The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India

This monograph offers a cultural history of the development of physics in India during the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on Indian physicists Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970) and Meghnad Saha (1893-1956).

Zusatztext By exploring the intellectual and sociocultural conditions for doing quantum physics in 1920s colonial India from a non-Eurocentric angle, this book fills a void in the history of physics literature. Banerjee studies three important Indian physicists and identifies them as bhadraloks, a sort of Indian Bildungsbürger. Little more than their names and key contributions were known so far. This changes with this book, making it an important reference not just for historians of science, but for anyone interested in colonial history.Dr. Christian Joas - Director, Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen Everybody familiarized with physics possibly have once asked how the Bose-Einstein statistics and the Raman effect were produced in colonial India in the early part of the 20th century. Banerjee's remarkable book mobilizes the cultural history and the idea of bhadralok physics to examine the group of intellectuals who looked for scientific goals as part of their social and cultural identities. The book fulfills an overdue gap in the history of physics.Professor Olival Friere, Universidade Federal da Bahia, BrazilBanerjee grapples skillfully with a crucial question how was early 20th century India able to develop advanced physics research while under colonial rule? The case studies of Bose, Raman, and Saha document a novel system of indigenous knowledge production - bhadralok physics. This unprecedented book takes seriously the technical physics as well as the cultural diversity of India. It powerfully demonstrates how a postcolonial analysis can reveal an entirely new chapter in the history of modern physics.Professor Matthew Stanley, New York University, USAIn The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India, Banerjee addresses a sadly neglected issue in the history of modern science and provides insightful answers to some central questions about the development of science. He shows how Indian scientists contributed major discoveries in the development of quantum physics, the most esoteric and novel branch of science at the time. He argues that this groundbreaking work was a part of the development of Indian nationalism and was very much a home grown phenomenon as major thinkers emerged from the bhadralok class of middle-class intellectuals and the movement for Indian self-rule. This engaging and well-written book is at once an important contribution to our understanding of scientific development in colonial and post-colonial societies and to our understanding of the development of quantum mechanics.Professor Daniel Kennefick, Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, USAThis monograph offers a new perspective on the history of physics and modernity in early twentieth-century India. Transcending earlier approaches to global science as hybridity or the interaction of center/periphery or universal/local, Banerjee argues that early Indian quantum physicists reveal features of what he calls cosmopolitan nationalism or the melding of traditional Indian culture, British cultural traits and transnational ideas. This book situates the careers of three India-born and -educated physicists--Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888-1970), Meghnad Saha (1893-1956)within the Bengali middle-class intelligentsia known as the Bhadraloks. Living in a colonial situation, these physicists sought international collaborations outside the British empire and turned, in particular, to Germany. Banerjee's history of bhadralok physics is a fascinating study of colonialism and decolonialism, Indian nationalism and modernity, cosmopolitanism, and dynamics of class, caste and social manners. This book will engage a wide range of readers, especially those interested in science studies on a global scale.Professor Richard Kremer, Department of History, Dartmouth College, USAThis is a fascinating and much needed account of the remarkable rise of physics in colonial India from humble beginnings to wo...

Autorentext

Somaditya Banerjee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy at Austin Peay State University, Tennessee.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Writing a History of Modern Science in South Asia

2. Local Visvajaneenata Cosmopolitanism, Bhadralok Culture and the Making of Satyendranath Bose

3. Satyendranath Bose and the Concept of Light Quantum

4. Colonial Modernity and Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman: Verifying the Light Quantum

5. Meghnad Saha: Applying the Light Quantum

6. Final Reflections on Bhadralok physics

Bibliography

Appendices

Appendix A: Satyendranath Bose's letter from Berlin to Jacqueline Eisenmann in 1926

Appendix B: Indian chemist Jnan Ghosh's letter to Saha in Bengali, and Satyendranath Bose's letter to Saha in Bengali

Appendix C: Satyendranath Bose's letter to Albert Einstein, June 4,1924

Appendix D: Einstein's postcard to Satyendranath Bose, July2, 1924

Appendix E: Einstein's postcard to Satyendranath Bose July 2, 1924, translated in English

Appendix F: Satyendranath Bose's third letter to Einstein, January 27, 1925

Appendix G: Hermann Mark letter of reference for Bose, May 9, 1926

Appendix H: Paul Langevin letter of reference for Bose, April 26, 1926