34 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



grounds though that be, and at an age when even the 

 sharpest wounds of battle have healed. But the writer is 

 interested in his subject on more than personal grounds, 

 and has so undertaken it ; in fact, at every point on 

 genera] grounds also, and equally as regards Bose's con- 

 structive work in science, his attitude in education, anJ 

 his linking of Eastern with Western thought and culture. 

 For these reasons, and in this spirit, old difficulties, other- 

 wise too controversial and personal, have here to be noted 

 and frankly discussed. 



To understand not only the immediate situation, but 

 much that follows, the writer may explain that he writes 

 peculiarly on his own responsibility, as a lifelong student 

 of Universities, and with more than five years' acquaint- 

 ance with Indian ones. To begin with, the non-Indian 

 reader must understand that while the Indian Civil Service 

 is open to any Indian who can win his place by examina- 

 tion in it, and who thereafter is on the same scale of 

 status and pay as his English colleagues, the Higher 

 Education Service is accessible only by nomination ; and 

 these posts, with extraordinarily rare exceptions, had not 

 been given to Indians, even of the highest European 

 qualifications. In general, the Indian professors, though 

 of the very same duties and responsibilities, formed the 

 ' Provincial Service/ with much lower pay. Promotion 

 from this service to the higher branch is nominally possible 

 to all distinguished members of the Provincial Service, but 

 it is practically extremely rare. So much has this been 

 the case that even the chemist who is now at the head of 

 his subject in India, as Bose in physics although coming 

 back to India with his Doctorate in Chemistry, won with 

 high distinction, showing the promise he has since amply 

 fulfilled, and appointed to the Presidency College was 

 never promoted to the full position. Yet for many 

 years he did the teaching and examining work without 

 European colleagues, and has besides won European 

 reputation by his discoveries. In the writer's opinion, it is 



