology but transplanting of European science and technology. Colonial science was not therefore a matter of frame or periodisation of history. It meant much more than that. Colonial science is the accumulation of knowledge of science and technology about the resource of the colony and utilization of this knowledge for extraction of these resources for colonial purpose. In the sense the Baconian dictum that “Knowledge is power” can be recorded. Focault more incisively makes this equation of knowledge with power and its control and manipulation for the benefit of ruling class.

Right from the beginning, the British authorities had no intention of imparting scientific education to the Indians. If one examines development of technical education in historical perspective it was clear that the foundation of technical education was laid down at the same time as in Europe but its growth was stunted till the India became independent. The British came to India for exchanging goods between England and India. The battle of Plassey in 1757 gave unique opportunity to Britishers to change their status from commercial traders to colonizers. Britain gradually captured the political power and became the ruler of this country. To rule any country the rulers should have intimate knowledge about topography and resources of that country. In order to fulfil this objective survey schools were came up to train Indian personnel in modern land surveying and to assist British surveyors. Since then, so long as the colonial government was here, the major initiative of for starting technical education came only out of the necessity of the British rulers for train middle level technical personnel required in construction and maintenance of public building, roads, canals, ports, harbours and other services.

The first engineering college was established at Roorkee for training civil engineering licentiates by making use of the facilities created for upper Ganga canal for communication from Bengal to upper India. However on the recommendation contained in Woods despatch on the need for creating training facilities, three engineering colleges were established, one in Bengal, one in Bombay and in Madras which developed into Bengal Engineering College, Poona Engineering College and Guindy engineering College respectively. These colleges were established in 1856 in pursuance of a government policy. The patterns of training of these colleges were more or less same and later on these colleges upgraded to degree level in civil engineering.

In early stage superior cadre technical personnel was mainly recruited from United Kingdom and only limited steps were taken to train middle level personnel and trained craftsman. Apart from the institutions established for the purpose, the training was mainly given at such technical establishments like gun factories, workshops, etc and through organised apprenticeship classes in mechanical and electrical engineering. This method continued for long time.  Since the industrial progress during the nineteenth century was painfully slow, development of technical education and training was practically marginal. This was due to the economic policies followed by British government in India in order to keep Indian economy subservient to British economy and sustain the power structure of a colonial government.

2. Swadeshi Technical Education

Rajendralal Sarkar was the pioneer of national technical education in nineteenth century Bengal. His aim was to impart technical education to novices in the institute founded by him in sixties of the century. This is clear from his speech in support of the founding of the Indian association for cultivation science in 1876.Rajendralal Mitra pointed out that without cultivation of science; technical education did not become technology. It remained at the level of artisans. The Rajendralal Mitra and Father Lafont supported Mahendralal’s association in founding of the association. The house family voted in favour of the I.A.C.S. and was born in 1876.It was felt in India circle that a national science association was needed under Indian supervision for national cultivation. The technical institute would have been dependent on foreign instructors. The British government had no interest in promoting the I.A.C.S. The I.A.C.S. is the first nationalist body of its kind which was dedicated to create a pool of scientists who would also supervise technical education if necessary.

3. The Hindu Mela

The idea of swadeshi technical education came up into the mind of the educated Bengalis was the result of Hindu Mela. A technical fair was regularly held as a part of the Hindu Mela since 1867.The art and craft of budding scientists were regularly displayed there. It gave the motivation to young generation to take technical education as a profession during these days. Among the intellectuals Rajnarain Bose, Bholanath Chandra and Manmohan Bose were the chief patrons of the Hindu Mela and thy laid all kind of great  emphasis on all kind of swadesi enterprise. The inventor who caught every eye for his inventions was Sitanath Ghosh. These included Sewing machine, an air pump, a mechanical plough, telegraph communication and a magnetic healer.

4. The Dawn Society

The next important centre for technology after the era of the Hindu Mela was the Dawn Society (1902 -1906) founded by Satish Chandra Mukherjee. Even before it, Satish Chandra had started the Dawn Magazine (1897) in which articles of science and technologies were regularly published. Swadeshi technology was specially discussed in all columns of Dawn Magazine. The magazine carried more than forty articles on science and technology. The Dawn society had regular courses in industrial and technical education at both primary and higher levels. Thus Dawn Society provided the immediate background to the national council of education and its technical school, the Bengal Technical Institute or the B.T.I.

5. National Council of Education

The political whirlpool caused by the University Act of 1902 and the Partition of Bengal (1905) transformed the society like Dawn Society into the giant body of National Council of Education. The national council of Education was born on 1^st June, 1906 with Rashbehari Ghosh as the president. To start with NCE launched two institutions, the Bengal National College for general science, arts and Bengal Technical Institute (BTI) for technical education. In a report the purpose of BTI mentioned clearly as

“Our attention is first directed to the great industrial awakening that has of late taken place in the country. Everywhere signs of this new industrial spirit have manifested themselves. Our eyes have been opened to the vast natural resources of the country lying practically undeveloped. The success of Europe in the field of industrial enterprise has also been an eye opener to us and has stimulated our energy.”

6. The Birth of Bengal Technical Institute

The Bengal Technical Institute was opened on 25^th July 1906 at 82,Upper circular Road with Pramathanath Bose as its first  principal. Rashbehari Ghosh was the president of the executive committee of BTI .At the initial stage; the BTI introduced two kinds of courses. One was three year intermediate course and the other was a four year secondary course. The non metric students also get admitted to the secondary course. They mainly learn fitting dying, carpentry, electroplating and lithography, soap making and tanning. The main subjects here were 1.Mechanical and electrical engineering 2.Applied Chemistry 3.Geology.In  1908 it had 144 students in two courses .In this way Bengal technical institute  contributed for creating of nations technical man power.

7. From BTI to the College of Engineering

During the First World War many nationalist leaders decided in favour of supporting the British authorities for gaining political concessions after the war. This change of attitude distraught the activities of BTI.Some eminent teachers,like Bhim Chandra Chattarjee left the BTI in 1916 still maintained its programme of technical education. The executive committee decided to expand their activities in spite of all the difficulties. In 1918 it was decided to buy land in suburb for its new campus, encourage students to find self employment, grant, and scholarship for research, build hostel for residential students.

One of the important steps taken in this direction was to employ foreign returned Indian students as teachers of the BTI. One such new recruit was Professor Hemachandra Dasgupta, who returned after his higher studies in Michigan,USA in 1918.As Binoy Sarkar observes the period 1910-18 was ‘a period of struggle and experimentation in the history of BTI’. But its survival was ‘a specimen of self sacrifice, creative patriotism and strenuous exertions”.

The next decade was a period of resurgence of the BTI. The anti Rowaltt agitation (1919) and the start of non co-operation movement under Mahatma Gandhi 1920 brought back the nationalist agenda. The student’s enrolment of the BTI was rapidly increased. In 1919 the number was 150,in 1920 it was 247 and in 1921 it swelled to 520.It became necessary to find out a new campus and after hectic search a plot of 100 bighas was taken on a lease at rent of Rs210 per year for 99 years from the Calcutta corporation at Jadavpur.The foundation stone of the Aurobindo Building was laid on 11th March 1922 and the building was completed in 1924.In 1921 a committee was sat toexpand the scope of studies in engineering and chemical engineering added to the new curriculum .It was also decided to improve faculty by sending some of the teachers  abroad for training. The first three trainees were Sri Hiralal Roy, Sri Satish Chandra Bhttacharjee and Jotindranath Bose. They came back and rejoined the BTI in 1928 after higher studies. It was felt that BTI should be renamed as College of Engineering and Technology as parallel institution to Shibpur B.E.college.

8. College of Engineering and Technology

There was no turning back since its inception. The significant achievement was by end of 1925 CET turned out 100 qualified engineers for the cause of the country. It was recognised as a major engineering college both at home and abroad. The apathy of British authorities could not deter its success .In 1956 when the Jadavpur University was founded; the CET became its integral part. Founding members of National Council of Bengal, the parent body of the Jadavpur University, in 1906 set the goal "To achieve self reliance through empowerment of Youth by imparting Best of Global Knowledge".

The University also aims:

·        To promote and pursue higher education by linking up traditionally separated subjects in the light of the ever-changing global scenario.

·        To explore new dimensions of academic administration free of bureaucratic impediments.

·        To set up a role model for academic leadership.

The BTI which was small industrial school in 1906 braved all crises to become an engineering university. Binoy Sarkar describes how three stages of technical education were visible in the growth and development of the BTI into CET. The stages were Mistrification, Modernisation and Industrialisation. This illustrates the transition from techniques to technology. At the level of BTI; it was only a mechanic institute which Sarkar called Mistrification. When science supported it, it got elevated into technology for industrialisation. Its contribution to national contribution was immense. The Shibpur Engineerig College had only civil and electrical departments whereas the CET taught many other branches, like mechanical and chemical engineering and produced not less than 500 entrepreneurs like Alamohan Das before independence made their names all over the world.

As a reincarnation of the CET, Jadavpur University continued to abide by the noble ideals and aspirations of the National Council of Education, Bengal and created 3 separate faculties of broad disciplines in international line – Arts, Science and Engineering. Throughout its first decade the University continued to add new departments and new subjects in the curriculum with due regard to the industrial requirements of a growing nation.

Novel curriculum design and introduction of innovative courses go a long-way in moulding the career of younger students into various walks of life in the society. In this respect, Jadavpur University has made great strides in designing their curricula. Considerable freedom and   flexibility for the faculty to design relevant and innovative courses have earned a good reputation for the University. The institution has travelled a long way from a College of Engineering & Technology to Jadavpur University and successfully established itself as one of the better Indian research and teaching institution with a vast repertoire of courses offered.

9. Conclusion

From the study it is clear that the development of technical education in India was gone through different stages, beginning from establishment of engineering colleges by British to establishment of engineering colleges by the nationalists. One of such Engineering institution established by the effort of national leaders was College of Engineering of Technology (CET),Jadavpur. This particular institute taken for case study developed on a nationalist line. In short the development may be seen in two aspects: colonial and nationalist. The second one was the result of first one. Although number of technical institutes established by British during the colonial rule but failed to fulfil the requirement of people. The main shortcomings of colonial technical education were listed below.

1.     The superior cadre technical personnel in the technical domain were mainly recruited from United Kingdom.

2.     Starting technical education in India came only out of the necessity of the British rulers for train middle level technical personnel required in construction and maintenance of public building, roads, canals, ports, harbours and other services.

3.     Only limited steps were taken to train middle level personnel and trained craftsman

The CET rectified the above by following initiatives

1.     CET trained the teachers of the institution outside the country to improve the quality of teaching.

2.     The Shibpur Engineering College had only civil and electrical departments whereas the CET taught many other branches.

10. Reference

1. Dr.Chittabrata Palit, Scientific Bengal,

     Kalpaz Publications (2006), pp 71-101

2. Biman Sen, Development of Technical Education in India and state policy –

    A Historical Perspective, pp 226-229

3.  Samir Kumar Saha, Curriculam Design of Mechanical Engineering in a    Developing Country, Mechanical Engineering Department, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

4. http://www.jaduniv.edu.in/about_us.php

 

RADHANATH SIKDAR THE FORGOTTEN HERO OF INDIAN GEOLOGY

Radhanath Sikdar  (1813 – 17 May, 1870) was an Indian mathematician who, among many other things, calculated the height of Peak XV in the Himalaya and showed it to be the tallest mountain above sea level. Peak XV was later named Mount Everest.

 He was Son of Tituram, Radhanath Sikdar was educated at "Phiringi" Kamal Bose's School and Hindu College (now called Presidency College) in Calcutta, India. Alone among the great Derozians he took to science as his life's mainstay. He worked for the Surveyor General of India, a division of the British Raj in India. He joined the Great Trigonometric Survey in 1831.

When in 1831 George Everest was searching for a brilliant young mathematician with particular proficiency in spherical trigonometry, the Hindu College maths teacher Dr. John Tytler superlatively recommended his pupil Radhanath, then only 19. Radhanath joined the Great Trigonometric Survey in 1831 December as a "computor" at a salary of thirty rupees per month. Soon he was sent to Sironj near Dehra Dun where he excelled in geodetic surveying. Apart from mastering the usual geodetic processes, he invented quite a few of his own. Everest was extremely impressed by his performance, so much so that when Sikdar wanted to leave GTS and be a Deputy Collector, Everest intervened, proclaiming that no government officer can change over to another department without the approval of his boss. Everest retired in 1843 and Col. Waugh became the Director.

After 20 years in the North, Sikdar was transferred to Calcutta in 1851 as the Chief Computor. Here apart from his duties of the GTS, he also served as the Superintendent of the Meteorological department. Here he introduced quite a few innovations that were to remain standard procedure for many decades to come.The most notable was the formula for conversion of barometric readings taken at different temperatures to 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

At the order of Col. Waugh he started measuring the snow capped mountains near Darjeeling. Compiling data about Peak XV from six different observations, he eventually came to the conclusion the Peak XV was the tallest in the world. He gave a full report to Waugh who was cautious enough not to announce this discovery before checking with other data. When after some years, he was convinced, only then did he publicly announce the same. The norm, strictly followed by Everest himself, was that while naming a peak, the local name should be preferred. But in this case, Waugh made an exception. He paid a tribute to his ex-boss by proposing that the peak be named after Everest. Everest agreed, and Sikdar was conveniently forgotten.

It appears that while Everest and Waugh both extolled him for his exceptional mathematical abilities, his relations with the colonial administration were far from cordial. Two specific instances are on record.

In 1851 a voluminous Survey Manual (Eds. Capt. H. L. Thullier and Capt. F. Smyth) was published by the Survey Department. The preface to the Manual clearly and specifically mentioned that the more technical and mathematical chapters of the Manual were written by Babu Radhanath Sikdar. The Manual proved to be immensely useful to surveyors. However, the third edition, published in 1875 (i.e., after Sikdar's death) did not contain that preface, so that Sikdar's memorable contribution was de-recognized. The incident was condemned by a section of British suveyors. The paper Friend of India in 1876 called it 'robbery of the dead'.

It is also on record that Sikdar was fined a sum of 200 rupees by the British court in 1843 for having vehemently protested against the unlawful exploitation of survey department workers by the Magistrate Vansittart. The incident was reported in detail in The Bengal Spectator edited by another great Derozian Ramgopal Ghosh.

In 1854, he along with his Derozian friend Peary Chand Mitra started the Bengali journal Masik Patrika, for the education and empowerment of women. He used to write in a simple and uncluttered style that was rather atypical for the age.

Sikdar had retired from service in 1862.

 The Great Arc passes through the cnetre of country , which  play a great role in almost all geographical  calculations and measurements, developed by Sikdar

He died on 17 May 1870 at Gondalpara, Chandannagar in his villa by the side of the Ganga.

In recognition of Sikdar's mathematical genius the German Philosophical Society's Bavaria branch of Natural Science made him a Corresponding Member in 1864, a very rare honour those days.

The Department of Posts, Government of India, launched a postal stamp on June 27, 2004, commemorating the establishment of the Great Trigonometric Survey in Chennai, India on April 10, 1802. The stamps feature Radhanath Sikdar and Nain Singh, two significant contributors to society. The Great Arc refers to the systematic exploration and recording of the entire topography of the Indian subcontinent which was spear-headed by the Great Trigonometric Survey.

Biography of Indian scientists

Biography of Indian scientists

Apastamba (600 BC - 540 BC)

Mathematics

Apastamba was the author of one of the most interesting Indian Sulbasutras from a mathematical point of view. The general linear equation was solved in the Apastamba's Sulbasutra. He also gives a remarkably accurate value for √2 upto to five decimal places. As well as the problem of squaring the circle, Apastamba considers the problem of dividing a segment into 7 equal parts.

ACHARYA SUSHRUTA (600 BC)

Medicine & Plastic Surgery

A genius who has been glowingly recognized in the annals of medical science. Born to sage Vishwamitra, Acharya Sudhrut details the first ever surgery procedures in "Sushrut Samhita" a unique encyclopedia of surgery. He is venerated as the father of plastic surgery and the science of anaesthesia. Sushruta lays down the basic principles of plastic surgery by advocating a proper physiotherapy before the operation and describes various methods or different types of defects, viz., (1) release of the skin for covering small defects, (2) rotation of the flaps to make up for the partial loss and (3) pedicle flaps for covering complete loss of skin from an area. 

ACHARYA KANADA (3000 BC - 1000 BC or 6th Century BC) 

Atomic Theory

Many believe that Kanada originated the concept of atom. Adherents of the school of philosophy founded by Kanada considered the atom to be indestructible, and hence eternal. They believed atoms to be minute objects invisible to the naked eye which come into being and vanish in an instant. 

ACHARYA CHARAK (3rd to 2nd century BC)

Medicine

Acharya Charak has been crowned as the Father of Medicine. His renowned work, the "Charak Samhita", is considered as an encyclopedia of Ayurveda. His principles, diagoneses, and cures retain their potency and truth even after a couple of millennia. When the science of anatomy was confused with different theories in Europe, Acharya Charak revealed through his innate genius and enquiries the facts on human anatomy, embryology, pharmacology, blood circulation and diseases like diabetes, tuberculosis, heart disease, etc. In the "Charak Samhita" he has described the medicinal qualities and functions of 100,000 herbal plants.

ARYABHATA- I (476AD–550 AD):

Mathematics and Astronomy 

AryaBhatt was the first indian Mathematician and Astronomer. His famous treatise was the "Aryabhatta-siddhanta" but more famously the "Aryabhatiya", It is believe that he was born in Patliputra in Magadha, modern Patna in Bihar. He did the tremendous works in Mathematics and Astronomy. His works in Mathematics were Place value system and zero, Pi as irrational, Mensuration and trigonometry, indeterminate equations, Algebra.

His works in Astronomy were Motions of the solar system, Eclipses, Sidereal periods, Heliocentrism.

ARYABHATA II (920AD- 1000AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics 

He was the author of the Maha-Siddhanta. It consists of eighteen chapters and was written in the form of verse in Sanskrit. The initial twelve chapters deals with topics related to mathematical astronomy and cover the topics that Indian mathematicians of that period had already worked on. The various topics that have been included in these twelve chapters are: the longitudes of the planets, lunar and solar eclipses, the estimation of eclipses, the lunar crescent, the rising and setting of the planets, association of the planets with each other and with the stars. The next six chapters of the book includes topics such as geometry, geography and algebra, which were applied to calculate the longitudes of the planets.

BaudhAyana (800 BC-740BC)

Mathematics 

Baudhayana was an Indian mathematician, who was most likely also a priest. He is noted as the author of the earliest Sulba Sutra—appendices to the Vedas giving rules for the construction of altars—called the Baudhayana Sulbasutra, which contained several important mathematical results. He is older than other famous mathematician Apastambha.

He is accredited with calculating the value of pi (π) to some degree of precision, and with discovering what is now known as the Pythagorean Theorem.

Brahmagupta (598AD – 668AD)

Mathematics and Astronomy 

He wrote some important works on Mathematics and astronomy. Brahma sphutasiddhanta is the tremendes work written by him in the year 628 BC. Which contains some remarkable advanced ideas, including a good understanding of the mathematical role of zero, rules for manipulating both negative and positive numbers, a method of computing square root, methods of solving linear and some quadratic equations, and rules for summing series, Brahmagupta’s Identity and the Brahmaguota’s theorem? Brhmasphuta-siddhanta is one of the first mathematical books to provide concrete ideas on positive numbers, negative numbers, and zero.

Bhaskara I (600 AD - 680 AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics 

He is the first to write numbers in the Hindu-Arabic decimal system with a circle for the zero, and who gave a unique and remarkable rational approximation of the sine function in his commentary on Aryabhata's work. His works are the Mahabhaskariya, the Laghubhaskariya and the Aryabhatiyabhasya. Bhaskara's probably most important mathematical contribution concerns the representation of numbers in a positional.

BHASKARACHARYA II (1114 AD - 1183 AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics

BHASKARACHARYA is also known as Bhaskara II is also a famous indian mathematician and astronomer. Bhaskara and his works represent a significant contribution to mathematical and astronomical knowledge in the 12th century. His main works were the Lilavati (dealing with arithmetic),Bijaganita (Algebra) and Siddhanta Shiromani (written in 1150) which consists of two parts: Goladhyaya (sphere) and Grahaganita 

Birbal Sahani (1891 - 1949)

Paleobotany

He holds the credit of establishing the Paleobotanical Society that went on to set up the Institute of Palaeobotany on 10 September 1946. Professor Sahni was respected by all academicians and scholars of his time both in India and abroad. He was appointed the Fellow of the Royal Society of London (FRS) in the year 1936, which is the biggest British scientific honor. And for the first time since its inception, this award was given out to an Indian botanist.

He attended the Emmanuel College at Cambridge in the year 1914. And after this, he pursued further studies under Professor A.C. Seward and was given the D.Sc. degree from London University in the year 1919. Birbal Sahni then came back to his native country India to work as the professor of Botany at the highly esteemed Banaras Hindu University at the holy city of Varanasi. 

C. R. Rao (1920 - )

Mathematics

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao was born to C.D. Naidu and A. Laxmikantamma on 10 September 1920 in Huvvina Hadagalli in present day. He headed and developed the Research and Training Section of the ISI, and went on to become Director of the ISI. He became the associate editor of the Sankhya in 1964 and became the editor in 1972. Dr. Rao is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2001.In 2002 he was awarded the National Medal of Science of the U.S.A. The Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science in the Osmania University Campus has been named after him.

Debendra Mohan Bose (1885 –1975)

Physics 

He was an Indian physicist who made contributions in the field of artificial radioactivity, cosmic rays and neutron physics. He was the longest serving Director (1938-1967) of Bose Institute. He served as the President of the Indian Science News Association, and was the editor of its journal Science and Culture for about 25 years. He also served as the treasurer of the Visva-Bharati University.

G. N. Ramachandran (1922-2001)

Biomolecular Physics

G. N. Ramachandran was born on 8 October 1922 in Ernakulam, Kerala.In 1952, he started work on determining the structure of the protein collagen, the fibrous protein found in skin, bone and tendon. Based on the limited data available at the time, in 1954, he proposed, along with Gopinath Kartha, the triple-helix structure for collagen, later revised in the light of new data to the coiled coil structure for biomolecules. This was a fundamental advance in the understanding of biomolecular structures. He and his colleagues C.Ramakrishnan and V. Sasisekharan went on to develop methods to examine and assess structures of biomolecules, in particular peptides. His contributions in the field of X-ray crystallography such as anomalous dispersion, new kinds of Fourier syntheses, and X-ray intensity statistics are also extremely important. In 1971, Ramachandran set up the Molecular Biophysics Unit at the IISc at Bangalore . He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1977 and was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award. In 1999, The International Union of Crystallography awarded him the prestigious Ewald Prize, which is given only once in three years.

Halayudha (10th century ad)

Mathematics

Halayudha was a 10th century Indian mathematician who wrote the Mṛtasanjivani. Mṛtasanjivani is a commentary on Pingala's Chandah-shastra which containing a clear description of Pascal's triangle .

Homi Jehangir Bhabha (1909-1966)

Physics

Homi Bhabha was born on 1909 in Mumbai. Son of a barrister, he grew up in a privileged environment. In Mumbai he attended the Cathedral & John Connon School and then Elphinstone College, followed by the Royal Institute of Science.

In 1937, together with W. Heitler, a German physicist, Bhabha solved the riddle about cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are fast moving, extremely small particles coming from outer space. When these particles enter the earth’s atmosphere, they collide with the atoms of air and create a shower of electrons. Bhabha’s discovery of the presence of nuclear particles (which he called mesons) in these showers was used to validate Einstein’s theory of relativity making him world famous.

HarGobind Khorana (1922 - )

Medicine

Har Gobind Khorana was born in Raipur, Punjab, (now in Pakistan) on 9 January 1922. Dr. Har Gobind Khorana shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 1968 with Marshall Nirenberg and Robert Holley for cracking the genetic code. They established that this code, the biological language common to all living organisms, is spelled out in three-letter words: each set of three nucleotides codes for a specific amino acid. Dr. Khorana was also the first to synthesize oligonucleotides (strings of nucleotides).

Khorana has won many awards and honors for his achievements, amongst them the Padma Vibhushan, Membership of the National Academy of Sciences, USA as well as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He became the Alfred Sloan Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970 and is at present an Emeritus Professor at the Department of Biology at MIT.

Harish Chandra (1923-1983)

Mathematics

Harish Chandra was born on 11 October 1923 in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. In 1963, Harish Chandra was invited to become a permanent member of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton. He was appointed IBM-von Neumann Professor in 1968. He was a Fellow of both the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy. In 1974, he received the Ramanujan Medal from Indian National Science Academy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and also won the Cole prize from the American Mathematical Society in 1954 for his papers on representations of semisimple Lie algebras and groups. His profound contributions to the representation theory of Lie groups, harmonic analysis, and related areas left researchers a rich legacy that continues today.

JyeSThadeva (1500AD – 1610AD)

Mathematics

Jyesthadeva was an astronomer-mathematician of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics founded by Sangamagrama Madhava . He is best known as the author f Yuktibhasa, a commentary in Malayalam of Tantrasamgraha by Nilakantha Somayaji . In Yuktibhasa, Jyesṭhadeva had given complete proofs and rationale of the statements in Tantrasamgraha. This was unusual for traditional Indian mathematicians of the time. An analysis of the mathematics content of Yuktibhasa has prompted some scholars to call it "the first textbook of calculus".

Katyayana (200BC)

Mathematics

He was the author of a Sulbasutra which is much later than the Sulbasutras of Baudhayana and Apastamba. It would also be fair to say that Katyayana's Sulbasutra is the least interesting from a mathematical point of view of the three best known Sulbasutras. It adds very little to that of Apastamba written several hundreds of years earlier. Katyayana was neither a mathematician in the sense that we would understand it today, nor a scribe who simply copied manuscripts like Ahmes. 

K. Chandrasekharan (1920 - )

Mathematics

Komaravolu Chandrasekharan was born on 21 November 1920 in Machilipatnam in modern-day Andhra Pradesh. He worked in the fields of number theory and summability. His mathematical achievements are first rate, but his contribution to Indian mathematics has been even greater. He worked in the fields of number theory and summability. His mathematical achievements are first rate, but his contribution to Indian mathematics has been even greater. He served as the Vice President of the International Council of Scientific Unions during 1963-66 and as its Secretary General during 1966-70. He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet, Government of India during 1961-66. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1959, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1963 and the Ramanujan Medal in 1966.

Manava (750BC - 690 BC)

Mathematics

He was the author of one of the Sulbasutras: documents containing some of the earliest Indian mathematics. Manava's Sulbasutra, like all the Sulbasutras, contained approximate constructions of circles from rectangles, and squares from circles, which can be thought of as giving approximate values of π. There appear therefore different values of π throughout the Sulbasutra, essentially every construction involving circles leads to a different such approximation. Manava's work which give π = 25/8 = 3.125.

Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri (1559AD–1664AD)

Astronomy and Mathematics

He is third student of Achyuta Pisharati, was of Madhava of Sangamagrama's Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics. He was a mathematical linguist (vyakarana). His most important scholarly work, Prkriya-sarvawom, sets forth an axiomatic system elaborating on the classical system of Panini. However, he is most famous for his masterpiece, Narayaneeyam, a devotional composition in praise of Guruvayoorappan (Sri Krishna) that is still sung at the temple of Guruvayoor.

Meghnad Saha (1893-1956)

Physics

Meghnad Saha was born on 6 October 1893 in Sheoratali village near Dhaka in present day Bangladesh. By 1920, Meghnad Saha had established himself as one of the leading physicists of the time. His theory of high-temperature ionization of elements and its application to stellar atmospheres, as expressed by the Saha equation, is fundamental to modern astrophysics; subsequent development of his ideas has led to increased knowledge of the pressure and temperature distributions of stellar atmospheres.

M. K. Vainu Bappu (1927-1982)

Astronomy

Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu was born on August 10, 1927 to a senior astronomer in the Nizamiah Observatory, Hyderabad.He and Colin Wilson discovered a relationship between the luminosity of particular kinds of stars and some of their spectral characteristics. This important observation came to be known as the Bappu-Wilson effect and is used to determine the luminosity and distance of these kind of stars, he set up the Uttar Pradesh State Observatory in Nainital. He was awarded the Donhoe Comet- Medal (1949) by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, elected as Honorary Foreign Fellow of the Belgium Academy of Sciences and was an Honorary Member of the American Astronomical Society. He was elected President of the International Astronomical Union in 1979.

NAGARJUNA (931 AD) 

Chemistry and Metallurgy

He was an extraordinary wizard of science born in the nondescript village of Baluka in Madhya Pradesh. His dedicated research for twelve years produced maiden discoveries and inventions in the faculties of chemistry and metallurgy. Textual masterpieces like "Ras Ratnakar", "Rashrudaya" and "Rasendramangal" are his renowned contributions to the science of chemistry. As the author of medical books like "Arogyamanjari" and "Yogasar", he also made significant contributions to the field of curative medicine. 

Panini (520 BC - 460 BC)

Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology

Panini was a Sanskrit grammarian who gave a comprehensive and scientific theory of phonetics, phonology, and morphology. Panini was born in Shalatula, a town near to Attock on the Indus river in present day Pakistan. A treatise called Astadhyayi (or Astaka ) is Panini's major work. It consists of eight chapters, each subdivided into quarter chapters. In this work Panini distinguishes between the language of sacred texts and the usual language of communication

Prafulla Chandra RAY (1861-1944)

Chemistry

Prafulla Chandra was born on 2 August 1861 in Raruli-Katipara, a village in the District of Khulna (in present day Bangladesh). His publications on mercurous nitrite and its derivatives brought him recognition from all over the world.Equally important was his role as a teacher - he inspired a generation of young chemists in India thereby building up an Indian school of chemistry. Prafulla Chandra believed that the progress of India could be achieved only by industrialization. He set up the first chemical factory in India, with very minimal resources, working from his home. In 1901, this pioneering effort resulted in the formation of the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd.

Sridhara (870AD – 930AD)

Mathematics

Sridhara was an Indian mathematician known for two treatises: Trisatika (sometimes called the Patiganitasara) and the Patiganita. He wrote on practical applications of algebra and was one of the first to give a formula for solving quadratic equations.

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858-1937)

Science

Bose was born on 30 November 1858, in Myemsingh, Faridpur, a part of the Dhaka District now in Bangladesh. He was an excellent teacher, extensively using scientific demonstrations in class. Bose also started doing original scientific work in the area of microwaves, carrying out experiments involving refraction, diffraction and polarization. He developed the use of galena crystals for making receivers, both for short wavelength radio waves and for white and ultraviolet light. Many of the microwave components familiar today - waveguides, horn antennas, polarizers, dielectric lenses and prisms, and even semiconductor detectors of electromagnetic radiation - were invented and used by Bose in the last decade of the nineteenth century. He also suggested the existence of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, which was confirmed in 1944. Bose then turned his attention to response phenomena in plants. He showed that not only animal but vegetable tissues, produce similar electric response under different kinds of stimuli – mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical.

Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920)

Mathematics

Ramanujan was born in Erode, a small village in Tamil Nadu on 22 December 1887.His research paper on Bernoulli numbers, in 1911, brought him recognition and he became well known in Chennai as a mathematical genius. Ramanujan made outstanding contributions to analytical number theory, elliptic functions, continued fractions, and infinite series. His published and unpublished works have kept some of the best mathematical brains in the world busy to this day.

Sir C. V. Raman (1888-1970)

Mathematics

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu on 7 November 1888.He made enormous contributions to research in the areas of vibration, sound, musical instruments, ultrasonics, diffraction, photoelectricity, colloidal particles, X-ray diffraction, magnetron, dielectrics,etc. In particular, his work on the scattering of light during this period brought him world-wide recognition. He was knighted in 1929, and in 1930, became the first Asian scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discoveries relating to the scattering of light (the Raman Effect). After retirement, he established the Raman Research Institute at Bangalore, where he served as the Director. The Government of India conferred upon him its highest award,the Bharat Ratna in 1954.

Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-1974)

Mathematics

Satyendra Nath Bose was born on New Year’s day, 1894 in Goabagan in Kolkata. He excelled in academics throughout his education – Intermediate, B.Sc. and M.Sc. with applied mathematics. His teacher at the Presidency College was Jagadish Chandra Bose - whose other stellar pupil was Meghnath Saha. He worked as a lecturer of physics in the Science College of the University of Calcutta (1916-21) and along with Meghnad Saha, introduced postgraduate courses in modern mathematics and physics. He derived with Saha, the Saha-Bose equation of state for a nonideal gas.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (1894-1955)

Chemistry

Bhatnagar was born on 21 February 1894 at Bhera, in the district of Shapur in Punjab (now in Pakistan). When he was barely eight months old, his father passed away. He spent his next thirteen years under the care of his maternal grandfather in Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar played a significant part along with Homi Bhabha, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Vikram Sarabhai and others in building of post-independence Science & Technology infrastructure and in the formulation of India’s science policies.

Subramaniam Chandrasekhar (1910-1995)

Astrophysics

Subramaniam Chandrasekhar, a nephew of Sir C.V. Raman, was born on 19 October 1910 in Lahore, (now in Pakistan). His first scientific paper, Compton Scattering and the New Statistics, was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1928. On the basis of this paper he was accepted as a research student by R.H. Fowler at the University of Cambridge. On the voyage to England, he developed the theory of white dwarf stars, showing that a star of mass greater than 1.45 times the mass of the sun could not become a white dwarf. This limit is now known as the Chandrasekhar limit.

He was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics in 1983 for his theoretical work on the physical processes of importance to the structure of stars and their evolution. Chandra was a popular teacher who guided over fifty students to their Ph.D.s including some who went on to win the Nobel prize themselves!! His research explored nearly all branches of theoretical astrophysics and he published ten books, each covering a different topic, including one on the relationship between art and science.

Varahamihira (505 AD- 587 AD)

Mathematics and Astronomy 

Daivajna Varāhamihira is well known as Varaha, or Mihira was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who lived in Ujjain. He wrote two books called "Pancha-Siddhantika" and "Brihat-Samhita".

"Pancha-Siddhantika" gives us information about older Indian texts which are now lost. This work mainly deals with the mathematical astronomy and it summarises five earlier astronomical treatises, namely the Surya Siddhanta, Romaka Siddhanta, Paulisa Siddhanta, Vasishtha Siddhanta and Paitamaha Siddhantas.

VAGBHATA (7TH century ad)

Medicine

Vagbhata completes the Great Three (Brhatrayi) of Ayurveda, with his predecessors, Caraka and Susruta. His identity and period are controversial but a major section of the scholarly community believes that he was a native of Sindh, who lived in the sixth century and write Astangahrdayam and Astangasngraha. The two texts frankly acknowledge the authority of Samhitas of Caraka and Susruta and closely follow in the footsteps of the earlier masters.The Legacy of Vagbhata is based on a study of Astangahrdayam and employs a thematic approach with the plentiful use of tables. As in the earlier volumes on Caraka and Susruta, great care has been taken in this volume on Vagbhata to maintain fidelity to the original text while ensuring easy readability for the students of Ayurveda, medicine and the sciences.

Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971)

Physics

Vikram Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 at Ahmedabad. He had his early education in a private school, ‘Retreat’ run by his parents on Montessori lines. He established the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad in 1948, in a few rooms at the M.G. Science Institute with Professor K.K. Ramanathan as Director. In April 1954, PRL moved into a new building and Dr. Sarabhai made it the cradle of the Indian Space Programme. At the young age of 28, he was asked to organise and create the ATIRA, the Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research association and was its Honorary Director during 1949-56. Sarabhai pioneered India’s space age by expanding the Indian Space Research Organization. India’s first satellite Aryabhata launched in 1975, was one of the many projects planned by him. Like Bhabha, Sarabhai wanted the practical application of science to reach the common man. Thus he saw a golden opportunity to harness space science to the development of the country in the fields of communication, meteorology, remote sensing and education. 

Do you know the discovery of Mount Everest as highest Peak of World by an indian Geologiest?

Very of few from us know that peak 15 called the highest mountain peak by an indian geologiest Radhanath Sikdhar  and the whole creadite were goes to the Gorge Everest . This was done by Col. Waugh who dedicated the creadite of this great discovery to his boss Everest and Radhanath was forgotted.

THE TWO PIONEERS OF RATIONALISTIC CULTURE IN BENGAL

AKSHAY DATTA  AND VIDYASAGAR: 

THE TWO PIONEERS OF RATIONALISTIC CULTURE IN BENGAL

Arvind Patel

It may be quite sensible today to raise doubts about the inductive-empiricist methodology propagated by Francis Bacon, but there can be no gainsaying the fact that, historically, by showing the inductive method of doing science he created a whole new epoch. He stood at the interface of medieval science and modern science. It was therefore historically reasonable to expect that when Bacon’s compatriots came to rule this country, they would like to impose the Baconian scheme on the minds of their subjects. But what happened was the exact opposite. Bacon's philosophy of science received relatively little importance here. And such is the innate irony of history that it needed a Bengali to impress upon the British rulers that in the Indian context education based on Baconian philosophy was vastly superior to any other model; indeed, it was the model. In his universally known 1823 letter to Lord Amherst, Rammohan Roy wrote how he was initially delighted to learn that the British were planning to introduce education in those ‘useful Sciences’ which were behind the phenomenal progress of the European countries.  But when he came to learn that instead of schools for teaching mathematics, ‘natural philosophy’, chemistry and anatomy, eventually nothing more than a ‘Sangscrit school’ was going to be established, he was disappointed, because in such a school the students would “acquire what was known two thousand years ago, with the addition of vain and empty subtleties since produced by speculative men, such as is commonly taught in all parts of India.”He found no use for this education. What modern India needed was science-oriented education based on Bacon’s philosophy. He urged:

I beg your lordship will be pleased to compare the state of Science and literature in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon with the progress of knowledge made since he wrote.

If it had been intended to keep the British nation in ignorance of real knowledge, the Baconian philosophy would not have been allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the best calculated to perpetuate ignorance. (p.302, 1)

Drawing a direct analogy from this, Rammohan wrote: “In the same manner the Sangscrit system of education would be best calculated to keep this country in darkness…” (p.302, 1)

        Usually the conflict between these two paradigms is described as that between ‘Oriental’ and ‘Western’ systems of education. In my opinion it is much more reasonable to see this as a conflict between the metaphysical and the scientific systems of education. For, Rammohan by no means favoured all kinds of Western education. He knew perfectly well that there were various kinds of Western education. Out of these he wished to introduce one particular kind – that based on Baconian philosophy, which was, by that time accepted as a pillar of modern science. One must realise that mankind had seen the dawn of a great new epoch in its history of intellectual pursuit, that Newton’s success had shown the triumph of the Baconian method. Thus when Rammohan passionately advocated Baconian philosophy, he did so on the basis of facts taken as proven. On the other hand, he was by no means an absolute adversary of every kind of ‘Sangscrit’ thought. He was, rather, an exponent of a version of Vedantism. What he tried was to cast the traditional Indian mode of thinking in a modern mould, which necessitated the marriage of modern India with ecumenical science. He realised, that was the direction where the future lay. It can safely be said that this letter of Rammohan was one of the first symptoms of a fissure in the apparently monolithic metaphysical culture of India.

But Rammohan’s ideas did suffer from an obvious self-contradiction. While he welcomed Baconian philosophy, he at the same time spoke in favour of Vedantism, albeit of a new kind. Paying utmost attention to sense data was the hallmark of Baconian empiricism, while the basic tenet of Vedantism, particularly Sankara’s Mayavad, is that true reality is beyond the perception of the senses, including the mind. Rammohan himself was profoundly aware of this anti-realism of Mayavad. In the same letter quoted above he wrote:

Nor will youths be fitted to be better members of society by the Vedantic doctrines which teach them to believe that all visible things have no real existence;  … (p.302, 1)

And yet, despite all this, he was bent upon establishing the monotheistic greatness of Indians as exemplified in Vedanta. But the question was not of one or many gods, it was whether you were able to see reality with an open eye or not. He almost said this, but not quite. This little hesitation has ever since marked nearly every ‘progressive’ intellectual endeavour of the Bengalis. In other words, the conflict between the compromising, hide-bound, so-called  Hindu paradigm and the rationalistic, scientific and  secular paradigm has been continuing from Rammohan’s time. As shown by Gopal Haldar (2), the rationalist and secular humanistic trend in Roy’s thought found fruition in Iswarchandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891) and Akshay Kumar Datta (1820-1886); while his theistic ideas were inherited by Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905).

AKSHAY DATTA: FROM DEISM TO AGNOSTICISM

Born at Chupigram near Nabadwip, Akshay Kumar Datta (1820-1886)  was exceptionally inquisitive from a very early age.  Indifferent guardians marred his early education.  Nevertheless, by the time he was nineteen, he had mastered Euclid and differential calculus with the help of Hardman Jeffroy, his tutor at the Oriental Seminary, and his scholar-mentors Ananda Krishna Basu and Srinath Ghosh at the fabulous library of Shovabazar Rajbari.  He had also learnt some  French, a little  German, Latin and of course Sanskrit. Physics, Astronomy, Geography and Mathematics were his favourite subjects.

As editor, Tattwabodhini Patrika, 1843-1855, he wrote numerous tracts on Physics, Astronomy, Geography and the social sciences, which were highly admired by the Bengali intelligentsia. In fact, these were hailed by the great Derozian Ramatanu Lahiri as the first instances of profound, well-formed Bengali prose. Akshay Datta was a rationalist pure and simple and regarded the Vedas and other scriptures as representing a very early stage of the development of the human mind. He could not accept the idea that these scriptures enshrined the direct spiritual experiences of the seers of the old and should, therefore, be regarded as authoritative. Devendranth, on the other hand,  was a conservative man of faith. After much struggle Datta  was able to convince that  the Vedas, containing as they did erroneous and irrational matters, could not be regarded as  infallible revelations.

 He was among the first who came out openly in support of Vidyasagar's widow remarriage campaign, despite the fact that his employer was not very well-disposed towards the campaign. His Baajhyabastur Sahit Manab-Prakritir Sambandha-Bichaar in two volumes acted as the social, religious and moral manifesto for the enlightened Bengali youth. He not only exposed the tyranny of the indigo-planters, but wrote hard-hitting  and factual essays against the coercion - both economic and extra-economic - of Bengali landlords, laying bare their collusion with the Company administration.

   In 1855, he left Tattwabodhini Patrika following serious theological and philosophical differences with Devendranath Tagore. At the insistence of Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, his friend and mentor, Datta joined as Principal, Normal School in 1855.  A deist and a staunch Baconian from a very early age, he later became openly agnostic, ridiculing the superstitious and inhuman practices of all religions.

Retiring from public life owing to a crippling cerebral disease, he lived and died (1886) in his village retreat at Baligram, Howrah.  There he built up a geological museum and a botanical garden, all on his own. On the walls of  his study hung the portraits of Rammohan Roy, Newton, Darwin, T H Huxley and John Stuart Mill.  He had plans to set up a research institute for studies in Geology, Theory of Evolution, Botany and the social sciences. Although progressive  severe illness prevented him from carrying out the programme, he still managed to turn out his two-volume magnum opus Bhaaratbarshiya Upaasak Sampradaay (The Religious Sects of India, Vol.1,  1870 and  Vol.2, 1883. In the  scholarly introductions to the two volumes, he presented a uniquely empiricist critique of  all the Indian systems of philosophy.  He showed that  contrary to the accepted opinion, much of the Indian philosophical thinking was suffused with atheistic and sceptical leanings and contained much anticipation of later developments in Physics, although  lacking in experimental method.  This lacuna led to the eventual decadence of Indian scientific temper. Among others, Max Muller and Monier-Williams commended the work for its rare originality.

        Datta was the closest philosophical ally of Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar.

VIDYASAGAR

Like Akshay Datta, Vidyasagar took over the elements of a scientific culture that were latent and half-formed in Rammohan in real earnest. It was he who gave them clear shape and added muscles. In this breath-taking battle against metaphysics, he too dug his battle posts in the same Baconian soil. His aim was to prepare the Bengali mind for developing a scientific methodology on the basis of inductive logic. The philosophy envisioned by him was scientific on two counts: first, to see life and nature as they were, without taking recourse to any metaphysical cobweb; second, to develop a mind that could accept facts as they were, without caring for their compatibility with the shastras. His was a battle much more ruthless and real than the Raja’s. He had to fight on three fronts. One, the megalomaniac arrogance of the degraded Hindu pundits. Two, the aggressive neo-Hinduism of the Bengalis. Three, the active anti-science attitude of the colonial rulers aided and abetted by the Orientalist school.

        Vidyasagar joined Sanskrit College in 1846 as the Assistant Secretary. He was twenty-six then. With great enthusiasm he drew up a programme for educational reform. The tenor of that programme was to develop through the combination of high grade Sanskrit and English knowledge such a body of men who ‘would be able to effect a concord between Western science and civilization and our mother tongue.’ As is very well documented, this plan of Vidyasagar’s met with the unmixed hostility of Rasamoy Datta, the secretary, as a result of which the former had to quit Sanskrit College. Proud and independent as he was, he took to writing and publishing for a living. His books were a run away success. Among the books he wrote and published was one titled Jiban-Charit (Lives, 1849). Whose lives did he write? Those of eight scientists, among whom were Copernicus, Galileo, Herschel – and of course Newton. This leaves no one in doubt as to the aim of this then 29-year old Bengali Brahmin Sanskrit scholar. He was preparing the soil for the cultivation of the coming scientific mind in Bengal. Two years later he published what was soon to become a classic -- Bodhodaya  (The Dawning of Sense). Written for children in a limpid prose that was also his creation, the book discussed the basics of Zoology, Physiology, Botany, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Geography etc. This from a man who was professionally and academically a Sanskrit scholar of the highest order – a Vidyasagar. This book alone would suffice to show what kind of ‘sense’ he wanted the educated Hindu Bengalis to imbibe.

Meanwhile, some people belonging to the minority group among the British administration favouring the spread of scientific ideas came out in support of Vidyasagar. As a result he was brought back to Sanskrit College on 5 December 1850 – this time with full power. Soon he became the principal of his alma mater. He was now apparently in complete command and all set to launch a sweeping educational reform. A new drama involving the struggle between the two cultures soon unfolded. Right in December 1850 he submitted a plan for radical educational reform. Its basic elements were: the study of mathematics, smriti, and Logic (nyaya) had to be modernised along rationalistic lines; modern Western mathematics had to be introduced in the curriculum of ancient Indian mathematics and astronomy; English must be made compulsory.

Benoy Ghosh ( 3) informs us, ‘in the archives of Sanskrit College there is a long unpublished document titled Notes on the Sanskrit College. Hand-written by Vidyasagar and running to 26 long paragraphs, … these “Notes”, dated 26 April, 1852 uniquely and elegantly bring out his educational ideas in their entirety’. In this draft document Vidyasagar writes:

In mathematics, Lilavati and Vijaganita are the textbooks. Lilavati treats of arithmetic and mensuration and Vijaganita of Algebra. These two works are very meagre and from a curious perversion of Ingenuity and obsessed of a right sense of real value and object of such studies, the author has made them so difficult by putting the rules and questions in verse that the students cannot go through them in less than three or four years. The examples are very few. The fact is, the study of Sanscrit-mathematics is not only nearly useless in itself, but it interferes largely with other studies…

Hence the study of mathematics in Sanscrit should be discontinued.

… I wish to substitute the pursuit of it [Sanscrit mathematics] in English (p.517, 3)

        Again, a little later, he explains why he considered a knowledge of Western philosophy so essential for Sanskrit students:

Young men thus educated will be better able to expose the errors of ancient Hindu philosophy … Thus he will be a judge for himself. His knowledge of European philosophy shall be to him an invaluable guide to the understanding of the merits of different systems.

In his typically practical fashion he also envisaged that in the process the student “will possess a stock of technical words, already in some degree familiar to intelligent natives.” 

        Obviously his aim was to integrate the intellectual world of the Bengalis with the modern science paradigm. He knew it was no longer possible to learn modern mathematics by memorising the traditional couplets known as aryas; just as it was impossible to deal with modern science from within the traditional philosophical paradigms.

VIDYASAGAR VERSUS BALLANTYNE

This led to a head-on confrontation between him and the men of the ‘first culture’, i.e. humanities. Dr. J. R. Ballantyne, the principal of the Benaras Hindu University and a famous orientalist, was commissioned to give his ‘specialist’s opinion’ about Vidyasagar’s proposed scheme. In 1853 he came down to Kolkata and within a short span of time presented a long report before the Education Council. He vehemently opposed the idea of making English compulsory for students of Sanskrit. He said, the simultaneous study of Sanskrit and English would lead to the illusion of double-truth in the student’s mind. He alleged that this had indeed been his experience at the B.H.U. According to him, even when a student knew that the ancient Indian and the modern European logic and systems of proof were both equally correct, he was not able to comprehend the identity of the two. The students were incapable of expressing the truth learnt in one language in the other. They could not even properly express the fact that the ‘English’ sciences had grown out of the kernel of truth contained in Sanskrit. Therefore, he argued, it was wrong for the same student to learn both English and Sanskrit. He stated that at the Sanskrit College the students were studying both English and Sanskrit, but it was left to themselves to decide where the two differed and where concurred. He found that the students were not discerning enough in this regard. In order that they developed this acumen, he recommended the introduction of some extra-curricular books.

        Apparently this was quite innocuous; but actually it was the manifestation of a serious conflict between the two cultures. Ballantyne was an orientalist par excellence, a representative of the classical humanist school. For him, ‘East’ was the typical seat of spiritual mist. The orientalists were bent upon perpetuating this mystical haze. On the other hand, Vidyasagar’s mission was to liberate his motherland from that miasma. So no wonder he fought Ballantyne tooth and nail. Ballantyne had said that Mill’s Logic was too expensive and too difficult for the Bengali students, so it was better that they learn Mill from an inexpensive concise edition, edited by the scholar himself. Vidyasagar’s riposte was: However difficult it might be, the students must learn Mill’s logic first-hand from Mill himself. As for the expense, his wry comment was, “Our students are now in the habit of purchasing standard woks at high prices, so we need not to be deterred from the adoption of this great work” (p.525, 3). And if at all they should take recourse to a second-hand source, there was that marvellous book of Whatley, praised lavishly by Mill himself.

        Another significant recommendation of Ballantyne’s was the introduction of George Berkeley’s philosophy in the English class. Vidyasagar immediately saw that this was nothing but reinforcing mayavad through the back door, for Bishop Berkeley’s philosophy was in essence of a piece with Sankara’s mayavad. Both believed that the phenomenal world was unreal. Reality, in Berkeley’s view, resided only in God’s consciousness. Vidyasagar was quite unambiguous in his assessment of this philosophy:

With regard to Bishop Berkeley’s Inquiry I beg leave to remark that the introduction of it as a class book would beget more mischief than advantage. …[It] has arrived at similar or identical conclusions with the Vedanta or Sankhya… when, by perusal of that book, the Hindu students of Sanscrit College will find that the theories advanced by the Sankhya and Vedanta system are corroborated by a Philosopher of Europe, their reverence for these two systems may increase instead of diminishing.

He was convinced that more than anything else, it was Sankara’s philosophy, reinforced by the practices of Hinduism, that had caused the Indian mind to drift away from seeing and judging the world through the scientific eye.

        As for the curious allegation that simultaneous study of English and Sanskrit would create a schizophrenic illusion of ‘double-truth’ in the student’s mind, Vidysagar wrote:

Truth is truth if properly studied. To believe that “truth is double” is but the effect of an imperfect perception of the truth itself … It must be considered a singular circumstance if an intelligent student cannot perceive identity of truths where there is real identity.

The reason could be either that “they could not comprehend the subject with sufficient clarity” or that they were unable to express themselves properly in English.

        In this context, however, he made certain terse comments that clearly brought out the famously outspoken character of the man:

It must be confessed however that there are many passages in Hindu Philosophy which cannot be rendered into English with ease and sufficient intelligibility only because there is nothing substantial in them.

He, a Sanskrit scholar of great renown, did not did not hesitate to write that some passages of the revered Hindu texts were actually nonsense. He was then seized with the dream of inculcating modern scientific ideas among the young Bengali educated by breaking the shackles of the age-old metaphysical culture. The 'pundit'  also asseverated that

That the Vedanta  and Sankhya are false systems of Philosophy is no more a matter of dispute. These systems, false as they are, command unbounded reverence from the Hindus. Whilst teaching these in the Sanscrit course, we should oppose them by sound Philosophy in the English course to counteract their influence.

This clearly shows why he had advocated the simultaneous study of modern English rationalist philosophy and Sanskrit philosophical texts. Rammohan had not realised that one could not accept Vedanta and Bacon in the same breath; that if one wished to put and end to the hoary dimness of the Indian mind, one had first to strike at its root-cause, i.e., at Vedanta philosophy. Not only does that philosophy bar one’s mind from perceiving reality, it also creates a sense of pseudo-superiority, of a smug false conviction – something much more harmful than complete ignorance. It was because of that philosophy that the Indian mind had lost the flexibility that was required in order to receive something new. Vidyasagar realised precisely that. That was why immediately after saying that Sankhya and Vedanta were ‘false systems of philosophy’, he uttered that the Hindus simply revered those false philosophies. In other words, the traditional Hindu mind had lost the ability of discerning the true from the false. They lived in a world of philosophical make-believe.

Vidyasagar  was, however,  under no illusion as to the automatic ethical and intellectual superiority of atheists over believers and vice versa. He used to make fun and say, ‘How can I, who know nothing about God, lecture somebody [ on God ]?’ Indeed, if he were in any way theoretically concerned with God’s existence or otherwise, he would not have discarded the theistic Vedanta and the atheistic Sankhya in the same breath as ‘false systems’. Thus the only valid conclusion is: while assessing the truth or falsity of a philosophical system, his only criterion was whether that system would inspire men to think scientifically, to understand reality, to recognise necessity. This is brought forth more explicitly in his debate with Dr. J. R. Ballantyne.

BRINGING HOME HIS BACON

When Ballantyne the Orientalist uncritically announced that the English sciences had actually developed from the original Sanskrit seeds of truth, Vidyasagar differed. He said, it was not possible to show ‘real agreement’ between the Hindu shastras and modern science. But even if one assumes, for argument’s sake, that such ‘agreement’ did exist, what follows? According to Dr. Ballantyne, one purpose of teaching both English and Bengali at the Sanskrit College was to develop a group of men acting as a bridge between the torch-bearers of ancient Indian wisdom (i.e., orthodox Hindu pundits) and modern European science and learning. Apparently this was quite laudable an aim – until Vidysagar laid bare its absurdity. Comparing the ‘bigotry of the learned of India’ with Caliph Amru, who ordered the burning of books at the Alexandrian library, he wrote:

They believe that their shastras have all emanated from Omniscient Rishis and, therefore, cannot but be infallible. When in the way of discussion or in the course of conversation any new truth advanced by European Science is presented before them, they laugh and ridicule. … when they hear of a Scientific truth, the germs of which may be traced out in their Shastras, instead of shewing any regard for that truth, they triumph and the superstitious regard for their own Shastras is redoubled.

Vidyasagar simply wanted to leave these people out of his account. It was, he realised, a waste of time to try and bridge them with the modern world of ecumenical science. He conceived the modern age as an essentially new world which called for a set of new people informed with a new culture. These people would be scholars in Sanskrit literature and language, but averse to the anti-science philosophies of ancient India. They would have complete mastery over their mother tongue and be inspired by Baconian inductivist philosophy of science.  Their task would be to disseminate the ideas of modern ecumenical science among the countrymen. Thus, while presenting his educational reform plan, he had never envisaged the aim of bringing the pundits who were immersed in their age-old shastras closer to modern science. He dreamed of an integrated culture, not a bifurcated one. In his closely argued counter-report to the council, he explained all this systematically and unambiguously.

        This counter-report put the council in a fix. They took a non-committal stance. They expressed delight at Ballantyne’s eulogy of Vidyasagar’s erudition. However, they also suggested that Vidyasagar accept Ballantyne’s recommendations. Now he came out in his dreaded colour. In a letter dated October 5, 1853, he clearly asserted that he would be following his own way and nothing else. He once again clarified his stand by reiterating that his aim was to bring up a band of young men who would disseminate reasonable and scientifically correct facts among the masses in their mother tongue. In a tone of bitter ridicule he said this was more than had ‘hitherto been possible to accomplish through the instrumentality of the Educated clever of any of your Colleges whether English or oriental’. He cancelled the books recommended by Ballantyne, but agreed to introduce an edition of Bacon’s Novum Organum edited by the same Ballantyne. Thus he stood his ground.

CONCLUSION

Vidyasagar and Akshay Datta were indeed the two pioneers of rationalistic, Empiricist and inductive ideas in Bengal, However, that does not mean that they were successful in their mission. Quite the contrary. Vidyasagar died a sad man, living away from the hypocrisy of the bhadraloks, while Akshay Datta, crippled by a progressively disabling disease and a disturbed family life, became almost a recluse, known for his famous text-books, but for little else. The rising tide of neo-Hindu revivalism was soon to engulf their valiant efforts at creating a rationalistic, science-friendly culure.

References:

1)  Selected Works of Raja Rammohan Roy, Publications Division, New Delhi, 1977

2)  Gopal Haldar, Vidyasagar : A Reassessment, PPIT, New Delhi, 1972

3)  Benoy Ghosh, Vidyasagar O Bangali Samaj, Orient Longman, Kolkata, 1973 (translation mine)

4)  Asok Sen, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and his Elusive Milestones, Riddhi-India, Kolkata, 1977

5)  Sri Maw, Kathamrita, Udbodhan, Kolkata, 1996 (translation mine)