Dr Mahendralal Sircar – Builder of the first Research Institute in Asia

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science 

By training, Mahendralal Sircar was an allopath. He passed the MD examination from the Calcutta University in 1859 and very soon established himself as a leading allopath in the city. Though initially, Dr Sircar used to criticize homoeopathy severely, yet in the later years, he became interested in the field. He gave up allopathy and embraced homoeopathy for the rest of his life. His patients included Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa, the master of Swami Vivekananda.

Mahendralal was a patriot and a nationalist. His dream was to establish a research institute similar to the Royal Society of London where the Indians could do research in basic science. He produced the approach papers and appealed to the wealthy citizens of the country to contribute to this project. With the establishment of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) on July 29, 1876, located at 210 Bowbazar Street, a new era was ushered to the scientific community of India. Dr Sircar was the first Secretary of the Institution. After the Independence, IACS moved to the present location at Jadavpur opposite the Jadavpur University.

CV Raman, after obtaining an MA degree from the Madras University, joined Indian Finance Service. He was posted at Calcutta as the Assistant Accountant General. After the office hours, he used to visit IACS to pursue his independent research in physics. During this time he made significant contributions in the field of optics and acoustics.

In 1917 he was invited by the then Vice-Chancellor Sir Asutosh Mukherjee to join Calcutta University as the first Palit Professor of Physics which Raman readily accepted. On February 28, 1928, Raman with his student Krisnan discovered a new phenomenon of light scattering which goes by his name. February 28 is now celebrated as the National Science Day throughout the country. In 1926, the first physics journal in India ‘Indian Journal of Physics’ was published as the Proceedings of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science ‘Conducted’ by CV Raman.

In a telephonic interview, Dr Sankar Chakaravorti, retired Senior Professor of Spectroscopy, IACS said:

“Till today one and only Sir Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman has won the coveted Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 working at IACS with his student KS Krishnan for the far-reaching discovery named ‘Raman Effect’ after him. It is an extremely important discovery in the last century not only for the understanding of fundamentals of Physics (Quantum Mechanics) but also important for the host of applications in all branches in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Physiology, Medical Science, Archaeology, Forensic Science, Communication Technology etc. The horizon of applications of Raman Effect in other areas is still expanding day-by-day, for being a non-invasive tool with so little amount of sample can throw light on important structural information at the molecular level."

He added, "The Raman Effect at a popular level may be described as: when a beam of light of single colour (light having single wavelength) enters a sample liquid (or in solid or gaseous phase), a fraction of the scattered light is of different colour along with the colour of entering light comes out. The scattered light of the original colour is called “Rayleigh Scattering” with 1000 to 10000 times weaker in the intensity of incident light. The shifted colour (wavelength) scattered light of intensity is ten million times weaker than Rayleigh scattered light and is called Raman shifted light, which contains valuable information about the sample's structure and composition. Modern laser source coupled with improved detection systems have helped very weak Raman signal to be captured at a short time, for which Raman Effect underpins prominent spectroscopic techniques to be applied in nearly all areas people can conceive. The instrument used by Raman to demonstrate Raman Effect is kept at the archive of IACS”.

Raman, in his Nobel Lecture, paid rich tribute to Sircar, “I own a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. It was the Late Dr Mahendralal Sircar, who by founding the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science made it possible for the scientific aspirations of my early years to continue burning brightly. Dr Sircar devoted a lifetime of labour to the institution which he created and equipped in the hope that it would someday be utilised for the advancement of science in India.”

Dr Mahendralal Sircar was born on November 2, 1833, and passed away in 1904. This February 23 is his 117th death anniversary.