| Summary: | This study offers a micro-history of the development of quantum physics in India during the first
half of the twentieth century, prior to Indian independence. The investigation focuses on the
case studies of Indian physicists Satyendranath Bose (1894-1974), Chandrasekhara Venkata
Raman (1888-1970) and Meghnad Saha (1893-1956). The analytical category “bhadralok
physics” is introduced to explore how it became possible for a highly successful brand of modern
science to develop in a country that was still under the conditions of colonial domination. The
term Bhadralok refers to the then emerging group of native intelligentsia, who were identified by
academic pursuits and manners and effectively transcended the existing class and caste barriers
of the colonial society. Exploring the forms of life of this social group allows a better
understanding of the specific character of Indian modernity that, as exemplified by the work of
bhadralok physicists, combined modern science with indigenous knowledge into an original
program of scientific research. Unlike the most prominent Indian scientists of the preceding
generation, Bose, Saha and Raman received their academic education in India proper, rather than
Europe, and can be considered the “first indigenously trained generation” of modern scientists.
They achieved most significant scientific successes in the new revolutionary field of quantum
physics with such internationally recognized accomplishments as the Saha ionization equation
(1921), the famous Bose-Einstein statistics (1924), and the Raman Effect (1928), with the latter
discovery leading to the first ever Nobel Prize awarded to a scientist from Asia. The study
analyzes the responses by Indian scientists to the radical concept of the light quantum and their
further development of this approach outside the purview of European authorities. The outlook
of bhadralok physicists is characterized here as “cosmopolitan nationalism,” which allows to
analyze how the group pursued modern science in conjunction with, and as an instrument of
Indian national liberation, and explore the role played by modern science for and within the
Indian nationalist movement.
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