The golden age of Calcutta physics: Difficulties in reconstructing the history

TL;DR

This paper explores the brief yet impactful period of Calcutta physics in the early 20th century, highlighting the challenges in reconstructing its history due to political upheavals and disrupted academic progress.

Contribution

It analyzes the historical context and difficulties in documenting the rise and fall of Calcutta's physics school during its golden age.

Findings

Calcutta physics produced three groundbreaking discoveries in the 1920s.

Political upheaval disrupted the development of Indian physics.

Reconstructing this history is challenging due to limited records and turbulent times.

Abstract

Classes started in the newly established Physics Department of Calcutta University Science College in 1916. Raman, Bose and Saha were three young members of the small physics faculty consisting of barely half a dozen faculty members. Within about one decade, three extraordinary discoveries came from these young men---Saha ionization equation in 1920, Bose statistics in 1924, Raman effect in 1928. However, fortunes of Calcutta University quickly got intertwined with India's freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi exactly at the same time and the physics group got tragically disrupted. Indian physics never succeeded in reaching that height again. This paper discusses the difficulties in reconstructing a critical history of this Calcutta school of physics during the very short epoch of unmatched brilliance.