EARLY STRUGGLES 33 



Ilbert affair ! I never thought our English liberal tradition 

 could be thus abandoned ! ' 



On reaching Calcutta Bose called on the Director of Public 

 Instruction, who had already received, through the Govern- 

 ment of Bengal, a letter from Lord Ripon recommending 

 him to them for an appointment. The Director was none 

 too pleased, and blurted out, ' I am usually approached 

 from below, not from above. There is no higher-class ap- 

 pointment at present available in the Imperial Educational 

 Service. I can only offer you a place in the Provincial 

 Service, from which you may be promoted.' Bose declined 

 this offer. Noticing that Bose's appointment had not been 

 gazetted, the Viceroy wrote to the Government of Bengal 

 for an explanation of the delay. This pressure from above 

 highly irritated the Director. When Bose saw him in 

 answer to his letter, he told him that his hand had been 

 forced, and he would offer him an appointment in the 

 higher service, but that it would be only an officiating 

 appointment giving no claim for permanence. If Bose 

 satisfied the test of service, he would then consider the 

 question of making his appointment permanent. 



There was also a strong doubt, not to say prejudice, 

 against the capacity of an Indian to take any important 

 position in science. Intellectual acuteness in Metaphysics 

 and Languages had always been frankly acknowledged, but 

 it was assumed that India had no aptitude for the exact 

 methods of science. For science, therefore, India must 

 look to the West for her teachers. This view was accepted 

 by the Government, and so strongly maintained in the 

 Education Department that when Bose was appointed 

 Officiating Professor of Physics in the Presidency College, 

 its Principal protested against this appointment on the 

 above grounds. 



Thus opens a chapter of Bose's life in which the writer's 

 condition of personal freedom has most definitely decided 

 him to disregard the reticence of his sitter, who would 

 fain let bygones be bygones right and proper on personal 



