Great Scientists of the World : Jagdish Chandra Bose

By Savneet kaur

This Biography Series narrates the life stories of the great scientists and about their inventions. These books inspire & motivate children and enhance their knowledge and vocabulary skills as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9789355990143

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Preface

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (November 30, 1858 – November 23, 1937) was a Bengali physicist who contributed to the foundations of experimental science there. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave signaling and optics and made highly significant contributions to plant science. He was a botanist, biologist, and thinker. He is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction.

The first person to prove that plants can also feel pain and affection, Jagadish Chandra Bose, was an Indian polymath whose research has extensively contributed to botany, physics, archeology, and radio science. Bose is considered the first modern scientist of India for the recognition he received from the Royal Institution, London, where the most prominent British scientists of those days gathered and discussed their latest discoveries and inventions. He is credited with having laid the foundations of experimental science in India and was a pioneer in microwave optics technology. He designed a galena receiver, one of the earliest examples of a lead sulphide photo conducting device.

From a young age, he displayed a keen interest in science and set his eyes on becoming a doctor. But he could not pursue a career in medicine due to some reasons and therefore shifted his focus to research. A very determined and hardworking person, he immersed himself deeply into research and made his findings public for the benefit of scientific development. Along with being a scientist, he was also a talented writer who set the precedence for Bengali science fiction writing.

-Author

Jagadish Chandra Bose

[1858-1937]

Bose was a physicist and a physicist he remained in his outlook to the very end.

-Meghanad Saha

The generally accepted interpretation of Jagadish Chandra’s scientific activities is that he had essentially the biologist’s conception of Nature; lack of opportunities for biological studies while as a student in Calcutta and later lack of any teaching post in biology, induced Jagadis Chandra to take up the post of teacher in physics….

-D.M. Bose

He (Bose) was modern India’s first physicist after all, one of her very first scientists. He was his motherland’s first active participant in the Galilean - Newtonian tradition. He had confounded the British disbeliever. He had shown that the Eastern mind was indeed capable of the exact and exacting thinking demanded by western science. He had broken the mould.

-S. Dasgupta in "Jagadis Chandra Bose

and the Indian Response to

Western Science".

Jagadish Chandra Bose

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a biologist, physicist, botanist, and early science fiction writer. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. IEEE named him one of the fathers of radio science. Bose is considered the father of Bengali science fiction and also invented the crescograph, a device for measuring the growth of plants. A crater on the moon has been named in his honour. He founded Bose Institute, a premier research institute in India and also one of its oldest. Established in 1917, the Institute was the first interdisciplinary research centre in Asia. He served as the Director of Bose Institute from its inception until his death.

The same year the East India Company was administering India since 1757, it came directly under the crown rule. Lord Canning, Governor-General, as the East India Company’s Chief Administrator of India, used to be called since 1772 when Warren Hastings assumed the office and was proclaimed Viceroy. Bose’s ancestral home was at the village named Rarikhal in Vikrampur, not far from Dhaka (then Dacca), the capital of present-day Bangladesh. His father, Bhagaban (also spelt as Bhagwan), Chandra Bose, served the British Indian Government in various executive or magisterial positions. When Bose was born, Bhagaban Chandra was Deputy Magistrate of Faridpur, and it is here Bose’s early childhood was mainly spent. Bhagaban Chandra was no ordinary government servant.

To quote Patrick Geddes, who was a Professor of Botany at St. Andrews University and the author of one of the most authentic biographies of Bose: "Bose’s father – Bhagaban Chunder Bose, Deputy Magistrate of Faridpur – was the active defender, not only of the townlet but of the scores of villages around as well.

In 1869 Bose’s father went to Burdwan as Assistant Commissioner. Here he opened workshops in carpentry, metal turning in general metalwork and even a foundry. Bose was very much influenced by his father’s ideals. While speaking at the fiftieth anniversary of the Exhibition and Mela founded by his father at Faridpur, Bose said: A failure ! Yes, but not ignoble nor altogether futile. And through Michael Faraday Heinrich Rudolf Hertz witnessing this struggle, the son learned to look at success or failure as one and realize that some defeat may be greater than victory. To me, his life has been one of blessing and daily thanksgiving. Nevertheless, everyone had said that he had wrecked his life, which was meant for greater things. Few realize that out of the skeletons of myriad lives have been built vast continents. And it is on the wreck of a life like his, and of many such lives, that will be built the greater India yet to be. We do not know why it should be so, but we know that the Earth-Mother is always calling for sacrifice.

Bose started his education in a vernacular or Bengali School, a pathsala, which was founded by his father in Faridpur. It may be noted that Bhagaban Chandra could have easily sent his son to the local English School. However, he wanted his son to learn his mother tongue and know his own culture before he learned English and knew the foreign culture. Speaking at the Bikrampur Conference in