ACHARYA PRAFULLA CHANDRA RAY

THE MAN AND THE TEACHER

Panchanan Kumar Mukherjee

In the galaxy of celebrated luminaries that Bengal produced in Annual - vol. Ill of Presidency College Alumni Association.
the nineteenth century, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray shines in
“It seems to me that it is high time that the Indian people should
special brilliance. He was a renowned scientist, honoured all
move in the right direction to perpetuate the memory and to
over the world, for his contribution to Chemistry. But his real
recall the great achievements of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray
excellence lay in his life style. In him we find a synthesis of the
in revolutionising higher studies in science and industrialising
qualities of the ancient sages of India and the rationality of the
modem Western scientists. He was an embodiment of “simple India. In the late thirties of this century many thoughtful Indians,
living and high thinking”. His great patriotism, his simple way because of his great services to national development and
of living, his dedication to the cause of learning, his untiring suffering humanity during floods and famines; placed Acharya
efforts for the development of industries in Bengal and his Ray next to Mahatma Gandhi as a great Indian.”
lifelong call to the Bengali youths not to confine their energies “Our beloved Guru was bom on the 2nd of August 1861, at
in securing jobs but to take to business and industries for their Rarulikatpara, a village situated on the bank of the river Madhu-
well-being and real prosperity — these are all well known to us.
mati in the Khulna district (now in Bangladesh). This village is
Diligence, dignity of labour, dedication to one's own task, self-
approximately 125 (200 km) miles away from Calcutta.
reliance, hard work, to excel by competition, to take to business
Acharya Ray’s father was a local zamindar and was a man of
and industries were the comer-stones of his advice to the middle
ideas and never missed English food in the Great Eastern Hotel,
class Bengali youths. He warned them again and again against
Calcutta, even when he was in mourning for his father’s death.
idleness and aversion to manual hard work.
The son, although bom a Hindu, revolted against the caste
prejudices and wrongs of the Hindu society against widows and
Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray is a bright and unique example
went into the folds of the Sadharan Bramho Samaj. Acharya Ray
where knowledge and its practical application moved hand in
studied at Calcutta upto the final B. A. class in the Metropolitan
hand, and intellect was harmonized with love and sympathy. He
(now Vidyasagar) College. Obtaining a Gilchrist Scholarship
firmly believed that poverty, want and weakness could be
for study abroad, he left for England before taking the B. A.
removed only by development of scientific knowledge. He was
degree of the Calcutta University. Even as an undergraduate
a bachelor and the College of Science and Technology in the
Acharya Ray was keenly interested in inspiring young men to
Calcutta University was his home. He regarded the students
take to business and with the help of his two elder brothers,
there as his own sons and his love, affection and concern for
opened a bookshop in Calcutta. In 1882 he joined the Edinburgh
them were literally limitless. He infused in them total
University in the Science Faculty for an Honours degree and
dedication to knowledge and selfless service by his own
studied Biology and Chemistry. After graduation he collabo­
example. A teacher’s greatness' is known by the qualities of his
rated with Prof. A. Crum Brown, F. R. S. Head of the Chemistry
disciples —thus goes the saying. Truly, one of the great achieve­
Department of Edinburgh University, in research work on
ments of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray is the creation of a band
double salts containing cobalt sulphate and alkali sulphates, and
of dedicated scholars, scientists and workers such as Meghnad
obtained the D. Sc. degree in Chemistry of the Edinburgh
Saha, Gyanchandra Ghosh, Nilratan Dhar, Panchanan Niyogi —
University and returned to Calcutta in 1887. Although he was
to name a few, all of whom are renowned in their fields.
highly qualified, he had to wait for a year for obtaining the post
Let me now reproduce what one of his direct disciples, the Late of a Junior Professor of Chemistry at the Presidency College,
Nilratan Dhar, M. Sc., D.Sc., (Lond., Paris) F. N. I., I. E. S., Calcutta on a salary of Rs. 250/- per month which he continued
Director, Sheila Dhar Institute of Soil Science, University of to draw for more than ten years as there was no vacancy in a
Allahabad wrote about his Guru on the occasion of his Birth higher post. A vacancy was possible only when a senior incum­
Centenary in an article titled, “Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray bent died. There were no graded salaries as at present. In those
centenary and creation of an Agricultural University for Rural days the senior Professorships in Government Colleges in India
Development" which was published in 1962 in the Autumn were the monopoly of European officers holding the B. A. or B.
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Courtesy: Presidency Alumni Association Calcutta, Kolkata 700073
Sc. degrees of European Universities, specially Oxford and
Cambridge. At that time the Senior Professor of Chemistry in
the Presidency College, Calcutta, was Sir Alexander Pedler, F.
R. S., a pupil of the celebrated English Chemist Sir Henry E.
Roscoe, F. R. S., Professor of Chemistry at the University of
Manchester and subsequently Vice-Chancellor of Manchester
and London Universities. Sir Alexander Pedler rose to be the
Director of Public Instruction of Bengal and Vice-Chancellor of
the Calcutta University, and was succeeded in the latter capacity
in 1906 by the great educationist and founder of post-graduate
education and the College of Science and Technology in the
Calcutta University, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee. Sir Alexander
Pedler offered facilities to Acharya Ray in starting chemical
investigations at the Presidency College. Shortly after joining
the Presidency College, Acharya Ray discovered mercurous
nitrite in 1895, a yellow crystalline compound readily formed
by the action of moderately dilute nitric acid on metallic
mercury, and observed that it decomposes in water with the
formation of metallic mercury and mercuric nitrite. The late
Professor Jyoti Bhusan Bhaduri, M. A., P. R. S., who was a
highly successful Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Presi­
dency College for a number of years, was a student in the
Presidency College in the nineties of the last century. Professor
Bhaduri was interested in obtainin & mercurous chloride or
calomel in a pure state for preparing a calomel cell and requested
Acharya Ray to prepare a specimen of pure calomel for him. For
obtaining calomel, mercurous salts are necessary. At that time
textbooks on Inorganic Chemistry reported the formation of a
yellow mercury compound believed to be basic mercurous
nitrate by the action of dilute nitric acid on mercury. But
Acharya Ray found that a yellow crystalline compound contain­
ing mercury and nitrite and not nitrate is readily formed on the
surface of mercury and elsewhere by the action of moderately
dilute nitric acid on mercury even in acidic solutions where the
formation of a basic sal t is not possible. Thus the new compound
mercurous nitrite was discovered and isolated by him in a pure
state and its properties were systematically studied. He pub­
lished an account of these researches both in the Journal of the
Chemical Society, London and in Germany in the Zeitschriftfur
Anorganische Chemie in 1895. From mercurous nitrite he
extended his investigations to other nitrites and was recognised
all over the world as a master of nitrite chemistry”.
“About that time he felt the need of having collaborators in
pushing up his researches at a rapid rate.He frequently said to his
friend, the great Brahmo preacher,Pandit Shiv Nath Shastri, that
4
it was not possible in India to find enthusiasm and keenness for
advancement of science as in the West. But thanks to his
learning, devotion to chemistry and inordinate affection for his
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Courtesy: Presidency Alumni Association Calcutta, Kolkata 700073
pupils, able young chemists joined him in his researches, not
only in inorganic and analytical chemistry but in physical and
organic chemistry as well. Thus he became the creator of the
first flourishing school of chemistry in India. This is a landmark
in the progress of science, technology and industry in our
country. The foundation of the University College of Science
and Technology in 1914 by Sir Ashutosh Mukheijee through the
7
munificence of Sir Tarak Nath Palit, Sir Rashbehari Ghosh, the
Raja of Khaira and other benefactors of education, came as an
offshoot and manifestation of the devotion of Acharya Ray to
science and its applications”.
"Immediately after joining service he started the Bengal Chemi­
cal and Pharmaceutical works, which is the biggest concern in
this line in the whole of the East. He always urged young men
not to hanker after government jobs but to take to business and
industry”
“His great patriotism and learning specially in the domain of the
history of sciences, are manifest in his famous "History of Hindu
Chemistry," which is a monumental publication showing the
achievements of the Hindus in chemistry and medicine in early
days”
“Acharya Ray was always in favour of rural uplift. In most
summer vacations when the Presidency College or the College
of Science was closed for a couple of months or more, instead
of spending the vacations in a hill station, he proceeded to his
native village and spent his time with young men from neigh­
bouring villages in moulding their character and bringing about
their uplift through the improvement of education. He created a
degree college in that area. He loved village life and believed in
Indian progress through rural welfare.”
“Soon after his death in 1944 the Indian Chemical Society
created the “Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray Lectureship in
Chemistry”; a leading chemist is invited to deliver a lecture
embodying his own contribution on the birthday of our Guru,
i.e. 2nd August. I had the honour of receiving the invitation to
deliver the first Acharya P. C. Ray Memorial Lecture and I
stated as follows at the beginning of the lecture:
"I had the good fortune to be closely associated with him since
1907 till his death in 1944.1 was initiated by him in 1911 into
investigations on the physical properties of nitrites and hyponi­
trites, and we published a series ofjoint papers on this line in the
Journal of the English Chemical Society. These investigations
have now fanned a part of the literature of Physical and
Inorganic chemistry. My Guru had the impression that electric
conductivity and other physical properties could not be deter­
mined in India at that time and it would be necessary for him to
go to England to obtain the conductivity water needed for these
experiments. A little later, with the help of my friends, Shri D.
N. B hattachary a, Shri A. K. Dutta and others, we determined the
transport number of the nitrite ion by the electrolysis of silver
nitrite solutions at different concentrations, dissociation con­
stant of nitrous acid and the kinetics of the reaction between
iodine and nitrite, both in light and in the dark, and the action of
nitric acid on mercury .copper, zinc, etc. and several reducin
agents. Thus, I followed in the foot-steps of my Guru in the study
of nitric chemistry/4
"For over 30 years we have investigated the problem of nitrogen
fixation and nitrogen loss with a band of able young men in the
Chemical Laboratories of the University of Allahabad and the
Sheila Dhar Institute of Soil Science with the ultimate view of
easing the world food situation by increasing land fertility as
cheaply as possible. Our Guru used to say that “Anna chinta
Chamatkara” — supply of food is the real problem of our
country. We have discovered that the unstable substance —
ammonium nitrite which breaks up readily into nitrogen gas and
water according to the equation: NH4NO2 = N2 + 2H2O + 718
K. cal.— is always formed when nitrogenous fertilisers and
manures are applied to land. This chemical change plays an
important part in decreasing the recovery of nitrogen by crops
in agriculture. I had the good fortune of investigating ammo­
nium nitrite and its properties and determining its vapour
density in vacuum with my Guru.”
"In this connection it will be of eat interest to record here the
remarks of the late Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F. R. S.,in his article
on Future of Chemistry in India in the Acharya Prafulla Chandra
Roy Memorial volume (1952, pp. 15-16)
“The great work of the future, however, specially in India, will
be the development of agriculture with the definite object in
view of providing food of approved value, far higher in quality
—Reprinted from Presidency College Autumn Annual
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Courtesy: Presidency Alumni Association Calcutta, Kolkata 700073
than that now produced. Only in recent years have we been able
to set this before us as our object.”
"We have failed thus far, even in England to place Agriculture
upon a pedestal of the highest scientific endeavour. We have had
no efficient College to this end. I can imagine no higher service
to India than the establishment of such an institution. Only a
potential Liebig will be able to bring it into being and supervise
its operations. Twenty years hence, perhaps such a leader may
be forthcoming, if meanwhile a few men who feel that they have
some call to such service, some biological feeling, will set
themselves in training, disregarding academic traditions and
forswearing all desire to advertise that they have knocked
another spot off another atom or in some other way of remote
concern to the world, made themselves exceptional.”
"Competent chemists, they will carry on their studies, both in
field and laboratory, in every possible and desirable direction,
so as to secure a commanding knowledge of the problems of
animal and plant life and of the soil. Only men so qualified, with
ripened powers of imagination, will be competent to act as
saviours of the people in the not distant future. The example Sir
Prafulla Chandra Ray has set may well serve to encourage such
an order into being. They will be the scientific missionaries of
the future, sworn to social service alone.”
As Wordsworth has told of Milton, we may say of Acharya
Prafulla Chandra Ray:
"Acharya! Thou shouldst be living at this hour
Bengal hath need of thee; she is a fen
Of stagnant waters."
Let his life and teachings guide and inspire us to make us worthy
of his heritage.