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Memoirs of Ruchi Ram Sahni Pioneer of Science Popularisation in Punjab

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Memoirs of Ruchi Ram Sahni Pioneer of Science Popularisation in Punjab Memoirs of Ruchi Ram Sahni Pioneer of Science Popularisation in Punjab Edited by Narender K. Sehgal Subodh Mahanti Recollections of an unsung hero PROFESSOR Ruchi Ram Sahni’s is not a name that people are likely to recognize—let alone an average Indian, not even someone from the Indian scientific community. Which is indeed a pity. For this unsung hero of Indian science from the pre-Independence era should have been accorded as prominent a place in the annals as the likes of P. C. Ray. J. C. Bose (RRS’s contemporaries), S N. Bose, M.N. Saha and C.V Raman. The late 19th century and the early 20th century truly constituted a period of Indian “renaissance” — in arts, literature, and science to which RRS belonged. It as a period of cultural and intellectual ferment which threw up remarkable men and women who dedicated themselves to building a progressive and self-reliant independent India However, the unfortunate fact of history is that while the circumstances and the manner of evolution of post- independent India made some better known and remembered, others like RRS were forgotten ... RRS was a chemist by training but his historic contribution is not in the field of research and discovery—and may be that is why he is not as well-known as the others of his time—but in popularising science among the common people. In that respect his contributions were unique. Though the sub-title of the book refers to him as the pioneer of science popularisation in Punjab, his were pioneering efforts in the entire country.-And it may not be an exaggeration to say that they remain unique to this day considering that the post-independence Indian scientific community has, by and large, accorded little importance to communicating science to the public... Like RRS in Punjab, one can be certain that there must have been others in other parts of the country who must have contributed to the cause of popularising science. By spreading the awareness about RRS, these Memoirs should also serve the important purpose of spurring researchers to unearth information and material about other unsung heroes of Indian science. R. Ramachandran The Economic Times, India Published by Vigyan Prasar , India Preface “Here is something, I am sure, you would be delighted to go through,” Nandan Kudhyadi had said while handing over to me 32 photocopied (foolscape-sized) pages of a typescript of what was presumably the autobiography of Birbal Sahni’s father. Nandan, a film-maker, was at the time (September 1990) doing pre-production research for a video programme for NCSTC (the National Council for Science and Technology Communication, Government of India) on the life and work of Prof. Birbal Sahni—the founding father of Palaeobotany in India, whose birth centenary was to be celebrated the following year. We could not discuss the matter as he was in a hurry and on his way back to Bombay. I read the title “Punjab Science Institute”, flipped through the pages and kept them in my briefcase, for possible reading on way to office, some day. Who could have known then that those pages were going to lead to the rediscovery of a really great man Ruchi Ram Sahni (RRS), about whom nobody had hitherto written anything? , Several days later, when I did start reading those pages on way to office, I found the content so absorbing that I could put away those pages only after I had finished reading all of them! I then called Nandan in Bombay, told him how I felt about Ruchi Ram Sahni’s science popularisation work (dating back to the last 15 years of the nineteenth century) and requested him to get hold of the whole autobiography of Ruchi Ram Sahni for me to read. In the meantime I wrote a two-part article on RRS in the NCSTC Newsletter, NCSTC Communications on his science popularisation work in the Punjabi language and on his Punjab Science Institute workshop in which he had begun by repairing and building simple scientific instruments and laboratory apparatus. The articles were picked up by some individuals in Punjab, translated into Punjabi and circulated widely; a Hindi daily, Janasatta, published from Chandigarh also ran the 2-part article in its Sunday supplement We would perhaps never find out why some great men remain unsung forever. Even after they are discovered, their name and fame never travel far and wide. Ruchi Ram Sahni was one individual who, from all accounts of his life and work, deserved to be known as a great man worthy of being talked and written about all over the country. His tireless and dedicated efforts, in difficult and none-too-helpful times under the British raj, could have been a source of inspiration for generations of science teachers, science popularisers and votaries of self-reliance in India. Yet he remained unheard of till discovered a few years ago, purely accidentally. Since then, he has been written about in a few newspapers and magazines. A trust bearing his name has been established in Punjab and two annual science popularisation awards have been instituted by this trust and already given away once (at the time of writing). This book is an attempt at bringing to public view more and more information and facts of Ruchi Ram Sahni’s life and scientific work—as revealed by the man himself. It provides a fairly good picture of his basic character, personality, outlook and philosophy of life and of how closely his deeds matched his words. Not only that, the present account also provides clues to researchers to look for further details, launch investigations and track down his links with other individuals—some well-known and others not so well-known, In fact, besides making more and more people aware about Ruchi Ram Sahni, an equally important purpose of the book is to inspire and motivate other researchers to (i) help unearth more material and information about RRS from places in the country (or abroad) wherever he had been or worked, and (ii) help discover similar great men from the pre-independence era, from other parts of the country, whose scientific work may be lying hidden, buried or abandoned somewhere like Ruchi Ram Sahni’s was. We would be grateful for any information, clues, materials and/or details from our readers, concerning any aspects of the scientific work of RRS- especially, if it is not mentioned in this book. New Delhi November 01, 1994 Narender K. Sehgal Acknowledgements Working on this book on Ruchi Ram Sahni (RRS) has been a pleasure! The anticipation of a big and enthusiastic response to this book has added to this pleasure. For this we must first of all thank Shri Nandan Kudhyadi a young Bombay film-maker—for coming up with a copy of an important section of Ruchi Ram Sahni’s typed autobiography; never mind the few missing pages! The Punjab State Council of Science and Technology (Chandigarh) helped us in getting a photocopy of the full autobiography, for which we are grateful. We received excellent co-operation and assistance from almost all descendants and relations of RRS- in particular, Professors Ashok Sahni (Chandigarh) and K. C. Sahni (Dehra Dun) in preparing the introductory chapter of the book A number of individuals also responded to the Letter to the editor by one of us (NKS) in a large number of newspapers around the country with an appeal to the readers to write back with any clues or information on Ruchi Ram Sahni’s scientific work, or on any other individual who may have similarly worked in the nineteenth or the pre- independence twentieth century in another part of the country. All those who responded deserve our thanks. We would also like to express our gratitude to Shri Man Mohan Sharma (Chandigarh) who, on his own, took the initiative to spread awareness about Ruchi Ram Sahni in Punjab by arranging to translate the 2-part original article of NKS (which first appeared in NCSTC Communications , New Delhi) and circulating it widely among interested agencies and individuals in Punjab. Later he founded and set up the Ruchi Ram Sahni Memorial Trust to propagate the work, the memory and the ideals of RRS in the country, especially in Punjab. Editors’ Note to the Second Edition We are glad to note that our efforts in taking the message of Ruchi Ram’s life and work far and wide have found encouraging response from many a different quarter. The first edition of the ‘Memoirs of Ruchi Ram Sahni’ has been extensively reviewed in newspapers and magazines in different languages. More rewarding were the informal reviews. Everyone who had had a chance to read the book was not only fascinated by the multifaceted personality of Ruchi Ram and his pioneering contribution to making science popular in the undivided Punjab of pre-independence India but also amazed as to how such a person remained in anonymity for so long. Some people have tried to assert out to us that Ruchi Ram was not the first in popularising science in Punjab, or in Punjabi; and that individuals like Munshi Zakaullah and Master Ramchandra had made serious efforts to popularise science in Punjabi much before Ruchi Ram Sahni. We beg to disagree. We contend that there is no parallel to what Ruchi Ram did — either in terms of his innovative ways, or in terms of the scale on which he tried to take science to the common people. That is why we use the term ‘Pioneer’ in Ruchi Ram’s case—and not to belittle contributions of others, hi most other cases, pointed out to us, the work concerned related to science writing in Punjabi, rather than popularisation of science on any significant scale.
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