By the early twentieth century, the Indian society had started
witnessing the first stirrings for freedom from colonial rule. While their
political aspirations led to a demand for self-rule, the frustration resulting
from economic stranglehold found expression in their insistence on using only
goods made in India. Swadeshi Movement provided further impetus for :
promotion of education along national lines and under national
control with special reference to science and technology, industrialization of
the country. In 1904, an Association for the Advancement of Scientific and
Industrial Education of Indians was formed. The objed was to send qualified
students to Europe, America and Japan for
studying science-based industries.
As mentioned earlier, in colonial India the environment was not
conducive to higher studies, much less to research. Indians were allowed only.
subordinate posts and even those who had distinguished themselves abroad were
given less salary than the Europeans of the same grade and rank. This
'apartheid' in science made the Indians react strongly. J.C. Bose, the first
noted Indian physicist, refused to accept this reduced salary for three years.
Not only this, till the Royal Society recognized Bose, the college authorities
refused him any research facility and considered his work as purely private.
J.C. Bose was unorthodox in one more sense. He was one of the first among the
modem scientists to take to interdisciplinary research. He started as a
physicist but his interest in electrical responses took him to plant
physiology." Whether it be education, agriculture or mining, the Congress
touched several problems under its wide sweep.
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