Jagadish Chandra Bose
Technical physicist, biophysicist, botanist, archeologist or a mystic...what was he? J C Bose is often described as the Indian Polymath for having dabbled in various sciences from technical physics to plant biology. He also was an archeologist. Unlike his peers and comrades like P C Ray, he was less into educational and social activism and more committed to science research and instrumentation technology. Bose innovated and built many novel instruments for research. This unique aspect of his polymathic enquiry was the fact that he seemed to work within the paradigm of a spiritual universe and quested for rational and technical knowledge within a world of spirit.
“...the first impetus of western education impressed itself on some in a dead monotony of imitation of things western; while in others it awakened all that was greatest in national memory” - J C Bose
“...the first impetus of western education impressed itself on some in a dead monotony of imitation of things western; while in others it awakened all that was greatest in national memory” - J C Bose
Science Satyagrahas and Scientific Spiritualities
Bose is said to have refused salary
for three years while he taught physics in Colonial Calcutta.
He was revolting against race
coloured differences in pay scales. His admirers and critics regret his not producing enough “technical
physics” knowledge and attribute this to his being seduced into spirituality by prevalent
tagorean sensibilities.
Yantra Gyan
J C Bose christened the scientific
instruments he had built with Sanskrit words. Was this a sign
of Bose’s “syncretic approach” or
is it to be read with anxiety- that of a ‘Hindoo’ scientist eager to culturally traditionalise his
modern technological expressions?
Birthing Fictionalized Science
When Bose sat down to pen his first fictional novel, how did the scientist in him reach out to
fantasy? How did cognitive
polarities- the rational and the fantastical merge within the mind of a modernizing Indian researcher?