Remembering Sir CV Raman on National Science Day 2024 & Its Transformative Power Today!

 Every year on February 28, India celebrates National Science Day, a commemoration that honours the groundbreaking discovery of the Raman Effect by Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1928. This day is not just a tribute to a singular scientific achievement but a celebration of the spirit of inquiry, exploration and the relentless pursuit of knowledge that drives the scientific community worldwide.

The Discovery that Changed Physics

The Raman Effect, discovered by CV Raman, unveiled the scattering of photons when light traverses a transparent material, changing their energy and wavelength. This phenomenon not only provided deep insights into the quantum nature of light but also laid the foundation for the field of Raman spectroscopy, a technique widely used today in various scientific disciplines, including chemistry, physics, and biology for analysing the molecular composition of materials.

Raman's work was groundbreaking and earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, making him the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences. His discovery was a testament to the global significance of scientific research conducted in India and has since inspired generations of scientists in the country and around the world.

The Enduring Legacy of CV Raman

Sir CV Raman's legacy extends far beyond his Nobel Prize winning discovery. He was a visionary who believed in the power of science to transform society and was deeply committed to education and the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Raman was instrumental in establishing research institutions in India, including the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where he served as a professor and later as a director.

National Science Day 2024

Today is not just a day to reflect on Raman's contributions to science but also an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of scientists across the country and to foster a scientific temper among the masses.

The theme for National Science Day 2024, ‘Indigenous Technology for Viksit Bharat (Developed India)’, devised to reflect the evolving challenges and opportunities in the sphere of science and technology in present day India, is a clarion call to the nation's scientific community and innovators to delve deep into the wealth of indigenous knowledge and technologies that have sustained our country through the centuries.

This thematic approach fosters a forward-looking attitude towards harnessing traditional wisdom in tandem with cutting-edge science to pave the way for a sustainable, self-reliant and technologically advanced India. It underscores the significance of local innovations in solving global challenges, promoting the development of home-grown technologies that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable.

As India strides towards becoming a 'Viksit Bharat,' the theme of the year serves as a reminder of the power of blending the old with the new, creating a future where tradition and innovation coexist harmoniously, driving growth and prosperity for all.

Celebrating National Science Day

As we celebrate National Science Day, let us remember the contributions of CV Raman and countless other scientists who have pushed the boundaries of our understanding of the world. National Science Day is a tribute to the spirit of scientific inquiry and a reminder of our collective responsibility to foster a culture of curiosity and innovation. It is a day to celebrate, reflect, and look forward to the infinite possibilities that science holds for the future.

Let this day be a catalyst for young minds to explore the realms of science and technology and for society to appreciate the indispensable role of science in driving progress and innovation!

Ranajit Dey

Source: The Telegraph, 28/02/24

Indian Shakespeare~I

 We call him Shakespeare of India. We regard him as the greatest poet and playwright of ancient India. The world recognises him as one of the greatest poets of all time.

We call him Shakespeare of India. We regard him as the greatest poet and playwright of ancient India. The world recognises him as one of the greatest poets of all time. Yet, few people have read his exhilarating poems and plays and very few know about his life and work.This is mainly because he wrote in classical Sanskrit,once the pride of India but now designated as a ‘dead language’ and also because there was no recorded history about his time. He is none other than our one and only Kalidasa, the legendary poet and dramatist of ancient India.Like England’s Shakespeare,Kalidasa’s life is also shrouded in many mysteries.

A few miles from the city of Nagpur in Central India can be seen a sleeping town, Ramtek, known for its ancient Ram Temple and a Kalidas Smarak (Memorial) to commemorate Kalidasa’s writing of Meghadootam, one of his famous works. It is believed that Kalidasa composed the exquisite long poem Meghadootam sitting on the hillocks of Ramtek and looking at the advancing dark monsoon clouds from there. In recent time, a university, Kavikulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University has been established at Ramtek in memory of Kalidasa.

This gives credence to the theory that poet Kalidas perhaps lived in this region, within the periphery of Ujjain, the capital city of a thriving empire ruled by the legendary king, Vikramaditya. But owing to the absence of any historiography and recorded evidence, this remains in the realm of speculation. Stories with considerable embellishment exist about Kalidasa’s early life, partly as folklore without any authenticity. One of the most popular stories has been that in his childhood, he earned the name of murkh Kalidas (Kalidas the fool) after he was found cutting the branch of a tree sitting on the wrong side, which could have resulted in a fatal fall. Another interesting story surrounds his marriage and his attainment of poethood. It is believed that, as part of a conspiracy hatched by some courtiers, the uninitiated young Kalidasa got married to an intelligent princess named Vidyottama and when she found out that her husband was not educated, Kalidasa was banished from the palace and asked to return only after he became a scholar.

Spurned by his wife, Kalidasa travelled to various places and finally came to the Gadkalika Temple (which still exists) on the bank of the river Shipra (Kshipra) in Ujjayini, where he started his tapasya. Here, he received the grace of goddess Kali and became a poet. It is also believed that Kalidasa was not his original name (which still remains unknown) and he was given the name Kalidasa because he received the blessings of goddess Kali. Nothing is known about whether the ‘learned’ Kalidas returned to his wife in the palace or whether he married somebody else. There are several versions of this story involving various places including Varanasi. Notwithstanding recent research and debates among scholars, no conclusive evidence has been found about Kalidasa’s origin.

Another dimension has been added to the confusion by several scholars saying that there were at least three poets with the name of Kalidas during the same period and that many works are falsely attributed to poet Kalidasa. William Shakespeare also faced similar accusations and became a victim of speculation. The theory of multiple Kalidasas should be discounted in the absence of any credible evidence. There is endless controversy about his origin and the place of his literary activity. Some scholars, based on the flora and fauna mentioned in his works, believed that he lived in the Himalayas while some others thought he lived in Ujjayini (modern Ujjain) and there were still others who speculated that he belonged either to Magadha or Kalinga.

According to Lakshmi Dhar Kalla (1891-1953), a Kashmiri Pandit and Sanskrit scholar, Kalidasa was born in Kashmir and later moved southwards to Ujjayini. Kalla in his book The Birthplace of Kalidasa (1926) supported this view by citing Kalidasa’s mention in his work about Kashmir’s flora-fauna (saffron plant, deodar trees, and musk deer), geographical descriptions (valleys and glades), some legends (Nikumbha in Nikumbha Purana) and Kashmiri Shaivaism (Pratyabhijna philosophy reflected in Sakuntala). Kalla’s theory of Kalidasa being a Kashmiri Pandit migrating to Ujjayini appears to be a plausible one because it matches the most common belief that poet Kalidasa, the genius, served as one of the Nav Ratnas (nine gems) in the court of the great king Vikramaditya at Ujjayini. Here again there is a twist. According to some historians, ‘Vikramaditya’ was a common title given to many powerful kings and since Kalidasa was supposed to belong to the Gupta era, in all probability, this Vikramaditya belonged to Magadha, so also Kalidasa. So the confusion remains.

According to the majority of historians of ancient Indian history, poet Kalidasa lived during 4th to 5th century CE in the Gupta era and that he had been one of the nine gems in the court of Chandragupta II (375- 415 CE) who ruled north India from his capital Magadha. If true, this will mean that poet Kalidasa lived in the Magadha region (modern Bihar) and not in Ujjain and the legend of his being a Ratna in the court of Malwa king Vikramaditya at Ujjayini would be a myth. Another confusion ~ a Sinhalese tradition says that Kalidasa died in Sri Lanka during the reign of Kumaradasa and died there being killed by a courtesan named Kamini. It is a mystery as to why and how Kalidasa landed in the distant island of Sri Lanka! It is a sad reflection on us that no records are available about the place of birth, death, life and chronology of creations of the greatest poet of ancient India.

It is also a tragic commentary on the Indian genius (the Rishis and Gurus) that unlike the Greeks who built academies and institutions to perpetuate their arts, culture science and philosophy, the great Indian kings, Rishis and scholars never bothered to create institutions, solely depending on the AshramGurukul system, although ancient India had been a treasure house of the highest forms of art, culture, literature and philosophy and produced a galaxy of great men and women in science, arts, literature and science. Kalidasa was one of them and he would have gone into oblivion but for his re-discovery by the Western scholars like Sir William Jones, Montgomery Schuyler Jr, Goethe, and Sir Monier Williams. Kalidasa wrote in classical Sanskrit. In an age when writing paper, pen, pencil, printing technology, indelible ink etc. were unknown and even the Devanagri script of Sanskrit was not fully developed, one can imagine how difficult it was to write and preserve the manuscripts. The writing materials consisted of mostly bird-feather pen, charcoal ink, vegetable colours, bhurjapatra, taalpatra and taamrapatra or cotton cloth.

To preserve, make copies and popularize the manuscripts for generations must have been a herculean task and therefore, the literary creations were necessarily confined to the author’s family or a small coterie of friends and royal patrons. It is suspected that Kalidasa who had been a prolific writer must have produced a lot more wonderful poems and dramas many of which must have been lost and only a handful of them that received royal patronage and were performed before royal audiences finally survived. Kalidasa’s works which have survived through centuries and are indisputably attributed to him have been two epics, three plays (dramas) and two long poems. These are:

1. Kumarasambhavam (Mahakavya or Epic): It is about the birth, adolescence and marriage of goddess Parvati with Shiva and birth of their son Kartikeya.

2. Raghuvamsam (Mahakavya): It is an epic poem about the kings of the Raghu dynasty.

3. Abhijnanasakuntalam (Play): Regarded as a masterpiece, it tells the story of King Dushyanta’s falling in love and gandharva marriage with Shakuntala, daughter of Viswamitra and Menaka, abandoned at birth but adopted by sage Kanva, during a hunting trip in the forest. Owing to a curse of sage Durvasa, the king completely lost his memory and refused to accept her when a pregnant Shakuntala went to the palace to be united with the king. She could not show the royal ring given to her as she had lost it while taking a bath en route in a river. When the ring with the royal seal was found by a fisherman from the mouth of a fish and returned to the palace, King Dushyanta remembered everything and the remorseful king sets out for the forest to be united with Shakuntala and his son Bharat.

4. Malavikagnimitram (Play): King Agnimitra falls in love with an exiled servant girl Malavika. After the queen comes to know about it she tries to get her killed but it is discovered that Malavika is actually a princess. The queen accepts her and agrees to marry her with king Agnimitra.

5. Vikramorvashiyam (Play):Following an unfortunate incident in heaven, the celestial nymph Urvasi, was sent back to earth as a mortal with the curse that the moment her lover lays his eyes on the child she will bear, she will die and being immortal, return to heaven. However, after coming to earth, Urvasi and king Pururavas fell in deep love and she didn’t wish to return to heaven. Following various mishaps which she overcame with courage, the curse is lifted and the lovers are allowed to remain together on earth.

6. Meghadootam ( The Cloud messenger ~ a khandakavya): This long poem tells the story of Yaksha trying to send messages to his lover through the dark monsoon clouds. This is one of the most popular and most sublime poems, unparalleled in Sanskrit literature

7. Shyamaladandakam (long poem): In this long poem, the poet describes the wonderful beauty of goddess Matangi.

Parimal Brahma

Source: The Statesman, 22/02/24

Bharat Ratna Announced for Karpoori Thakur

 The central government has announced Bharat Ratna for late Bihar leader Karpoori Thakur in his birth centenary year. Known as ‘Jannayak’ or people’s leader, Thakur was CM twice and pioneered social justice policies despite hailing from a marginalized caste himself. Major parties in Bihar have long backed conferring India’s highest civilian honor on the state icon.

Backward caste leader

Thakur (1924-1988) emerged as Bihar’s tallest backward caste leader despite being from the nai (barber) community. He paved the way for the rise of other influential OBC politicians who eventually overtook his mantle. Though his tenures were short, Thakur left an outstanding legacy through his progressive decisions.

Participation in freedom struggle

A staunch nationalist, Thakur had participated in India’s independence movement and courted imprisonment. Post-1947, he enjoyed a long stint as MLA barring one term and served as education minister before becoming chief minister twice in the 1970s.

Pioneering social justice policies

As CM, Thakur revolutionized caste-based reservations in Bihar by expanding quotas for backwards castes from 12% to 20%. This ‘Karpoori formula’ of January 1977 even had specific 8% quota for extremely marginalized groups, preceding the central government’s EWS reservation by decades.

Lasting impact

By championing multilayered affirmative action, Thakur gave the most disadvantaged greater representation in education and jobs. Though it cost him power at the time due to upper caste resentment, the formula drove social progress with far-reaching consequences. It influenced reservation policies nationally.

Clean and principled

Despite his immense influence, Thakur lived an austere life rooted in Gandhian values focused on dignity and self-reliance for the marginalized. Through integrity and selflessness in public service rather than pursuing personal wealth, he carved a distinguished legacy.

Enduring political legacy

Karpoori Thakur’s pro-poor governance philosophy aligns with the politics of social justice championed by contemporary regional parties in Bihar descended from his socialist roots. His policy template has stood the test of time even as a new generation of leaders dominate the state’s politics now.

Inspiration for the marginalized

As caste census demands and reservations dominate discourse again, Karpoori Thakur’s life symbolizes empowerment hopes for India’s vast disadvantaged sections through dignified livelihoods and equitable representation. Conferring the Bharat Ratna honors his pioneering social justice legacy.

On her 192nd birth anniversary, a look at the life of Savitribai Phule, India’s first woman teacher

 

We recall the legacy of Savitribai Phule, who along with her husband Jyotirao Phule, helped pioneer the education of women and backward caste communities in India

“Be self-reliant, be industrious
Work, gather wisdom and riches,
All gets lost without knowledge
We become animal without wisdom,
Sit idle no more, go, get education
End misery of the oppressed and forsaken,
You’ve got a golden chance to learn
So learn and break the chains of caste.
Throw away the Brahman’s scriptures fast.”

– Savitribai Phule (Kavya Phule, 1854)

A pioneer who challenged oppressive social norms in her quest for women’s education, equality and justice, Savitribai Phule is formally recognised as India’s first woman teacher. The above poem titled Go, Get Education, is among the many Phule wrote to make a clarion call to the downtrodden to pursue education, and break free from the shackles of the caste system.

Who was Savitribai Phule?

A Dalit woman from the Mali community, Savitribai was born on January 3, 1831, in Maharashtra’s Naigaon village. Married off at the tender age of 10, her husband Jyotirao Phule is said to have educated her at home. Later, Jyotirao admitted Savitribai to a teachers’ training institution in Pune. Throughout their life, the couple supported each other and in doing so, broke many social barriers.At a time when it was considered unacceptable for women to even attain education, the couple went on to open a school for girls in Bhidewada, Pune, in 1848. This became the country’s first girls’ school.

The loud opposition to Phules’ schools

The Phules opened more such schools for girls, Shudras and Ati-Shudras (the backward castes and Dalits, respectively) in Pune, leading to discontent among Indian nationalists like Bal Gangadhar Tilak. They opposed the setting up of schools for girls and non-Brahmins, citing a “loss of nationality”, and believing not following the caste rules would mean a loss of nationality itself.

The opposition to the couple was so hostile that eventually Jyotirao’s father Govindrao was forced to kick them out of his house.

Savitribai herself faced great animosity from the upper castes, including instances of physical violence.When serving as the headmistress of the first school in Bhide Wada, upper-caste men often pelted stones and threw mud and cow dung on her. It is said that Savitribai would have to carry two saris when she went to school. She would change out of the soiled sari once she reached the school, which would again be soiled on her way back.

But this would not deter the work and the schools came to be hailed as a success. One report from 1852 in The Poona Observer states, “The number of girl students in Jotirao’s school is ten times more than the number of boys studying in the government schools. This is because the system for teaching girls is far superior to what is available for boys in government schools… If the Government Education Board does not do something about this soon, seeing these women outshine the men will make us hang our heads in shame.”

According to the memoirs written by Balwant Sakharam Kolhe, Savitribai was undeterred by these attacks and would say to her harassers, “As I do the sacred task of teaching my fellow sisters, the stones or cow dung that you throw seem like flowers to me. May God bless you!”

Phule’s role as a social reformer, beyond education

Along with Jyotirao, Savitribai started the Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha (‘Home for the Prevention of Infanticide’) for pregnant widows facing discrimination. This was inspired by a turn of events wherein a young Brahmin widow was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Andamans after she killed her newborn child. The man who had raped the illiterate widow refused to take up any responsibility for the child, driving the widow to infanticide.

Savitribai Phule also advocated inter-caste marriages, widow remarriage, and eradication of child marriage, sati and dowry systems, among other social issues. The Phules also adopted Yashwantrao, the child of a widow, whom they educated to become a doctor.

In 1873, the Phules set up the Satyashodhak Samaj (‘Truth-seekers’ society’), a platform open to all, irrespective of their caste, religion or class hierarchies, with the sole aim of bringing social equity. As an extension, they started ‘Satyashodhak Marriage’ – a rejection of Brahmanical rituals where the marrying couple takes a pledge to promote education and equality.

The couple also set up ‘Balyata Pratibandak Gruha’, a childcare centre for the protection of pregnant widows and rape victims. Urging women to break free of caste barriers, Savitribai encouraged them to sit together at her meetings.

At her husband’s funeral procession on November 28, 1890, Savitribai again defied convention and carried the titve (earthen pot). Walking ahead of the procession, Savitribai was the one who consigned his body to the flames, a ritual which is still predominantly carried out by men.

Setting an extraordinary example of living a life of compassion, service and courage, Savitribai became involved in relief work during the 1896 famine in Maharashtra and the 1897 Bubonic plague. She herself contracted the disease while taking a sick child to the hospital, and breathed her last on March 10, 1897.

Savitribai’s literary works

Savitribai Phule published her first collection of poems, called Kavya Phule (‘Poetry’s Blossoms’), at the age of 23 in 1854. She published Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar (‘The Ocean of Pure Gems’), in 1892.Besides these works, Matushri Savitribai Phlenchi Bhashane va Gaani (S’avitribai Phule’s speeches and songs’), and her letters to her husband have also been published.

Her poems also pointed out the necessity of learning English, as one reads:

“Make self-reliance your occupation,
Exert yourself to gather the wealth of knowledge,
Without knowledge animals remained dumb,
Don’t rest! Strive to educate yourself.
The opportunity is here,
For the Shudras and Ati Shudras,
To learn English
To dispel all woes.
Throw away the authority
Of the Brahmin and his teachings,
Break the shackles of caste,
By learning English.”

Calling out to the oppressed and the downtrodden to fight for justice, she says:

“Weak and oppressed! Rise my brother
Come out of living in slavery…”
“Awake, arise and educate
Smash traditions-liberate!
We’ll come together and learn
Policy-righteousness-religion,
Slumber not but blow the trumpet
O Brahman, dare not you upset.
Give a war cry, rise fast
Rise, to learn and act.”

Source: Indian Express, 3/01/23

129th birth anniversary of Satyendra Nath Bose: a look at the scientist’s contributions

 

Born on January 1, 1894, Bose collaborated with Einstein to develop what we now know as the Bose-Einstein statistics. We take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.

When a relatively unknown Kolkata-born teacher wrote a letter to Albert Einstein in 1924 about his breakthrough in quantum mechanics, nobody knew he was going to make history.

That teacher was Satyendra Nath Bose, who in 1924 reached out to the German physicist while claiming that he had derived Planck’s law for black body radiation (which refers to the spectrum of light emitted by any hot object) without any reference to classical electrodynamics. Bose asked Einstein to review his research paper and, if he found it important enough, get it published.

Impressed by Bose’s findings, Einstein not only arranged for the publication of the paper but also translated it into German. In his translator’s note, he said, “Bose’s derivation of Planck’s law appears to me an important step forward. The method used here also yields the quantum theory of ideal gas, as I shall show else.”

This recognition catapulted Bose to fame and glory. He went on to work with Einstein and together they developed what is now known as the Bose-Einstein statistics. Today, in honour of his legacy, any particle that obeys the Bose-Einstein statistics is called a boson. On his 129th birth anniversary, we take a look at the Indian physicist’s illustrious legacy and stellar achievements.

Early life

Born on January 1, 1894, Bose grew up and studied in Kolkata, where he solidified his position as an exemplary academician. His father, an accountant in the Executive Engineering Department of the East Indian Railways, gave him an arithmetic problem to solve every day before going to work, encouraging Bose’s interest in mathematics.

By the age of 15, he began pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree at the Presidency College, and later finished his MSc in Mixed Mathematics in 1915. Bose topped his class for both degrees and at 22, he was appointed as a lecturer at Calcutta University, along with astrophysicist Meghnad Saha.

These were tough times for Indian researchers as World War I had broken out and, European scientific journals came to India quite infrequently. Not only this, most of the research papers weren’t available in English and both Bose and Saha had to learn scientific terms in German and French languages to read published works. However, the new skill came in handy for them in 1919, when they published English translations of Albert Einstein’s special and general relativity papers.

Two years later, Bose was appointed to the position of Reader in Physics at the University of Dhaka. It was here that he made his most significant contributions to physics.

The Breakthrough 

While teaching Planck’s formula for the distribution of energy from black body radiation, Bose began questioning the way particles were counted — his basic argument was that one photon of light is not distinguishable from another of the same colour — and came up with his own derivation, instead of relying on classical electrodynamics like his predecessors. Bose first sent his findings, recorded in a paper titled Planck’s Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta, to a famous science journal called The Philosophical Magazine. However, the paper was rejected. Bose didn’t lose hope and made the bold decision of sending his research to Einstein.

The publication of the paper completely changed the Indian physicist’s life and career. He was soon granted study leave from his university for two years and allowed to visit Europe. During his trip, Bose got an opportunity to meet other famous scientists of that era, such as Paul Langevin and Madame Curie. He also joined the laboratory of Maurice de Broglie where he learnt techniques of X-ray spectroscopy and crystallography, the branch of science that deals with the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids.

Return to India

After his two-year stay in Europe, Bose came back to India and was appointed professor of physics and then Head of Department at Dhaka University in 1927. Here, he completely devoted himself to teaching and guiding research. Bose designed equipment for setting up an X-ray crystallography laboratory at the university, and wrote several papers on a range of subjects, such as ‘D2 Statistics’, and ‘Total Reflection of Electromagnetic Waves in the Ionosphere’.

In 1945, he left Dhaka to return to his alma mater, the University of Calcutta, as the Khaira Professor of Physics. He retired from the University of Calcutta in 1956 and spent a year as the Vice Chancellor at the Viswa-Bharati University.

Source: Indian Express, 2/01/23

PT Usha becomes first woman Indian Olympic Association chief: A look at the life of ‘Payyoli Express’

 Former Indian athlete PT Usha became the new chief of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Saturday (December 10), as well as its first woman president.

The 58-year-old Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha – for short – is recognised as a phenom in Indian athletics and came onto the scene during the 1980s. Later, she became active as a coach and member of sports administration and was nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2022 by the central government.

Early years: A village girl showing promise

Born in a small village near Payyoli, Kerala, PT Usha’s talent was spotted early. When in the fourth grade, she comfortably beat a school champion three years her senior in a race. Her graceful form and unsuspecting pace awed the audience. She continued performing well at the school level, earning a Rs. 250 scholarship and a place at the GVHSS (Sports) in Kannur, a Kerala government-run school with a special focus on sports.

At Kannur, she was coached by O.M. Nambiar, a former athlete himself, from 1977. Having first spotted her at a prize distribution ceremony, he provided her with technical guidance. The next year, Usha won six medals, including four golds at the inter-state meet for juniors in Kollam.

At this point, Usha was competing in multiple disciplines – from hurdles to long jump and high jump. “What impressed me at first sight about Usha was her lean shape and fast walking style. I knew she could become a very good sprinter,” said Nambiar in an interview with George Iype.

Becoming the ‘Payyoli Express’

Soon Usha burst onto the national scene, winning multiple medals and setting records in the 1979 national games and the 1980 national inter-state meet. Her performances earned her a call-up to the Indian contingent for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. At the age of just 16 years, she became the youngest sprinter to ever represent India at the biggest stage for track and field athletes. While she was unable to make it out of the heats for both the 100m and 200m events, the big stage would provide her with much-needed experience for the future.

In 1981, she set national records for both 100m and 200m sprints. At the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, she fully entered the nation’s imagination as she scored silver medals in both the 100m and 200m races. In 1983, she would break her own 200m record and set a new 400m national record.

By the time the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 arrived, PT Usha had already become Indian athletics’ poster child with expectations to bring Olympic glory to a country that had last won only one Olympic medal in individual sports thus far. The Payyoli Express had left the station.

Glory and heartbreak in Los Angeles

The LA Olympics would bring Usha to the cusp of winning an Olympic medal. She was fitter, better trained and far more experienced than the callow 16-year-old who had struggled in Moscow. After her performances in 400m races over the last couple of years, coach Nambiar suggested she put more focus on the 400m hurdles.

Some good performances in the run-up to the tournament followed, where she even beat American favourite Judi Brown, and breezed past her competition in the heats, setting a new commonwealth record (55.54 seconds) in the semi-finals. The finals beckoned, with a tough field of opponents facing her.

After a false start, the race began with Usha being slow off the blocks. However, she ran an epic sprint in the final 100 meters, missing out on a bronze medal by a whisker: while her leg was ahead of eventual bronze medalist Cristieana Cojocaru, she had not dipped her chest over the finish line, costing her the medal by one-hundredth of a second.

Her time (55.42 seconds) was a new national record that stands to date. This performance remains her career’s most memorable yet perhaps the most heartbreaking in the history of Indian sports, alongside Milkha Singh’s 1960 disappointment.

After the Olympics, PT Usha continued excelling through the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1985 Asian Championships in Jakarta, she won six medals, including five golds, setting a record for most medals in a single Asian Championships. She won another four medals at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. In the 1990s she struggled with a recurrent knee problem, and the ‘Queen of Indian Athletics’ finally hung up her boots in 2000. Overall, Usha won 23 medals in the Asian track and field events from the 1980s; 14 were gold.

What can we expect of her presidency?

The IOA has been mired in controversy for a long time. In fact, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned the IOA in 2012 for government interference and corruption. Like much of the developing world, the story of Indian sports frequently gets marred by neglect, nepotism and corruption. Politicians’ interference in sporting bodies has also led to the athletes’ issues taking the backseat.

In this landscape, PT Usha has become the first Olympian and the first international medallist to head the IOA in its 95-year-old history. After retirement, she was actively involved in athletics as a coach and mentor for budding Indian athletes. Drawing from her own experiences and the challenges with the lack of facilities and exposure, she opened the Usha School of Athletics. Under her guidance, athletes such as Kerala’s Tintu Luka and Jisna Matthews have excelled, even making it to the Olympic stage.

She has also been vocal about various issues concerning athletes in India. As someone with the stature of very few in Indian sports outside of cricket, she has routinely talked about the state of Indian sports administration, and how the lack of scouting, grooming and talent management has led to India’s historically disappointing show at the Olympics.

Written by Arjun Sengupta

Source: Indian Express, 12/12/2022

Bigger changes: The larger symbolism of Lachit Borphukan

 The belief that history or, more accurately, the writing of history stands still and is cast in stone is both naïve and untenable. As much as historians may debunk the temptation of reading the past in the light of the present, the reality is that each generation reshapes history in the light of contemporary perspectives. This is as much true of antiquity as it is of relatively more recent developments. 

India is a land where the past is constantly being reviewed. A recent circular by the University Grants Commission, advising institutions of higher learning to observe Constitution Day as an occasion when India reclaimed its democratic heritage dating back to the janapadas, occasioned many snide comments from historians who seem loath to allow amateurs, not to speak of politicians, intruding into their turf. Antiquity apart, the advent of the Narendra Modi government in 2014 has witnessed significant changes in the projection of India’s national movement. The elevation of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to new heights — including the installation of his statue in the canopy overlooking Delhi’s iconic India Gate — was calculated to suggest that the freedom struggle had multiple strands and was far richer than the overemphasis by earlier Congress governments on Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Likewise, the deification of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel — including the creation of the world’s tallest statue in Gujarat — was aimed at suggesting that post-Independence India was offered alternative routes of development in 1947 which, unhappily, were not pursued.

It is in this context that the grand celebrations to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Borphukan may be viewed. This Assamese general of the Ahom kingdom won a famous victory over the advancing Mughal army of Emperor Aurangzeb in the naval battle of Saraighat in 1671. Although the history of the Ahom kingdom, which lasted until the British conquest in 1826, is replete with both victories and defeats against invading foreign armies, the battle of Saraighat and its architect, Lachit Borphukan, occupy a key place in Assam’s collective consciousness, so much so that a separatist group opted to name its militia Veer Lachit Sena. Lachit Borphukan, the 15th-16th  century religious and literary figure, Srimanta Sankardev, and the 20th-century nationalist leader and Assam’s first chief minister, Gopinath Bordoloi, constitute the three icons on whom modern Assamese identity is based. 

Yet, it is unfortunate that all the three names resonate only in Assam or, at best, in the Northeast. Their importance in the making of India is scarcely appreciated in the rest of India. Lachit Borphukan was a contemporary of Chhatrapati Shivaji and his victory in Saraighat initiated a process of resistance that, with numerous ups and downs, culminated in the final ouster of the Mughals from the Ahom kingdom in 1682. However, while independent India has honoured Shivaji far beyond Maharashtra, Lachit Borphukan’s stellar role in the national resistance to the Mughals is known only in Assam. Some modest progress was made in 1999 when the National Defence Academy in Pune instituted a gold medal in his name that is awarded each year to the best cadet. But overall, Lachit Borphukan has suffered from the condescension of historians who have written their own version of Empire history of the Mughals. This week, to complement the celebrations in Assam, there will be events in Delhi, to be attended by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the home minister, Amit Shah, to showcase Lachit Borphukan to a national audience.

The chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has taken the lead in organising the 400th anniversary celebrations, was quite explicit in stating its larger purpose. “For long, Indian history has been about the conquests and glory of the Mughals as if they were the rulers of entire India. They could not conquer the Northeast or vast areas of southern India. We are celebrating Lachit Borphukan’s anniversary in Delhi so that the world gets to know that there were many heroes and kingdoms who defeated the Mughals.”

The trend may well be gathering momentum. In central India, the local folk memory of Rani Durgavati of the Gondwana kingdom who played a heroic role in resisting the advance of Akbar’s armies is being elevated to the status of formal history. Jabalpur University has already been renamed after her. Additionally, there is a concerted move to ensure that heroic and inspirational figures from history belonging to subaltern communities are given due recognition in the pages of history books. Like the bid to delineate the linkages between Kashi (Varanasi) and Tamil civilisation, there is an unending endeavour by the Modi government to enlarge the scope of history and use it to promote the idea of India’s civilisational unity.

In the case of Lachit Borphukan, there is an additional dimension. For very long, Assam and the northeastern states have experienced both a political and emotional detachment from national politics. This, coupled with the lack of sufficient understanding of the historical specificities of each region, was a principal factor behind the spate of insurgencies that affected nearly all the states. The mollycoddling of corruption as a way of co-opting local elites also took a huge toll, as did the indifference to investments in infrastructure, allegedly for ‘strategic’ reasons. 

Since assuming office, the Modi government has been in a rush to make up the infrastructure deficit and ensure the Northeast’s connectivity with the rest of India. Additionally, India’s Look East foreign policy and better relations with Bangladesh and Myanmar could yield instant results, especially if Chittagong port opens up to the India trade. Most important, however, the decision to earmark at least 10% of Central spending for the Northeast is a game-changer for a region that has always felt shortchanged. Finally, in political terms, the growing importance of Assam and the Northeast in the ecosystem of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party marks a new beginning for the region. 

There has been a mood shift in Assam and in the Northeast that is visible to all. The Lachit Borphukan celebrations are more than symbolic precisely because it takes place on the back of a larger transformation.

Swapan Dasgupta

Source: The Telegraph, 24/11/22

Who was Sant Kabir, the extraordinary poet-saint of the Bhakti movement?

 President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Sant Kabir Academy and Research Centre Swadesh Darshan Yojana and paid tribute to the Bhakti saint, Kabir at Maghar (Uttar Pradesh) Sunday, June 5. According to legends, Kabir is said to have departed from the mortal world in Maghar.

During his address at the Kabir Chaura Dham, Kovind said, “The life of Kabir is an epitome of human virtue and his teachings are relevant today even after 650 years. Kabir’s life was an ideal example of communal solidarity.”

“He took the initiative to remove the evils, ostentation and discrimination and also lived the household life like a saint,” he added.

Kabir and the Bhakti movement

The Bhakti movement, which began in the 7th century in South India, had begun to spread across north India in the 14th and the 15th centuries. The movement was characterized by popular poet-saints who sang devotional songs to God in vernacular languages, with many preaching for the abolishing the Varna system and some kind of Hindu-Muslim unity. They emphasized an intense emotional attachment with God.

One school within the Bhakti movement was the Nirguni tradition and Sant Kabir was a prominent member of it. In this tradition, God was understood to be a universal and formless being

Many of the saints of the Bhakti movement came from the ranks of the lower to middle artisanal classes. Kabir was a ‘low caste’ weaver (Julaha), Raidas was a leather worker and Dadu a cotton carder. Their radical dissent against orthodoxy and rejection of caste made these poet-saints extremely popular among the masses and their ideology of egalitarianism spread across India.

Kabir’s compositions can be classified into three literary forms – dohas (short two liners), ramanas (rhymed 4 liners), sung compositions of varying length, known as padas (verses) and sabdas (words).

Historical and legendary accounts of Kabir

Most historians agree on the following facts about Kabir. He was born in Varanasi and lived between the years 1398 and 1448, or till the year 1518 according to popular belief. He was from a community of ‘lower caste’ weavers of the Julaha caste, a group that had recently converted to Islam.

He learned the art of weaving, likely studied meditative and devotional practices under the guidance of a Hindu guru and grew to become an eminent teacher and poet-singer. Kabir’s beliefs were deeply radical, and he was known for his intense and outspoken voice which he used to attack the dominant religions and entrenched caste systems of the time. He composed his verses orally and is generally assumed to be illiterate.

There are myriad legendary accounts on the other hand, for which there exists less of a factual historical basis. However, they play a more crucial role in forming the shared identity of Kabir’s followers and their social, moral and religious values.

According to one, Kabir was born to a Brahmin widow, who placed him in a basket and set him afloat on a pond, after which he was rescued and adopted by a Muslim couple. In another myth, he was immaculately conceived by his mother and emerged from the palm of her hand.

He is also believed to be (but not on strong historical grounds) a disciple of the famous guru Ramananda, a 14th century Vaishnava poet-saint. Kabir knew that the saint would visit a certain ghat in Varanasi before the break of dawn. When Kabir saw him approaching, he lay down on the stairs which led to the river. Ramananda tripped over him and exclaimed his own mantra, ‘Ram, Ram!’. Kabir then claimed that the saint’s mantra had been transferred to him and therefore he must accept him as his disciple.

Kabir’s critique of religion and caste

Kabir is in modern times portrayed as a figure that synthesized Islam and Hinduism. In many of the popular bhajans associated with him today, his strong dissent towards religion is somewhat muted, according to religious studies scholar David Lorenzen. While he did borrow elements from different traditions, he very forcefully proclaimed his independence from them.

He did not only target the rituals and practices of both Hinduism and Islam, but also dismissed the sacred authority of their religious books, the Vedas and the Quran. Kabir did use the name Rama in his poems, but he clarified that he was not referring to the avatar of Vishnu, but a formless and general Hindu name for the divine. Author Manu S Pillai writes that he even combined Allah and Ram.

“Every man and woman born are forms of you, so says Kabir: I’m Ram and Allah’s foolish baby, he’s my guru and my pir,” he wrote.

Instead of God being an external entity that resided in temples or mosques, Kabir argued that God existed inside everyone.

“Why look for Me anywhere else, my friend, When I’m here, in your possession?…He is the very breath of our breaths.”

Kabir’s revolt against the caste system also sought to do away with the complex rituals and ceremonies performed by the Brahmins. He, like the other prominent saints of his time, argued that it was only through bhakti, intense love or devotion to God could one attain salvation.

In many of his verses, Kabir proclaimed that people of all castes have the right to salvation through the bhakti tradition.

He sought to eradicate caste distinctions and attempted to create an egalitarian society, by stressing the notion that a Bhakt (devotee) was neither a Brahmin nor an ‘untouchable’ but just a Bhakt.

Kabir’s legacy

Kabir’s own humble origins and his radical message of egalitarianism fostered a community of his followers called the Kabir Panth. A sect in northern and central India, many of their members are from the Dalit community. Historians estimate that it was established in India between 1600 and 1650, one or two centuries after his death.

Today, the sect exists as a large and distinct community, with various sects under different spiritual leaders. However, all regard Kabir as their guru and treat the Bijak as their holy scripture. The Bijak contains works attributed to Kabir and is argued by historians to have been written in the 17th century. Today, most of the followers continue to reject idol worship and are discouraged from praying at Hindu temples, according to the historian David Lorenzen. The main festival of most branches is Kabir Jayanti, the birthday of Kabir which is celebrated every summer with collective feasts at the maths.

Among the 5,00,000 indentured labourers that were taken to Trinidad, Mauritius, Fiji and Guyana by the British in the 19th to 20th centuries, many were and continue to be members of the Kabir Panth.

Several of Kabir’s verses and songs form a vital part of the Guru Granth Sahib. Compiled in 1604, the text is the oldest written collection of Kabir’s work, according to Linda Hess, expert on Kabir studies.

Kabir’s combative positions and vehement critiques of established religions did not sit well with the elites of those communities, and Linda Hess suggests that there is evidence that both Hindus and Muslims were ready to assault him during his lifetime.

After his death, however, both communities almost came to blows over the right to claim his body. According to legend, Kabir’s Hindu and Muslim followers got ready to battle, but before they could strike someone removed the shroud to find a stack of flowers that replaced his corpse. The two communities then divided the flowers and buried or burned them according to their rituals.Kabir’s teachings continue to shape various religious discourses in India today. In the Sikh tradition he is seen to have influenced Guru Nanak, for Hindus he is a Vaishnavite (devotees of Vishnu), and is revered by Muslims as a Sufi saint.

Written by Raghu Malhotra

Source: Indian Express, 6/06/22

Satyendranath Bose

 Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974) was an Indian Physicist best known for his role in particle Physics. He was  born in Calcutta; he was the eldest of the 7 children of his father Surendranath Bose. Bose was a specialist in mathematical physics. A fellow of the Royal Society, Bose was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1954, incidentally, the Padma Vibhushan was awarded for the first time in 1954 only.

Bose never received a doctorate nor was he awarded a Nobel Prize. He is largely forgotten and Nobel Committee has recognized all other scientists that did work on the concept, whose historic father was Satyendra Nath Bose.

Contribution to Indian Science

• Meghnad Saha was his classmate and J C Bose as his teacher. In 1921, he joined the then newly created Dacca University as Reader in Physics. While teaching, he wrote a paper for deriving the Planck’s Law. His paper was titled ‘Planck’s Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis.‘
• In 1900, Max Planck had explained in the theory of black body radiation that light is emitted in discrete amounts (quanta) rather than as a continuous wave. But his derivation of this formula was not satisfactory to other scientists, in fact even to himself. Later, Albert Einstein explained the photoelectric effect based on Planck’s quanta as photons in 1905 in a paper. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for this paper, not for his papers on Relativity!
• However, many of his colleagues were not fully convinced of his yet-to-be-developed photon theory. Under these circumstances, Bose re-sent the paper to Albert Einstein in June 1924, with a fervent appeal for his perusal. Einstein immediately recognised the significance of this paper. This paper was going to substantiate and revolutionise his theory of photoelectric effect. Einstein himself translated Bose’s paper into German and sent it to Zeitschrift für Physik with his endorsement for publication. With his demigod status, Einstein’s words carried much weight. It was promptly published, and immediately Bose shot into prominence.
• After this, Einstein personally invited Bose to work with him, and their efforts culminated in the Bose-Einstein statistics, an important and seminal phenomenon in quantum physics. His work was wholeheartedly supported and appreciated by the leading lights in quantum theory, such as Louise de Broglie, Erwin Schroedinger, Paul Dirac and Heisenburg.
• In honour of Bose’, Paul Dirac coined the word ‘Boson’ for those particles which obey Bose’s statistics. In atomic theory, only Fermions (named after Enrico Fermi) and Bosons were named after physicists.

The lesson we should take from Nadal for our own lives

 In June 2005, playing in his first French Open final, a 19-year-old Rafael Nadal found himself in a spot of bother. Deep into the fourth set, his opponent, the unseeded Mariano Puerta, had two set points on his serve to take the match into a decider. But Nadal wouldn’t allow it. He produced drop shots of unerring accuracy and struck his ground-strokes with a ferocity that belied his age. It was clear that a new star was born, that the genius of Roger Federer had found itself a worthy rival. But how long was Nadal going to be able to last? Unlike Federer, Nadal — for all his preternatural abilities — seemed to invest every ounce of his energies into every point he played. Each match, to him, was a final reckoning.

Yet, here we are, in the most turbulent of years, when almost everything seems to have gone awry, and Nadal has done what he almost always does: win the French Open. He is now a champion at Roland Garros for the thirteenth time, having lost just twice in the 102 matches that he’s played at the venue — a dominance so unfathomable that until the middle of 2009, Pete Sampras, who won 14 major titles, held the record for most grand slams by a men’s tennis player.

The score-line in the final against Novak Djokovic suggests this came easy, but it was anything but. Just as he did all those years ago, Nadal played like his life depended on the match. He chased every ball down, from one wing to another, ran down Djokovic’s drop shots, and turned defence into attack with infallible poise — he created, to borrow Simon Barnes’s words, an “illusion of complicity”. No other tennis player lives the moment like Nadal does; he brings to each rally an intensity so severe that we can feel it searing on our television screens thousands of miles away.

It wasn’t all that long ago, though, that Nadal was written off by critics. In 2015, after he lost in five sets to Fabio Fognini in the third round of the U.S Open, his physical shape seemed to have waned; the unrelenting style of his tennis, many believed, had taken an irreversible toll. For the first time, Nadal ended a calendar year without winning a single major. It wasn’t that he was merely being toppled by his rivals, but he was losing to — and being outclassed by — all manners of journeymen. In Wimbledon the same year, when he lost to the 102-ranked Dustin Brown, it was hard to tell who the champion was.

Tennis players, unlike footballers, do not have teammates to prop them up. Competing can be a lonely pursuit and, with injuries mounting, Nadal looked more and more a spent force. But 2017 brought with it a revival — he won two majors, including, impressively, on the hard courts at the U.S. Open. To what did Nadal owe this metamorphosis?

To present the best version of himself, to bring to every match, to every training session, the same level of dedication that he brought to the final at Roland Garros, is, to Nadal, the most basic ask. In this distilled philosophy, there is perhaps a learning for all of us: to take seriously our ethical responsibility to become the best versions of ourselves.

There were unquestionably minor tweaks that he made to his game. His first serve was now an improved weapon, and he shortened points by attacking sooner into rallies than he might have earlier in his career. But his resurgence emanated out of a renewed dedication to the foundations on which his game is built. When commentators implore players to treat every point equally it can sound like a cliché. But, for Nadal, this has been a career’s motif: a willingness to chase down every ball and to commit himself wholly to every point.

Remarkably, before the French Open final this year, many believed that Djokovic had the edge, on account chiefly of the cooler weather, with the tournament being staged in October, and the closed roof above the court. Writing off Nadal though is a fool’s errand. The final showed us that even at 34 he is capable of being an implacable force, of summoning greatness at will.

Is there anything, though, that we can absorb from Nadal’s endeavours? To be sure, there are qualities in his late-career excellence for other sportspersons to study: his grit and his determination; his integrity on and off the court; his devotion to practice and training; and his willingness to think through strategies to combat specific opponents, Indeed, the women’s singles champion at the French Open, the talented teenager Iga Swiatek, said Nadal is the only player that she looked up to. But what about the rest of us, outside the world of sport?

There are good reasons to think of sport as a metaphor for life. Unlike Nadal, not all of us has a competitor staring at us from the other side of a net, but we still seek meaning in sport. Following Nadal makes sense for many reasons. For one, watching him play tennis gives us a sense of what greatness in motion can look like. But there is also something compelling in his approach to life that transcends the sport in some ways — the “Tao of Rafa” as the New York Times’ Karen Crouse recently described it.

In his interview after the final, Nadal was clearly delighted, but he didn’t see the manner of his victory as a particular cause for revelry. He pointed instead to the Australian Open last year when Djokovic had beaten him in similar fashion, in a match that barely lasted two hours. It is Nadal’s perspective on his majors’ tally, though, that is especially telling. As always, he brushed aside the tedious debate on who — between him, Federer, and Djokovic — was the greatest of all time. To him, spending time thinking about what others around him had achieved was futile. “You have to live your personal life,” he said. “Personally, that’s the thing I did during all my career, try my best every single day. In terms of these records, of course that I care [about]. I am a big fan of sport in general. I respect a lot that.”

To present the best version of himself, to bring to every match, to every training session, the same level of dedication that he brought to the final at Roland Garros, is, to Nadal, the most basic ask. It is a mantra that he has often repeated, both in triumph and in adversity. In this distilled philosophy, there is perhaps a learning for all of us: to take seriously our ethical responsibility to become the best versions of ourselves. To treat our lives as a challenge, as Nadal does, as one where we take our private responsibilities seriously, ought to strike us as an example worth emulating.

Suhrith Parthasarathy

Source: The Hindu, 20/08/20