Courtesy : School of Science University
The University College of Science, Technology and Agriculture (commonly or formerly known as Rashbehari Siksha Prangan & Taraknath Palit Siksha Prangan or Rajabazar Science College & Ballygunge Science College) are two of five main campuses of the University of Calcutta (CU). The college served as the cradle of Indian Sciences by winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 and many fellowships of the Royal Society London. # ISO certification in India
History
C.U. alumni : Seated (L to R): Meghnad Saha, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Jnan Chandra Ghosh. Standing (L to R): Snehamoy Dutt, Satyendranath Bose, Debendra Mohan Bose, NR Sen, Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee, N C Nag
The Calcutta University by Francis Frith
Despite the fact that the Presidency College at Calcutta witnessed great scientific research by Jagadish Chandra Bose and Prafulla Chandra Ray in the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century, first organised scientific research at Calcutta University began with the establishment of its University College of Science and Technology in March 1914. A galaxy of Indian scientists joined the Chairs set up with the income of the endowments of nearly thirty seven and half lakhs rupees donated by Sir Taraknath Palit and Sir Rashbehari Ghosh who were associated with the National Education Movement in Bengal since the Indian Universities Act of 1904-5 and the partition of Bengal in 1905.# ISO certification in India
The first group of faculties included Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, Ganesh Prasad, Sisir Kumar Mitra and the legendary 1915 M.Sc. batch comprising Satyendranath Bose, Meghnad Saha, Jnan Chandra Ghosh, Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee among others. The holders of the Chairs often worked under great financial constraints and with whatever apparatus was locally available in Calcutta. Yet their scientific research was soon to put Calcutta University on the map of World Recognition. The science that developed at Calcutta University in colonial India was not a colonial science, as it was hardly supported by any large scale imperial funds and was solely meant for “The promotion and diffusion of scientific and technical education for the cultivation and advancement of science, both pure and applied among Indians”.
Science in Calcutta University before 1914
One reason why Calcutta University could not develop a research programme in science earlier than 1914 was partly because of a great handicap inherent in its constitution and partly because of the paucity of funds needed for the development of such an institute at the post-graduation level. Till the end of 19th century Calcutta University remained mainly an examination body fed by a number of affiliated colleges which actually did teaching and which were dispersed from Shimla and Mussorie to Indore and Jaipur, and from Jaffna and Batticaloa to Sylhet and Chittagong. In these colleges there was hardly any provision for teaching of science courses with the exception of three colleges each in Civil Engineering and Medicine, all the 85 colleges in British India by 1882 were teaching courses in liberal arts leading to matriculation, F.A., B.A., Honours and M.A. Career in India was never virtually open to talents, through the principle had been asserted time and again in the Charter Act of 1883 and the Queen’s Proclamation of 1858 after the Mutiny to allay fear, suspecion and distrust. In those days agriculture, manufacturing and commerce offered little to no incentives and was almost impossible to initiate without proper skills, capital and equality of terms with which it could compete with the European industry. Such discontenment among the educated unemployed gave rise to militant nationalism threatening the existence of very British Raj in India. Higher education in India was singled out as the root for all evils. So to curb this growing distress, Lord Curzon (then Viceroy of India) passed the Indian University Act in 1904 based on the recommendation of the Indian University Commission in 1902. While the various recommendations of the Commission to enable the Raj to control higher education in India were not strictly relevant here, some at least relating to the creation of new courses in science became important. The commission for the first time suggested the creation of the Faculty of Science and Technology in addition to the faculties of Arts, Law, Medicine and Civil Engineering previously offered by Calcutta University. Thus Bachelor of Science(B.Sc.) and Master of Science(M.Sc.) courses were introduced for first time in India. The commission also recommended the award of Doctor of Science(D.Sc.) degree which is to be given to a M.Sc. after some years spent in original investigations.# ISO certification in India
When Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee became the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University in 1906, seized the Indian University Act of 1904-5 and converted the university from an examination body to a teaching university which will not only start post graduate degrees in Humnanities, English, Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic, Persian, Mental & Moral Phyilosophy, History, Economics and Mathematics but also establish chairs in some of them with financial support from the government by 1912. But for seven years, Mookerjee struggled hard to establish postgraduate teaching and research in Science and Technology despite his best intentions. The paucity of funds and accommodations were deplorable which meant that even if there were men, there was no accommodation laboratories, workshops, museums, equipments etc. In Presidency College a small room measuring 35’6″ by 25’6″ was available to be used as a laboratory room, preparation room and as well as a practical room for biology and physiology classes, whereas a large number of B.A. students did not get the opportunity of having a regular course of practical training.# ISO certification in India
Establishment of the University College of Science and Technology
In these circumstances, Calcutta University was pleasantly surprised to receive the princely gifts of Sir Taraknath Palit, an eminent barrister and advocate of national education during the Anti-Partition movement(1905). In June and October 1912, he donated total assets of fourteen and a half lakh rupees which included his own dwelling house. His donations were made over to the university for the advancement of Science and Technology and were used to maintain the income of endowment of Physics and Chemistry Chair and also to institute scholarships to distinguished graduates of Calcutta University for higher studies. The university had to provide “from its own funds” suitable lecture rooms, libraries, museums, laboratories, workshops and other facilities for teaching and research. As the funds provided by the University was not fully adequate, Mookerjee approached the Government of India for financial support, which was rejected by Henry Sharp who was the joint secretary in department of education. The opposition of Sharp mainly emanated from his dislike of Calcutta University which he considered will become a non-political body with strong prejudice against the white men and the Europeans. He said, “To give this money to this place is to give money to the cause which will embarrass ourselves. The money will go to political ends rather than to truly educational ends.”# ISO certification in India
In August 1913, Sir Rashbehari Ghosh, an eminent jurist and scholar, in a letter to Asutosh Mookerjee placed in the hands of the University “a sum of ten lakh rupees” as per the conditions of his gift, there were to be established four chairs – one each for Applied Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Botany, with special reference to Agriculture, and eight studentships to be awarded to the distinguished graduates of this University “to carry on investigation” under the guidance of a professor. Both Palit and Ghosh wanted promotion and diffusion of scientific and technical education among their countrymen by indigenous agency and with the money now available through their endowments, Mookerjee could now launch his projected dream. Thus four days before the expiry of the fourth term of his Vice-Chancellorship, Mookerjee laid the founding stone of the University College of Science and Technology on 27 March 1914 hoping fervently that “although the College of Science and Technology is an integral part of the University of Calcutta, it will be regarded not as a provincial but as an all-India college of Science and Technology to which students will flock from every corner of the Indian Empire, attracted by the excellence of the instruction imparted and of the facilities provided for research.”# ISO certification in India
The influence of the teachings of Raja Rammohan Roy on the importance of education broadly based on science and technology impressed a group of newly graduated scientists S.N. Bose, Jnan Chandra Ghosh, M.N. Saha, N.R. Sen, P.C. Mahalanobis, S.K. Mitra and Jnanendranath Mukherjee. Sir Asutosh Mukherjee believed in young talents, selected promising young men and appointed them straightaway as lecturers in post graduate classes of newly formed Sc. College and provided them research facilities also. He was the first and perhaps the last to establish a centre of academic studies at the University stage with distinct atmosphere of learning and scholarships and appointed some of the best men available in the country as University Professor or Lecturers.# ISO certification in India
The establishment of the Calcutta University College of Science and Technology signals the beginning of outstanding research in some branches of science and applied science, which put India on the map of World Recognnition. A galaxy of Indian Scientists joined the departments set up with the income of edowments donated by Palit and Ghosh and began their work in Science with whatever apparatus available in India and soon made their mark in their chosen fields. Palit Chairs in Physics and Chemistry and Ghosh Chairs in Applied Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Botany were soon filled up after the formal establishment of the University College of Science and Technology in March 1914.# ISO certification in India