Saturday, May 3, 2014

Jagadish Chandra Bose - Indian Radio Scientist (among many other things)

Jagadis Chandra Bose Title of Amar Chitra Katha
Jagadis Chandra Bose Title of Amar Chitra Katha


Jagadis Chandra Bose Title available at Amar Chitra Katha.com

This is my response to "Skeptical Indian" India-bashing book : http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/vMTwDWHijnbz409e5VKorJ/Fact-Check--Naughty-noughty-history.html

Some relevant links on Jagadish Chandra Bose. This post is the result of a discussion on FB on pros/cons of the book dismissal of J.C.Bose "invention of radio". Posting this here for other people who may like a counter-view to authors view.

It took me about 20 minutes to do a search on the web to get ALL these links.
I wonder why the author couldn't do a similar search?

This is for the curious as well as skeptical readers :

Excerpt from article by D.T. Emerson at National Radio and Astronomical Observatory Tucson, Arizona : https://www.cv.nrao.edu/~demerson/bose/bose.html

"In 1895 Bose gave his first public demonstration of electromagnetic waves, using them to ring a bell remotely and to explode some gunpowder. In 1896 the Daily Chronicle of England reported: "The inventor (J.C. Bose) has transmitted signals to a distance of nearly a mile and herein lies the first and obvious and exceedingly valuable application of this new theoretical marvel." Popov in Russia was doing similar experiments, but had written in December 1895 that he was still entertaining the hope of remote signalling with radio waves. The first successful wireless signalling experiment by Marconi on Salisbury Plain in England was not until May 1897. The 1895 public demonstration by Bose in Calcutta predates all these experiments. Invited by Lord Rayleigh, in 1897 Bose reported on his microwave (millimeter-wave) experiments to the Royal Institution and other societies in England [8]."

Seems like Americans don't have a problem with giving due credit, but Xeroxed Americans like the author DO have a problem.

In fact the IEEE has confirmed the role of J.C. Bose in invention of radio/micro wave instrument BEFORE Marconi : http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose
"During the years 1894-1900, Bose performed pioneering research on radio waves and created millimeter waves as short as 5 mm. Bose’s work actually predates that of Guglielmo Marconi who is most often associated with the development of radio. Unlike Marconi who sought to commercialize his work with radio waves, Bose was purely interested in radio waves as a scientific endeavor. Bose also developed equipment for generating, transmitting, and receiving radio waves and used it to demonstrate conclusively the waves’ properties such as reflection, total reflection, refraction, double refraction, and polarization. Bose also experimented with galena to form an early type of semiconductor diode, which may be used as a detector of electromagnetic waves. "

IEEE Recognition of J.C. Bose work as a Milestone in history of Science : http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:First_Millimeter-wave_Communication_Experiments_by_J.C._Bose

IEEE - What Qualifies as a MileStone : http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Special:Milestones




a) Films Division documentary on Jagdish Chandra Bose life :
http://youtu.be/4ImqC7O0oCg?t=17m14s The "letter" shown here might the one that is referred to in the book perhaps. Most probably sitting in some museum or private collection somewhere.

Though not proof the Films Division documentary does show a letter in ink and maybe J.C's handwriting.

b) Role of J.C. Bose in Invention of Radio at wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_radio#J.C.Bose

c) Radio Research of J.C. Bose : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose#Radio_research

d) J.C. Bose info on wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose

e) Bose Institute's museum : http://bic.boseinst.ernet.in/museum.html

It's quite fashionable to appear educated by deriding one's own country perhaps.
seems like the author is trying to cash in on negative publicity after recent pulping of a so called book.

The excerpt seems quite unlike the tone of the book itself. It may be a way to get people curious to get more sales.

Citing British sources is the best way to invalidate anti India arguments. They were decidedly colonialistic in outlook.

While deriding others for "unsubstantiated claims" the author does exactly the same.

I wonder if CV Raman, Ramanujam etc also got famous after internet.
If you go searching for something you find it. Its called prejudice.

The title however is only half justified don't see much patriotism here.

For long I was similarly West oriented in most things, however the deep and profound pull of Indian thought was slowly but surely pulling me closer.

I'd urge every Indian to have some pride in their own country and come to know more about it. This is the least one can do before spreading doubtful "well known facts" about it.

For the past 15-20 years I'm constantly trying to learn more about my own country.The more I came into contact with Indian thought and actions I felt a widening gap between English training and Indian roots.

I could not reconcile the two until very recently came across a gem of a book by Rajiv Malhotra "Being Different - An Indian Challenge to Western  Universalism".

This is a video introduction for the book release : http://youtu.be/mlnrRykssrw?t=1m12s.
It also describes how the Chinese are holding their own culturally and ideologically speaking while progressing on Western scale of measurement.

Reading this book made me all too aware of the subtle underlying assumptions on which we base our first principles. And almost all of them are borrowed from the West's view of the World (and India)

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As Indians we can be proud of achievements.of Indians.
The below videos showcase a small part of their achievements :
0) Quantam Indians : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z9NUV_YrOo&

1) BBC documentary History of Indian Mathematics Part 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pElvQdcaGXE

2) What the Ancients Knew - India BBC documentary : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxgK0dX872k

3)What the Ancient Indians did for us Engineering : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI4gNKdBXSg