6 An appreciation of Anna Mani Anna Mani (by Abha Sur)

nna Mani grew up in a prosperous family in the state of Travancore, a former princely state in the Southern part A of India, now part of Kerala. Born in 1918, she was the seventh of eight siblings. Anna Mani’s father was a civil engineer with large cardamom estates to his name. The family belonged to the ancient Syrian Christian church; however her father remained an agnostic throughout his life. The Mani family was a typical upper-class professional household where from childhood the male children were groomed for high-level careers, whereas the daughters were primed for mar- riage. But Anna Mani would have none of it. Her formative years were spent engrossed in books. By the age of eight, she had read almost all the books in Malayalam at her public library and, by the time she was twelve, all the books in English. On her eighth birthday she declined to accept her family’s customary gift of a set of diamond earrings, opting instead for a set of Encyclopedia Britannica. The world of books opened her to new ideas and imbued in her a deep sense of social justice which informed and shaped her life. In 1925, at the height of the Vaikom Satyagraha where people of all castes and religions across Travancore protested the AN APPRECIATION OF ANNA MANI 21 In subsequent years, as the nationalist movement gained as the nationalist movement subsequent years, In had wanted to study medicine, but when that Anna Mani absorp- fluorescence, analyzed and recorded Anna Mani decision by the priests of a temple in the city of Vaikom to bar Vaikom city of in the of a temple priests by the decision Gandhi Mahatma to the temple, using the road adjacent dalits from move- to the civil disobedience lend his support to Vaikom came to and caste, one religion, the satyagraha, ‘one The motto of ment. the rallying cry men [sic]’ became one god for the progressives of be al- of their caste irrespective that all Hindus who demanded and The satyagraha, entrylowed the state. into the temples of and on young a deep impression visit, made especially Gandhi’s idealistic Anna. adopted complete Congress National Indian momentum and the drawn increasingly became goal, Anna Mani independence as its particular Although she did not join any to nationalist politics. symbol of her took to wearing only khadi as a she movement, also rein- sense of nationalism A strong nationalist sympathies. personal desired for a fiercely forced in her a willingness to fight studies instead When she insisted upon pursuing higher freedom. in in the footsteps of her sisters, who got married of following was neither active opposition nor encourage- their late teens, there her family. ment from of physics because she hap- was not possible she decided in favor in the hon- enrolled Mani pened to be good in the subject. Anna (now in Madras College ors program in physics at the Presidency ob- after finishing college, Anna Mani 1940, a year Chennai). In Insti- in physics at the Indian tained a scholarship to do research laboratory as a Raman’s C.V. tute of Science and was accepted in on worked Anna Mani laboratory, Raman’s graduate student. In this period rubies.the spectroscopy of diamonds and During laboratory was immersed in the study of diamonds be- Raman’s Born on crystal with Max ongoing controversies cause of Raman’s the dia- of on the structure dynamics and with Kathleen Lonsdale diamonds from India hundred of three had a collection mond. He on some aspect worked and Africa and practically all his students of diamonds. dependence tion, and Raman spectra including the temperature 22 LILAVATI’S DAUGHTERS the need for international instrument comparisonsandnational the needfor international instrument number ofpapersontopics rangingfrom atmosphericozoneto In acareerinstrumentation. ofalmost30years, shepublisheda AnnaMani ofradiation partment, wasinchargeofconstruction joined theIndian Meteorological atPune. Department At thede- at thattime. asitwastheonly scholarshipavailable toher cal instrumentation sue research inphysics,sheendedupspecializingmeteorologi- in Raman’s laboratory. Althoughherpreference hadbeentopur- life. insisted thatlackofaPh.D.degree madelittledifference inher however, bore nogrudgeagainstthismiscarriageofjusticeand Mani’s didnotresult dissertation inadegree for her. Anna Mani, able fromotherbounddissertations,withnoindicationthatAnna ofRamanResearchremains inthelibrary Institute, indistinguish- graduate degree. To thisdayhercompletedPh.D. dissertation studies attheIndian Institute ofScienceonthebasisherunder- ors inphysicsandchemistry, andhadwonascholarshipforgraduate They chosetooverlook that AnnaMani hadgraduatedwithhon- degree andtherefore shecouldnotpossiblybegranted a Ph.D. tute ofScience,claimedthatAnnaMani didnothave aM.Sc. time formallygranteddegrees forworkdoneattheIndian Insti- Madrasgree shesorightlydeserved. University, whichatthat England. and wasawarded agovernment scholarshipforaninternshipin toMadras1945 shesubmittedherPh.D. dissertation University authored In ontheluminescenceofdiamondsandrubies. August long hoursinthelaboratory, sometimesworkingthrough thenight. record onphotographicplates. thespectrum diamonds required fifteentotwentyhoursofexposure timeto liquid airtemperatures, andtheweak luminescenceofsomethe wereexperiments were longandpainstaking:thecrystals heldat and polarizationeffectsofover different diamonds. thirty The Anna Mani returned toindependentIndia in1948and She leftforEngland soonafterfinishingherresearch work However, AnnaMani wasnever accorded thePh.D.de- Between 1942and1945,shepublishedfive paperssingle- 1 AnnaMani spent AN APPRECIATION OF ANNA MANI 23 She published two books, The Handbook for Solar Ra- Solar for The Handbook books, published two She with en- in and involvement despite her interest However, had a veryAnna Mani matter-of-fact view of her life and is a success story to which is no surprise that Anna Mani’s It Manuscript of Anna Mani’s Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science at the Indian Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty Anna Mani’s of Manuscript Bangalore. deposited with the library Institute, of Science now Institute of Raman Research standardization of meteorological instrumentation, retiring as retiring instrumentation, of meteorological standardization Depart- Meteorological Indian General of the Director Deputy Research to the Raman subsequently returned She ment in 1976. years. for three professor as a visiting Institute India Radiation over and Solar (1980) for India diation Data for harnessing wind en- projects on several (1981), and worked Anna of Bangalore, in the industrial suburbs Later, ergy in India. instruments for started company that manufactured a small Mani that believed Anna Mani and solar energy. measuring wind speed de- required and solar energy in India of wind the development re- and wind patterns in different of solar fluxes tailed knowledge produced and it was her hope that the instruments gions of India, in her factory this informa- would have wide utility in procuring tion. never saw herself as an environ- Anna Mani issues, vironmental as she called them) who seemed to be baggers” mentalist (“carpet to stay in one place. preferred in orbit.” She “always saw nothing unusual in her pursuing physics in She achievements. it was possible to count all women physicists in India an era where discrimi- made light of the difficulties and fingertips. She on one’s as a woman scientist and was disdainful of nation she encountered gender identities which coercive actively resisted victim politics. She intellectual as posited different potential as well limited women’s capabilities in men and women. the limited transcended She few women (or men) could aspire. a room of her to her and not only created cultural spaces available a mini but a whole workshop, and a laboratoryown, of her own factoryof her own.