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SIR C. V. RAMAN: AN INSPIRATION FOR INDIAN YOUNG MINDS
Anand S. Burange, Wilson College, Mumbai

In 19th century when India was ruled by Englishmen; that time for any Indian to do career in research was quite impossible because at all the research institutes in India were under British supervision and all the faculties appointed were British. Though, J. Tata established Research Institute in Bangalore, it took no time to British to take control over its management.
In British-raj of India, there was one scientist who wanted India to grow in Science and who was keen to learn physics, known for his discovery of Raman Effect, none other than Sir C. V. Raman. Journey of small child Raman to Sir C. V. Raman is very inspiring and one must read his biography at least once in a life.

Raman was born to R. Chandrasekar Iyer (Father) and Parvathi Ammal (mother) on 8th November 1888 in village Tiruvanaikkaval near Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. Raman’s father was a physics teacher and had fond of athlete and physical fitness. When Raman was doing his schooling, his family shifted to Vishakhapatnam. That time though Raman lacked physical strength but he was exceptional in terms of his mental abilities. Another way to tell about him, he was voracious reader and he literally read volume of Helmholtz the great German scientist.

 Photo: Raman’s house in Tiruvanaikkaval in Tamil Nadu

After school, he joined his father’s college (Mrs. Narsimharao College) in Vishakhapatnam and spent two years and then moved to Presidency College, Madras for junior B.A. He was looking too young that one day one of his professors, Prof. Elliot curiously asked him “Do you really belong to junior B.A.?” How you look? What your wear? Really doesn’t matter because in exam he stood first sweeping all the prizes. That time extraordinary students always used to go for Indian Civil Services (ICS). Please mind here that though it was Indian Civil Services, one has to work for British. But to qualify ICS exam was not at all easy task. That time for any Indian to enter the ranks of ICS was considered as the pinnacle of the achievement. For the preparation of ICS studies, one has to move to England. Before leaving for England, medical examination was must. Unfortunately, the civil surgeon of Madras who examined Raman, declared him unfit to go for England.  And this was the only examination that Raman ever failed. 


Photo: Raman as a college student in 1906

Raman was not at all disturbed or disappointed because of his negative medical exam result for ICS rather he joined for M.A. program in Presidency College. Because of his credentials, now Raman was become a small celebrity of his college. The faculties gave him full freedom to do as he liked. Raman took a boon of this freedom by involving himself in various new experiments not mentioned in text books. It was 1907 when wave theory of light was the hottest topic and at its peak. Raman observed that there were no findings reported when light incident obliquely on a slit. He set up new experiment for his new idea which turned fruitful in terms of experimental results. He sent his findings to the British journal The Philosophical Magzine and it was accepted. He became the first student ever to publish a research paper from Presidency College but he did not stop there. In same year (1907) during his M.A., he published another article dealt with new method for the determination of surface tension. Alike his B.A., in 1907 he completed his M.A. with first rank and won all the available prizes.
What to do next for bread and butter? Those times Financial Civil Services (FCS) was next to ICS. FCS is a forerunner of today’s IAS exams. He prepared for exam, gave entrance and of course cracked it. When he appeared for an interview of FCS; he stared at all the other selected candidates and declared that he was going to stand first among them and indeed he did. Meanwhile he got married to the girl from Madurai named Lokasundari later people used know her as Lady Raman.
At his teenage, he got his first appointment in 1907 at Calcutta (Today’s Kolkata) as Assistant Accountant with very high salary. His salary was 400 Rs. plus 150 as marriage allowances. In those days this amount was fabulous. Lady Raman often used to crack a joke that, Raman married to her to get an extra allowance. 
Though his daily routine life was started as a Assistant Accountant, doing exceptionally well but his heart was in science and hunger to learn physics. Calcutta those days was a capital of British Empire where Raman used to travel from home to office by a tram. One day while travelling, he saw a board with words “Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science” (IACS) and it was fair enough for his excitation. His curiosity lead him to the door of IACS. He knocked the door in excited mind set and the door was opened by Ashutosh Dey (Ashu Babu). As soon as Ashu Babu opened the door, Raman stepped in to see the research activities at the IACS. But there were no signs for any activities of research inside IACS which was little disappointment for Raman.  
In Indian history, there were many unsung heroes and among them was Mahendra Lal Sircar. He was born in 1833. He was a patriotic man and in nationalistic outlook he began to think about the problems of our own country. He founded IACS in 1876 to solve the national problems in terms of science. Unfortunately, nobody did research at the association and he died in 1904 with disappointment. After him, his nephew Amrit Lal Sircar was looking after IACS. Ashu Babu took Raman to Amrit Lal and talked about his interest to work for association. By looking at very young boy (Raman), Amrit Lal wanted to know why he was interested. Raman did not take much time by talking about his credentials and his research articles published in journal of international repute from Presidency College and his current high profile job. Then the next part was a salary. Raman clearly said no to salary as well as any honorarium. He was the first man ever came to IACS, wanted to work without any demand. Amrit Lal for a while shed into tears in memory of late. Mahendra Lal and immediately handed over keys of IACS building to Raman and gave full freedom to work.
And new era (1907-1917) in Raman’s life started. He was literally living double life at government office and at association. I have tried to tabulate his time table which followed in year 1907-1917 (Table 1).
Table 1 Time Table of Sir C. V. Raman from 1907-1917
Time`
Task
5:30 am
Raman goes to the Association.
9:45 am
Returns for bath, breakfast and leaves for office.
10:30 am to 5:00 pm
Office time
5:00 pm to 9:30 pr 10: 00 pm
From office directly to Association
Sunday (Whole day)
Whole day dedicated to Association.
And for the first time, now IACS was decorated everywhere with different research articles, hand written observations on piece of papers, different experimental set-ups and of course by presence of Raman.
Those times, wave theory of light was at its peak and next to that was again waves but of sound. Lord Rayleigh published one article where he discussed that if tuning fork of 256 Hz frequency excited and mounted on resonating box of frequency 512 Hz then the box emitted primary tone of 512 Hz where primary tone of 256 Hz was completely suppressed. This finding created curiosity in Raman to find such more systems and he started his research in physics of instruments. In next few years after joint IACS, he worked on Indian instruments like Tabla, Mridangam, Veena, Tambura, ectara etc. and famous western instrument Violin.
He did extensive research in music field where he devised methods for characterising the quality of a violin and other instruments which are used even today. In Ectara, instrument used by Indian Sadhus, he observed that if string is plucked it not only increases the tension of the wire but also its length where the tension varies at twice frequency of the wire. By strewing a simple chalk powder/sand on Mridangam membrane either before or immediately after striking the drumhead, he observed various patterns of powder/sand by which he investigated nodal lines and circles. In period 1907-1917, Raman published several research articles in world’s best journals and IACS was getting famous not only in India but also in abroad. In other words, he made a dream of late Mahindra Lal Sircar true.
That time, most of the funding was provided by the Govt. (British) to Tata Institute since all the researchers working at Tata were white men. But in the course of history, Sir Tarakhnath Palit donated huge amount of 1. 5 million Rs. to Calcutta University. In his honour, university decided to recruit the post of professor by name ‘Palit Professor.In 1917, salary of Raman was 1100 rupees and he got an opportunity to serve as Palit Professor in University with salary 600 rupees (nearly half of previous job). Raman requested at his account office to grant leave for two years so that he could work as Palit Professor. But his higher authorities did not agree with proposal rather they said him to be in the same office because he was exceptional in his work and had a chance to become Finance Minister of Viceroy’s Council one day.
To become Palit Professor was not again easy task because of English men interference. They said university committee must hire a candidate from either abroad or at least should have foreign experience. Raman never had any foreign trip experience. When he was asked to go to abroad, he said “I will not go abroad. Instead I’m ready to train foreigners in Calcutta.” By looking at his credentials, finally he got Palit Professorship in 1917 and new era in Raman’s Life started.
Though he joined university, he was collaboratively working with IACS. He started his research in full swing in area of optics, and other areas of physics. In 1921 for the first time in life Raman had a chance to go to abroad. He was very excited not because of his interest to see other countries but to listen great scientists of the world at University Congress at Oxford. When he returned to India, he went his hometown and was sharing his trip experience with villagers. One young boy from the crowd asked him “Did you not feel embarrassing in Madrasi Turban in London?” Then Raman shared one incident of University Congress. During one session at University Congress, there was a lecture of Lord Rutherford. For his lecture, because of some problems Raman couldn’t reach on time. So calmly, Raman searched one place and back row and sat there. Suddenly Lord Rutherford exclaimed “Professor Raman, Why are you sitting there all alone in the back row? Come up here in front.” Raman got surprised but got an opportunity to sit from with all big scientists from all over the world. Immediately after a lecture, Raman met Lord Rutherford and asked “How did you recognise me?” Then Lord Rutherford replied that “Well I have read your papers and when I saw a person in the audience wearing Madrasi turban, I knew it must be you.”  Raman told that young boy, it wasn’t embarrassing rather it was a proud moment that person like Lord Rutherford recognised him.
When Raman was returning to India by a ship, he was fascinated by the blue colour of the sea. Lord Rayleigh meticulously explained the reason behind the blue colour of the sky. Today we know that sky colour is because of the scattering known as Rayleigh scattering. In one of Rayleigh’s article published in Nature, he explained that the blue colour of deep sea water is because of reflection of the sky in water. Many of us feels the same but Raman in long journey observed three different ocean’s water and found that even there is a cloud the colour was blue. He was used to move with his small spectroscope, telescope, Nicol prism , etc. To find the reason behind the colour of water he set up experiments on the ship. When the ship was reached to Aiden, all passengers went out of ship to feel mother earth and site seeing but Raman found comparable difference between the colour of sky and sea water and thus rushed to mail his observations to Nature journal. He did not stopped with these observations, he continued his experiments and when finally ship reached Bombay Harbour, he understood the reason behind the blue colour of deep sea water. Everyone was saying good bye to each other while Raman was busy in writing another article which again he published in Nature entitled as “The Colour of the Sea.” Raman proved that the sea colour is because of the molecular scattering of light alike air molecule. Later on he also proved the reason behind the scattering i.e. fluctuations occurred in the density of the water.
One day Raman quickly entered their laboratory and called everyone and excitedly shared that Compton had received Nobel Prize. In his work Compton observed that X-ray changes it’s frequency after scattering. Those days many people were working on scattering phenomenon. If there is an elastic collision between light and substance where incident and scattered light have same frequency, such scattering is known as Rayleigh scattering. Many researchers observed an extra component after scattering with change in frequency and people called it feeble fluorescence. People believed that fluorescence was because of impurity present in the substance. Raman and his student tried many liquids, purified and further tested but feeble fluorescence was still there. But after Compton’s discovery, Raman thought if X-ray after scattering could change frequency why not UV and visible. He focused his research to separate that extra component. And on 28th February 1928 Raman and K.S. Krishnan, successfully proved that ordinary light also changes frequency after scattering and it was different than fluorescence to which we call Raman Scattering. Later on he did modification to it and attached spectroscope to observe shifts (from elastic Rayleigh scattering) in case of various liquids, i.e. Raman Shift. Raman’s experimental arrangement in pictorial format is shown below.
Photo: Arrangement used by Raman to photograph Raman Shift in several liquids

For his discovery, Raman received Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. He was expecting Nobel Prize in 1928 only but it went to Richardson, in 1929 it went to de Broglie. You will surprise to know that before declaration of Nobel Prizes in 1930 from Stockholm, he already booked two tickets (one for his wife) to attend Nobel Prize Ceremony.

  • In 1924 when when Raman was elected as Fellow of Royal Society (FRS), Ashu Babu asked him, “Now What?” and he replied “of course Nobel Prize” and indeed he did it. Later he joined Indian Institute of Science, then Lord Rutherford was asked by management to join as a Director but he recommended Raman. Then Sir C. V. Raman becomes first Indian, a director but he struggled a lot to established Physics Department and later served for the country. He was also awarded with the India’s highest civilian award that is Bharat Ratna and was first to receive this prize.
  
SELECTED AWARDS AND HONOURS OF SIR C.V. RAMAN
Year
Awards/Honours
1905
Gold Medal for Physics (B.A. Degree); Elphinstone Medal; Jagirdar Memorial Gold Medal
1907
First rank in Indian Financial Services
1912
Received Curzon Research Prize
1913
Awarded Woodburn Research Medal
1917
Awarded Palit Professorship
1921
Awarded honorary D.Sc. degree by Calcutta University
1924
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society
1928
Awarded Matteucci medal by the Italian Society of Science.
1929
Knighted by King Emperor George V of England; Hughes medal of Royal Society London, Honorary PhD from Freiburg University; Honorary membership to Zurich Physical Society.
1930
Nobel Prize for Physics; Honorary from University of Glasgow.
1932
Honorary DSc of University of Paris
1933
Joined as First Indian Director at IISc, Bangalore
1934
Founded Indian Academy of Sciences
1935
Awarded title of Rajasabha Bhushana by the Maharaja of Mysore
1936
Contributed to Research in terms of Raman-Nath theory.
1941
Franklin Medal, Elected member of Optical Society of America
1948
Honorary doctorate from University of Bordeaux
1954
Bharat Ratna; Lenin Peace Prize.
The story of Sir C. V. Raman was really inspiring and I felt to write little about him. On this National Science Day week I am dedicating it to all youngsters in India.
Jai Hind
                             
Bibliography:
1.       Raman and His Effect, University press India by G. Venkataraman
2.       C. V. Raman, A Biography by Uma Parameswaran
3.       C.V. Raman’s research articles.


For any suggestions please write to:

Dr. Anand Burange
Wilson College, Mumbai, India

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