Respected dignitaries on dais, other distinguished members off stage , teachers and my dear friends

Today  I am going to talk about a legend who is regarded as one of the architects of modern Indian science , Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose.

Jagadish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh which is now part of Bangladesh. His father Bhagabanchandra Bose was a Deputy Magistrate. Bose received early education in a village vernacular school. He was sent to Kolkata at the age of 11 to learn English and was educated at St Xavier’s School and College.  He was a brilliant student. He passed BA in Physical Sciences in 1879.In 1880, Bose went to England. He studied medicine at London University for a year but gave it up because of his own ill health. Within a year, he moved to Cambridge to take up a scholarship to study Natural Science at Christ’s College, Cambridge. In 1885, he returned from abroad with a BSc degree and Natural Science Tripos .

After his return, he got a lecturer’s job at Presidency College, Kolkata with a salary half that of his English colleagues. He accepted the job but refused to draw his salary in protest. After three years the college ultimately conceded his demand and Jagadish Chandra Bose was paid full salary from the date he joined the college. As a teacher, Jagadish Chandra Bose was very popular and engaged the interest of his students by making extensive use of scientific demonstrations. Many of his students at the Presidency College later became famous in their own right and these included Satyendra Nath Bose and Meghnad Saha.In 1894, Jagadish Chandra Bose decided to devote himself to pure research. He converted a small enclosure adjoining a bathroom in the Presidency College into a laboratory. He carried out experiments involving refraction, diffraction and polarization. It would not be wrong to call him as the inventor of wireless telegraphy. In 1895, a year before Guglielmo Marconi patented this invention; he had demonstrated its functioning in public.Jagadish Chandra Bose later switched from physics to the study of metals and then plants. He was the first to prove that plants too have feelings. He invented an instrument to record the pulse of plants.

Although Jagadish Chandra Bose did invaluable work in Science, his work was recognized in the country only when the Western world recognized its importance. He founded the Bose Institute at Calcutta, devoted mainly to the study of plants. Today, the Institute carries research on other fields too.Jagadish Chandra Bose died on November

Let me conclude my speech by paying tribute to this true legend who believed that the inventions are discoveries are not to be used for wealth creation but should be for the benefit of people

Thank you

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