CHANDRASEKHARA VENKATA RAMAN : AN ILLUMINATING LIFE

©Vijnana Bharati 2022

First Edition August 2022

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We need a spirit of victory, a spirit that will carry us on to our
rightful place on this planet. If that indomitable spirit were to
arise, nothing can hold us from achieving our rightful DESTINY-
Prof. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
Published by:
Vijnana Bharati
A4, First Floor, Gulmohar Park,
August Kranti Marg,
New Delhi- 110049
E-mail: vijnanabhararti@gmail.com
Contact: +91-011- 49032436

Author

Dr. Chandra Mohan Nautiyal

Editorial Team
Dr. Arvind C. Ranade
National Convenor General, VVM
Dr. Brajesh Pandey
Controller of Examination, VVM
Dr. Vishnu K. Vaze
Content Editor, VVM

Design
Mr. Raj Kumar
 CONTENT TABLE

Sl. No. Content/Chapter Page No.

i Preface i – iii

ii Editorial iv – vi

1 Introduction 1–4

2 The Family and Childhood of CV Raman 5–8

3 Education 9 – 18

4 Research at Kolkata and Raman Effect 19 – 36

5 New Nest at Bengaluru and Raman: The Institution 37 – 40
Builder and Talent Promotor
6 Effects of Raman Effect: Wide Applicability of 41 – 48
Raman’s Effect

7 Summary and Lessons 49 – 62

8 Appendices 63 – 66

9 References 67
 PREFACE

I distinctly remember the morning of 23rd November, 1970 (it was a Monday)
when, during the assembly, the then principal of our school Sh. B. S. Gupta
announced the demise of Bharat Ratna C. V. Raman on 21st November. At
that time, we knew little about the significance of Raman’s work but could
easily fathom the greatness of some scientist who was a Nobel Laureate and
recipient of Bharat Ratna. The news of his demise was prominently flashed
through newspapers and radio (TV had just entered India and was virtually
limited to Delhi). I, subsequently, also wrote an article on his life for our
magazine.

I didn’t have the good fortune of seeing Prof. Raman in person. Hence, I have
based this book on what has been written about him by likes of Prof. PR
Pisharoty, Dr. G Venkataraman, Dr. S Bhagavantam and Dr. S Ramaseshan or
my interaction with those who knew him. I’d recommend to anyone
interested in learning more about Raman and his work to read the material
listed under references. I have also drawn from the material scattered in
magazines like Science Reporter. I had good interaction with late Prof.
Devendra Sharma, former Vice-Chancellor of Gorakhpur and Indore
Universities. Prof. Raman had been examiner of his PhD thesis (though he
didn’t come to Allahabad for Viva-Voce). Prof. Sharma had several things to
narrate about Raman.

Raman was a strong personality and perhaps also a strange mix of kindness
and toughness. Sometimes myths get attached to such luminaries, which are
i
difficult to verify. I came across papers by Dr. Rajinder Singh of University of
Oldenburg, Germany, and I have tried to incorporate some of those
interesting observations too. So, obviously, there can be no claims to
originality.

After my MSc (Physics) from University of Roorkee (now known as IIT-

Roorkee), I joined Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad in 1977
as a Research Scholar, and here I had opportunity to meet Prof. KR
Ramanathan, Padma Bhushan and Prof. PR Pisharoty, Padma Shri, both being
Professor Emeritus at PRL. Prof. Ramanathan had been the first student of
Raman and had been the first director of PRL. He had been chosen by none
other than Prof. Vikram A Sarabhai who was the father of India’s space
programme and had founded PRL. While posted in Rangoon (Myanmar),
Ramanathan, the first student of Raman, was known for frequenting Kolkata
at his own expenses to work in Raman’s laboratory. Prof. Pisharoty was
younger of these two students of Raman and more interactive. I had just
spent a few months at PRL, and I didn’t know that these two grand old men
were students of Prof. Raman. In fact, it was Prof. Pisharoty whom I had met
to seek advice while exploring to choose my research field at PRL. Both of
them were kind gentlemen who were highly respected people, within and
outside PRL.

With time, we grew up learning something about how Raman’s work and how
it influenced many fields of science and industry and how its applications
grew with time in many areas including Physics, Chemistry, industry and
others.

ii
Dr. Arvind C. Ranade, Dr. Brajesh Pandey and Dr. Vishnu K. Vaze from Vijnana
Bharati and Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan are responsible for extracting the
book out of me with the invite and constant pursuing respectively. I also
sincerely thank Sh. Mahesh Chandra of Indian Academy of Sciences,
Bengaluru; Sh. PK Mishra, Indian National Science Academy and my friend
Prof. PP Pathak who helped me in collecting the relevant literature or helped
by way of making suggestions.

Names of several places were spelt differently during Raman’s time. For
instance, Trichinopoly of those days is now called Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchi and
also Trichy! The states have also been reconstituted since then. Sometimes,
even names of people are spelt slightly differently by different people.
Readers may have to do a little surfing in case of confusion.

People like Raman appear rarely. There are lot of lessons to learn from his
life which had many shades. One should take all the positive messages and
then each one should take one’s own creative path.

On crossing of 75 years since independence, the book is dedicated to the

scientists, the modern Rishis, who too were freedom fighters in their own
ways. They were architects of Indian science and modern India and raised
the global respect for India, in times when the nation needed it most.

(Dr.) Chandra Mohan Nautiyal

iii
 FROM EDITOR’S DESK

India has a rich heritage of Science and Technology. Whether it is the

invention of Zero long ago or the launching of more than 100 satellites in
space in the modern era, our scientists have done it successfully.
Unfortunately, our glorious past has been long forgotten. From time
antiquity, India possesses a great legacy in Science and Technology which
needs to be communicated and informed to the young generation. We need
to bring out stories of such unsung heroes from India. We are happy to
present this book titled ‘Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman: An Illuminating
Life’.

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was the most illustrious scientist who

placed India on the scientific map of the world. He significantly contributed
to building and shaping many research institutions and organizations in
India. He also started the Indian Journal of Physics. Since 1986, the
Government of India designated February 28 as National Science Day, to
commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman effect”.
There is a story that after securing the first position in his bachelor’s
program in 1901, Raman’s teachers advised him to travel to England in order
to compete in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination. When he failed the
medical examination, the doors for England were closed. That time he felt
relieved which he expressed by saying, “I shall always be grateful to this
man [medical officer].” It reflects that Raman was very much attached to
India and did not want to serve the British in the ICS, or maybe he had already
developed academic interests.
iv
As far as the initiative of Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan is concerned, we thank
Shri Jayant Sahasrabuddhe, the national organizing secretary of Vijnana
Bharati for his constant support and guidance. His involvement and
meticulous style of working has improved the quality of the book. We are
sure that the students and parents will appreciate the hard work of Dr C. M.
Nautiyal, an excellent science communicator and scientist and author of this
book. There are many facts and anecdotes in the book which are interesting
and noteworthy!

As the editors of the book, it was an enriching experience for both of us. The
discussions about the content, the form of writing, and the interpretation of
the concepts written were indeed exercise worth doing!

Vijnana Bharati will continue to strive to bring such original contributors and
their contributions in the field of science and technology to the forefront; so
that every Indian feels proud of the Indian scientific heritage. As the
members of the core team of VVM, we wish that this book does not remain
mere study material for the students, but gets a larger readership across
India.

We are happy to mention that this book is being translated and published
simultaneously by Vijnana Bharati in eleven official languages of the
country, in addition to English, ensuring a greater outreach to the nooks and
corners of India.

v
The objective of Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan is not just to hunt for science
talent amongst the young minds, but also to develop and nurture the
scientific temperament in the younger generation. VVM aims to do so by
making the students aware of the lives and achievements of scientists of
Indian origin, who have mostly stayed and worked in India. We hope that
reading about these scientists will inspire young minds and focus their
attention on their motherland and the achievements of the sons and
daughters of the country.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat !

Dr. Vishnu K. Vaze Dr. Brajesh Pandey Dr. Arvind C. Ranade

Content Editor Controller of Examination National Convenor General

vi
 1. INTRODUCTION

A study of the history of individual branches of science and of the biographies of the
leading contributors to their development is essential for a proper appreciation for a
proper association of the real meaning and spirit of science.
(An excerpt from Prof. C V Raman’s talk on ‘Scientific Outlook’ for All India Radio)

The traditions in science in India are ancient.

Everyone agrees that Indians knew about the heliocentric solar system
(planets including Earth move around the Sun), the value of pi, the concept
of decimal and solutions of indeterminate equations at least about a
thousand years before Copernicus and others in Europe or anywhere else
knew. It was not just Aryabhat I and II; Bhaskara I and II; Brahmagupta, Lalla,
Vateshvara, Shridhara, Shripati, Madhava but many others. Also, the
advancements were not limited to Mathematics and Astronomy alone. In
Architecture, Ayurveda, Chemistry and Metallurgy too, India was far ahead
of the western nations. The prosperity was also at its zenith, with trade
through sea and land routes spread to far away countries.

However, there was a long period of slavery during which little advancement
was made in the realm of science & technology. But, the emergence of 20th
century saw a dawn of a new era in India- a kind of Renaissance. In what may
be poetically termed a cosmic coincidence, a galaxy of luminaries emerged
in those years that lit up the world of science. Likes of JC Bose (b. 1858), PC
Ray (b. 1861), S Ramanujan (b. 1887), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

1
(1888), Birbal Sahni (b.1891), MN Saha (1893), SN Bose (1894), and many
others earned tremendous respect for Indian intellect.

Raman’s life was outstanding and had been shaped by many factors. Some
known, some unknown and some less known. These factors included many
people, institutions and books. The idea behind this booklet is to tell
Raman’s inspiring story and to give some idea of his work. It’s hoped that
this will inspire students to set their goals high and to endeavour to reach
them, even if the available facilities are poor.

A well-known meteorologist and Raman’s student Prof. P R Pisharoty once

narrated a story to us how a student working with 1 KW X-Ray machine in
the laboratory was feeling down. Raman noticed and enquired, why. The
dejected student revealed that somebody in UK was working with an X-Ray
machine of 5 KW. Raman advised, ‘you should use a 10 KW brain!’. That was
Raman!

Raman’s best-known work was done at Indian Association for the Cultivation
of Science (IACS) at Jadavpur, Kolkata (West Bengal), which had been
founded in 1876 by Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar, a medical practitioner. Sircar
had passed away three years before Raman reached Kolkata in 1907 but Dr.
Sircar had already paved a path for Raman to walk on.

Sircar had a vision. He had said, ‘We want an Institution which will combine the
character, the scope and the objectives of the Royal Institution of London and of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science. We want an Institution which shall

2
be for the instruction of the masses, where lectures on scientific subjects will be
systematically delivered and not only illustrative experiments performed by the
lecturers, but the audience would be invited and taught to perform them themselves.
And we wish that the Institution be entirely under native management and control’.

Raman had a very long association with IACS- from 1907 to 1933 (barring
short stays elsewhere). Interestingly, when he first got associated with IACS,
his job was not of a scientist; he was Asstt. Accountant General. He pursued
research at IACS purely out of his passion. As Palit Professor at the University
of Calcutta, he taught the MSc students though he was not required to! His
contribution was not only in research. His equally important contribution
was to establish a school that produce brilliant scientists who earned great
name and fame and proved to be leaders themselves. Raman illuminated
about 150 scholars into research.

The history of the world is a testimony that only those countries which
excelled in science and technology reached the top. So, there is no disputing
that India has to promote S&T in order to fulfil her ambition. We are in a
knowledge age when knowledge transforms into power. It is the S&T that
will help us to feed, nourish and strengthen the country, and make us proud.

Raman was one of those who have been instrumental in enriching the
culture of knowledge-generation in the country. He was not born with the
proverbial silver spoon in mouth. He came up the hard way, and exemplified
how one can achieve big with talent, focus and hard work. The National
Science Day is celebrated on 28th February every year in India to celebrate

3
his great work named after his name- Raman Effect (some also call it Raman-
Krishnan Effect due to the close association with this work of his student, KS
Krishnan).

In the world of science, people refer to (or cite) the earlier research while
writing the research paper and it is called citation. Usually, time slows down
the citation of even pioneering research and big discoveries. For Raman
Effect, it was different. The citations went on increasing for 5 years or so.
Then decreased but again increased as it got a shot in the arm when LASER
(Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) appeared on scene
around 1960, making intense monochromatic light source available. With
appearance of Fourier Transform technique and computation facilities, the
popularity and applicability became even more pronounced. Today, we even
have a rover moving on the surface of Mars, equipped with an instrument to
get Raman spectra of Martian material.

To date, Raman’s Nobel Prize remains the only Nobel Prize in science to a
person of Indian origin for the work entirely carried out in India, a British
colony at that time. It was not just about a Nobel Prize. The recognition of
the discovery with Nobel Prize in 1930, had a tremendous morale-boosting
effect, filling all countrymen with a pleasant pride and feeling of confidence.

4
 2. FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD OF CV RAMAN

Raman was born in today’s Tamil Nadu state. He was born in his maternal
grandfather’s house at Tiruvanaikkaval (near Tiruchirapalli), to Ramanathan
Chandrasekaran Iyer
and Parvati Ammal on
November 7, 1888.
The village was
situated on the banks
of the river Kaveri.
Raman’s father was
just 22-year-old at
that time. In all, Raman
had four brothers and
House of Raman's maternal grandfather. It was
three sisters. no big mansion. This is where Raman was born.

Raman had one elder brother whose full name was Chandrasekaran
Subramanian Iyer (CS Iyer) who himself joined Finance Civil Service (FCS)
later. CS Iyer’s son, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, later moved to USA,
earned a name in Astrophysics and went on to win Nobel Prize in Physics in
1983.

Raman’s father Ramanathan Chandrasekaran was not a rich man. Basically,

from agriculturists’ family, like most people in those days, he had started his
career as a teacher after passing Intermediate examination from Society for
the Promotion of the Gospel College (SPGC), Trichinopoly (today’s

5
Tiruchirappalli) in Madras Province. Raman’s mother was daughter of
Saptarshi Sastri of Tiruvanaikkaval, a learned man with authority in Sanskrit
who had also been student of Modern Logic. So, a tradition of scholarship
was there in the family.

R. Chandrasekaran Iyer Parvathi Ammal

(Father) (Mother)

Ramanathan Chandrasekaran Iyer and Family.

Raman is at extreme Left.
6
Raman was about three-year old when his father took a major decision.
Raman’s father decided to move to Vizagpatanam (now it is Visakhapatnam
in Andhra Pradesh) with family. He took up a teaching job there at a salary
of Rs. 85/- per month. At that time, Visakhapatnam was also a part of Madras
Presidency. In those days, the areas under provinces (states) in India were
quite different from what they are today. The province called Madras
Presidency covered not only present Tamil Nadu but included present
Andhra, Telangana and parts of present Kerala and Karnataka also.

From the beginning, Raman was an inquisitive boy. His mind was bubbling
with questions. He not only enjoyed studies but also the experimental work.
He would, at times, nag his father for seeing something that attracted him
and aroused his curiosity and the ever-obliging father would spare no effort
to satisfy him even if it were mid of night. It is accepted that a questioning
mind is a trait of a scientist. Only one who asks questions, would ever
consider finding answers. So, curiosity is a bigger asset than mere
knowledge, as Einstein had also opined. It is important that we develop a
habit of comprehending what we observe and that happens only if we keep
on asking ‘why?’.

Raman’s father R Chandrasekharan wanted to but had not been able to

continue education after his 12th examination (FA or Intermediate) as he
took up a job. But he was a man of determination. He returned to studies
after a few years and completed BA in Physics and took up teaching in the
same college (SPG College in short). R Chandrasekharan’s interests were
wide. He also enjoyed sports and loved music. He had accumulated a set of

7
excellent books on several subjects at home as he hoped to get degrees in
several subjects. Circumstances didn’t allow this but the books were
savoured by Raman as they became the treasure for young Raman who was
a voracious reader. At about three-year-age, Raman was at a place with new
language and completely new surroundings. But he adjusted. During his
school days, he grew interest not only in science but also in music and
English literature. In fact, several of his teachers during graduation used to
comment on his excellent language skills.

Raman was always at the top of the class at school, and college during
graduation and post-graduation. He won a number of awards and
scholarships. Almost a child prodigy, he topped in the Matriculation at the
age of 11 years and completed Intermediate from AVN College. Raman
completed his first
Year Arts (FA) from
Vizag College,
Visakhapatnam in
1902. The really
serious science
studies were to
follow and he
sought and
secured admission
A group photograph of the staff of AVN college
at Presidency where Raman's father taught (1905). Raman's
College in Madras. father Sh. R. C. Iyer is in the second row from
bottom, sitting second from right.

8
 3. “DO YOU REALLY BELONG TO THIS JUNIOR BA CLASS?”

College, Job and Marriage

This was the first year BA class room in the prestigious Presidency College
in Madras (now Chennai in Tamil Nadu), which Raman joined after his early
education at Visakhapatnam/ Vizagapatnam.

The Presidency
College was a dream
destination for
students in those
days, particularly, in
Madras Province. It
was a government
college and the
faculty included very
qualified people,
mostly of European Presidency College Madras
origin.

The teacher had posed this question to Raman in this lecture hall of college,
which was huge. The windows offered an excellent view of the blue ocean
behind the teacher. Raman loved the view. It may be that his future scientific
obsessions with scattering in fluids had a connection with this. Raman had
offered Physics as the main subject but the other subjects included

9
English. The college had a large number of European faculty members. This
included Prof. EH Elliot who taught English. Prof. Bilderbeck was another
teacher of English.

Raman was very young, just 14 years of age; short, dark, and thin. In short,
had nothing in appearance suggestive of anything extraordinary. He was
wearing a simple lungi and had a cap on his head. In short, it was easy to
attribute his presence to a mistaken entry into a senior class. The question
was posed by Prof. Elliot who wondered if this very ordinary boy had strayed
into a college class instead of a High School class.

“Do you really belong to this Junior BA class?”, Prof. Elliot enquired.

“Yes, Sir, I am indeed a student of class BA”, Raman clarified politely.

The answer confused Prof. Elliot. He persisted and further asked, “how old
are you?”

“Fourteen years, Sir”. Raman was now getting to realise that his young
appearance, though matching his young age, was confusing the professor
who had never seen such a young boy in BA. For Raman, however, it was
nothing new. Having satisfied himself, though still puzzled, Prof. Elliot went
ahead with the lecture as usual.

Raman enjoyed the lectures on literature as well as on sciences. He was good

at languages too. He has recalled his fondness for English language teachers

10
in his memoirs at several places. It is a different matter that he had strong
interest in science particularly Physics. Very curious, intelligent, persistent
and hard-working; Raman had all the signs of a genius. He always impressed
his teachers. These included his language teachers who commented very
positively on his talent.

Raman’s college life was busy and he satisfied his quest for knowledge. He
passed the BA final examination in flying colours in the year 1904, securing
first position and Gold Medals in English and Physics both. As important as
the medals and position, it was the tremendous respect from peers and
appreciation from the teachers enjoyed by him, which spoke for the signs of
his talent.

Another thing that characterized Raman was his fiercely independent

nature. His report cards always had mention of his unusual intellectual
capabilities and his pre-eminent position among the peers. These qualities
were instrumental in shaping his future.

Raman inherited the appetite for reading from his father but he didn’t inherit
the physical attributes. Raman’s father had also been a good sportsperson
during his college days. This was in contrast with Raman who had weak
physical constitution. Given his brilliance, Raman had been greatly
encouraged by his (mainly) European teachers at Presidency College, to
move to England for higher studies as was common those days. But Raman
didn’t go to England after his BA and the reason was his weak physical
constitution. The Civil Surgeon refused to certify him to be physically fit for
the cold and difficult European climate.

11
Raman’s streak of success in the academics continued as he joined masters’
course at the same college in 1904. He completed MA (Physics), topping in
college in the 1907. Remember that in those days the degrees awarded to
science students were also called BA and MA, and not BSc or MSc.

Given that there must have been hundreds of colleges in the country, the
achievement may not appear so phenomenal. But what makes his
performance more conspicuous is that during his MA, he also wrote a
research paper (Unsymmetrical Diffraction Bands due to a Rectangular
Aperture) and published in the November 1906 issue of Philosophical
Magazine, a prestigious journal published from London.

Raman had stumbled upon the

problem while carrying out
experiments with light falling on a
prism in his laboratory. He had
observed diffraction bands when
light passed through a slit and was
intrigued by it. Ever curious Raman
wondered what if the light
impinged obliquely? So, he set up
an experiment. He used a thin zinc
foil and made a vertical slit in it. He
observed the diffraction as he
passed light through it and went on
Raman in 1906 as college student
changing the angle of incidence for

12
light. That is when he made an interesting observation that once the incident
light falls at an angle greater than 87, diffraction bands were not
symmetrical. Nobody had reported such bands. This was the first ever
research paper from the Presidency College which was a teaching institution
and research was alien to its culture. The research had been formulated,
executed, analysed, interpreted completely independently by
Raman. Raman’s teacher Prof. RL Jones had been trained at the famous
Cavendish Laboratory. Raman gave the paper to him for checking, but never
heard back. So after some wait, he sent it to the journal. He was just 18- year-
old at that time!

Raman achieved all this, even as hardly ever attending any lecture. His
teacher Prof. Jones would never bother for some student missing his classes
as long as the student still performed.

The fact is, Raman didn’t acknowledge his Physics teacher Prof. Jones also
much anywhere. However, for his English teachers during graduation he did
write, ‘they often did hold our attention in spite of the lure of the swirling waters of the
ocean breaking upon the shore, or was it because of the same fascinating vision of the
sea that our minds were better attuned to the complicated beauties of the English
language’. He has also written generously about Prof. Bilderbeck, the English
professor.

This doesn’t mean that he ever showed any disrespect to his teachers. For
Prof. Jones, he was always thankful as he was accorded full freedom in
studying as Raman wished. He termed Prof. Gregor ‘kindly gentleman’. He also

13
acknowledged, ‘…during the four years I was at the Presidency College, I enjoyed a
measure of academic freedom’.

Much credit for the distinguished achievements goes to Raman’s

independent thinking. He was a deep thinker and also a voracious reader.
His reading was not limited to just the text books; he would read papers from
journals and articles from many other sources wherever he could find them.
Raman also developed a new method that was later published as a note with
the title, “The curvature method of determining the surface tension of
liquids” in the same journal. He had read remarks on capillarity that Lord
Kelvin had made in his book titled ‘Popular Lectures and Addresses...‘ and he
got idea of the work. The fact is that even today historians wonder how
Raman got access to those papers which were not available anywhere
nearby! If you read the biographies of many other achievers, in science or
also other fields, you’d notice that they all loved reading books. Reading
expands your horizon of thinking, shows you possibilities you never knew
and is also an excellent exercise for brain.

Raman had this habit to search for and read whatever may be available on
subject of his interest. It is also on record that as a student, Raman
corresponded with Nobel Laureate Lord Rayleigh (actual name John William
Strutt, Nobel Prize in 1904) and the renowned Rayleigh taking him to be a
professor at the Presidency College, addressed him as Prof. C Venkat Raman!
Interestingly, Raman’s name was originally Chandrasekharan Venkataraman
Iyer. The first part coming from the name of his father (Ramanathan
Chandrasekaran) and the second being his own name. The last (Iyer) was his

14
sect name. Somehow, with time, the name kept on getting modified from
Chandrasekharan Venkatraman Iyer to C Venkatraman to C Venkata Raman
to ultimately CV Raman, a name that stuck to him for good. Now to most
Indians, Raman alone symbolises this great physicist.

Letter from Lord Rayleigh to Raman in 1906

Today, the internet has made a tremendous amount of information available

on finger tips. If you can carefully select and read the reliable sources on
internet, you can change your life greatly.

For him, experiments were tools to check the theory. Being basically a
curious person, he would design and carry out experiments to explore and
test his ideas. Money was anything but abundant in those days for research,
and to manage things, it was important to economise. The college laboratory
was expectedly not rich though many of the basic optical tools like prisms,
gratings and lenses were available in the laboratory. The story goes that

15
Raman would often visit the market where junk sellers had shops as that is
where he hoped to get parts for his equipment at cheap rates.

He completed MA in Physics in January 1907 and now the question was what
to do next. He was at the top in MA but in those days scientific research
didn’t offer a career. So, a well-paying secured job was what Raman eyed.
Indian Civil Services (ICS) required studying at England and also then
appearing in the examination to be conducted in London. The Civil Surgeon
had not allowed him to go to England for postgraduation on medical grounds
so this option was out of consideration and so he mulled other options. The
Financial Civil Service appeared attractive and in February, Raman appeared
for the Finance Civil Service (FCS) examination. Maintaining his tradition, he
topped the examination and was asked to join office at Kolkata.

Meanwhile, other equally important things were happening. Raman was very
fond of music and also had a feel for it. In fact, most of his early research
work is on stringed and percussion musical instruments like Veena,
Mridangam, Tabla and Sarangi. While studying at Presidency College,
Madras, Raman had a friend whose name was Ramaswamy Sivan. Dr. G
Venkataraman has narrated the story in his book ‘Journey into Light’. Raman
visited Sivan’s home one day where he heard somebody playing Veena. The
song being played was a Tyagaraja keertana with words ‘Rama ni samanam
evaro’ meaning ‘Rama, is there anyone equal to you?’. Raman was fascinated
by the performance and wanted to meet the person playing the keertana. It
turned out that the girl playing Veena was Sivan’s sister-in-law. Sivan was a
friendly person and modern in thoughts. He played a match maker and

16
helped things go forward. Raman and Lokasundari were introduced and it
worked. As a well-paid government servant, Raman was a proper groom. But
there was still a hurdle to be overcome. While Raman’s father had no issue
with this alliance, Raman’s mother had certain reservations as the subcastes
of the boy and the girl didn’t exactly match. But Raman was beyond such
considerations and he made up his mind. He was persuasive and finally
succeeded in
convincing his
mother. Raman
and Lokasundari
Ammal got
married. Raman
also ensured that
there was nothing
like dowry
involved.
Raman and Lokasundari

As time showed, Raman had not made a mistake. His wife proved to be a
perfect partner, a sweet- tempered wife who extended her support to Raman
all through. Both loved music. She was later known only as Lady Raman and
she never minded living in the shadow. She said that her life’s purpose was
to help Raman achieve his goal.

It is also said that in humorous vein, she used to joke that Raman had perhaps
married her because under finance rules, Rama was eligible for an additional

17
allowance of Rs. 150/- after marriage! In serious vein, she was a completely
dedicated wife and devoted herself to Raman and his mission without caring
for her individuality. They had two children Chandrasekharan and
Radhakrishnan. She shared love for music with Raman in a natural way and
further attuned herself to his ways and they remained at the same
wavelength throughout.

Raman joined at Kolkata in June 1907.

18
 4. RAMAN AT KOLKATA

The Discovery and Rewards

Raman’s first posting was to Kolkata as Asst. Accountant-General. In those

days, it was not New Delhi but Kolkata, which was the capital. New Delhi
became capital only in 1922.

Raman’s life in Kolkata was routine till by chance he noticed the sign board
of Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science one day on his way to
office at Bow Bazar Lane. When returning from office, he got down and
entered the campus. Raman was very excited to learn that there was a place
waiting for people to come and
research. He talked to Amrita Lal Sircar,
the Secretary of the Association.
Amrita Lal had taken over three years
ago after the demise of his uncle
Mahendra Lal Sircar, a doctor with
degree of MD. Dr. Sircar had a strong
desire that there should be a vibrant
centre in Kolkata where seekers of
truth could come and interact. He
intended to keep it free from
government control and so sought
Dr. Mahendralal Sircar
funds from public, which came. However,
for many years, little happened. He wanted that there should not only be

19
regular lectures for public on science, research should be conducted. But,
years after its establishment, IACS still was to become a hub of activities as
originally envisaged. The activities began in July 1876 but at a very slow
pace. Sircar was constantly trying to build up funds and making efforts for
activating the Association but with little success. Things were not shaping
up as per his dream. But then, with a generous grant from Maharaja of
Vizianagaram, a laboratory was finally established in 1891.

Now, more than over three decades after its establishment, and three years
after Dr. Mahendra Lal passed away, for Raman, discovering IACS was like a
thirsty person stumbling on a well. Of course, Raman had a fulltime job but
with his boundless energy, he had no difficulty in finding a way. Except when
he had short term postings at Rangoon and Nagpur, for coming many years,
Raman kept an extremely busy routine. He’d wake up early, go to IACS at
5:30 AM, return at 9.45 AM to have some food quickly and rush to office
hiring a vehicle. This also meant extra expenditure for him, but he didn’t
mind that. In the evening, from office he would come straight to IACS and
work up to about 9 PM or beyond and then head home for dinner. It was the
routine for almost a decade.

During this period (1907-1917), Raman mainly worked on problems of

acoustics and optics. He published in prestigious journals like Nature, Phys.
Reviews, and Philosophical Magazine. To name a few topics, he dealt with:
Newton’s Rings in Polarised Light (1907), Secondary waves of Light (1908),
The Discovery of the Ultramicroscopic Method (1909), The Small Motion at

20
the Nodes of a Vibrating String (1909), The Experimental Study of the
Huygen’s Secondary Waves (1909), The Maintenance of Forced Oscillations
of a New Type (1909, 1912), The Maintenance of the Forced Oscillation
(1910), Photographs of Vibration Curves (2011), The Small Motion at the
Nodes of a Vibrating String (1911), The photometric Measurement of the
Obliquity Factor of the Diffraction (1911), On Intermittent Vision (1915),
Resonance (1912), Maintenance of Vibrations (1912, 1914, 1917),
Acoustical Observations (1913), On Motion in a Periodic Field of Force
(1914, 1915), etc.

Another turning point came

when Calcutta University’s
dynamic Vice Chancellor Prof.
Asutosh Mukherjee got into
action (he had joined in 1906).
Mukherjee had a transforming
effect on the university and he
immediately decided to haul
up the science department.
But for this, he needed
talented faculty. However,
within no time he managed
funds to employ good people.
PC Ray, Meghnad Saha and
Sishir K Mitra were hired
Prof. Asutosh Mukherjee
during this period. Now in

21
1907, he hoped to bring in Raman based on Raman’s reputation for the Palit
Chair, established in the memory of Sir Taraknath Palit. The problem was that
Raman was an out and out India-bred scientist. The rules for Palit Chair
mandated foreign education/ experience as essential quality. The
permission to come on deputation was also refused. But Mukherjee was
influential and bold. He convinced those who mattered to relax the
condition and Raman also agreed to quit his secured and prestigious
government job with a salary of Rs. 1100/- per month to join as Palit
Professor at Rs.600/- per month. It’s not that Raman was not good as a
government officer. In fact, he was considered among the best but his love
for science was too passionate to let financial considerations come in the
way. Asutosh Mukherjee heaped lot of praise on Raman for this. To his credit,
Prof. Mukherjee ensured that Raman’s not having been abroad could ever be
questioned for appointment. The letter to Raman from P Bruhl, registrar of
Calcutta University clearly said, ‘during your incumbency you will not be required
to leave India and proceed to any country’.

This was year 1914. After sailing for a decade in two boats, Raman had no
qualms in choosing the Palit Professorship over FCS. This proved to be a
turning point for IACS and also for Raman because now he could whole
heartedly plunge himself into research. Interestingly, the job as Palit
Professor didn’t mandate teaching but Raman choose to also teach at the
university and it is said that his lectures on electricity and magnetism as well
as Physical Optics were so liked that students would listen to him for hours.

22
Prof. Asutosh Mukherjee, then Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University,
responsible for bringing Raman had commented:

I shall fail in my duty if I were to restrain myself in my expression of the genuine

admiration. I feel for the courage and spirit of self-sacrifice with which Mr. Raman has
decided to exchange a lucrative official appointment for a university-professorship,
which I regret to say, does not carry even liberal emoluments. This one instance
encourages me to entertain to hope that there will be no lack of seekers after truth in
the temple of knowledge which it is our ambition to erect.

Raman had finally found his groove. He could now take research students
and also spend all his time for research. Actually, he changed his residence
and moved closer to the Association. Then he had a door built in the building
so that he could enter the laboratory anytime he wished. He pursued
research full throttle for a decade producing precious papers. He mainly
worked on Indian musical instruments which were stringed like Veena,
Tanpura, and Violin or were percussion (Mridangam, Tabla etc.). Raman
wrote some interesting comments about the music and instruments. For
instance, he wrote, ‘all the instruments of percussion known to European science are
thus essentially non-musical and can only be tolerated in open air music or in large
orchestras where a little noise more or less makes no difference’.

He was conscious of the antiquity of Indian musical instruments. He wrote:

‘….the earliest mentions of such instruments to be found anywhere are those contained
in the ancient Sanskrit work. Certain it is that at a very early period in history of the
country, the Hindus were acquainted with the use of stringed instruments excited by

23
plucking or bowing, with the transverse form of the flute, with wind and reed
instruments of different types and with percussion instruments.

A decade old in IACS, Raman was by now a well-known name in Physics all
across India and many other places in other countries. His life was busier
than earlier now. His student recalled how sometimes he’d work late hours
in the lab and fall asleep only to be wakened up by some staff next morning.
When Amrita Lal Sarkar passed away in 1919, as a natural choice Raman had
additional responsibility as the new Hon. Secretary of the Association.

In the year 1921, he was persuaded by Prof. Mukherjee to attend the

Universities Congress at Oxford. Initially Raman was reluctant but finally
agreed. This gave him opportunity to meet and interact with people whom
he had known only through research papers and correspondence. He was so
well known that in one meeting Rutherford asked him to come and sit in the
front row. Raman was confused as to how Rutherford could recognise him.
Then it turned out that Rutherford had recognized him from his turban! This
trip gave him opportunity to meet some stalwarts like Sir JJ Thomson
(discoverer of electron), William Henry Brag (known for Brag’s law of X-Ray
diffraction) and of course Lord Ernest Rutherford (Radioactivity)- all Nobel
Laureates.

Journey in those days were slow. You may know that Wright brothers made
a trial of flying a plane only in 1903 and it would be long before commercial
flights could be taken. The only practical approach for foreign journeys was
sailing by ship for many days. However, even this was converted into

24
 S S Narkunda

opportunity by Raman. The return to India by ship SS Narkunda was

memorable. During the journey, he noticed that the colour of the sea was
rich blue. British physicist Lord Rayleigh had attributed it to reflection of the
sky but Raman disagreed. Raman always used to carry a small Nicol Prism,
Diffraction Grating, Analyser and polariser in his pocket and he started
making measurements with them.

Calculating the scattering in water and air, he showed that in pure water,
scattering was about 175 times more than in pure air. So, sufficient
scattering could happen inside the sea water. The question now was to know
if the blue from the sea is reflected or scattered. He convinced himself that
the light was not reflected but was coming from inside the sea by doing a
simple experiment. He argued that reflected radiation from the sea would
be completely plane-polarized at a specific angle. It should be quenched

25
(that is to say it would be completely blocked) if passed through a Nicol
prism at proper angle. But that did NOT happen. The colour of the sea water
remained bright blue. So, the blue of the sea was not reflection! By the time
Raman reached India, he sent two papers to Nature on the subject. Rayleigh
argued against Raman’s view further but ultimately Raman’s stand that the
blue colour of sea water is not due to reflection of the sky but due to
scattering in water was accepted. A great lesson that what is said is more
important than who said it. This made Raman take interest in scattering in
much more rigorous manner in the following years.

The same year (1921) KR Ramanathan joined Raman as a scholar. Raman put
him on the job of studying scattering of light in water. Ramanathan carried
out a series of experiments. He observed that after passing through water,
in the transverse direction, the beam would have an additional band which
was green, that is of higher wave length than the incident radiation. Its track
was visible in water. Initially it was attributed to the impurities present in
water. But later experiment showed that the track was seen even after
purifying the scattering medium (water).

Raman was conferred with Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1924,
following which he went to attend the meeting of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science. There he heard Compton’s lecture on how X-
rays scattered by stationary electrons had their wavelength increased or, in
other words, frequency decreased. You’d recall that velocity is a product of
wave length and frequency. Mathematically we may write c= ν x λ, where ν
and λ are frequency and wave length respectively. This phenomenon meant

26
that X-ray suffered loss of some energy. Raman was outspoken and, as
Stuewer (1975) has documented, he was quick to tell Compton, ‘you are a
good debater but the truth isn’t in you’. But as we shall see, Raman never
stopped thinking about this- another quality of his.

This trip was followed by trips to the Canada and USA in 1924. The British
Association for the Advancement of Science supported him to visit Toronto
(Canada) and he inaugurated a meeting to discuss his favourite subject of
scattering of light. He then travelled to USA. He attended the Centenary
Celebration of Franklin Institute, and then went to California Institute of
Technology. He was hosted by Prof. Millikan for four months at the Norman
Bridge Laboratory and visited the famous Mt. Wilson Observatory. The visit
gave him opportunity to have detailed discussions with a large number of
distinguished scientists. He was able to also establish relationships.

Compton received Nobel Prize for his work in 1927. But much before that,
Raman had already begun to wonder if there was an optical analogue of the
Compton Effect. This means that the way exchange of energy and
consequent change in frequency was happening during the interaction
between X-Ray and electron, similar thing may happen during an interaction
between photon and molecule. In fact, Raman was with his brother CS Iyer
one day at IACS when KS Krishnan barged into the room. He was visibly
excited and informed Raman that Compton had won the Nobel for his work
on interaction between X-Rays and electrons. Raman reacted with a big
smile of happiness and appreciation, terming it ‘excellent news. Very nice

27
indeed’, but adding, ‘but look here, Krishnan. If this is true of X-Rays, it must
be true of light also’.

The discovery of Raman Effect was not a one-moment event as some people
think. Raman pursued the work on scattering for more than 5 years,
involving one student after the other on some aspect or the other of the
work. Several other students or technical staff of Raman continued doing the
experiment for more than 5 years, changing liquids, using vapours, solid
material but somehow, it didn’t strike anyone then that his ‘feeble
fluorescence’ was not fluorescence at all. One difficulty was that the green
band was very faint and so difficult to study in depth. In following years
Venkateswaran, Krishnan, Ramdas, S Bhagavantam and other went on

28
working on scattering. But the explanation remained elusive. Raman was
puzzled.

KS Krishnan has recorded that several times Raman was perplexed when
‘feeble fluorescence’ persisted. He was not prepared to believe that it was
fluorescence. Somehow, the work was later discontinued but KS Krishnan
resumed it in January, 2028. The month of February 1928 may be termed
the most exciting during which the effect was clearly observed and
understood.

The experimental set-up was quite simple. Sunlight would pass through a
purple filter and uranium glass, fall on the liquid (water or benzene, or…) and
would be observed at a transverse point.

Name of KS Krishnan, though not as well-known as his guide Raman, is

inseparable from the discovery that earned Raman Nobel Prize. In fact, the
effect is also termed Raman-Krishnan Effect.

Some Excerpts from KS Krishnan’s Diary during the Critical Days (February
5-28, 1928) during which the discovery was made.

February 5, 1928

For the last three or four days, I have been devoting all my time to fluorescence. The
subject promises to open out a wide field for research, since at present there is no
theory of fluorescence which could explain even the outstanding facts.

29
Studied anthracene vapour. It exhibits strong fluorescence which does not show any
polarization when viewed through a double image prism. Prof. [Raman] has been
working with me all the time.

Recently, Prof. has also been working with Mr. Venkateswaran on the fluorescence
exhibited by many aromatic liquids in the near-ultraviolet region present in sunlight
and the fluorescence of some of the liquids is found to be strongly polarized. However,
in view of the fact that the fluorescence of anthracene vapour does not show any
polarization, Prof. has asked me to verify again his observations on the polarization of
liquids.

February 7, Tuesday

Tried to verify the polarization of the fluorescence exhibited by some of the aromatic
liquids in the near-ultraviolet region. Incidentally, discovered that all pure liquids show
a fairly intense fluorescence also in the visible region, and what is much more
interesting, all of them are strongly polarized, the polarization being greater for the
aliphatics than for the aromatics. In fact, the polarization of the fluorescent light seems
in general to run parallel with the polarization of the scattered light, i.e., the
polarization of the fluorescent light is greater the smaller the optical anisotropy of the
molecule.

When I told Prof. about the results, he would not believe that all liquids can show
polarized fluorescence and that too in the visible region. When he came into the room,
I had a bulb of pentane in the tank, a blue-violet Filter in the path of incident light, and
when he observed the track with a combination of green and yellow filters, he
remarked, “You do not mean to suggest, Krishnan, that all that is fluorescence.”
However, when he transferred the green-yellow combination also to the path of the
incident light, he could not detect a trace of the track. He was very much excited and
repeated several times that it was an amazing result. One after another, the whole
series of liquids was examined and every one of them showed the phenomenon
without exception. He wondered how we missed discovering all that five years ago.

30
In the afternoon, took some measurements on the polarization of fluorescence. After
meals at night, Venkateswaran and myself were chatting together in our room when
Prof. suddenly came to the house (about 9 p.m.) and called for me. When we went
down, we found he was much excited and had come to tell me that what we had
observed that morning must be the Kramers–Heisenberg effect we had been looking
for all these days. We therefore agreed to call the effect modified scattering. We were
talking in front of our house for more than a quarter of an hour when he repeatedly
emphasized the exciting nature of the discovery.

February 8, Wednesday

Took some preliminary measurements of the polarization of the modified scattering

by some typical liquids.

February 9, Thursday

Set up this morning the long telescope and made preliminary arrangements for
observing the effect with vapours. Before the arrangements were completed, Prof. left
for the college for his lecture.

In the afternoon, tried ether vapour and it was surprising that the modified radiation
was very conspicuous. Tried a number of others in quick succession without, however,
the same success.

When Prof. came from the college at about three, I announced to him the result, and
there was still enough sunlight for him to see for himself. He ran about the place,
shouting all the time that it was a first-rate discovery, that he was feeling miserable
during the lecture because he had to leave the experiment, and that, however, he was
fully confident that I would not let the grass grow under my feet till I discovered the
phenomenon in gases. He asked me to call in everybody in the place to see the effect
and immediately arranged in a most dramatic manner with the mechanics to make
arrangements for examining the vapours at high temperatures.

31
Evening was busy and when Prof. returned after his walk, he told me that I ought to
tackle big problems like that and asked me to take up the problem of the experimental
evidence for the spinning electron after this work was over.

February 10 to 15

Studied a number of vapours, [and] though a number of them showed the effect,
nothing definite could be said regarding the polarization of the modified scattering.

February 16, Thursday

Studied today pentane vapour at high temperature and it showed a conspicuous

polarization in the modified scattering. We sent a note today to Nature on the subject
under the title “A new type of secondary radiation”.

February 17, Friday

Prof. confirmed the polarization of fluorescence in pentane vapour. I am having some

trouble with my left eye. Prof. has promised to make all observations himself for some
time to come.

February 19 to 26

Studied a number of other vapours.

February 27, Monday

Religious ceremony in the house. Did not go to the Association.

February 28, Tuesday

Went to the Association only in the afternoon. Prof. was there and we proceeded to
examine the influence of the wavelength of the incident light on the phenomenon.

32
Used the usual blue-violet filter coupled with a uranium glass, the range of
wavelengths transmitted by the combination being much narrower than that
transmitted by the blue-violet filter alone. On examining the track with a direct vision
spectroscope, we found to our great surprise [that] the modified scattering was
separated from the scattering corresponding to the incident light by a dark region.

Table-1
Distinguishing Raman effect from the Rayleigh Scattering and the Fluorescence
Phenomenon Is the emerging Is the frequency of the
radiation Polarized? emerging radiation
changed?
Fluorescence No Yes
Raman Effect* Yes Yes
Raleigh scattering Yes No
* Initially termed Feeble Fluorescence

Accurate measurements of scattered radiation required that the scattered

radiation, should be of sufficient intensity. This requires the incident
radiation also to be intense. Early observations of Raman Effect, up to 28th
February, 1928, had been made manually with the observer visually
examining the bands in the resulting spectrum. Raman and his team
members were good at that and the additional frequencies (‘feeble
fluorescence’) had been detected. It was not clear till then whether this was
fluorescence or scattered radiation as no polarization measurements had
been carried out. But for publication, objective observations were
preferable.

33
Actually, despite the experiments having been initiated as early as 1923,
everyone in the team was in doubt. Every time the students reported the
additional band as ‘feeble fluorescence’, Raman would be perplexed.
Initially, it was thought that the impurities present in the medium were
responsible for it. But the fluorescence persisted despite repeated
purification of the scattering medium. Different liquids were also tried. The
fluorescence was visible immaterial of which medium was used- solid, liquid
or gas and it was very faint. Actually, when sunlight is used, the incident
beam can’t be strong. Mercury arc lamp was better than sunlight as source.
But detection also has to be more sensitive.

So, the discovery had been made. The additional green light was not due to
impurities. The strong polarization of the ‘new radiation’ and its feebleness
indicated that it was a result of scattering.

Raman broke the news to the media on 28th February and it appeared the
next day on 29th February. Actually, the green band being faint, could not be
studied in detail hence the first report by Raman was actually erroneous. He
reported that one’d see the same green band immaterial of the medium
which scattered the incident light. The fact, as he with Krishnan found out, is
that the frequency of the scattered radiation depends upon the scattering
medium and that is what makes Raman spectroscopy a great tool to study
structure of the scattering medium. The corrected results were later
presented on March 16th in Bengaluru. The reason for the error was that the
feeble lines were difficult to study in details visually. Raman communicated
papers, one after the other, in fact, by June 5th, 1928, there were 5 papers
by Raman alone or with Krishnan published.

34
So, study in more details (that established the ‘new radiation’ to be polarized
and hence not fluorescence) requires better measurements which
sometimes are dependent on better instruments.

Picture: The success in observing ‘Raman Effect’ was communicated

to newspapers and printed on 29th of February, 1928.

35
Picture: Raman spectrum had to be photographed using a good tool. This
instrument, used after the observation of 28th February, 1928, made it
possible.

This type of spectra were shown by Raman on March 16,

1928 during his lectured at Bengaluru. This was over two
weeks after he announced the observation.

36
 5. NEW NEST AT BENGALURU

Raman as an Institution Builder & Talent Promotor

Raman’s name and fame were now at peak, particularly after the award of
Nobel Prize in 1930. In 1933, it was pointed out to him that Indian Institute
of Science (IISc), Bengaluru needed a director. Raman never liked
administrative work. This is despite the fact that he was considered very
efficient officer in the Finance Civil Service. However, there was no Physics
Department at IISc and this was an opportunity to promote Physics. So,
despite initial reluctance, Raman decided to join Indian Institute of Science
in 1933 as director. He was not only the first Indian director of the Institute
but also the most decorated one out of all, so far British directors.

Next year, he also established Indian Academy of Sciences and also started
a research journal. He was particular about the journal as he was fully aware
how delay in publication of results may mean loss of proper credit.
Therefore, the same year he started the Proceedings of the Academy. He
made sure that the journal appeared regularly and carried good papers,
putting in all possible efforts, right from editing and monitoring the
reviewing.

But Raman’s temperament was not suited to what the system expected. He
remained director only up to 1937. Thereafter, he continued as Head and
professor of Physics. The experience taught him some lessons. He nurtured
a dream of an institute which would be free from constraints seen in

37
government set-up. He was not a director now but with his crowns of
achievements, he commanded great respect.

While at Bengaluru, Raman carried out research in Optics. Working with

Nagendra Nath, he published a series of five papers in the Proceedings of
the Indian Academy of Sciences where they explored how waves travel in
media that are not homogeneous. He also researched in many other fields
such as growth and dynamics of crystals, magnetism, magneto optics and
viscosity of liquids at high frequencies. His students studied diamonds of a
wide variety. The diamonds studied included a huge diamond of 140 carrots.
It was borrowed from the Maharaja of Darbhanga just for 2 days. Raman
ended up with a huge collection of diamonds and other crystals which now
form a part of the museum of the Raman Research Institute.

Second World War made him see another possibility. Bhabha couldn’t go to
Cambridge. Raman ensured that he joined IISc. There were brilliant
physicists in Europe who could be brought to Bengaluru and Raman was
quick to see that. He tried his best to bring some topnotch people from
abroad. Max Born, Schrodinger, Sommerfeld and several others were on his
list. Max Born did visit and stayed for 6 months. However, it was not liked by
some people and the programme didn’t last long for local reasons.

Raman was fed up with bureaucratic hurdles. He was getting convinced that
funds from government wouldn’t come without strings. He had made up his
mind and two years before retirement started preparations for a new
institution. Using his own resources and by crowd funding including 10 Acre

38
land from the Maharaja of Mysore to the Academy in 1934, he had started
building up resources. It took time but this timed well with his retirement in
1948 and in the same year he dedicated himself to the Raman Research
Institute and Indian Academy of Sciences. Even before the building for
Raman Research Institute was fully ready and electric connection taken,
Raman started working. After all, his only requirements were prisms, lenses,
filters, gratings, spectrograph etc. and sun light.

Picture: Prof. Raman decided to nominate Bhabha for FRS and

continued to look for more support for his candidature.

39
Raman also was a good talent-scouter and promotor. Not many know that
Homi J Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai were at Indian Institute of Science,
Bengaluru for some time and it is from there that they later took off to enter
high orbits of nuclear and space science respectively. It was Raman who
supported Bhabha for the Fellowship of the Royal Society. In fact, to support
Bhabha’s nomination, he even wrote to Birbal Sahni at Lucknow so that it
succeeds. But Bhabha was not the only one. His efforts led to selection of KS
Krishnan and S Chandrasekhar.

Once Raman came to Bengaluru, he stayed there. He devoted all his energy
to the Academy, its journal and later also to Raman Research Institute.

Some students of Raman

40
 6. EFFECTS OF RAMAN EFFECT

Some Applications of Raman Spectroscopy (RS):

There are very few discoveries in Physics that influenced so many other
fields including industry in the way, Raman Spectroscopy has done.
Rutherford said, ‘Raman Effect must rank among the best three or four
discoveries in experimental Physics in the last decade’. With time, the impact
only grew. Initially, it was only physicists who were interested, but later
chemists exploited it.

Generally, it is observed that a discovery or invention is followed by many

people referring to it, or many making use of the results. But gradually, the
frequency of citation (the frequency of referring to the paper) slows down.
Also, less and less people tend to find new applications of that knowledge.
But people who studied the reach, impact and citation of Raman’s papers,
found that something different was happening. People who carry out these
scientometric studies noted that the citation to Raman’s paper went on
increasing with time and reached about 7000. In fact, it doubled every year
for several years. Most of these were Physics-based research papers. Not
only that, once LASER was put in practice in 1960s, the Fourier Transform
technique was developed, and computers appeared making handling of
huge data possible, the application of Raman Spectroscopy again surged.
Today it is being used in a variety of fields which are spread over many
disciplines. In fact, the applications in Chemistry, Pharma, other industries
and Earth sciences far exceed those in Physics.

41
The total number of citations for Raman’s work is unbelievably large. Raman
Spectroscopy leads as far as the application of his work is related. With time,
there have been considerable improvements in the techniques. These
improvements make it possible to make more precise, more refined and
faster measurements. Now, one can analyse over areas of sizes as small as
one square micron (a square whose one side is one millionth of a metre) and
even smaller. While in the conventional Raman Spectroscopy, the spatial
resolution possible was about 1 square mm in area, now one may choose the
right LASER and work at nanometre (nm) resolutions, even in depth below
the surface. One nanometre is one billionth part of a metre. The interest in
the field grew so much that now there is an international journal exclusively
for this field by the name Journal of Raman Spectroscopy.

In his Nobel Acceptance Lecture on December 30, 1930, Raman had made
the following near prophetic conclusion:

We are obviously at the fringe of a fascinating new region of experimental research

which promises to throw light on diverse problems relating to radiation and wave
theory, X-Ray optics, atomic and molecular spectra, fluorescence and scattering,
thermodynamics and chemistry. It all remains to be worked out.

The following are some of the areas which use Raman Spectroscopy (RS) to
great effect:

42
Drug and Cosmetics Industries

 Analysis of crystalline structure of various materials that constitute a

drug.
 The uniformity of the active ingredients in a medicine-tablet is desired
and RS helps in studying if the ingredients are uniformly distributed.
Similarly, when two medicines are blended, one likes to ensure that
they are homogeneously distributed within the tablet. RS helps in
spotting the inhomogeneity.
 Being a remote/ non-contact and non-destructive, it allows conducting
in-vivo analysis.
 Its non-destructive nature of analysis and control over light energy (and
hence the penetration depth) make it suitable for skin-depth studies.
 These days, very often raw material is imported from one country while
the drugs are manufactures elsewhere. RS can also be used in testing
the content and purity of a powder received as raw material.

Identifying Contents like Banned Drugs, Hazardous Materials like

Radioactive Materials etc. Remotely

 Sometimes, illegal drugs are confiscated at the airports but for legal
reasons, it is not allowed to open the once-sealed bags. In such
situations, Raman Spectroscopy comes handy and one can analyse the
contents remotely without breaking the seal.
 The radioactive material needs a distance to be maintained and this
method allows analysing it without getting close to it.

43
Studying Intermediate Transient Stages

 Monitoring of product through studying Intermediate Transient Stages

in manufacturing (such as when paint is drying up or drugs are
developing.) is a valuable information that can be extracted using this
technique.

Mineralogy, Gemmology, Geology

 One of the criteria for determining the value of gems is absence of fluid
inclusions in them and RS is useful in determining that. A variety of
precious/semi-precious stones, gems etc. can be tested using this
method.
 In the laboratory studies of geological materials, such as minerals and
rocks, they can be artificially subjected to extreme conditions and then
changes analysed using RS.
 Rocks are not generally homogeneous at small scales. To analyse the
distribution of minerals and phases within a section of rock, RS can be
employed.

Planetology and Meteoritics

 Not many know that NASA put rovers on planet Mars in February 2021
again (earlier Spirit and Opportunity were placed there in 2004). The
rover Perseverance moves around on the Martian surface and performs

44
 RS measurements on various rocks to identify various minerals etc. A
LASER Raman spectrometer on Perseverance rover sent to planet Mars
is to provide fine-scale imaging by using an ultraviolet (UV) laser and
determine the fine-scale mineralogy and detecting organic compounds.
It is first time that Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman &
Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) is the first UV
Raman spectrometer to fly to the surface of Mars and will provide
complementary measurements with other instruments in the payload.

 Meteorites are chunks of rocks that fall on Earth though they were part
of rocks on asteroids, Moon or Mars. These meteorites have a class
known as chondrite that generally contains somewhat rounded but
small components (typically mm-sized), called chondrules. Achondrites
don’t contain chondrules. So distinguishing chondrite from achondrite
meteorites is possible using RS without crushing the sample.

45
Studies of Natural and Synthetic Materials such as Carbon Nanotubes, and
Graphene

 Research on carbon materials like carbon nanotubes and graphene is

emerging as hot science as these are useful in electronics as well as in
making very strong materials- stronger than steel. Nanotubes are very
fine in size (of the order of nanometre that is one-billionth of a metre)
while graphene is just one-atom thick layer of carbon atoms spread in
two dimensions. Graphene is transparent, and has high electrical and
thermal conductivity. It is also very strong but flexible and elastic.
Analysis of carbon materials, such as single-walled carbon nanotubes
from the angles of purity, and from spotting the defects or disorder etc.
becomes possible with RS.
 RS is useful in testing hard disk drives.
 Testing diamonds and analysing the coating properties of diamond-like
carbon.

Semiconductors/ Solid State Physics/ Electronics

Semiconductor industry is backbone of modern electronics. It is this industry

that has made it possible to drastically reduce the size of gadgets in our
homes. Raman Spectroscopy has found many applications here that include
 ascertaining the purity of semiconductor materials
 alloys are used in defence and space industries. RS is used to find the
composition of an alloy

46
  despite extreme care, presence of undesired component in the
fabricated material is suspected. RS helps in identifying that.
 analysing defects in a structure
 testing the homogeneity of structures
 in making n- and p- type semiconductors (useful in making transistors),
RS helps in determining the degree of doping (mixing of boron which is
p-type or phosphorus which is n-type in silicon for example)
 microanalysis of photoluminescence.

Life and Medical Sciences

 Cells contain nucleic acids which may be studied using this method.
 Medicines affect human bodies. Changes in cells may be monitored
using RS after consumption of drugs.
 When a medicine is administered, it is required to know where it gets
accumulated in body and what changes take place in the medicine.
 Diagnosis of disease.
 To analyse the properties /features of biomolecules.
 Study of structure of bones and the analysis of biocompatibility of a
material.

Various Miscellaneous Applications

 Using Confocal Raman Spectroscopy, one can even analyse coating on

a printed paper. It is possible to depth-profile the coating (a mix of the

47
 pigment like calcium carbonate and the binder) and to determine how
the ink penetrates through the coating.
 Raman spectroscopy makes it possible to analyse water qualitatively as
well as to quantitatively estimate the polluting materials which may
include bio-molecules and minerals, both detectable by RS.
 FTIR (Fourier-Transform Infra-Red) Raman method measures how much
light is the remaining energy from the original light source after being
passed through the substance. In comparison, Raman Spectroscopy
measures the energy that is scattered after being excited by a laser.
Both identify light-colored samples. Sometimes, costlier edible oils like
olive oil are adulterated with cheaper oils like hazelnut oil. When
analysed with FTIR Raman Spectroscopy, the presence of adulterating
oil can be detected.

48
 7. SUMMARY AND LESSONS

Raman was a fully home-bred scientist and travelled abroad for the first time
only in 1921 though this was followed by an immediate next visit to USA the
same year and to Europe again in 1924. During all these visits, he left his
stamp on the international scientific community, especially on the
community of the physicists.

There is another wrong notion. Many people believe what is known as

Raman Effect was discovered in a moment. The fact is Raman had been
constantly on it. Much before it was announced in the year 1928, Raman and
his technical colleague S Venkateswaran, students like KR Ramanathan, and
KS Krishnan were working on the problem. However, the Raman Radiation
which appeared as greenish band was initially thought to be fluorescence.
So, the effect had been observed on 28th February but not correctly
understood.

Raman’s name is a legend. He was loud in expressing his thoughts,

something that did not add to his popularity. He was critical of politicians as
he felt they were trying to control science too. He didn’t like any politician
inaugurating Science Congress and was vocal in expressing this opinion. He
was proud of Indian science being done. Anyone who remembers the work
of PC Ray, JC Bose, Ramanujan, SN Bose, Meghnad Saha and Raman around
that time can only agree. Raman loved to talk on science, to particularly
children. For years, he enthusiastically lectured to common people on
science in a lucid manner and these lectures were quite popular.

49
He believed that doing good science raises the prestige of the nation. He
was aware of what his Nobel meant to the nation. In a press interview on
November 17, 1931, he said:

National awakening has got other fields than politics in which it can show itself. … I think
scientific endeavour has certainly a national value, and I have heard it said that what
Indian scientists, particularly physicists have done, had helped more to raise the
estimation of India in the world than recent political events.

During the last phase of his life, Raman became a somewhat withdrawn
person and he lived more in isolation. He interacted more with the children
than adults. He termed the children ‘our real strength’ and he believed that ‘If
they are enthused and if they are instilled with a spirit of adventure, the sleeping giant
will wake up and conquer the world’.

He was not much in favour of high investment science. However, the world
was after big science where huge groups worked on high investment mega
science projects. The World War further propelled this trend because of
need for quick results and mass production required this. But Raman didn’t
seem to like it. He believed that basic science is important and should be
pursued without worrying at that stage too much if it could be applied for
financial gains.

He used to take pride in his research which fetched him a Nobel though little
money was spent. The nature of science has since changed. Also, now, highly

50
sensitive measurements demand sophisticated and expensive instruments.
For instance, now many Raman Effect-based systems require LASER sources.
The equipment used by him was inexpensive though considering that
instead of sunlight, for strong light source he used mercury arc lamp and for
detection employed 18 cm refracting telescope, cost must have been more
than the often-mentioned Rs. 200. However, even then, it was small even by
the estimates of those days. But his approach was always to use mental
power rather than money.

Raman at Raman Research Institute, explaining Raman

spectrum to visitors.

Most of the people know Raman for his research on scattering of light
including Raman Effect but the range of his research and publications was
wide. During his productive career of over six decades, he authored and co-
authored over 350 research papers in various journals. Raman was basically
curious and his mind wanted to explain what was observed and appealed to

51
senses, be it colours, flowers or sounds. These are things that he rigorously
explored in his early years. In his early years of research, he was interested
in classical physical problems. He was fascinated by musical sounds and the
instruments that produced them. He was working on diverse problems and
explored and published on topics such as musical instruments and colloids
in about the first 2 decades of the century while Wave Optics remained his
lifelong passion.

His papers on other subjects were: Colloid (9), Crystal Optics, Electron
Diffraction and X-Rays (121), Dielectric Behavior and Electro-optics (6),
Elastic properties of solids and optics (25), Line and Band Spectra (4),
Magnetism and Magneto Optics (11), Molecular Scattering of Light (30),
Physiology of Vision (85), Raman Effect (17), Theory of Musical Instruments
(18), Ultrasonics and Hypersonics (9), Vibrations and Sound (23) Wave
Optics (46). He also published 15 papers on many other miscellaneous
topics.

Raman wrote four books also:

1) Molecular Diffraction of Light (1922). Calcutta University Press.

2) The New Physics, Talks on Aspects of Science (1951). Philosophical
Library Inc. New York.
3) Lectures on Physical Optics (1968). The Indian Academy of Sciences,
Bangalore.
4) Physiology of Vision (1968). The Indian Academy of Sciences,
Bangalore.

52
During his last years, post retirement, Raman decided to focus on tackling
some basic problems such as problems of colours. Raman loved nature and
being strong in senses, he was provoked by any riddle observed. He also
wrote a book by name ‘Physiology of Vision’ about which not many people
know. Among many significant points he buttressed, one was the role of
presence of yellow colour on how we perceive other colours. He stated that
presence of yellow colour reduces the visibility of other colours. He also
reported that brightness is related to how well we can see the colours. When
the light is dim, colours are difficult to see.

Interestingly, Raman never worked for and so was not awarded a doctorate.
But in view of his enormous contribution, he was awarded Honorary doctoral
degrees by many universities viz. Allahabad, Benaras, Bombay, Calcutta,
Dacca, Delhi, Freiburg, Glasgow, Kanpur, Lucknow, Madras, Mysore, Osmania,
Paris, Patna and Sh. Venkateswara Universities.

He received many awards and honours.

Table-2
Honours & Awards Earned by Prof. Raman from Scientific Societies and Bodies
S. No. Name of the Award Year
1 Curzon Prize 1913
2 Woodburn Medal Research Medal 1913
3 Matteucci Medal- Society Instaliana Della Scienza, Rome 1928
(Italy)
4 Hughes Medal by Royal Society, London 1930

53
 S. No. Name of the Award Year
5 Nobel Prize by Nobel Foundation, Stockholm (Sweden) 1930
6 National Professorship 1948
7 Franklin Medal from Franklin Institute, USA 1941

He was Knighted by the British Government and was also conferred with the
highest civilian honour given in India viz. Bharat Ratna by the Govt. of India
(1954).

He was also Fellow of several prestigious science academies and societies

of India, Europe and USA including the Royal society, London. However, he
had a dislike for those hankering for the fellowship and, in fact, he later quit
the Royal Society.

Raman was Indian in spirit, though Max Born, the famous Nobel Laureate
from Germany, said that Raman had a ‘European Intensity’. He was always
attired in Indian dress. When asked about his turban, he once said that it was
to prevent his head from swelling. He was a vegetarian, wouldn’t touch
alcohol and politely turned down any offers while in Europe even when
laced with humour like ‘so far, we have seen your effect on alcohol. Now let
us see the effect of alcohol on you!’

Raman was a nationalist and loved own culture. Meghnad Saha has written:

While as a student of the MA class at the Madras Presidency College, he (Raman) carried
out several improvements on Melde's experiments on the vibration of strings, and his
originality of mind attracted the notice of Mr. Jones, the Professor of Physics, for whom

54
Sir C.V. Raman cherishes the highest regard. Mr. Jones offered him a job in the
educational department, but as during these times, all the higher posts in the
educational service were exclusively reserved for Europeans, young Raman did not find
the job sufficiently tempting, and instead of accepting it, went for the Finance
Competitive Examination.

He resented students grabbing jobs abroad and enriching science of the

foreign countries. The issue is complex and reasons many, but as far as
Raman is concerned, there is no doubt that Raman practised it. He was a self-
made, India-bred scientist with versatile talents. Later, to avoid dependence
on foreign journals, he decided to have own journal and even returned the
Fellowship of the Royal Society. His first visit abroad was only in 1921 when
he was 33-year-old. He was intelligent, confident, hardworking and had an
ever-active fertile mind. He was basically a curious mind and that is
evidenced by the volume of his research, mainly in fields of acoustics,
colours, light and properties of matter. As Einstein had once stated, curiosity
is among the most important traits for a scientist. Raman had it in him in
plenty and that explains why he could achieve so much. He mentored about
150 students and many of them turned out to be brilliant scientists and
teachers.

Dr. S Ramaseshan, a scientist who was very close to Raman, and who also
wrote Raman’s biography for the Royal Society, described Raman as a
nationalist. He said, ‘Raman was a staunch nationalist and was proud of his Indian
heritage and its past achievements. In the matter of scientific research, he insisted that
Indian scientists should not be camp-followers and imitate what was being done in the

55
West. He often proclaimed that what one did should not only be original but should also
be relevant to India’s needs when it came to the application of research’.

He didn’t like doing science involving too much money. In the view of Dr.
Ramaseshan, ‘It is difficult to say whether he was right or wrong, but it is a fact that
independent India is yet to produce scientists of Raman’s calibre, although the money
spent on scientific research is enormous compared to the Raman’s days.’

Raman also epitomised Atmanibharata and also wanted Indians to work in

India. Raman’s humble early days had taught him the value of money and
the need for economising. He always prided himself in accomplishing things
with very moderate amount of money but there are differences in opinions
if his experiments costed only 200 rupees. While the pocket spectroscope
may have costed only around 200 rupees, the telescope was not that cheap.
This telescope was procured by Indian Association for Cultivation of Science
through donations from two gentlemen and costed about Rs. 3000/-.
Without the 18 cm telescope, the weak ‘fluorescence’ (later known as Raman
Radiation or Raman Effect) could not have been so well observed. Also, the
sun light alone wouldn’t have sufficed for getting adequate intensity of the
scattered photons (Raman Effect). So later a Mercury Quartz Lamp was
purchased. The source has to send strong beam and the detection also has
to be sufficiently sensitive. This was because only one in a million photons
would be scattered and result in a photon of lower frequency (green
radiation).

56
Raman was impressed and influenced by work of several scientists. He has
written how writings of Euclid (‘Elements of Euclid’) and Herman Von
Helmholtz (‘The Sensation of Tone’ and ‘The Physiology of Vision’) strongly
influenced him. He himself wrote a book by the name ‘The Physiology of
Vision’ but it is interesting to see his comment on the book by Helmholtz:

‘I discovered the book for myself and read it with keenest interest and attention. It can
be said without exaggeration that it profoundly influenced my intellectual outlook. For
the first time, I understood from its perusal what scientific research really meant and
how it could be undertaken’.

One need not emphasise that reading is a good habit to cultivate. By reading
the books by people who are achievers, who write well and are thinkers, we
learn a lot. The increasing trend of reading only what comes of WhatsApp or
by e-mail is limiting our horizon. We must inculcate reading good books.

Raman was a person with versatile abilities. He was very sharp, hardworking
and passionate about whatever he did. He loved music, had a feel for
colours, had excellent command over language and also an inspiring
speaker.

Another thing that characterised him was his tremendous confidence which
could put some people off some times. When he was honoured by the Vice-
Chancellor of Calcutta University on Knighthood, he was asked, ‘what next?’.
Immediately he quipped, ‘Nobel Prize!’ The Nobel Prizes are generally
announced around towards the end of the year and given away in December

57
but Raman had booked the (expensive) tickets to Sweden for himself and his
wife in July itself!

Raman cared little for money or he wouldn’t have chucked his well-paying
prestigious government job in FCS and accepted the offer to be Palit
Professor by Prof. Ashutosh Mukherjee at half the salary he was drawing. His
heart was in science. He lived and breathed science. Nothing gave him more
joy than doing science. He dedicated his life to it. He was another kind of
martyr.

Picture: Raman enjoyed interacting with people particularly with children.

At times, he would dress up like a magician and show tricks related to
optical effects.

58
It was very common to see him lecturing to students and common people,
and explaining science in his very interesting style. He also had good sense
of humour.

Raman expounding his crystal dynamics.

He loved to lecture.

Some newspapers had reported that tears flowed down his eyes when
instead of any Indian flag, the flag of Slave India was hoisted at the time of
conferring of Nobel Prize on him by the King of Sweden. From there, it got
mentioned at several places. However, this is perhaps an overstatement as
no account, by him, his wife or others, mention it. But the fact remains that
he was kind at heart. He was sensitive and there were occasions such as
when he cried when shown the photographs of mal-nourished infants. In
those days, fellowships didn’t exist. Students who came to Kolkata to work
under Raman had meagre resources. They couldn’t afford place to live so
they’d spend night sleeping on the floor of the laboratory. There were
occasions when Raman paid for their food too.

59
 Picture: The flag for the slave India

His Nobel brought glory to Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
also, where he researched, part-time, for over two decades. IACS played a
big role in his scientific journey. He tried everything possible to elevate the
level of Indian Institute of Science. He succeeded in bringing Nobel Laureate
Max Born there but his plans to bring some others like Schrodinger failed.
He was always appreciated for his administrative acumen while a
government officer. However, his stay at Indian Institute of Science was not
so successful and pleasant.

There are many lessons to be learnt from his life. He could make
measurements when returning by ship. His two papers on colour of sea
water couldn’t have been communicated to Nature in September 1921 if he
were not carrying his pocket spectrometer, polariser etc. with him.
Commitment to one’s profession should be total. Research has a unique
thing about it. One should try to choose a profession which becomes one’s

60
hobby also. This alone can ensure optimum output, both in quality and
quality.

We also know that a Russian group of scientists also made similar discovery
(‘Raman Effect’) around the same time but Raman published the paper first
and therefore was considered for Nobel Prize. So doing the work and
reporting as well documenting timely both are all important. Similarly, in the
case of new designs etc., patenting becomes important before the details
are divulged to public in enthusiasm.

The tough life that Raman led is exemplary. To shine, burning is essential, as
is said. There are no short cuts to success.

Raman brought glory to a nation starved of intellectual heroes at that time.

He preached by example that resource-crunch can’t clip wings of someone
talented and determined. Barring some period in his last years, when he
became somewhat recluse, he indeed lit up the sky of Indian science. In the
words of Prof. P R Pisharoty, one of his students, he ‘walked like a colossus over
the Indian scientific theatre for more than half-a- century’.

He was fond of interacting with the young. What he said about Indian
students is still inspiring:

I would like to tell young men and women before me not to lose hope and courage.
Success can only come to you by courageous devotion to the task lying in front of you
and there is nothing worth in this world that can come without the sweat of our brow.

61
But there is no substitute for curiosity and the passion to learn. If there is
one advice from Raman that children should follow, it may be this:

The last photograph

You learn science by keeping your eyes and ears open….But I think the
essence of the scientific spirit is to look beyond and realise what a
wonderful world it is we live in.

62
 8. APPENDICES

QUOTES ON C V RAMAN

The Raman effect must rank among the best three or four discoveries in
experimental physics in the last decade; it has proved and will prove [to be] an
instrument of great power in the study of the theory of solids. In addition to
important contributions in many fields of knowledge, he [i.e., Raman] has
developed an active school of research in physical sciences in the University of
Calcutta.
- Lord Rutherford

It was a part of the patriotism of those times to try and see what Indians could
accomplish with respect to the external world. Accomplishment in science was
one way of expressing what Indians could do, you see. And I would say that
this motive was present. Patriotism is a word which is not a very popular one
to use these days; but Patriotism, as it was understood in India in the twenties,
was one in which it was a part of everyone's wish to show that Indians could be
accomplished, in a way which the outside world can recognize. To accomplish
in science, to show what one could do in science, was a part of my feeling….and
certainly that was one of the early motives that I had. But of course, motives in
science change as you grow older. I mean, that attitude towards science is not
present in me at the present time, but it was present in those days."
- S. Chandrasekhar (Nobel Laureate)

63
Bharat Ratna Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman walked like a colossus over the
Indian Scientific theatre for more than half-a-century. He was great through
his richness of the scientific discoveries, as well as through his outstanding
ability in training a large number of Indian scientists. He inculcated in them
self-reliance, self-self-respect and courage and through them showed that India
has great potential of becoming a great nation. Thus he had a big hand in the
scientific field. The Indian nation and the world scientific community are as a
whole ever grateful to him for what he has given.
- Prof. PR Pisharoty, Padma Shree (Prof. Raman’s student and
renowned meteorologist who, post retirement as director, IITM,
Pune continued to serve science as Professor Emeritus at PRL,
Ahmedabad)

“It speaks well for the development of Science in India that Professor Raman
owes little or nothing of his eminence to direct contact with physicists in other
countries. His formal training was received entirely in India, and, except for a
single year, he has worked only in his native land…….. India may well be proud
of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, her first Nobel Laureate in Science.”
- Physics Nobel Laureate C. J Davisson
(after C.V. Raman became the first Asian to get Physics Nobel in 1930.)

64
 QUOTES OF CV RAMAN

One of the things that have been bred in us, a very deep and ineradicable defect,
is a kind of inferiority complex which makes us think that we dare not question
what has come to us from abroad……… one of the things all Indians should
learn is fearless independence of thinking. That is a very essential quality and
the absence of which, if I may venture to say so with all deference, is what stands
today in the path of Indian progress……

- CV Raman

Bad enough to borrow money. But what about borrowing knowledge? What
about borrowing experts from abroad? What about forgetting to think for
ourselves? This feeling of helplessness must be shaken away, shaken out
ruthlessly.

- CV Raman

We must realize that we must stand on our legs. It is better to work with the
most inefficient useless equipment of ours than to shine in borrowed feathers,
better to work on problems with our slender resources. We must realize this and
until and unless we realize this, we cannot go on.

- CV Raman

On children: This is our real strength. If they are enthused and if they are
instilled with a spirit of adventure, the sleeping giant will wake up and conquer
the world.

- CV Raman

65
The Nobel Medal

The Nobel Diploma

66
 9. USEFUL READINGS

1. Subbarayappa, BV (2010) in Science in India: Achievements and

Aspirations (75 Years of the Academy). Eds. HY Mohan Ram and PN
Tandon. Indian National Science Academy. P.2.
2. G Venkataraman (1988). Journey into Light: Life and Science of CV
Raman. Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian national Science
Academy. Pp. 570.
3. PR Pisharoty (1981). Chandrasekhara Venkat Raman. Publications
Division (85 pages)
4. Bhagavantam S (1971). Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal
Society.
5. Singh, R. (2018). How Costly was Raman’s Equipment for the Discovery
of Raman Effect? Indian J. History of Science 53, 4. P. T-68.
6. Stuewer, Robert H (1975). The Compton Effect: Turning Point in Physics.
Pp 268-269.
7. Some reference material on Fourier Transform Raman Spectroscopy:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263163482_A_Fourier_trans
form_Raman_spectrometer_with_visible_laser_excitation
8. Picture Sources – C. V. Raman : A Pictorial Biography published by Indian
Academy of Sciences

67
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