Abstract
IN the second part of his address, Sir James Jeans referred to the progress of science during the quarter of a century since the Congress was founded, and to the contributions of Indian workers. Restricting himself to the field of mathematics and physics, he mentioned the remarkable discoveries made in pure mathematics by Ramanujan in his short life; the work of Sir Venkata Raman in sound and the theory of music, and his discovery of the spectral effect now known everywhere by his name; the investigations of Prof. M. Saha in astrophysics, “which gave us our first clear understanding of the meaning of stellar spectra, and so unlocked the road to vast new fields of astronomical knowledge”; and also the work of many Indians, especially Chandrasekhar and Kothari, on conditions in the interiors of stars. Many, other than mathematicians and physicists, would also be thinking of the great experimental skill of the late Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose. In 1911, Sir James said, there were no Indian-born fellows of the Royal Society; now there are four. In 1911, the Royal Society published no papers by Indians; in 1936, the Society published ten. The past twenty-five years have been one of the greatest periods in the history of science, a period of unprecedented progress in which India has taken its part and which has seen the remarkable growth of India as a scientific nation.
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Progress of Science in India. Nature 141, 68 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141068b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141068b0