Quantum Physics and the Stars (IV): Meghnad Saha's Fate

Plaskett H. H. , “Address… on astronomical telescopes”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, civ (1946), 80–94, p. 83; summarized in The observatory, lxvi (1946), 234–8.

Plaskett , “Address”, 82.

Plaskett was then a member of a Royal Society Committee (which included Blackett P. M. S. Jones Spencer H. Graves W. M. H. Lindsay E. M. , and Stratton F. J. M. ) that was charged with assessing the postwar needs of astronomy. Though opinions were varied, they proposed two large telescopes sited in Britain and in the Southern Hemisphere. On how his effort led to the Isaac Newton telescope, see Smith Graham F. and Dudley J. , “The Isaac Newton telescope”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xiii (1972), 1–18; and on its fate, see Pagel B. E. J. , “The Isaac Newton telescope”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxvii (1986), 432–4.

Saha to Saha , 2 August 1946, SP/SINP.

Saha M. N. to Saha M. N. , partially quoted in Kothari D. S. , “Meghnad Saha”, Biographical memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society, v (1959), 217–36, p. 221, as written on 18 December 1946. This letter was reprinted in its entirety as “A letter written by Prof. M. N. Saha to Prof. Plaskett”, Mahavisva, iv (1983), 52–57. The copy of the letter in Saha's personal papers was undated, but according to Plaskett's reply of 6 January 1947 was probably dated 21 December 1946. The first letter has been used as an autobiographical statement and has been quoted widely by Indian biographers of Saha. In February 1947, Saha wrote a second letter elaborating on some of the major issues in his early scientific life. Plaskett, through Harlow Shapley and E. A. Milne, circulated the first letter widely among astronomers of the day. Copies of these letters were kindly supplied to the author by Ajit Saha, and subsequently examined at the Nehru Memorial Library, New Delhi (SP/NML), and at the Saha Institute for Nuclear Physics in Calcutta (SP/SINP).

Saha to Plaskett, 21 December 1946, SP/NML.

Plaskett to Saha, 6 January 1947, SP/NML. Plaskett parenthetically added that there had been a tendency in the United States to “regard astrophysics as stemming from the work of Pickering and yourself. It was Plaskett's goal in his Presidential Address to correct this by adding the names of Lockyer and Fowler. Plaskett's mention of Germany derives from a general misconception that Saha spent part of the First World War in Germany. D. M. Bose had been in Germany then, not Saha. See Sen S. N. (ed.), Professor Meghnad Saha, his life, work, and philosophy (Calcutta, 1954), 7. See also “Extract from a letter dated 23rd April 1925”, marked “Original seen and compared, J.H.J. July 1st, 1925”, Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 308.

Russell to Shapley, 13 February 1947, PUL/HNR.

Anderson Robert S. , Building scientific institutions inlndia: Saha and Bhabha (McGill University: Centre for Developing-Area Studies, Occasional Paper Series no. 11, 1975), 6–7, discusses Saha's early political activism. See also Kothari , op. cit. (ref. 5), 217–36; Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7). The frustrations common to many Indians who either trained in the West or like Saha visited there, are explored in Singh Kumar Amar , “The impact of foreign study: The Indian experience”, Minerva, i (1962), 43–53.

Bose D. M. Sen S. N. and Subbarayappa B. V. , (eds), A concise history of science in India (New Delhi, 1971), 602–15. Many authors have discussed colonized science, or science in India as it was defined by the colonizing powers. See especially the essays in Kumar Deepak (ed.), Science and empire: Essays in Indian context (Delhi, 1991); and more recently, Kochhar R. K. , “Science in British India. I: Colonial tool”, Current science, lxiii (1992), 689–94; “II: Indian response”, ibid., lxiv (1993), 55–62; and Venkataraman G. , Journey into light: Life and science of C. V. Raman (Delhi, 1988), p. viii. In contrast, Lewis Pyenson has argued for the commonality of science in the pursuit of physics, astronomy, and chemistry, although he concerns himself mainly with the activities of colonists, not natives. For references to prior work, see Pyenson Lewis , “Cultural imperialism and exact sciences revisited”, Isis, lxxxiv (1993), 103–8.

Most of the studies of the Indian scientific community cited here, by both Indian and western observers, acknowledge these problems with organized Indian science. See, for instance, Kumar , op. cit. (ref. 10); Venkataraman , op. cit. (ref. 10); Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9); Shiva V. and Bandyopadhyay J. , “The large and fragile community of scientists in India”, Minerva, xviii (1980), 575–94; and the personal observations of an Indian physicist trained in the United States: Choudhuri Arnab Rai , “Practising western science outside the West: A few personal observations”, privately printed (c. 1983).

On Saha's later political activities, see Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 93–95, 100.

DeVorkin David H. and Kenat Ralph , “Quantum physics and the stars (I): The establishment of a stellar temperature scale”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xiv (1983), 102–32; “Quantum physics and the stars (II): The abundances of the elements in the atmospheres of the Sun and stars”, ibid., xiv (1983), 180–222; “Quantum physics and the stars (III): Towards a rational theory of stellar spectra”, ibid., xxi (1990), 157–86 (cited hereafter as QM I, II, and III).

See QM II.

Russell's work in this area has been analysed mainly in QM III. On Saha's style, see Bose D. M. , “Foreword”, in Chatterjee S. (ed.), Collected scientific papers of Meghnad Saha (Calcutta, 1969), pp. v–vi. This similarity between Russell and Saha is explored in more detail in DeVorkin D. H. , “Saha's influence in the West: A preliminary account”, in Karmohapatro S. B. (ed.), Meghnad Saha birth centenary commenoration volume (Calcutta, 1993), 154–202.

All four papers were sent to British journals when Saha was still in India. See DeVorkin , op. cit. (ref. 15), 154–202.

As Saha later recalled: “I took about four months in rewriting this paper, and all the time I had the advantage of Professor Fowler's criticism…. Though the main ideas and working of the paper remained unchanged, the substance … was greatly improved on account of Fowler's kindness in placing at my disposal fresh data, and offering criticism wherever I went a little astray…” ( Saha M. N. to Plaskett H. H. , 21 December 1946, quoted in Kothari , op. cit. (ref. 5), 222).

Dingle was then a student in Fowler's laboratory, and made this comment 25 years after the fact: H. Dingle, seconding a vote of thanks to Saha after his lecture to the RAS; see “Astrophysical research in India”, The observatory, lxvi (1945), 13–22, p. 22, cited in Kothari , op. cit. (ref. 5), 222, note.

Sen , (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 7), 14.

Saha M.N. , “On a physical theory of stellar spectra”, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, series A, xcix (1921), 135–53, p. 153.

Abrol Dinesh , “‘Colonized minds’ or national scientists: The ‘Science and Culture’ group”, in MacLeod R. and Kumar D. (eds), Technology and the Raj (forthcoming), chap. 14, p. 4 of typescript.

As Harry Collins has noted, scientific theories or facts can change even after an initial period of verification by repeated experiment, since, he argues, the replicability of an experimental outcome can be influenced by “communally defined skills”. Harry Collins, in “Afterword, science acts”, in Collins , Changing order: Replication and induction in scientific practice (Chicago, 1992), 183–95, p. 183.

Saha to Saha , 20 August 1921 (SP/NML). Mukerjee's importance in Indian higher education is noted in Shils Edward , “The academic profession in India”, Minerva, viii (1969), 345–72, p. 359, note 26; and in Karve D. D. , “The universities and the public in India”, ibid. (1963), 263–84, p. 264. Verification of Saha's claims remains to be carried out. The eventual paper with P. Gunther was not published in Germany, but later in India as “On the ionization of gases by heat”, Journal, Department of Science, Calcutta University, iv (1922), 97–101.

Saha later claimed that this paper “completely established the truth of the ionization theory” ( Saha , “A letter” (ref. 5), 57).

Saha to Hale, 9 July 1921 (copy in PUL/HNR).

Saha to Mookerjee, 6 December 1922 (SP/NML).

Moore B. E. , “Excitation stages in open arc light spectra”, The astrophysical journal, liv (1921), 246–72, p. 271. John Eggert had discussed ionization equilibrium in stellar interiors in 1919. See QM I (ref. 13), 111.

Saha to Plaskett, n.d. February 1947; Milne to Saha, 7 September 1935 (SP/NML). Milne refers to the theory as “due to Lindemann and Saha and developed by R. H. Fowler” in Milne E. A. , Sir James Jeans: A biography (Cambridge, 1952), 142. Although historians of science today argue that issues surrounding priority “had long sidetracked the inquiries of historians”, the issue remains important for scientists, and it apparently acts as a competitive stimulus for men like Saha, who never abandoned his personal scientific ambitions even as he devoted more and more effort to institution building and national planning, and who held on to complaints over perceived injustices done to him early in life. This trait may well provide insight not only into Saha's personality, but into his decision to move into the political arena. Thus such issues cannot be wholly disregardEd. Servos John W. , “Research schools and their histories”, Osiris, n.s., viii (1993), 3–15, p. 9.

For instance, when Saha wrote to Fowler asking for reprints of his work on statistical theory with Darwin, he learned by return mail that Fowler and Milne were already “… writing a paper which is a natural extension of your work on the basis of statistical theory…” ( Fowler R. H. to Saha M. N. , 14 April 1923 (SP/NML)). By 1924, Henry Norris Russell had published over a dozen papers extending Saha's worK, confirming Saha's predictions for what would be seen in the sunspot spectrum, and then, after refining the theory for an admixture of elements, finding that inconsistencies between observation and theory existed, which led to subsequent modifications and generalizations of the theory. Milne and Fowler rederived the ionization equilibrium equation using statistical mechanics techniques developed by Fowler and Charles G. Darwin, and in its revised form, they showed that the theory could now account for the statistical distribution of atoms in various states of excitation and ionization. Within two years, Fowler and Milne had come to the point where they could relate their theory unambiguously to the temperature and pressure of a gaseous stellar atmosphere. And as we have discussed in past studies, Fowler and Milne left both the rederivation of a refined temperature sequence as well as the possible determination of abundances from marginal appearances to astronomers who were closer to the observational data. They opened the door for one of their brightest Cambridge students, Cecilia Payne, who had just graduated and was bound for the Harvard College Observatory intent upon exploiting one of the largest stores of stellar spectroscopic information in the world. See QM I and QM II (ref. 13).

Eddington A. S. , The internal constitution of the stars (Cambridge, 1926; reprinted, New York, 1959), 347.

To account for spectroscopic anomalies, such as the ease with which barium could be ionized, given its ionization potential, Saha envisaged the atom as not isotropically receptive to recombining electrons. This required what he called a “steric factor” which received some mild, though sceptical attention. Russell admitted to Harlow Shapley that he had “grave doubts” about it as it was not “good quantum physics” (Russell to Shapley, 24 January 1927 (PUL/HNR)). When Russell and F. A. Saunders showed, theoretically and experimentally, that barium, a two-valence atom, could undergo multiple electron transitions in what today is called Russell-Saunders (L-S or ‘spin-orbit’) coupling, the steric factor became superfluous because its behaviour could be understood as a natural consequence of the ionization theory as it was refined and generalized by Russell, Saunders, Milne, and R. H. Fowler. Even after L-S coupling resolved the barium problem, lingering discrepancies and Saha's continued advocacy of the steric factor caused Russell to suggest that the problem might lie with transitions arising from metastable states in both the neutral and ionized atom. Russell planned a note on this question, but no record of it has been found, though he had already developed the idea in his textbook. See QM III (ref. 13), 161.

Saha to Hale, 9 July 1921 (copy in PUL/HNR).

Ibid. Unknown to Saha, Hale was having financial difficulties at that time, and found it difficult finding funds even to acquire Russell part-time. See DeVorkin D. H. , “A fox raiding the hedgehogs: How Henry Norris Russell got to Mount Wilson”, in Good G. (ed.), The Earth, the Heavens, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington: Historical perspectives after ninety years (Washington, D.C., 1994), 103–11.

QM I (ref. 13), 117.

On Sana's concept of outposts and centres in physics, see Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 15–16.

On Sana's failure to attract funding from the Tata family, see Mehta J. N. to Saha , 31 October 1922 (SP/NML). Saha's departure from Calcutta requires further study, especially considering the concentration of physical research there, and the lack of such facilities elsewhere in India. On the nature of the university system in India, see Karve , op. cit. (ref. 23).

Saha to Russell, 18 September, 1924 (PUL/HNR). See also Saha , “A letter” (ref. 5), 57; Saha to Plaskett, n.d. (c. February 1947) SP/NML. The annual grant to the department at Allahabad was just sufficient to cover classroom needs.

Russell to Saha, 15 October 1924 (PUL/HNR).

Millikan to Saha, copy in Russell files, 21 October 1924 (PUL/HNR). On Millikan's influence, see Kargon Robert H. , The rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a life in American science (Ithaca, 1982).

Kevles Daniel , The physicists: The history of a scientific community in modern America (New York, 1978), 191–2.

Millikan to Russell, 21 October 1924 (PUL/HNR). Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 18–20, notes that there was little or no support for science in India then.

Russell to Millikan, 27 October 1924 (PUL/HNR). Raman was soon to win the Nobel Prize for physics.

Wali K. , Chandra (Chicago, 1991), 166. See also Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 2ff, 21–22, 105–9; Kothari , op. cit. (ref. 5), 218; Venkataraman , op. cit. (ref. 10), 12; Chatterjee Santimay and Chatterjee Enakshi , “The other side of genius”, The illustrated weekly of India, 24 September 1989, 44–47; Saha , “A letter” (ref. 5), 57.

Saha's political activism was at the root of this. See Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 6–7.

Three of the most active experimental centres in America — at Berkeley, Caltech/Mount Wilson, and Harvard/MIT — were all subject to Russell's influence, and throughout the remainder of the 1920s all three groups published papers that left no doubt as to the origin of the theory. Saha's papers are among the most frequently cited by authors of articles on astrophysics during the 1920s; his original quartet had garnered some 94 citations in the primary physical science literature by 1929, and overall during the same period he collected over 200 citations. [Institute for Scientific Information], Physics citation index 1920–1929, i (Philadelphia, 1981). See also Hufbauer Karl , “Core literature on theoretical astrophysics during 1920–1929”, Institute for Scientific Information workshop on historical applications of citation data, 10–11 December 1982. Most of these citations were efforts to elaborate and refine Saha's theory as well as to apply it. At Caltech, Arthur A. Noyes and H. A. Wilson measured ionization fractions from the conductivity of salted flames and were able to determine, by measuring increased electrical conductivity through increased ionization, the relative magnitudes of ionization potentials. Their observations were, they argued, “a striking confirmation of the general validity of the calculation of the ionization of the elements from their ionization-potentials by the thermodynamic equation employed by Saha” ( Noyes Arthur A. and Wilson H. A. , “The thermal ionization of gaseous elements at high temperatures”, The astrophysical journal, lvii (1923), 20–32, p. 32). Others, like A. S. King at Mount Wilson, R. T. Birge and Harold Urey at Berkeley, and Moore in Nebraska, explored the ramifications of his theory. Most of all, they had all adopted the new theoretical framework constructed by Saha that, as Cecilia Payne strongly emphasized in the conclusion to her thesis, now defined the classification of stellar atmospheres by their spectra in terms of thermal ionization ( Payne Cecilia H. , Stellar atmospheres (Harvard College Observatory Monograph no. 1, 1925), 193).

Snehamoy Dutta to Saha, 12 April 1922 (SP/SINP). Russell Norris Henry , “The theory of ionization and the sun-spot spectrum”, The astrophysical journal, lv (1922), 119–44.

Wali , op. cit. (ref. 43), 198.

See “Of the election and admission of Fellows” within the “Statutes of the Royal Society” section in the Royal Society of London yearbook (London, 1927), 63–67. Sheila Edwards, Royal Society librarian, has noted that only about 10 percent of the list was usually elected (private communication, 19 July 1993). This seems correct, since E. A. Milne wanted Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar to know, from Milne's own experience, that even the most worthy nominations must expect to wait for a few years at least (Milne to S. Chandrasekhar, 4 November 1941, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Papers, UC Regenstein).

See Royal Society of London yearbook (ref. 48), 65, Statute 10.

Holland to Muddiman, 12 March 1925 (Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 305).

A. P. Muddiman to Holland, 5 April 1925 (Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 306). “Muddiman, Sir Alexander Phillips (1875–1928)”, Dictionary of national biography, 1922–1930 (Oxford, 1937), 627–8.

Nehru Jawaharlal , Toward freedom (New York, 1942), 40–41, 47–48; Gordon Leonard A. , Bengal: The nationalist movement 1876–1940 (New York, 1974), 171–9.

Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 56. Bose, always critical of Gandhiism, later became the President of the Indian National Congress in 1938, and was leader of the Japanese-sponsored Indian National Army. See Lamb Pitney Beatrice , India: A world in transition (New York, 1966), 328–9. See also Das Durga , India: From Curzon to Nehru & after (New York, 1970); and Gordon , op. cit. (ref. 52), 189ff.

Jeans to Holland, 28 May 1925; Holland to Jeans, 29 May 1925 (Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 308, CD 309).

“Extract from a letter dated 23rd April 1925” (ref. 7). Some of this intelligence is verified in Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 4–6, 56. On Gupta, see Gordon , op. cit. (ref. 52), 255–6.

Jeans to Holland, 28 May 1925; Holland to Jeans, 29 May 1925 (Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 308, CD 309).

Jeans to Jeans , 12 November 1925 (Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 308).

“Walker, Gilbert Thomas”, Dictionary of national biography 1951–1960 (Oxford, 1971), 1020; Jeans to Fowler, 12 November 1925 (Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 308). Walker had also nominated Raman for election, according to Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 17.

Fowler to Jeans, 18 November 1925 (Royal Society Archives, Council Documents CD 310).

Why was Saha elected in 1927? Although the Royal Society deliberations are not available, there is evidence from citation studies that the composition of the block of successful candidates changed in 1927. In 1925 and 1926, the competition among young candidates in physics was extremely high. These were the years in which Milne and R. H. Fowler were elected. But during these same years, a goodly number of senior scientists were also elected despite their having acquired very few citations, as compiled in the Physics citation index 1920–1929, i (ref. 45). The situation changed in 1927, when only highly-cited younger candidates were elected, Saha among them.

Letters, Saha M. N. to Plaskett H. H. , 21 December 1946; n.d. (c. February 1947), note that he received Rs.5000, the equivalent then of £333 (courtesy Prof. Ajit Kumar Saha).

Saha was, in fact, third overall in accumulated citations to his work among all candidates in physics for the three years in question. This may help to explain why Saha, in fact, was elected more expeditiously than most that year, at the relatively young age of 34 years. Some made it on the first attempt, but others required two, five and even eight rounds. Although this does not inform us as to the specific reasons why he was elected in 1927, we do know, from the correspondence cited here, that none of these men explicitly questioned the scientific merits of the candidate. Only Sana's political activities and connections were discussed.

Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 95.

According to Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 18–20, the colonial government had never provided strong or continuous support for science, and, most definitely, neither did Allahabad in the 1920s. Saha's biographer and colleague D. S. Kothari says that “Saha had little real skill or aptitude for practical work”, though he always supported such work when he could ( Kothari , op. cit. (ref. 5), 220).

Gale to Saunders, 18 November 1922 (Yerkes Observatory Library, YO/ApJ 4:1). If Gale was concerned about a flood of papers from Indian scientists, in the 1930s he resisted their physical presence on campus when he opposed Chandrasekhar's lectureship at the University of Chicago. See Wali , op. cit. (ref. 43), 65, 236. On Moseley, see letter, Moseley to his mother, October 1910 (quoted in Heilbron J. L. Moseley H. G. J. : The life and letters of an English physicist 1887–1915 (Berkeley, 1974), 47). A further curious example from the turn of the century surrounds J. C. Bose. Though his research had been published by the Royal Society, his credentials were still called into question when friends asked Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, to invite him to speak on his work. See letters, George Hamilton to William Huggins, 16 February 1903, and reply, 21 February 1903 (MC 03.122; MC 03.104, Royal Society Library). I am indebted to Barbara Becker for alerting me to the Huggins correspondence.

Saha , “A letter” (ref. 5), 53.

Basu D. , “The physics of the Sun”, Science and culture, xxii (1956), 198–201, p. 198.

Kothari , op. cit. (ref. 5), 22. Otto Struve and Zebergs Velta , Astronomy of the 20th century (New York, 1962), 218. Struve added that he found a copy of the larger paper at Yerkes, when Saha visited in 1936. No evidence of that original paper has been found. It is worth considering that Struve here may have been trying to make a point: That his predecessors lacked proper appreciation for theoretical studies useful in stellar atmospheres research.

See, for instance, Frost to Russell, 28 October 1915; Hale to Frost, 13 October 1919; Stewart to Gale, 3 April 1923 (Yerkes Observatory Library, YO/ApJ). The ApJ limped through the Great War in deficit, had no institutional affiliation or support, and was having an especially difficult time recovering from the loss of many European subscriptions.

Saha to “The Editor”, 4 March 1919; Frost to Saha, 2 May 1919 (Yerkes Observatory Library, YO/ApJ). This is, in fact, the earliest correspondence found with Saha in the Yerkes files. There is much later correspondence, in 1920, about another long paper Saha submitted which was also held back because of its length.

Saha M. N. , “On radiation pressure and the quantum theory, a preliminary note”, The astrophysical journal, 1 (1919), 220. The full text appeared as “On selective radiation pressure and the radiative equilibrium of the solar atmosphere”, Journal of the Department of Science, Calcutta University, ii (1920), 51–59.

Saha to Plaskett, 21 December 1946; Saha to Shapley, 5 September 1952; 2 April 1953; 6 November 1953 (letters courtesy Prof. Ajit Kumar Saha, copies in SP/NML). Minnaert sympathized with Saha, but would not agree with his solar outburst theory. See Saha to Marcel Minnaert, 19 October 1955, and reply (SP/NML).

Saha's academy was renamed twice. First it was called “The National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad” and then “The National Academy of Sciences, India” in 1934. It was in direct competition with at least two other ‘national academies’ at the time ( Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 34ff, 41–42).

Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 86.

Saha was a disciple of the controversial admirer of national socialism, Subhas Chandra Bose. Saha also helped Nalini Gupta, for example, who was an activist in the Bengal Worker's and Peasant's Party in Calcutta c. 1924–25 and was central to the attempt to suffuse Marxism among the workers and intellectuals in Bengal ( Gordon , op. cit. (ref. 52), 255–6; Abrol , “‘Colonized minds’”, op. cit. (ref. 21); and Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 25.

Quotes from Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 54–59. Anderson Robert S. , citing early colleagues of Saha's, rationalized his later political life as probably “formed by the poverty of his youth”, adding that “his contempt for jaded democracies and admiration for the strict measures of Soviet transformation did not leave him [during] the moderate affluence of his later years” ( Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 65). I am indebted to Robert Anderson for discussions on this aspect of Saha's life.

Abrol , “‘Colonized minds’” (ref. 21), 16–17.

Saha's concerns for educational reform are reflected in the observations of various commentators. See, for instance, Shils , op. cit. (ref. 23), 345–72, espec. p. 347. See ibid., 359–60 on Nehru's decision to concentrate research at national laboratories.

G. Venkataraman notes, speaking of Bhabha (a Parsi), Raman (a Madrassi) and Saha (a Bengali), that each was shaped by his distinct culture, each had professional lives that overlapped and, “Given their distinctive personalities, there were sharp differences and at times even conflicts, all of which were to have an impact on the growth of physics in India” ( Venkataraman , op. cit. (ref. 10), 7). A similar commentary can be found in Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9).

Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 98–99.

Dinesh Abrol has argued this point (“‘Colonized minds’” (ref. 21), 4).

For instance, he was an outspoken opponent of the structure proposed for an Indian Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, which depended heavily on foreign expertise and technology ( Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 49–50, 64).

Quoted from Science and culture, issue of July 1947, by Sarton George , “Freedom and science in India”, His, xxxviii (1948), 243–4, p. 244. Sarton celebrated Indian independence, but highlighted Saha's concerns by pointing out that among the small percentage of Indians who were literate, fewer still could comprehend the “rational and scientific message” of Science and culture. Echoing Saha's views, Sarton added that “for the sake of India's freedom, we hope that the Hindu audience of Science and Culture will increase considerably”.

As V. Shiva and J. Bandyopadhyay assert, most problem choices among contemporary Indian scientists came from reading western literature, which was a factor in the community's divisiveness and weakness ( Shiva and Bandyopadhyay , op. cit. (ref. 11), 575–94).

Formal education in the West was rare for Indians of Saha's generation, and was confined to the élite. During the 1930s Saha typically sent his better students abroad for advanced training. After Independence the number and variety of Indians trained in the West rose rapidly. The influence of this trend is examined in Singh , op. cit. (ref. 9), 43–53.

Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 33.

Saha to Saha , 12 September 1927 (SP/NML). Kichlu was later professor of physics at Delhi University and eventually a leader in Indian science in his own right.

Ibid.

See, for instance, “Paris May 31 1927” entry in “Saha Diary 1927 “(S. no. 1; also 2 June entry, on p. 14 (SP/NML)).

Ibid., entries for 5–8 June. The quoted prices were £288 for the spectrograph and £25 for a vacuum arc source. By this time Saha knew he had been elected to the Royal Society, and had secured assurances of funding.

Ibid., entries for 9, 10, 15 June. The dramatization was probably of Lew Wallace's 1880 romantic epic, Ben Hur.

Ibid., 60. Saha's perception of the “English university system” was based upon his narrowly focused inspections of research facilities and the extent to which students were trained in them. The Indian system he was rebelling against is described in Karve , op. cit. (ref. 23); and to some extent in Shils , op. cit. (ref. 23).

Ibid., 24 June entry.

On Hund's rule, see QM III (ref. 13).

Op. cit. (ref. 89), 64–65.

Ibid., 64–65.

Ibid., 89–90.

Ibid., 90.

Ornstein employed four mechanics, one electrician, one glassblower, four sweepers and cleaners, and two general assistants for an academic staff of four, which included Kramers H. Moll , and Burger (ibid., 90).

As he reported to Kichlu in late August, “it was better to get cured of a disease which would have otherwise hung on to me through life”. The nature of the disease has not been determined. Saha to Kichlu, 22 August 1927 (SP/NML).

Although S. N. Sen outlines Saha's itinerary, he does not elaborate on the interests Saha gained in nuclear physics as a result of the tour, although he touches upon Lawrence's influence and aid. See Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 64.

DeVorkin D. H. , “The Harvard summer school in astronomy”, Physics today, July 1984, 48–55.

Shapley to Frank Schlesinger, 26 December 1935 (Harlow Shapley Director's Correspondence, Harvard University Archives (HSDC/HUA)).

Shapley to Saha, 22 May 1936; [ill.] to Saha, 27 May 1935 (SP/NML). Sen's account of this trip, Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 54–55, differs somewhat from Saha's diaries. He notes that Saha's eldest son Ajit, then 13 years old, accompanied his father, and does not mention his wife's presence, although the diaries, and correspondence with Milne, explicitly mention his wife. Sen's account also states that Saha attended the Copenhagen Conference on his return to Europe, which also differs from the diary and from accounts in Shapley's correspondence dealing with plans for the summer school.

Saha's itinerary is taken from “Pocket Diary 1936 (1)” (S. no. 4 (SP/NML)).

Milne simply wanted everything to go right with Saha, explaining that Lindemann's laboratory was presently quite full, but admitting as well that Lindemann “appears to me to be not very well disposed to Indians” (E. A. Milne to Saha, 7 September 1935 (SP/NML)). In his biography of Jeans, noted above, Milne did not fail to credit Lindemann along with Saha for originating the ionization theory.

Op. cit. (ref. 105), entry for 15 April 1936.

Fresh from visiting Erich Regener's laboratory in Stuttgart, Saha was particularly interested in the ultraviolet spectrum of the Sun and its role in controlling the ionosphere, and in the very practical problem of gaining a full picture of the character of the high atmosphere. He viewed allied areas such as solar physics, ionospheric physics, atmospheric physics, as well as such focused studies as the vertical distribution of ozone, as interrelated and requiring global treatment on the theoretical, experimental and observational fronts. See rhetoric in Saha Meghnad , “The upper atmosphere”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India, i (1935), 217ff, in his Collected scientific papers (ref. 15), Paper 58, 215. The problem, as he saw it, was finding what part of the solar spectrum had sufficient energy to cause the Earth's ionosphere to change, which in turn caused such phenomena as radio fadeouts. Since 1935, Saha had also argued for synoptic studies of the atmosphere believing, with Mitra, that any one part of the atmospheric system could not be understood in isolation from the others. Direct and indirect methods of study of the high atmosphere had to work together; auroral studies, radio reconnaissance of the ionized reflecting layers in the atmosphere, spectroscopic studies of meteor trails, magnetic records, all had to be combined with in situ measurements of composition, wind patterns, sound propagation, and spectroscopic measurements of the as-yet-unattainable heights of the atmosphere beyond the mountaintops.

Saha Meghnad , “A stratosphere solar observatory”, Harvard College Observatory bulletin , no. 905 (1937), 1–7, reprinted in Collected scientific papers (ref. 15), Paper 64, 240–3, p. 241. Saha pointed out that the recent work of Götz, Meetham and Dobson, as well as that of the Regeners, held promise that a stratospheric-level observatory might well reach beyond the obscuration zone, which he believed had a maximum concentration at only 25 km.

DeVorkin D.H. , Race to the stratosphere: Manned scientific ballooning in America (New York, 1989).

In 1947, Lyman Spitzer, then of Yale, ran across Saha's article and wrote to Leo Goldberg and Donald Menzel noting that it was a “good preliminary survey of laboratory evidence”. In reply, Goldberg noted that both he and Menzel had been well aware of Saha's arguments since “there was much discussion of his ideas” during his visit to Harvard. Spitzer to Menzel, 27 January 1947; Goldberg to Spitzer, 29 January 1947 (Leo Goldberg Papers, copies in Lyman Spitzer Papers; see also Leo Goldberg Oral History, 22 February 1983, 7–10 (SAOHP/NASM)). Dorrit Hoffleit has noted that Saha's predictions of what would be seen were essentially correct ( Hoffleit , “Rockets in exploration and science”, Popular astronomy, lvii (1949), 2–9). See also Goldberg Leo , “Solar physics”, in Hanle Paul and Von Del Chamberlain (eds), Space science comes of age (Washington, D.C., 1981), 15–16; and DeVorkin D. H. , Science with a vengeance: How the military created the U.S. space sciences after World War II (New York, 1992), 12–15.

Emberson Richard , AIP questionnaire, 1979 (American Institute of Physics).

On Tuve's laboratory and the style of science Saha might have found there, see Dennis Aaron Michael , “A change of state: The political cultures of technical practice at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 1930–1945”, Johns Hopkins Ph.D. dissertation, 1990 (microfilm, Ann Arbor, 1991), chap. 2.

On the character of the Radiation Laboratory during the period Saha visited, see Seidel Robert , “The origins of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory”, in Galison Peter and Hevly Bruce (eds), Big science: The growth of large-scale research (Stanford, 1992), chap. 1.

Op. cit. (ref. 105).

Dennis , op. cit. (ref. 113), 219–21.

Struve to Saha, 4 June 1936 (SP/NML). Saha made contacts with representatives of the electric lighting industry, as well as agricultural, machine tool and optical manufacturers. He visited the Fecker Company in Pittsburgh, the Aluminum Company of America, the Taylor Instrument Co., Eastman Kodak, and General Electric of Schenectady.

Boyce J. C. was especially impressed with Saha's study of the ‘dawn flash’ in 1937, which yielded new evidence about the extent of the ozone layer. Boyce J. C. , “Spectroscopy in the vacuum ultraviolet”, Reviews of modern physics, xiii (1941), 1–57, p. 29.

Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 64–65.

Ibid., 65. The Government of India Act of 1935 placed new responsibilities on the Congress, including national reconstruction. A conference of ministers met in 1937 and called for the Committee, which was installed by the Congress president, Subhash Chandra Bose. See Sinha Jagdish N. , “Science and the Indian National Congress”, in Kumar (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 10), 169–70.

Saha effectively lobbied the Tata and Birla industrial families for funding. See Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 43.

Ibid., 43–44; Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 66.

Nehru was arrested many times ( Sinha , op. cit. (ref. 120), 169).

Hill A. V. , a distinguished Nobel Laureate physiologist, physicist, and biologist, was a member of the War Cabinet Advisory Committee and independent Conservative Member of Parliament during the war. His report, Scientific research in India, stimulated the reciprocal tour.

Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 44.

Saha to Dulal, 21 December 1944 (SP/SINP).

Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 45. The actual nature of the FBI's investigation is reserved for future study, pending the outcome of a Freedom of Information request from the author in 1993.

Saha (in London, about to fly home) to D. S. Kothari, 2 August 1946 (SP/SINP; SP/NML).

Sources of coronal heating have been debated for years. The preference for a time was an acoustical mechanism, but more recently arguments favour magnetic heating. See Noyes Robert W. , The Sun, our star (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), 159–63. Saha's original expression of his theory is in Saha M. N. , “On a physical theory of the solar corona”, Proceedings of the National Institute of Sciences, India, viii (1942), 8, with a shorter notice that year in Nature. Reactions are noted in: Saha to Marcel Minnaert, 19 October 1955 (SP/NML); Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 46–48; Russell to Saha, 20 November 1934 (HNR/PUL); “Astrophysical research in India”, The observatory, lxvi (1945), 13ff. Milne E. A. , in his address delivering the RAS Gold Medal to Bengt Edlén, noted that Saha, and no doubt many others, “spent considerable time in ransacking the available literature for forbidden lines of elements which may coincide with some of the coronal lines, but without success”. Saha did not look beyond double and a few triply ionized elements because beyond that he felt the laws of physics would have to be violated: “… it was considered improbable that more highly ionized atoms can, without violating ordinary laws of physics, occur in the corona.” Certainly this was the commonly held view, as Pol Swings also concluded in 1939. See Milne's address before the RAS, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , cv (1945), 138ff. On Edlén, see Hufbauer Karl , “Breakthrough on the periphery: Edlén Bengt and the identification of the coronal lines, 1939–1945”, in Lindqvist Svante (ed.), Center on the periphery (Canton, Mass., 1993). Although younger astrophysicists like Donald Menzel quickly objected to Saha's theory, others were more deferential. After Saha presented his theory at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in Washington in December 1944, the DTM director John Fleming sent Russell a copy since Saha was due to visit Princeton. Although Russell reported to Princeton Dean Luther Eisenhart in January 1945 that “Saha is a man of real distinction and should be an honored guest”, he was silent about the nature of his theory. Two years later, however, Russell told Shapley that Saha's “recent contributions to theory do not seem to me to be at all of the same importance as the old”. Russell to J. A. Fleming, 2 January 1945; to Eisenhart, 18 January 1945; to Shapley, 13 February 1947 (HNR/PUL).

Sen , op. cit. (ref. 7), 69; Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 46–48.

Bhabha eventually had more luck obtaining fissionable materials, and a small research reactor, from Canadian sources as part of a larger program to train Indian physicists in Canadian laboratories. He wanted the balloons for cosmic-ray research. Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 101.

Saha to Plaskett, 21 December 1946 (SP/SINP; SP/NML).

Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 100.

Saha to Saha , 4 August 1954 (SP/SINP).

Saha to Saha , 23 April 1952 (SP/SINP).

In late 1956, Saha feared that Pakistan would soon obtain a nuclear reactor from the United States, and proposed to Nehru that he be allowed to approach the Soviet Union for similar aid. Draft letter, Saha to [Nehru], n.d. (c. September 1956); see also clipped note to draft letter, Saha to “Dear Prime Minister”, 11 November 1956 (Record numbers 447–8, SP/SINP).

Bhabha indeed acted on his words, importing the cosmic-ray physicist Bernard Peters from Rochester to help guide his programs in Bombay. See Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 36–37.

Saha to Bhabha, 4 February 1947 (SP/SINP). Donald William Kerst built the first betatron.

Saha to Bhabha, ibid. This letter was in reply to Bhabha's plan to invite people like the cosmic-ray physicists Peters to Bombay to lead his experimental group. Robert Anderson has observed that Saha and Bhabha shared this common goal, but differed in how to achieve it. See Anderson , op. cit. (ref. 9), 3.

Kakar Sudhir , The inner world (Delhi, 1978), 86.

Conflict was no stranger in western scientific circles, but the community was large enough and well-funded enough to allow factions to coexist. See comments on the roles of competition and conflict in rival research schools in Servos , op. cit. (ref. 28), 11. The degree to which the groups developed around Saha, Bhabha and Raman constituted research schools in the western sense warrants attention, since it might provide insight into the question of how completely western science can be exported into a non-western culture.