Jagadish Chandra Bose was born on November 30, 1858, and was a biologist, botanist, physicist and early writer. He was a prominent figure in India who contributed his life to science and India.
His Early Life
JC Bose was born in a Bengali Kayastha family in Bengal Presidency. His mother was Bama Sundari Bose, and his father was Bhagwan Chandra Bose. His father was a civil servant with the title of Deputy Magistrate and Assistant Commissioner of Police in several places, and he was also a member of Brahmo Samaj.
His father sent him to a Bengali Language school earlier before sending him to an English Medium school. His father wanted him to learn and connect with his native language. His earlier joined the Hare School in 1869 and then St. Xavier’s School, both in Kolkata. After passing the entrance examination in 1875, he joined the University of Calcutta.
Bose wanted to follow his father’s path and serve as a civil servant, but his father asked him not to do so, rather become a scholar who would be ‘ruled by himself. So, to study medicine, he went to the University of London, England, which he later quit because of allergies and health issues. Later, with his brother-in-law’s recommendation, Ananda Mohan Bose, he joined Christ’s College at Cambridge to study natural sciences.
His interest towards natural science
Bose was sent to a vernacular school, where children of every religion and status studied. He sat between the son of a Muslim attendant of his father and the son of a fisherman. He used to spend most of the time with them, listening to their stories of aquatic animals, birds, plants, etc, which connected him to nature. Although his mother was orthodox, she never treated Bose’s friends differently from him. She welcomed them to her home and fed them equally like her child. This time of his life pushed him closer to the natural environment, and he developed a keen interest in working with nature and doing investigations. He never developed any feelings about castes or untouchables because of the time he spent with his childhood friends.
His Professional life
After earning a Degree from the University of Cambridge, Bose returned to India, where he got appointed as an officiating professor of physics at Presidency College. Earlier, he got a temporary post at the University, but later, his appointment was made permanent due to his popularity among students because he demonstrated experiments and unique teaching styles. His work was valued by the principal, Tawney and director Croft of the University.
Bose’s contribution to Science and India
• In 1899, at the Royal Society, London, Bose announced his development of an “iron-mercury-iron coheres with telephone detector”.
• He invented several microwave components and was the first person to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio waves.
• He developed the torsional recorder while researching plants.
• Bose wrote Niruddesher Kahani, one of the first works of Bengali fiction and established the Bose Institute in Kolkata.
