Prafulla Chandra Ray
A chemist who dressed as a saintly
mystic
Acharya P C Ray was a chemist,
entrepreneur and a passionate educationist. Much
can be said about how he integrated his
science with his cultural milieu. The 19th
Century science educated Indian had many aspects of
tradition and modernity to integrate,
reconstruct , re-articulate and discard. In their
zeal for development of society and being
influenced by the freedom movement, many
scientists with an English higher education
returned to their homeland to serve, primarily
through teaching.
Apart from being a researcher and an educator, P C Ray is said to be an early pioneer to help set up pharmaceutical industries while facing dif!culties in !nding investment. Directly or associatively, he also aided in setting up textile mills, soap factories, sugar factories, chemical industries , ceramic factories and publishing houses.
Apart from being a researcher and an educator, P C Ray is said to be an early pioneer to help set up pharmaceutical industries while facing dif!culties in !nding investment. Directly or associatively, he also aided in setting up textile mills, soap factories, sugar factories, chemical industries , ceramic factories and publishing houses.
Portrait of a Traditional Modernist
Should Ray have dressed in a suit
in the late 19th Century to maintain consistency between his
modernizing self and
modernized science?
Vernacular Science
P C Ray chose education over
research and advocated learning Science in Bengali. Would it have been easy to integrate a
‘hybrid-traditionalist’ approach like learning sciences in a regional language?
The Bengali Chemist
P C Ray is almost never seen in a
chemistry lab. Most documentation of Ray in popular culture is
a bust shot of a man in robes,
saintly looking and sombre.