The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India

221 Pages·2020·16.279 MB·English

by  Somaditya Banerjee

Empires in Perspective
THE MAKING OF MODERN
PHYSICS IN COLONIAL
INDIA
Somaditya Banerjee
“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, Brazil
“Banerjee 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 power-
fully demonstrates how a postcolonial analysis can reveal an entirely new chapter
in the history of modern physics.”
Professor Matthew Stanley, New York University, USA
“In 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 socie-
ties and to our understanding of the development of quantum mechanics.”
Professor Daniel Kennefick, Department of Physics,
University of Arkansas, USA
“This monograph offers a new perspective on the history of physics and moder-
nity 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, USA
“This is a fascinating and much needed account of the remarkable rise of physics
in colonial India from humble beginnings to world-class status in quantum phys-
ics during the first half of the 20th century. Drawing upon his expertise in Indian
and international scientific history and culture, Somaditya Banerjee provides an
engaging story of broad interest and insight.”
Professor David Cassidy, Hofstra University, USA
“This is a riveting analysis of how imperial science intersected with indigenous
knowledge through the works of three twentieth-century scientists, S.N. Bose,
C.V. Raman, and Meghnad Saha. It argues that their globally acclaimed interven-
tions in relativity and quantum physics helped produce a radical variety of cos-
mopolitan nationalism. Somaditya Banerjee’s engaging discussion of ‘bhadralok
physics’ emerges as an essential reading on the intellectual lineages of colonial
and Asian modernities, intersectional knowledge production, local and global his-
tories of science and technology.”
Professor Jayeeta Sharma, History Department,
University of Toronto, Canada
“How did quantum physics research start in India, while it was still under the
British colonial rule? Somaditya Banerjee’s book answers this question by stud-
ying the cases of three Indian physicists, Satyendranath Bose, Chandrasekhara
Venkata Raman, and Meghnad Saha, whom Banerjee considers as “bhadralok
scientists.” It is a fascinating read that explores physics and its socio-cultural con-
text in India and expands the scope of the history of quantum physics beyond
Europe and North America.”
Professor Kenji Ito, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for
Advanced Studies), Japan
“Somaditya Banerjee’s The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India is a case
study of three Indian physicists Meghnad Saha, C. V. Raman and Satyendranath
Bose. All three of them made foundational contributions to the then nascent
field of quantum mechanics. Their physics is now standard text book material.
However, with his training in both physics and history, Banerjee brings a fasci-
nating and new perspective to their story. Somaditya’s unique contribution is the
careful study of the socio-political and cultural milieu which played a key role in
shaping Saha, Raman and Bose’s science. This detailed and careful work is a very
important contribution to the history of science in India, and should be of interest
to scientists, social scientists, historians as well as the lay public.”
Professor Jayaram Chengalur, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics
(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Pune, India

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). The analytical category “bhadralok physics”
is introduced to explore how it became possible for a highly successful brand of
modern science to develop in a country that was still under colonial domination.
The term bhadralok refers to the then emerging group of native intelligentsia, who
were identified by academic pursuits and manners. Exploring the forms of life of
this social group allows a better understanding of the specific character of Indian
modernity that, as exemplified by the work of bhadralok physicists, combined
modern science with indigenous knowledge in an original program of scientific
research.
The three scientists achieved the most significant scientific successes in the
new revolutionary field of quantum physics, with such internationally recognized
accomplishments as the Saha ionization equation (1921), the famous Bose–Einstein
statistics (1924), and the Raman Effect (1928), the latter discovery having led to
the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a scientist from Asia. This book analyzes the
responses by Indian scientists to the radical concept of the light quantum, and their
further development of this approach outside the purview of European authorities.
The outlook of bhadralok physicists is characterized here as “cosmopolitan
nationalism,” which allows us to analyze how the group pursued modern science
in conjunction with, and as an instrument of, Indian national liberation.
Somaditya Banerjee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and
Philosophy at Austin Peay State University, Tennessee, USA. He is the Faculty
Advisor for Phi Alpha Theta (which won the best chapter award in 2019 for the
11th consecutive time), History Club and the newly created India Club at Austin
Peay and currently teaches Early and Modern World History, Historical Methods,
Modern South Asia, Mughal India and History of Science & Technology.
At Austin Peay, Banerjee is also a member of the Faculty Senate and a member
of the Hispanic Cultural Center Advisory Committee and the Adjunct Committee.
Find him on Twitter @Soma_Band2020 or at https://www.apsu.edu/history-and-
philosophy/faculty/banerjee.php
Empires in Perspective
Series Editor: Jayeeta Sharma, University of Toronto
This important series examines a diverse range of imperial histories from the early
modern period to the twentieth century. Drawing on works of political, social,
economic and cultural history, the history of science and political theory, the
series encourages methodological pluralism and does not impose any particular
conception of historical scholarship. While focused on particular aspects of
empire, works published also seek to address wider questions on the study of
imperial history.
British Imperialism and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus, 1923–1939: Divide,
Define and Rule
Ilia Xypolia
A History of Italian Colonialism
Giuseppe Finaldi
Liberalism and the British Empire in Southeast Asia
Edited by Gareth Knapman, Anthony Milner, and Mary Quilty
Outskirts of Empire: Studies in British power projection
John Fisher
The First World War, Anticolonialism and Imperial Authority in British
India, 1914–1924
Sharmishtha Roy Chowdhury
Colonialism, China and the Chinese: Amidst Empires
Edited by Matthew P. Fitzpatrick and Peter Monteath
The Making of Modern Physics in Colonial India
Somaditya Banerjee
The Discourse of British and German Colonialism: Convergence and
Competition
Edited by Felicity Rash and Geraldine Horan
The Making of Modern
Physics in Colonial India
Somaditya Banerjee
First published 2020
by Routledge
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© 2020 Somaditya Banerjee
The right of Somaditya Banerjee to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 9781472465535 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781315555799 (ebk)
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by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Dedicated to my mother and father—Dr. Roma Banerjee and
Partha Banerjee