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