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 Sahnis is not a name that people are likely to
recognizelet 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 (RRSs
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 discoveryand may be that is
why he is not as well-known as the others of his timebut 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 Sahnis 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
Sahnithe 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 Sahnis 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 Sahnis life and scientific workas
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 individualssome 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 Sahnis 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-makerfor coming up with a copy of an important
section of Ruchi Ram Sahnis 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 Sahnis 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 Rams
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 Rams caseand 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.
As a part of our efforts to spread the message of Ruchi Rams life and
work and also to identify more such individuals in other parts of the country
we organised four seminars on the key theme of Science Popularisation
Efforts in Pre-independence India at Chandigarh, New Delhi, Calcutta and
Allahabad. The response from scientists, scholars and those engaged in
popularising science was spontaneous As a result we have already identified
a number of individuals who could be candidates for inclusion in our series
on Pioneer Science Popularisers in Pre-independence India and whose
lives and works hitherto remain relatively unknown even among science
popularisers, let alone the masses. The proceedings of these seminars are
being brought out in suitably edited volumes. We intend to organise some
more such seminars in other parts of the country.
The Memoirs of Ruchi Ram Sahni has already been translated into
Punjabi, Marathi and Hindi; these versions are in their final stages of
production. Translations into other Indian languages are also planned.
The first edition of the book could at best be considered as a library
edition. But encouraged by the enthusiastic response and a persistent
demand for the book we are happy to bring out this economy paperback
edition which would hopefully be far more affordable for a common reader.

Editors Note to the First Edition

After a great deal of effort a photocopy of the entire typescript of what
presumably was Ruchi Ram Sahnis autobiography (with corrections made
with a pen by RRS himself), was tracked down and obtained by one of us
(NKS) during the early part of 1991. On going through it carefully it was
discovered that there were many missing pages and portions which created
distortions in the text at several places. Also, perhaps because of the missing
portions, a few known facts (like, for instance, his working with Ernest
Rutherford) too appeared missing. All our attempts to track down and
retrieve the missing portions, which took quite a bit of time, were
unsuccessful We had no choice but to make do, as we did, with whatever we
had in our possession.
In order to use the available material optimally, we had to either delete or
compress some material (which was far removed from his scientific work),
give headings and sub-headings for different sections, introduce new titles at
places and rearrange the whole matter to give a smooth and natural How to
it. While all this was done, a very conscious attempt was made to retain his
original text as intact as possible to ensure that the flavour of his style and
language, and his overall personality, did come through quite distinctly
while reading the book.
The photographs and other visuals included here are not part of the
original script. The former have been obtained from descendants and
relations of RRS, while the latter are drawn by Shri Amitabh Pandey based
on his own conceptions/visualisations arrived at by going through the text
which described interesting incidents in Ruchi Ram Sahnis life. The idea is
to allow the reader to pause once in a while and imagine the actual situations
that RRS might have worked under.
Lastly, portraits of a number of important personalities drawn by Shri
Amitabh Pandey, and referred to in the text, have also been included This
has been done on the basis of their availability, and sometimes on the
strength of the references made in the text.

Introduction
Professor Ruchi Ram Sahni (RRS) was a multi-faceted personality. He
was a scientist, an innovator, an enthusiastic educationist, a fierce-patriot
and a devoted social worker. He was a man of independent thinking and
progressive ideas. He started his career as Second Assistant Reporter to the
Government of India in the Meteorological Department in 1885. He worked
under the direct supervision of Sir H. F. Blanford, F.R S., one of the
founders of the India Meteorological Department. In 1887, RRS joined the
Government College, Lahore, as Assistant Professor of Chemistry and
Physics from where he retired as senior Professor on 5 April 1918.
(In spite of being one of the pioneers who established a tradition of
modern science in India. Ruchi Ram Sahnis research activities and
particularly his science popularisation efforts remained mostly unknown. He
has been referred to mostly in the context of his son, Birbal Sahni the
great palaeobotanist. In that sense, the National Council for Science &
Technology Communication (NCSTC) can rightly claim to have
rediscovered Ruchi Ram Sahni when it got hold of a copy of a typescript of
his autobiography (with several missing portions). In recent times the first
comprehensive article on Ruchi Ram Sahnis science popularisation work
was written by Narender K. Sehgal which appeared in two parts in the
NCSTC newsletter. NCSTC Communications (New Delhi). November 1991
and January 1992 issues.)
 RRS started his scientific career in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, which was a very important period in the history of Modern India.
An all pervasive intellectual renaissance was in the offing. Political
consciousness and spirit of nationalism had started taking roots in the
country, although this period was also heyday of British imperialism
Science in India, as we know it today, was in those days in a state of
infancy. There were some signs of the modern scientific awareness getting
into the Indian culture. But by and large, Indians were not yet active
participants in the practice of modern science. RRS was among the first
generation of Indian scientists whose work finally led to modern scientific
traditions in the country. J. C. Bose (1858-1937) joined the Presidency
College at Calcutta in 1885 P. C. Ray (1861-1944) came to India from
Edinburgh in 1888 and joined the Presidency College as a temporary
Assistant Professor in 1889. The Indian Association for the Cultivation of
Science, probably the first indigenous attempt at institutionalising scientific
research, was established by Mahendra Lal Sircar in 1887. But till the end of
the nineteenth century its activities were mainly confined to arranging
popular lectures in Physics and Chemistry. C.Y Raman joined the
Association in 1907 Asutosh Mookerjee (1864-1924), as Vice Chancellor of
the Calcutta University, played a crucial role in institution-alising modem
science in India; he was studying in the Presidency College when RRS went
there as a part-time M.A. student. The first session of the Indian Science
Congress was held in 1914 under the Presidentship of Asutosh Mookerjee.
So, when RRS started his career, there were hardly any infrastructural
facilities. For Indians (or natives as they used to be called by the Britishers)
it was extremely difficult to get into those places.
There were at the time two layers in the Educa-tional Service. The top
layerthe Indian Educational Service (IES)for all practical purposes, was
meant for Britishers. Indeed, when RRS joined the Punjab Education
Department, there were only three Indians in the whole country in the IES.
In spite of such unhelpful circum-stances, RRS could contribute to the
development of a tradition of modern science in India. He was undoubtedly
one of the pioneers. RRS was the first Indian to work on the atomic nucleus.
He worked with Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). He also had the privilege of
being guided by Niels Bohr (1885-1962) who, at the time, was work-ing
with Rutherford. Before coming to Rutherfords Laboratory RRS went to
Germany to work on radioactivity with Kasimir Fajans (1887-1975) but, just
as he was trying to settle down to work, the First World War broke out and
he had to leave Germany.
 One of his major achievements was the creation of scientific awareness
amongst the common people of Punjab. In those days, Punjab consisted of
the present-day Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in India and parts of
Punjab in Pakistan. Alongside similar efforts in Bengal, his was the first
attempt at popularising science in Punjab. All his science popularisation
activities were organised under the auspices of the Punjab Science Institute,
which he co-founded with Professor J. Campbell Oman. Popular lectures on
various aspects of science organised under the aegis of the Punjab Science
Institute created unprecedented enthusiasm; people did not even mind
paying a small fee for sending lecturers to Muffossil places. Probably this
was the earliest instance in India of common people actually paying for
listening to popular science lectures.
RRS worked hard to improve the quality of science teaching in schools
and colleges. He had realised quite early that no science teaching was
possible without facilities for repairs of simple scientific instruments used in
schools and colleges. He hence established a workshop as part of the Punjab
Science Institute for repairing and manufacturing scientific apparatus used in
schools and colleges, and this he did by spending his own money. The
workshop also trained young people enabling them to earn a decent
livelihood. He was also very much concerned with industrial development of
the country. He established a Sulphuric Acid factory near Lahore which
flourished for several years. In this venture, he was assisted by PC Ray.
RRS actively participated in the freedom movement During the Punjab
Enquiry held by the Indian National Congress, following the Jallianwalla
Bagh massacre, he had an opportunity to work with leaders like Motilal
Nehru (1861-1931), C.R. Das (1870-1925), Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
(1861-1946) and others.
RRS also had a close association with Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-
1901). On many occasions Ranade presided over popular lectures delivered
by RRS.
RRS relinquished the title, conferred on him by the British Government,
during the Khilafat Movement to please his Muslim friends. Throughout
his life he fought against Britishers hegemony. He was a pioneer of the
social reform movement as well, particularly relating to women.

Family background and early education

(This section is partly based on (he description given in Landmarks and
Strandliness: An Autobiography by Mulk Raj Sahni, son of Professor Ruchi
Ram Sahni (unpublished). Professor Mulk Raj Sahni began his career with
the Geological Survey of India and later founded the Department of Geology
in the Punjab University.)

RRS was born at Dehra Ismail Khan, a riverine Port on the Indus (now in
Pakistan) on 5 April 1863. His father, Karam Chand Sahni, was a merchant.
His mother, Gulab Devi, came from a bankers family of Pind Dadan Khan
(now in Pakistan). The Sahni family, or the Sahni clan, originally consisted
of soldiers identified as Senani.
RRSs primary education started at the age of 5 or 6 with a Pandah (a
school teacher). It is interesting to note that the teacher used to be paid
Mannas for every multiplication table learnt by the pupil. At the age of nine
he worked with a firm headed by one Seth Kalyan Dass, for a few months,
before entering his fathers businessmainly wholesale trade and money-
lending.
He worked with his father till the age of 11; RRS started his school
education at the Church Mission Branch School at Dehra lsamil Khan. But
when the Principal of the School, Tikam Rama very competent person
who taught Urdu left the schoolRRS got himself transferred to the Main
Church School. He again changed his school because of a similar reason. He
passed the Middle School Examination in 1878 from the Dharam Prakash
School (which was later renamed as City School), standing first in order of
merit in the Province. During this period, there was a reversal in the fortunes
of the family. His father died a broken man. After that it became impossible
for the family to live at Dehra Ismail Khan where once it had held a
privileged position in the society. The family decided to migrate to Bhera.
(Birbal Sahni by Shakti M.Gupta, National Book Trust, India New Delhi
(1989). Shakti M.Gupta is grand daughter of Professor Ruchi Ram Sahni.
Birbal Salmi the most famous among the children of Professor Ruchi Ram
Sahni. who founded the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany at Lucknow.)
However, the indomitable spirit of RRS was not affected by this sudden
set-back in the fortunes of the family. He left Dehra Ismail Khan for Adiwal
(near Jhang, a town in Western Punjab, now in Pakistan). It is to be noted
that he walked with a bundle of books on his back all the way from Dehra
Ismail Khan to Adiwala distance of about 150 miles. He did not stay there
for long. When the Principal of the School where he studied, Kashi Natli
Chatterjee, was replaced by an incompetent man RRS moved to Lahore from
where he passed the Calcutta Board Examination securing the 6th or the 7th
position in the merit list. After passing the Board Examination he entered the
Government college, Lahore (a constituent college of the Punjab
University), as a B.A. student. At the time of his joining the college, G.L.
Leitner was the Principal. In 1881 he passed the Intermediate Examination,
coming second in the list of the successful candidates. He passed the B.A.
Examination in 1884 standing first in order of merit. While preparing for the
B.A. Examination, RRS took active part in various debates and in these
debates his chief opponent used to be his friend, Pandit Guru Dutt.(Guru
Dutt, during his short life-span, became a prominent member of the Arya
Samaj movement. In fact the rapid success of the Arya Samaj movement in
Punjab was largely due to Pandit Guru Dutt and Lala Lajpat Rai. At one time
Guru Dutt took over the editorship of the The Arya Intelligence, a weekly or
probably a fortnightly paper owned by one, Lala Salig Ram.) Subjects of the
aforementioned debates were varied, for example; Akbar vs Aurangzeb,
Who was Manu, The Electric Waves or the Hertzian Waves, etc. During
this period RRS studied philosophy seriously; in particular he studied the
works of William Hamilton (1788-1856), John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). He also attended classes at the Art School
where he met Lockwood Kiplingfather of Rudyard Kipling.
Though RRS was deeply interested in Mathematics, in his early days, he
took Physics and Chemistry for his M.A. degree. In those days, following
the tradition of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, B.A. and M.A. instead
of B.Sc, and M.Sc. degrees used to be offered even for science subjects.
While studying at the Government College, Lahore, RRS was deeply
influenced by a number of his teachers. Sham-UI-Ulema Maulavi
Mohammed Hussain Azad was one among the teachers at the Government
College, Lahore, who had left a deep impression on Ruchi Rams mind.
Ruchi Ram considers edit a privilege to get a chance to be taught by such a
great teacher as Azad. For him it was a matter of pride. He wrote: Here I
will mention that, although I cannot claim to know the Urdu language well, I
took the fullest advantage of my privilege of being Azads pupil by making
it a point to listen with reverential attention to every word that fell from the
masters lips and marked the passionate and enthusiastic manner in which he
portrayed day after day, one incident or another in Akbars Darbar. These
were wonderful word pictures that could only be drawn by a master. It will
be simply impossible for me to convey to the reader even a faint idea of the
thrills that we felt, the spell-bound, silent attention with which we followed
the Cinematographic progress of events and saw the nine gems of Akbars
court as living and speaking personages, bending, salaming, moving and
acting before our very eyes. The greatest contribution of Azad to the Urdu
literature as perceived by Ruchi Ram was that he (Azad)gave it a powerful
twist from its old cramped medieval setting, both of form and subject, to the
modern freer atmosphere of natural thought and feeling.
He was also influenced by his History teacher, one Mr. Hurst, who was
quite at home with the history of Ancient Rome and Greece. Ruchi Ram
mentions that Mr. Hurst was the only history teacher (of a school or college)
whom he had ever come to know to draw maps and plans on the blackboard
for illustrating every important point he wanted to explain.
Professor J. Campbell Oman who built up the Departments of Physics and
Chemistry in that College not only influenced him deeply but also helped
him in shaping his career He was a good experimentalist and an eloquent
speaker. RRS describes him in the following words: He knew the knack of
creating in the dullest of his students a lively interest in science, which
meant at the time only Physics and Chemistry. Biology (Botany and
Zoology) was introduced long after he had left in 1896". Unlike other
European professors of the time Professor Oman took keen interest in public
move-ments as well.

Contribution to Science Teaching and Research

While he was still to complete his M.A., RRS took up appointment as
Second Assistant Reporter to the Government of India in the Meteorological
Department. His initial posting was at Calcutta. Initially RRS was rather
reluctant to take up this assignment because he was interested in a teaching
assignment where he would also be able to engage himself in research
activities. But in those days it was not that easy for Indians, even for the
brightest ones, to get appointments as faculty members in the universities, or
in their constituent colleges, where one could think of making use of some
rudi-mentary facilities for research. Professor Oman was aware of the
difficulties in getting suitable teaching as-signments for Indians. He
therefore advised RRS to join the Meteorological Department, saying that he
(RRS) could always come back to a teaching assignment, if there were one.
Further, RRS was told that he would be able to complete his M.A. from the
Presidency College, Calcutta, by attending the required classes. Thus
per-suaded, RRS joined the Meteorological Department on 10 January 1885
From Calcutta he moved to Simla, the then headquarters of the India
Meteorological Depart-ment, and started work under Sir H.F. Blanford,
F.R.S. (brother of Sir W.T Blanford of the Geological Survey of India). His
main task in the Meteorological Department was to prepare the daily and
monthly weather reports. In those days, for an Indian (or for a native) it
was a very prestigious responsibility. In fact articles were written in leading
newspapers, like the Pioneer of Allahabad, criticising his appointment on
the ground that a native was not fit for such a responsible assign-ment He
carried out his duties very creditably and to the utmost satisfaction of Sir H.
F. Blanford. Once, on his own judgement, he successfully predicted an
impending cyclone originating in the Bay of Bengal.
In 1887, RRS came back to the Government College, Lahore. Though he
was a junior member of the faculty, RRS took active interest in upgrading
the standard of teaching at the College. He tried to demonstrate as many
experiments as possible to the students. At the time, there was no good
library particularly for science subjects and to overcome this difficulty he
had himself built a personal library. He used to spend a fixed amount of
money every month to buy books. He had the habit of preparing detailed
class notes some of which were published in book form He was member of
the University Syndicate for a long time. His activities were not confined to
teaching at the University College alone. As mentioned earlier RRS
established the Punjab Science Institute to institutionalise his efforts towards
science popularisation. He himself gave more than 500 lectures. He could
also motivate a large number of college teachers to take active part in the
activities of the Institute. Subjects of his lectures varied, for example, Soap
making, The water Lahoris drank before 1880', Pure and impure air, The
toys and the lessons, Electroplating, Electricity in the service of man,
Glass making, Punjab and its rivers, How does the telegraphic wire
speak and so on The lectures were invariably accompanied by practical
demonstrations. He used lantern slides extensively. He also standardised the
process of making an improved version of lantern slides. He gave lectures
both in Punjabi and English (and probably also in Urdu).
To supplement the objectives of the Punjab Science Institute, a workshop
was attached to it for repairing and manufacturing simple scientific
instruments A Lock and Safe Department was added to the workshop to
keep the technicians hired and trained in the workshop fully engaged. The
dedication and the hard work of RRS, coupled with ingenuity of his Head
Mistri Allah Baksh, converted the workshop into a full-fledged business
venture. The scientific apparatus produced by the workshop was of a
standard equal to that of the ones produced by contemporary British firms in
England. The workshop also undertook repairs of sophisticated instru-ments.
Once a Committee, appointed by an Industrial Conference at Poona (where
RRS went at the invitation of Madhavrao Namjoshi of Poona, a well-known
public worker in the cause of indigenous industrial advancement in the
country) to examine the exhibits put up by RRSs workshop at the
Conference, refused to believe that such exhibits could be made in India and
that too at Lahore. The Committee observed that the instruments were
imported ones and the only thing the workshop probably did was to remove
the fine varnish and replace it with crude varnish so as to give them the
appearance of an Indian origin. To prove that the instruments were actually
made at his workshop at Lahore, RRS gave three alternative options to the
Conference: i) The Conference could depute any number of individuals to
visit the Punjab Science Institute workshop at Lahore at his ex-pense to see
the apparatus in the actual process of mak-ing, ii) The Conference could
place a large order of any of the items of the apparatus with the Workshop.
As the prices quoted by the workshop were only half of the prices quoted by
the British firms, they would be big gainers, iii) The Head Mistri could be
left at any place in the country where he could be provided with the
necessary facilities for the manufacture of the apparatus, he would then
make any of the items exhibited by the workshop in front of their own eyes.
After this there was no other option left to the organizers of the Conference
except to accept the authenticity of his (RRSs) workshop-made apparatus.
The Punjab Science Institute Workshop took part in various industrial
exhibi-tions organised under the auspices of the Indian National Congress
and won many medals. Once at Calcutta when the Workshop was awarded a
gold medal, one of the judges was J .C. Bose. Two persons who helped the
expansion of the activities of the Workshop in signifi-cant ways were Hira
Lal, Science Instructor at Hoshangabad, and Master Pyare Lal, Inspector of
Schools, Jullundur Circle.
Dr. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (1894-1955), the founder-director of the
council of Scientific and Industrial Research played a very important role in
the formula-tion of Indias science and technology policies and in the
organisation of science in the 1940s,was greatly influ-enced by RRS. it
seems RRS took keen interest in shaping the scientific career of Bhatnagar.
While recall-ing, the influences of his teachers in him Bhatnagar writes:
Prof. Ruchi Ram Sahni took special interest in me and was largely
responsible for the award of a scholarship from the Dyal Singh College
Trust for my studies abroad.
Before going to Germany RRS was involved with the formulation of
certain laws or relationships between the solubilities of various compounds
and their other contentsthe atomic weight being one of them. In the case
of lead he concluded that the variations observed in the atomic weight
determination done by competent chemists could not merely be due to
experimental errors but could probably be caused by the presence of varying
quantities of some other compound with the lead salt. He found that this was
also the case with bismuth. He wanted to pursue this line of enquiry in
Germany. But after reaching there he found that Dr. Fajans had already
solved one of the problems viz., the cause of variations observed during
determinations of the atomic weight of lead. Fajans observed that it was
Radium D, a radioactive isotope, which was responsible for the variations.
When RRS reached there, Fajans was working on the problem of bismuth.
RRS, after realising that Fajans had already solved one of the problems that
he wanted to pursue and was close to solving the other, was a little hesitant
to pursue these problems. His main concern was that he was not familiar
with the techniques of radioactivity and so it might hamper Fajans work.
But Fajans was im-pressed by the observations of RRS and so he persuaded
RRS to work with him on the same problem. As mentioned earlier RRS
could not stay there for long because of the First World War. From Germany
he went to England where he worked with Ernest Rutherford at the Physical
Laboratory, Victoria University, and Manchester. At Manchester, besides
investigating the photographic ac-tion of alpha, beta, and gamma-rays, he
undertook the study of alpha scattering in radioactive cosmic ray emissions.
The results of his investigations were com-municated by Rutherford himself
and they were published in the Philosophical Magazine. Unfortunately for
RRS the photographic plates he carried with him for further studies in India
got damaged during his ship journey back home and a promising research
career in this area came to an abrupt end.
Ruchi Ram was deeply interested in scientific practical agriculture
which appeared to him the need of the hour. He studied several treatises on
scientific agriculture as well as on the manufacture and use of chemical
manures. He himself manufactured several maunds of bone manure
(phosphate and bone meal) as well as other manures. He experimented with
these manures manufactured by him and he even got some landlords to try
them under controlled conditions. The results of these experiments were
made public by means of pam-phlets or leaflets. Coming to know of Ruchi
Rams interest in practical agriculture. Dr. J. Same, the then Director of
Public Instruction, asked him officially to prepare for the Department three
Readers on the subject for use in schools. Ruchi Ram did prepare three
books titled Kheti Ki Pahli Kitab, Khati Ki Dushri Kitab and Kheti Ki Tishri
Kitab. According to Ruchi Ram the manuscripts of these books were
corrected and some parts of the text rewritten by Syed Ahmad of Delhi, the
great Urdu scholar and lexicographer (the author of the famous Urdu
Dictionary; the Farbang-i-Asafia). These books remained in use in schools
for many years.

His Involvement in Social Movements

RRS was a person of liberal views. In his youth he became a Brahma and
later one of the leaders of the Brahmo Samaj movementa progressive
religious and social upsurge which had taken roots in Bengal. His brief stay
at Calcutta (during 1886) played an important role in shaping his world-
view. As his son Mulk Raj Sahni describes Undoubtedly, father imbibed
his pro-gressive ideas during his sojourn at Calcutta.... At Calcutta he met
the elite among the Bengali social, literary and political figures including
Rabindranath Tagore. He befriended Upendra Kishore Roy Chaudhuri
(grandfather of Satyajit Ray). He attended lectures delivered by Keshab
Chandra Sen. He came in contact with men like Asutosh Mookerjee, P. C
Rayand J. C. Bose who, like him, were also engaged in laying the
foundations of a modern scientific tradition in India.
His religion knew no frontiers. He completely broke away from his caste.
On many occasions he was castigated by the leaders of the then orthodox
society, but such threats did not deter RJRS from carrying on his struggle
against orthodoxy. He was not a Sikh but he stood knee-deep in the sacred
mud at the tank of the Golden Temple and removed basket-loads of it on his
head and shoulders to assist in cleaning the accumulated silt (now known as
kar-seva). He wrote a book on Sikh shrines.
RRS fought valiantly for the rights of his countrymen. He threw himself
heart and soul into the struggle for independence. He entered the Punjab
Legislative Council in 1923 as a member of the Swaraj Party. He was
closely associated with the prominent nationalist minded Punjabi, Sardar
Dyal Singh Majithia, whom he persuaded to found the Tribune, the Dyal
Singh Public Library and the Union Academy (which later came to be
known as Dyal Singh College) at Lahore. RRS -was deeply interested in the
social and political upheaval in the continent. In his introduction to his book,
The Awakening of Asia, he wrote- The chief interest of the narrative lies in
amazing social and political upheaval which was witnessed all over the old
continent during the opening decade of the present century. It is my
intention to follow up a small volume with another devoted exclusively to
the simultaneous awakening of India.
 He lived to see India attain her Independence. He died in Bombay on June
3, 1948.

1
Beginning of an Indian Officials Trials and Struggles
I have no reason to think that my experiences of official life have been in
any way singular. Perhaps it will be more correct to say that, on the whole, I
was treated with greater consideration, and even respect, than most other
Indians in my position were. I was one month short of a third of a century in
Government service. I began my official career in the India Meteorological
Department under Mr. H. F. Blanford, F.R.S, an angelic officer, on the 10th
January, 1885. Towards the end of March 1887, my services were
transferred to the Punjab Education Department as Assistant Professor of
Science (Physics and Chemistry) in the Government College, Lahore, from
where I retired as Senior Professor of Chemistry on 15th April, 1918, at the
age of 55. I officiated as Director of Schools for the Multan Circle for ten
months in 1908 and for the Amritsar Circle for three months in 1905. I
served under eight Principals and five Directors of Public Instruction.
During my over 31 years connection with the College I was brought into
fairly intimate contact with more than thirty European Professors. In my
time every attempt was made to keep out Indians from the higher
appointments in the Education Department, especially in the teaching line. It
may be news to some that there were only three Indians in the Indian
Educational Service in the whole of India, namely, Sir Jagadish Chandra
Bose, D.Sc., F.R.S., Dr. D.N. Mullick, D.Sc. and a Christian gentleman who
was Professor of English in Madras. Even Sir P. C. Ray, D.Sc. had to
content himself with remaining all his life on the lower rungs of the
educational ladder.
Of these fifty, more or less, comrades-in-arms if I may venture to call
them so, I happened to have, during my long years of service, serious
differences with only two, while I enjoyed the general goodwill of all the
others. With a few of them my relations were particularly cordial and
pleasant. Considering everything and specially, in view of the freedom and
independence with which I comported myself throughout my official career,
I see no reason to complain of the treatment I received from most of my
colleagues or bosses, while to some I am sincerely grateful for even going
out of the way and putting even greater trust in me than their European
colleagues who were also my seniors in service. Speaking for myself, I can
say with perfect truthfulness that according to my lights and abilities, I tried
to serve the Department honestly and with candour. At the same time, I was
always prepared to pay and did pay the price demanded of me, but
never consented to lower the flag of my self-respect and uprightness.

Denzil Ibbetsons Visit to the College

While I was yet in the M.A. class at the Government College, two things
happened which led to the shaping of my future official career. One of them
was a sudden visit to the College by Mr. Denzil Ibbetson, I.C.S., (afterwards
Sir Denzil Ibbetson, Lt. Governor of the Punjab) who was then officiating as
Director of Public Instruction.
At this time there was only one Indian on the permanent staff of the
College, Babu Sashi Bhushan Mukherji, Assistant Professor of Mathematics.
I think that, arising out of the recommendations of the Education
Commission of 1882 (Appointed by Lord Ripon. Sir W.W. Hunter was
President of the Commission and among the Indian members were Ananda
Mohan Bose and Sir Syed Ahmad. Mr Bose was at first offered the
Presidentship of the Commission, but he pointed out that its
recommendations would carry greater weight if a suitable European
gentleman was nominated to that office. Mr. Bose was a man of most
retiring disposition. He had a most brilliant career in the Calcutta University
Examination ending with winning the Roy Chand Prem Chand Scholarship.
He was a Wrangler of the Cambridge University and a Bar-at-Law.), there
was a move to increase the number of Indians in higher gazetted posts of the
educational services of India. Dr. J. C. Bose, D.Sc. (Lond.), was appointed to
the Presidency College a few months later and, within another year, Mr.
G.N. Chatterjee, B.A. (Cantab.), was appointed to the Government College.
Mr. Ibbetson came up to my working table and saw some of the
experiments with which I was occupied at the time. So far as I can remember
now, I was occupied with the extraction of alkaloids and their tests. He
examined my note-book, asked me a few questions about the experiments
and saw some of the tests which he mentioned. After thus spending more
than an hour with me, he put some questions to me as to what I was going to
do after passing my examination. I told him l did not know, but that I was
keen to follow some scientific career. When he had left, Professor J.C.
Oman told me that Mr. Ibbetson was much impressed with me and that he
thought that some proposal was on the official anvil to take me on the staff
of the College. Professor Oman did not quite know what the exact nature of
the proposal was. I am myself inclined to think, he did not feel himself free
to disclose to me what schemes were being hatched in the DPIs Office, or
possibly were brewing in Mr. Ibbetsons own brain.

I joined the Meteorological Department

The second proposal was also not long in coming. In the first week of
1885, Professor Oman showed me a semi-official letter, asking him to
recommend to the Head of the Meteorological Department, a suitable
science graduate who would care to take up a gazetted post as Assistant
Meteorological Reporter to the Government of India. Professor Oman
strongly advised me to try for the job, telling me that scientific appointments
were not too plentiful and that I might not get a chance soon. He said that
Mr. Ibbetsons eggs may all go bad and, in any case, there was nothing to
prevent me from accepting the educational offer later, if it suited me, and get
my services transferred to the Punjab. I gave my consent. Within a few days,
I was telegraphically asked to see Mr. A.S. Hill, Professor of Physics at
Central Muir College, Allahabad. Mr. H. F. Blanford was on leave at the
time and Mr. Hill was acting for him temporarily. Several candidates from
other provinces had already been interviewed by M. Hill, before I appeared
before him on the 10th January 1885. I cannot say that I was better qualified
than the other candidates, but Mr. Hill seemed to be especially pleased with
my answer to one or two questions. These questions which probably induced
Mr. Hill to decide in my favour were related to the cyclones.
With the never-to-be forgotten terrible personal experiences of a
whirlpool in mid-stream while crossing the Chenab in a boat some years
earlier, no one could have satisfied him better than I did. He asked me to
proceed to Calcutta direct and join the office there. The salary was to be
determined by Mr. T. W Holderness, Under Secretary to the Government of
India, Agriculture Department, to which our office was attached. I pointed
out that I would not like to cut short my studies for the M.A. degree.
Anxious to tie me down at once as he was, he assured me that there would
be no objection to my attending part time the Chemistry classes at the
Presidency College and that he would write to Mr. (afterward Sir) Alexander
Pedler, F. R. S., Professor of Chemistry, to offer me all facilities for
continuing my studies under him. Professor Pedler was also Meteorological
Reporter for Bengal for which he was getting an additional allowance of Rs.
250 a month. At Calcutta, I found everybody in a very obliging mood. At the
Government College, Lahore, I was drawing a scholarship of Rs.35 a month
as Fullers Exhibitioner. I was told that a recommendation would be made to
the Punjab University to continue payment of the scholarship to me in
addition to my salary from the Meteorological Office. Further, Mr. C.H.
Tawney, Principal of the Presidency College exempted me from the payment
of monthly tuition fee on the ground, as he himself pointed out to me, that I
was drawing my scholarship from the Government College, Lahore, minus
the tuition fee. There was no reason, therefore for charging me the tuition fee
again. It probably did not occur to him that while at the Government
College, Lahore, the rate of tuition fee for the M.A, class at the time was Rs.
2 only, the Presidency College charged as much as Rs. 12.
All these concessions combined with the great advantage of better
education at the Presidency College finally induced me to agree to accept the
post. My official designation was Second Assistant Meteorological Reporter
to the Government of India. The First Assistant was a European gentleman
of the name of Mr. W. H. Dallas who drew a salary of Rs. 500 rising to Rs.
1,000. I was given Rs. 100-150 but I was assured by Mr. Holderness that
after I had gained some experience, my grade would be revised. Mr. Dallas
was in charge of a certain specific work in connection with the log-books of
ships passing through the Indian Ocean, while I was to be entrusted with the
very responsible duties of the preparation and issue of the Daily and
Monthly Weather Reports. I was to be permanently posted at Simla, from
where the Daily Weather Report was to be issued in future. So long as I was
at Calcutta, I had no fixed office hours and no well-defined duties, while I
spent three to four hours every day at the Presidency College- I was
supposed to be under training and I made it a point to learn the work of
everyone of the computers who were to serve under me besides my own
work. Now and again I attended the Central Observatory at Alipore which
was at that time at a distance of two or three miles from Calcutta with
howling waste lands between, but has now been absorbed into the city. I also
learnt the careful calibration of barometers and other instruments. I may
mention here that my ambition was to know exactly what the men under me
at the Simla Office clerks, computers and all, were doing, and to learn it so
well that I could take the place of any of them without the slightest
difficulty. At the same time, I studied the scientific aspects of the
meteorology not only of India but also of other countries. In trying to make
myself thoroughly at home with my future work, I was faithfully acting upon
a valuable advice which Professor Oman had given me on my taking up
service.

At Presidency College, Calcutta

 At the Presidency College, among several other men who afterwards
made a mark on the public life of the country, I made the acquaintance of Sir
Asutosh Mookerjee. He was my contemporary, being in the M.A. Class in
Mathematics while I was, as I have already said, studying for my final
examination in Chemistry under (Sir) Alexander Pedler, F.R.S. I lived in a
Brahmo Hostel in Sita Ram Ghose Street (off the new Harrison Road). The
Bengalis of those days most keenly felt (I am using the superlative
deliberately), their lack of military training. I was frequently taken out by
Asutosh and others for an evening stroll when they would press me to tell
them something about the military exploits of Guru Govind Singh, Ranjit
Singh, Hari Singh Nalwa and others. At the hostel several inmates were so
keen to learn soldiering that they would take no refusal from me to play the
part of a drill-sergeant.

I told them that physically I was but a poor specimen of a Punjabi, and
that I had never ever shouldered a gun. No, No, they would tell me, every
Punjabi is a born soldier. In particular, one of my fellow-boarders, Mr. Das,
seemed to be so bewitched with the idea of learning drill that I thought he
was a fit subject for being humoured, tasked him to provide himself with
two long bamboo sticks which were to serve for our guns, one for himself
and other for me. With the Arms Act in force, he was satisfied with the
arrangement because we could not handle the genuine article. Carrying the
lathis on our shoulders, I made Mr. Das march backwards and forwards in
the small hostel compound. These exercises. were conducted for about an
hour every morning for a week, after which I passed my pupil as having
mastered the art. So far as I could judge, he sincerely believed that, except
for shooting a target, he had learnt a good deal of soldiering. I met Mr. Das
after some years, as a Professor in the Calcutta Bethune College where he
had probably less trouble with his students than a teacher in a boys College
is likely to experience. I may mention here as my definite opinion that
during the past forty years a wonderful change seems to have come over the
Bengali youth. While at the Presidency College, I had long discussions
with my friends about the propriety or otherwise of Macaulays wholesale
charge of cowardice against the Bengalis. During the several months that I
spent in Calcutta I did not even once notice two boys pounding each other in
the streets a spectacle that one might see in the course of an hours walk
through the Bazaar of Lahore. I myself had once to face a crowd of two
hundred college students without the slightest physical molestation. Under
similar circumstances in my own province, I would never have willingly run
the risk of coming out of the melee bruised and bleeding. But today the case
is quite different.
Apart from Professor Pedlers own lectures and my work in his
Laboratories, my association with him proved, indirectly, to be of great
benefit to me. He used to get samples of wines and other commercial
commodities for analysis from big local firms. The analysis was seldom
done by the Professor himself. As a rule, he would pass on the stuff to his
Laboratory Assistant, one Mr. B., an M.A. in Chemistry and clever at
lecture-table experiments. While I was at the Presidency College, Mr. B.
would frequently ask me to carry out the analysis which I was only too glad
to do. The arrangement suited everybody. I got valuable experience, Mr. B.
kept the wine bottles a very small quantity of the wine being required for
the actual testsand the payment of Rs.32 for each analysis went into the
pocket of Professor Pedler.
Again, Professor Pedler was analyst to the Municipality. Among his
duties in this capacity was to send a daily report on the analysis of municipal
water and gas supplies. As with the wines, I did the water analysis a few
times and the gas analysis regularly for at least a month. For a student of
Chemistry these practical exercises were of great value, as they showed how
with carefully devised and properly arranged appliances, a reliable report on,
say, the gas supply of a large town could be written up within a few minutes.
Among my class-fellows at the Presidency college were two Brahmo
young men about whom I should like to say a word or two. One of them was
Mr. Upendra Kishore Roy Chaudhuri (Upen Babu), tall and handsome with
curled hair. He had a sweet musical voice and a charming personality. As
soon as Professor Pedler had turned his back, requisition for a song (eik gan
hoche) were sure to be showered upon Upen. Sometimes quite for a
quarter of an hour the laboratory used to be thrilled with his songs. Many
years passed and I visited Calcutta again. One Sunday evening Dr. (now Sir)
P. C. Ray and I happened to be sitting side by side in the Brahmo Mandir
attending service. I asked him about Upendra Kishore Roy Chaudhuri
my old friend and class fellow. There is no one of that name in the Samaj he
said .I had not met him all those years when, however, the chorus in the
balcony overlooking the hall started the arti (jaya deva, jaya deva ...), I at
once discovered him as the leader of the chorus. At the close of the service, I
mentioned this to Dr. Ray. Oh! you mean U. Ray. In this Anglicised form
he was known all over India as the half-tone block maker for illustrating
books and newspapers. I met Mr. U. Ray. He invited me several times to his
house, showed me his studio and explained the whole process to me
including certain improvements that he had himself introduced.

The other gentleman was Dr. Gagan Chandra Home, father of Mr. Amal
Home, at present Editor of the Municipal Journal of the Calcutta
Corporation. He was for sometime on the staff of the Tribune of Lahore. Mr.
Amal Home told me a few years ago that, in 1935 when he waited up on the
poet Rabindranath Tagore for some reminiscences of the Indian National
Congress (he was bringing out the Congress Jubilee Number), the poet asked
him if he was in any way related to Gagan Chandra Home. Being told that
Amal was his son, the poet was pleased to remark: I can easily recall a visit
which Ruchi Ram and Gagan Chandra Home paid the Maharshi when they
were both students at the Presidency College. The poet was a little older
than myself. I do not remember having seen him about his father in 1885.
But I distinctly remember going for a darshan of the Maharshi during the
Maghostav (foundation day celebration of the Brahmo Samaj by Raja
Rammohan Roy) when I was a student at Calcutta. Every Brahmo, young
and old, including the leaders considered it their duty to pay their homage to
Maharshi Devendranath Tagore and receive his blessings. Men, women and
children flocked to his house. It was amost inspiring sight. What strikes me
is that, exactly half-a-century later, Rabindranath Tagore should have
remembered the insignificant fact that two Brahmo students of the
Presidency College were among the hundreds and thousands of persons who
streamed to Jorasanko for a reverential bow to the Maharshi.

Mahendra Lal Sircars Institute

No less beneficial was my regular attendance at the lectures on popular
science at Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircars Institute. It was these lectures that led
myself and Professor Oman to start the Punjab Science Institute at Lahore. I
shall never forget the wonderful popular lectures of Father E, Lafont of the
St. Xaviers College. There were other lecturers also who appeared on the
platform now and again, but in making a difficult point crystal clear and,
especially, in creating popular interest in science, no one could approach the
Jesuit Professor. It was at Dr. Sircars Institute that I first saw Dr. Jagadish
Chandra Bose. He gave a lecture on Energy. It was illustrated by many
experiments but there was nothing very fascinating about them. Dr. Bose
had then just joined the Staff of the Presidency College. He was a thin man
and spoke slowly with deliberation and a certain amount of hesitancy. I very
well remember him as he appeared on the platform wearing a silk
embroidered black cap.
 One interesting public debate I must particularly mention here since it
made an abiding impression upon me. I am not quite sure if it was held at
Dr. Sircars Institute or in some other public hall, but this is of little
importance, what matters is the enthusiasm evinced and the pains taken by
two eminent medical men of the time, Dr. Khashtgir and Dr. Simpson in
carrying on a public debate upon meat and grams as articles of diet. One
week, Dr. Khashtgir would speak in support of what the other called horses
food and the next week came the turn of Dr. Simpson to sponsor the case for
meat upon which his brother medico had poured vials of ridicule and
contempt as an item in the dietary of modern civilised man. The discussions
went on for about six weeks. Each party was very well-prepared to support
his own thesis with elaborate charts covering the wall. The chief emphasis
was, in both cases, on the scientific aspects of the horses food and dogs
food. The public interest in the debate was so .well maintained that, from
beginning to the end, there was a respectable audience present. Of course,
there was no reference to vitamins which would figure so prominently in
the dietary of men and animals alike today. My own reaction to the debate
was take both gram and meat in moderation. Neither to the exclusion of the
other.
Before closing this brief account of Dr. Sircars Institute, I will refer to a
little incident which may not be without an interest. In those days, there were
very few up-countrymen except as Durwans in business firms and on the
menial establishments of Government offices. Least of all a Punjabi with a
turban on his head was to be expected at a science lecture in the big hall of
Dr. Sircars Institute. One day, as I entered and espied the audience from one
side of the hail to the other for a vacant seat, I saw a sea of black bare heads
before me. The bare heads also noticed me. They cheered me. On my
occupying the nearest vacant seat, I took off my turban and placed it on the
desk in front of me. They cheered again. I put the turban on my head again
Louder cheering than before!

Residence in a big city like Calcutta is in itself a source of continuous

education. For a man who has his eyes open, a walk through its streets, is
like a never ending reel of cinema film thrown on the screen Lahore, Delhi,
and Allahabad the only large towns I had till then seen could all be
shoved away in a corner of Calcutta. But its size was not the chief thing that
struck me. I was most impressed by the almost bewildering multiplicity of
interests that appeared to me at every turn of the street. It should be tedious
even to give a catalogue of the new impressions that assailed me during the
few brief months of my stay in Calcutta.
Only one picture of this long scroll I may like to reproduce here. One day
I asked a student friend where to buy a dhoti. He said the best place was a
certain market and that he could accompany me on the following Sunday as
otherwise I was sure to be cheated. I thanked him for his kind offer, but told
him that I was old enough to take care of my self. Arrived at a shop in the
market, I selected a Manchester made dhoti with a black border. What
price? I asked. One rupee and ten annas, was the prompt reply. Babuji,
you cannot cheat the son of a cloth merchant, I said. What will you give
then? asked the shopkeeper. Ten annas, was my offer which the man
readily accepted and I walked home with a beautifully washed black
bordered dhoti under my arms. In showing the dhoti to my friend, he said
that was the exact price that every Bengali would pay for it. This is,
however, only the beginning of the story. When I went out for a stroll in the
street in my new dhoti, I was accosted by an old Bengali Babu bending
under the weight of seventy years. Coming slowly towards me supported by
his staff he asked me with stentorian accents; Why do you wear that black-
bordered dhoti? It is a purely Bengali national dress. He spoke in somewhat
affected tone and with an unconcealed show of authority. Have I committed
a sin or a crime in wearing this dhoti? I queried. No, but this black-
bordered dhoti is a purely Bengali National dress, retorted the stranger. The
talk went on in this strain for quite three or four minutes and as neither of us
was inclined to give way to the other, I closed the discussion with the words:
I am according your black-bordered dhoti a higher place than you do. I am
making it Indian National dress. Only half-pleased with the compromise I
offered him, the gentleman walked away sulkily. Social rebel as I have
always been, for many years, the black bordered dhoti became my favourite
article of home dress. I do not think I have ever used the dhoti in public
except in Bengal.

H. F. Blanford and Meteorological Department

It is now time for me to take leave of Calcutta in order to proceed to Simla
which was to be my permanent official headquarters. It was from there that
the Daily Weather Report was to be issued. After seeing the Taj Mahal at
Agra on my way back to the Punjab, and spending a week or so at Lahore
and Bhera, I reached the summer capital of the Government of India
sometime in April, 1885. My boss Mr. Blanford had now returned from
leave. Our office was located in the top (sixth) story of one of the two huge
blocks of buildings which accommodated most of the Government of India
departments. Four large sized rooms were allotted to us one room was
assigned to the office and the other three to Mr. Blanford and his two
assistants. Only a small portion of the office was located at Simla. It
consisted of about a dozen clerks and computers and was sufficient for
bringing out the Daily and Monthly Reports. Mr. Dallas had one draftsman
attached to him who occupied a corner of his room, while all the other men
were meant for dealing with the Daily and Monthly weather reports for both
of which I was made responsible.
Some computers had been brought over temporarily from Calcutta. My
first duty, therefore, was to engage the services of a suitable Punjabi staff
who could take the place of the computers brought over from Calcutta. This
was necessary as Bengalis found it very inconvenient for them to remain at
Simla throughout the year. It took several months to train these men before
the Bengali computers could be sent back to Calcutta. For a couple of
months, I had to submit the Daily Weather Report to Mr. Blanford before it
was sent to the press. But one day, my boss refused to look at my Report,
saying that I must now be prepared to take the whole responsibility for the
Report upon myself. It was like my official coming of age. I was filled with
a new sense of responsibility. There were two elements in this feeling viz.,
the element of fear lest I should make some mistake in drawing wrong
conclusions from the data before me, and the element of a certain amount of
pride that I will now have an opportunity to show my real worth. The data
upon which the Daily Report was based consisted of the record of Weather
conditions as observed at about 120 stations all over India and Burma and
reported to us by telegraph every morning. The Report was generally ready
by 4.30 P.M. the same evening when it was sent to the Government Press at
Simla and at the same time a summary of it was telegraphed to all the Daily
papers in India.
Returning to my own room, the first thing I did was to tear up the
unrevised report and set to work again. It took me half-an-hour to prepare a
brand new draft of the Report. I checked and rechecked every statement with
the mass of facts and figures prepared and tabulated by the office. I took care
that any opinions expressed by me were as cautious as possible. However, it
was not without some trepidation that I allowed the sheet to leave my hands.
When the printed Report along with the date was received from the press the
next morning, and a copy of it was placed on Mr. Blanfords table as usual, I
was anxious to see what kind of reception awaited it. After half-a-hour or so,
I went into Mr. Blanfords room ostensibly to show him one paper, but, in
reality, to see if I had acquitted myself to his satisfaction. As no remark,
favourable or otherwise, was made, I concluded that there was nothing
seriously wrong with my report.
Days and even months passed. Occasionally Mr. Blanford would discuss
with me some important point arising out of my report, but more in the spirit
of a loving teacher than of an irritable monitor. One morning, however, I
found him in a very angry moodan unusual thing with him. The printed
report which lay on his table which he threw at me and made me say that the
barometer had fallen throughout a particular region, while the tabulated
figures told exactly the opposite story. This is how the department comes in
for severe criticism in the press, he said. I looked at the printed statement in
my report and also at the figures upon which it was supposed to have been
based. It was obvious that the report had let me down very badly and there
was no getting out of it. I was greatly surprised. Without saying a word in
reply to the rebuke, I came back to my room and sent for the original of my
report. I was much relieved to find that my own draft was all right and that
the Press Department had been really at fault. As soon as this was brought to
his notice, he apologised vociferously and said I was wondering how a
careful man like you could have made a serious mistake like this. Then he
said Look here, Lala Ruchi Ram write a strong letter to the Press and call
for a heavy punishment to the compositor who was responsible for the
mistake.
Coming to my own room, I drafted the letter and fearing that any proposal
of heavy punishment from me might mean the dismissal of one or two
men, I myself suggested a fine of two rupees. But as the letter was being
taken to the Superintendent of the Press, it occurred to me that by proposing
a light punishment of Rs.2 only, I might be running the risk of Mr.
Stanfords serious displeasure. I thought of showing him the letter before it
was despatched. I shall never forget the feeling of pain and pity for the
erring printer with which he read the letter; Lala Ruchi Ram, he said
pathetically to me, dont you think 2 rupees would be too much for those
poor devils to pay. They get mighty little. Propose eight annas. I want to
ensure the reader that Mr. Blanford was almost weeping as he addressed
these words to me. Within a few minutes not only had his white heat anger
quite cooled off, but it was turned into real sympathy with the lot of the poor
men. He seemed to be much relieved next morning to learn how the mistake
had taken place. In order to save time, the press men had several sets of
words and phrases like the barometer is rising, the barometer is falling,
the temperature is high; etc., that frequently occurred in weather reports. By
mistake, the compositor had picked up the wrong set of words and put it in.
The mistake was not discovered by the proof reader, as he had not compared
the proof with the original draft but simply saw that it made sense and was
correct English.
It is a pleasure to me to record here that I began my official career under
the happiest auspices and one could very much wish that all heads of
departments, great and small, Indians and Europeans, were the models of
gentleness, sweet reasonableness, scrupulous personal integrity and kindly
consideration for all their subordinates that I found Mr. Blanford to be.
During the two years that I spent in the Meteorological Department, I learnt
a great deal of the science of weather and particularly of the directions in
which new work was being done or was possible. I can recall several
occasions when my chief would send for me to his house so as to spend a
pleasant hour with me in explaining to me some important results that had
been obtained or observations made in Russia, America or somewhere else.
He would show me, the working of some new instrument that had been
received. On all these occasions, his particular emphasis was on the
interdependence of the weather in different parts of the world and,
particularly on the manner in which and the extent to which the weather in
one country may be influenced by the conditions in the neighbouring
regions. Obvious as this fact was, it made a deep impression upon me in its
widest implications. I need not say much about the human side of my kind
boss, but if all Englishmen were like Mr. Blanford, the social and political
relations between the two races of which we hear so much would have been
quite different from what, unfortunately, we find them today. We never
exchanged a word about politics and, indeed, the one topic of our
conversation and of common interest was science in general and the
science of weather, in particular. He would often lend me new books or
reports to read and every now and again took the opportunity to impress
upon me that, as a young man, I should make it a habit to read books and
thus prepare myself for my life-work. He would ask me not to do this or that
work myself, but got it done by one of the clerks so as to find more time for
self-study. In later life I made this valuable direction into a motto for
yourself: Do not do yourself what you can get others to do for you.
I will close this brief tribute to Mr. Blandford with a few words about a
reminiscence which though trifling in itself is significant of the bonhomie of
the man. Those were the days of Qui Haithe word has passed into the
English language but my boss never once shouted to me from his chair or
even sent for me through the chaprasi. Whenever he wanted to see me, the
old man would get up from his seat and, opening the door that separated our
rooms would say gently: Lala Ruchi Ram, upon which I would get up and
follow him to his table where I always found a chair ready for me.
I have known European officials who would soon as an Indian visitor was
announced, get the spare chair lying near their own removed so as to make
the man stand for a few minutes before a chair was brought for him from the
next room. It is a common experience of Indian visitors of respectable
positions to be made to wait outside in the verandah for as long a time as the
man would submit to. The usual answer given by the chaprasi on such
occasion is, the sahib is in the bath room. Friends have told me that while
the chap fast had asked them to wait because the sahib was in the bathroom,
they could clearly see that the sahib himself was peeping at them through the
glass window of his room to see how they behaved under the deliberate
insult of long waiting outside the house. As a rule, to which I have found
very few exceptions, one or two of the discarded chairs were placed in the
verandah and the chaprasi made it a point to ask you to sit down. I mention
ail this as the official background against which Mr Blanfords own
behaviour towards me was to be judged He never once objected to my
appearing before him with shoes on, although the shoe questionto use
the common phrase of the newspaper editors of the time - was a constant
source of trouble between European and their Indian visitors even in the
office. I myself had a mild rebuke once. It so happened, that I was seeing the
D.P.I, along with an Inspector of Schools who was more respectful than I
was in the habit of being to my confessions. The inspector had not only
taken off his shoes before entering the room, but had also put them out of
sight in a far corner of the verandah. Noticing this, my boss said to me:
You do not show the respect to your chief that other officers always show.
As I had never done it before and had no mind in future to show respect to
any one at the cost of my own self-respect. I simply smiled and kept quiet.
The Surveyor Generals office was next to the Meteorological Office The
high European officials there were not even pleased to see a mere native
occupying a responsible post in a scientific Department of the Government
of India. There were frequent occasions when a gesture was made at me or a
remark thrown as I passed one of them in the verandah. I made it a rule to
turn up my nose or mutter a word of gentle retort, but not to speak to my
boss. I thought it was best not to be too sensitive, but at the same time not to
take the insult if it was meant as such lying down, as the phrase goes. I
turned this far from pleasant experience to good account as it led me to make
it a rule of my life not to complain to others but to set things right myself, so
far as it was possible. I may mention that, in the few cases where I departed
from this practice, I failed to get the relief which I sought and which was
certainly my due. While I was at the Meteorological Office,. a particularly
virulent attack upon me appeared in the columns of the Pioneer of
Allahabad, then the most influential paper in India. In one of the articles,
the paper referred to a certain daily report of mine and complained that I
had failed to give the forecast of the weather that I could and should have
given on the basis of the available data. The writer added that the time had
not come for a native to be appointed to a responsible scientific post. He
had no grievance, he pointed out, against the particular individual who had
been put in charge of the onerous duties for which an European alone was
the fittest person. The criticism closed with a reference to the fact that the
daily weather Report was sent to foreign countries, including Russia, and
that the Russians would have but small regard for the Government of India
when they realised that a native had been appointed to a such a responsible
post. I brought the offensive article to the notice of Mr. Blanford and asked
his permission to reply to it, pointing out to him at the same time that the
data before me was quite insufficient, and that his own instructions were
not to venture on a forecast unless there was a reasonable possibility of its
turning out to be correct. He said his own rule was not to enter into a
newspaper controversy on such matters, especially as the opponent was not a
scientific man. I had no option but to keep quiet. A young man is however,
very impatient to justify himself, if he can and I was no exception to this.
After a few weeks, the time came for me to write the monthly weather
report. I now seized the opportunity to discuss the point in some detail to
which the Pioneer had made reference without mentioning the paper itself.
In submitting this report to Mr. Blanford, I drew his kind attention to the
matter and begged him to let my remarks stand with such corrections or
alterations as he might consider it necessary or desirable to make. My chief
heartily congratulated me for the manner in which I had set out the facts of
the case, and returned the report to me for publication with a brief
supporting note of his own below.
On returning to Simla after some months Mr. Blanford asked me if I knew
who the writer of the article in the Pioneer was. I said I had no means of
knowing the name of the writer. I was then informed by him that it was Mr.
Hill, the very man who had selected me for my post Mr. Hill was Professor
of Physics in the Central Muir College, Allahabad, and Provincial Reporter
for the N. W. Provinces. Mr, Blanford also told me that he had written a
strong personal letter to him.
The most important event of my career in the Weather Office was the
action that I took, entirely on my own responsibility, in issuing the
immediate danger signal to all the port stations in northern Bengal (Orissa
was a part of the province) to hoist the red ball. On going to office in the
morning, I called for as usual such of the weather reports as had been
tabulated. On examining them, I noticed that Diamond Harbour had reported
an unusually rapid fall of atmospheric pressure. There was nothing in the
reports from the surrounding stations to explain or support this. I was alone
at Simla at the time, both Mr. Blanford and Mr. Dallas having gone down to
Calcutta. I had an urgent telegram sent to the Observer at Diamond
Harbour asking him to send me a fresh report of the latest readings. This
report confirmed my original suspicion that a big storm was approaching. I
then asked him not to leave the observatory till further orders, and keep
sending me half hourly reports of the weather. A little later, I asked two or
three of the other neighbouring stations also to do the same. Meanwhile, I
was up fuller also making a hurried study of the reports of previous big
storms. It was only when I was quite convinced in my mind that a big storm
was approaching the coast that I issued the immediate danger signals.
This done, I sent a long wire to my Chief at Calcutta informing him of
what I had done and reproducing the important features of the special reports
that I had obtained. I afterwards learnt from the office men at Calcutta that
for a few minutes after the receipt of my telegram, Mr. Blanford felt
seriously perturbed and upset. He at once ran to Professor Pedler and asked
him if he knew anything of a big storm in the Bay. Professor Pedlar was
Provincial Reporter for Bengal. In this capacity he used to get all the reports
of the Bengal stations which were nothing but duplicates of the morning
reports that were sent to Simla for the daily weather report Professor
Pedler knew nothing of the storm. In fact, he had not till then even looked at
the reports. As I have said before, Professor Pedler had too many wires in
the fire. He was Professor of chemistry in the Presidency College, he was
water and gas analyst to the Calcutta municipality, he was Meteorological
Reporter to the government of Bengal, and he had a fair private practice as
an analyst of wines and drugs etc., for the big importing firms at Calcutta.
On the suggestion of Mr. Blanford, Professor Pedler sent out orders to the
affected stations to repeat the telegrams they had been sending to me. By
this time the storm had very much increased in intensity and had invaded the
coast. When the report that had roused my first suspicion reached me, the
storm was yet some distance from the land. Everything showed Mr. Blanford
and Professor Pedler quite convincingly that I was correct in my judgement
and that the orders that I had issued were quite justified. I think this was the
storm that subsequently became the subject of a big paper under the title of
the False Point Cyclone.
In the winter months of the first year of my service at Simla, I had to face
a storm from my own subordinates. According to orders from Calcutta a
new correction had to be introduced in the telegraphically reported readings.
The computers complained that this would mean an hours additional work
for each of them and that they were already over-worked. I explained to
them that it would involve but a slight addition to their present duties, but
they would not listen. They submitted their resignations in a body. The
head computer, one Allah Bakhsh of Jullundhar, and the second in
command, Amar Singh, were the ring leaders. I had myself appointed both
these men a few months earlier and given the positions of importance over
others. The more I pleaded with them and the others, the more obstinate they
became. The situation was far from comfortable. With the snow falling
every now and again, importing trained men from Calcutta was out of
question and advertising for fresh men in Punjab and selecting and training a
completely new set of computers was only a little less promising. I was
determined to take a strong attitude and whatever happened not to yield to
threats. I told them I would give them 24 hours to reconsider the matter
when I would accept their resignations with a notice of a fortnight instead of
a month. My real object was to practise the portion of work that had been
assigned to the two ring leaders, so that they might see that I would not be
frightened by the difficulties of training new men in their place. Next day I
first asked the ring leader if they were prepared to withdraw their
resignations. No, they were not. I then asked Allah Bakhsh to bring his
papers to me so that I might see for myself how many hours work he had to
do during the whole day. I made him stand by my side while I started doing
his work myself. He watched me carefully for about three-quarters of an
hour. Noticing that I had no difficulty whatsoever in disposing of his own
work and (hat I was getting through it perhaps even faster than he did, he
became somewhat uncomfortable. I told him from what I had myself seen of
the work allotted to him that it should not take him more than three hours to
finish it. I told him if they were prepared to lose a months salary in lieu of
notice of resignations, I would let him and Amar Singh go away
immediately. I would do their work myself so long as I was not able to train
new men. It would be needless for me to enter here into the long sermon I
gave him. He soon realised that if he persisted I was determined to get rid of
both the ring leaders at once and that they would be the only sufferer. He
begged to be allowed to withdraw their resignations. I said the resignation
was now a part of their service record and that he could submit a fresh
application to me which would, of course, be considered. This he did. I
agreed to cancel his resignation. Amar Singh also submitted a similar
application with the same result. Then I sent for all the others together. They
too submitted a joint application. While accepting it, I passed an order that I
was accepting the applications of all the computers on the distinct
understanding that, if there was trouble again in the office, I would take their
present conduct into consideration and turn them out of the office. I
reminded them that the dismissal from Government Service at one place
would debar them from all future services under the Government. I was glad
that the trouble had been got over so easily. I had no mind to take a drastic
action, as it would have necessitated a reference to Mr Blanford which I was
determined to avoid, if possible
Early in the winter of my first year at Simla, a little incident occurred
which; I think may not be without interest for some of my readers. Looking
at the snowy range in the distance from the ridge day after day I noticed that
the snow linen had perceptibly come down. I determined to refer to the fact
in the Weather Report now and again for the nearer hills, giving, as far as
possible, the approximate level to which the snow had descended. One day I
thought of taking some observations from the top of Jako. For some reason
which I do not remember now, I climbed up by a foot path on the back side
of the hill. I had slung the strap of my prismatic compass with its leather
case round my neck. As apart of the track was covered with leaves and had
become all the more slippery by a recent fall of sleet, I attempted to go up to
the steep road by walking on all fours. Unfortunately the leather case of the
compass was left open by mistake. The instrument slipped out and,
presently, I saw it rolling down the hill. It so happened that the lid was left
behind at a short distance, while the compass itself rolled down a
considerable distance into a khudd. I picked up the lid and placed two pieces
of stone, one near each of the two trees between which I had seen the
instrument rolling down the hill. I was alone at the time Returning to the
office, I went back to the spot accompanied by a peon. I made the peon take
a position some distance below the trees between which the instrument had
passed on its downward course. I then rolled the lid (without the compass)
from my original position so that it might pass between the two trees. The
peon, of course, followed with his eyes, as far as he could see, the movement
of the lid. This done, I asked the man to go and find both the lid and
compass. As I had hoped and expected, the two parts of the instrument were
found to be lying at a distance of a few yards from one another. I was glad
that it was not necessary for me to report the loss of the instrument to my
boss It was not merely a matter of about Rs.20or Rs.25,but it would have
showed carelessness on my part which a young man with ambition to please
his chief would do much to avoid. As it was, I did write to Mr Blanford
about the whole incident, but in the new settings, in which the recovery of
the instrument was made, it acquired an interest of its own and I was the
recipient of congratulations rather than condemnation.

Mr. John Elliot the Native Hater

The time was now coming when my connection with the Meteorological
Department was to cease. Sometime .in the summer of 1886, I received
intimation from Professor Oman that it had been decided to appoint me as an
Assistant Professor in the College on Rs.200 rising to Rs.350 but that the
letter of appointment would only be sent to me after the receipt of a formal
application for the post. I showed the letter to Mr. Blanford. He did not like
the idea of my leaving the Department when I had begun to be useful. He
expressed his sympathy with me on account of my low salary but assured
that he would get my grade revised. On my own part, I also expressed my
sincere regret at the prospect of my parting with him but reminded him that
he himself was about to retire from service and that I did not know how I
may get on with his successor. As a matter of fact I knew, that Mr John
Elliot was a native hater. Several Bengali friends had mentioned this to me
giving him the very epithet which I have used about him. With great
effort I succeeded in getting Mr. Stanfords kind consent to apply for the
Lahore post, but only on the condition that I would not leave the Department
before the close of the financial year, about which time he himself was
finally to relinquish charge of his office. In due course of time I received the
official letter with direction to join by the end of March next.
The reputation that Mr. Elliot had acquired in the Presidency College was
not quite unjustified, a fact to which I can myself testify. During my first
summer vacation at the Government College (July-September 1887)I went
up to Simla. One day I called on Mr. Elliot. He did not offer me a chair and,
indeed, there was no spare chair in the room. His first words were: What
can I do for you? Mr. Elliot, would you mind sending a brief report about
my work here to the Punjab Education Department, I replied. The answer
which I received was unbelievably insulting. Getting into a futile rage, he
said, I do not know if Mr. Blanford had a special berth for you. I am glad
to be out of the reach of your berth, Mr. Elliot. With these words I quitted
the room, thanking my stars as I retired that I was no longer under the new
Meteorological Reporter. I admit it was not prudent on my part to have gone
to Mr. Elliot. But prudence comes by years and having served under a man
like Mr. Blanford, despite all I had heard about Mr. Elliot, I had not the
foggiest notion that Mr. Blanfords successor in office could behave no
better than a cad. Mistakes are the best school and, perhaps, it was just as
well that, quite early in my life, learnt the valuable lesson that there were
two opposite sides of a medal, one represented by, say Mr. Blanford and
other by Mr. Elliot.

II
My Association with the Punjab Education Department
In the last week of March 1887, I left Simla and on the 29th of the month
I took over charge of my new post as Assistant Professor of Science in the
Government College, Lahore. As within a few days Professor J.C. Oman
himself went away on a two-year furlough, I was soon burdened with heavy
responsibilities. I was put in full charge of the Chemistry Department. The
number of students in the degree classes was small, not more than 30, I
think, in both the third and fourth year classes which were taken together. In
the M.A. class there was only one student and even he had not taken up
chemistry for his B A. examination. On the top of this, I found that my
solitary student, Mr. Jagan Nath, the very man who had come to my rescue
on a critical occasion, held his scholarship for one year only and that he
could not afford to spend a second year at the college. He was, however,
very keen to study chemistry but did not care for his M.A. degree. His object
in joining the Chemistry class was simply to study the subject and not to
qualify himself for a job. He had made up his mind to devote himself to an
industrial pursuit. He proved to be an enthusiast and it was a real pleasure to
teach him. In the earlier months he frequently attended the B. A. classes as
well. Throughout the year that he spent with me at the college he helped me
in preparing my own experiments both for the intermediate and the degree
classes.
I may mention here that Mr. Jagan Nath used his time at the Government
College to such good account that soon after leaving college he was
appointed a Professor of Chemistry first at the D.A.V College, Lahore, and
afterwards at the Khalsa College, Amntsar. After collecting some money by
living a simple life, he retired to his native province of Rajputana. The last I
heard of him was that he was living the simple life of a religious recluse
devoting all his time to religious studies, preaching to the pilgrims that came
to the Sabhur Lake and doing other acts of social service and making himself
useful to the poor in every possible way. I was happy to learn that, for his
personal wants he strongly refuses to be a burden on others, but depends
upon the little income he gets from his small savings. It is a long way from a
would be industrialist to a religious preacher, but in India such cases of
sudden conversion are common enough to cause any surprise.

Preparation for My Lectures

It was my practice during the first five years of my career as a teacher at
the college to perform all the experiments I had to show to my classes a clear
week ahead and not to be satisfied with any of them till I had succeeded
three times in succession. This means that if I failed to get the best results
with an experiment, say, in the third trial, I had to start with it over again till
I had obtained three repeated successes.
 Preparing for the next days practical class

At the same time, I strictly followed Michael Faradays direction to a

beginner to attend to the minutest details. A small instance will explain
what I mean. If I wanted a match box for three separate experiments
arranged for a particular day on my lecture - table, a matchbox was to be
found lying by the side of the apparatus for each experiment. I had also a
matchbox in my pocket, so that when I went round the laboratory tables, it
was never necessary for me to ask for a match box in order to light up the
gas burner to show some chemical operation. I do not think I ever failed in a
class experiment during all these five years. This habit gave me considerable
confidence and in subsequent years, it was only necessary for me to arrange
my experiments on the lecture-table on the previous day without making any
elaborate preparation beforehand, except in the case of an experiment that
required, in my judgement, some special care or caution, or that were
otherwise likely to give trouble of one kinder another. I do not think that
during the whole of my long career at the college lever came home without
seeing my next days experiments arranged in the manner I have explained
on my lecture table. For most experiments my Laboratory Assistant had a
carefully prepared list of the requisite apparatus, requirements and
accessories but I was never satisfied till I had seen everything in its place for
the following days lecture before I left college.
Here I may also mention that during the winter session I used to attend
college every day, generally from 9.30 to 11.30 in the morning for lecture
work and again, after 2 P.M. for my practical classes. This was necessary to
allow me an hour for a siesta after my mid-day meal. All my life I was so
over-powered with sleep after this meal and to a lesser extent, after dinner,
that I had to see my bed was ready and near at hand to receive me. I must
have an hours nap after lunch to feel refreshed and fit for work again. On
important occasions when I was called upon to attend to business after lunch
hour, I missed my lunch altogether and take a cup of tea instead. At night I
went to bed immediately after my dinner. Indeed I am often found dozing
immediately after dinner and I have to be reminded by some member of my
family that I had better take to my bed.
This rather long digression was necessary to explain why I attended
college twice every day, while others, including senior professors, insisted
upon having continuous hours for their class work.
The first five years of my life as a teacher at the Government College
were perhaps the busiest and the hardest I have ever spent. On the top of the
demands on my time on account of the newly founded Punjab Science
Institute Workshop and other public activities, I devoted some ten hours a
day to my teaching work. I do not think I am overstating the facts when I say
that I spent about eight hours a daySundays and other holidays not
excluded at the college preparing for my lectures. My ambition was, as I
have said, to perform over and over again every experiment that I had to
show to my classes several days in advance. I paid an extra allowance to my
Laboratory Assistant from my pocket to compensate him for the additional
time he had to spend with me in the laboratory. During the first year I had
also the advantage of my friend Mr. Jagan Naths helpful co-operation,
while he felt that he was, in this way, making up for his deficiencies in not
having taken up chemistry for his degree examination, I could not but be
thankful for his intelligent co-operation, cheerfully rendered, in the heavy
task of preparing the experimental part of my lectures.
Apart from the rather too many experiments which I was in the habit of
showing to my classes day after day, I spent a considerable time in the
preparation of my lectures. Some idea of what this meant to me may be
formed from the fact that for the first two or three years I wrote out my class
lectures in the form of large summaries of what I was expected to say,
though I never once looked at them in the presence of the class. The more
important things to be explained were written out in a separate Class Note
Book. Some of these notes were sometimes dictated to the class but more
frequently they were placed on the table in a small corner room for the
students to read (or copy out) after lecture time. Even this was not all. Every
day for each of my classes, both junior and senior, I used to write out small
slip giving the important points in the lecture in the order in which they were
to be explained. This slip I held in my hand while lecturing to my classes.

Title page of Ruchi Rams published Class Note

With elaborate notes and experiments thoroughly prepared beforehand, I

was not expected to be at sea, as they say when I was confronted with
questions by my students. A new Professor, especially one who is just
starting on his teaching career, is sure to be bombarded with searching
questions by cleverer men in his class. Here I may also mention that before I
addressed a single class at the college, I had laid down a number of rules for
my own guidance. One of these rules was that, if in the course of my lecture
I was not able to answer a question satisfactorily, I should never beat about
the bush but at once acknowledge my ignorance and promise to look up the
point and explain it the following day. For this purpose I had provided
myself with a good collection of standard works in my subject. There was at
the time no university library, and the college library only contained books
on English language and literature, history, philosophy, fiction and a fair
collection of books on general subjects, but it was woefully deficient in
books on any branch of science. In addition to an initial outlay of about a
thousand rupees, it was my practice which I continued throughout my
college career to spend a minimum amount of Rs. 15 per month for the
purchase of new books in Chemistry and Physics. If in a particular month it
became necessary for me to purchase books of the value of say Rs. 30 or 40
or more, the next months allowance of Rs.15 for books must still be spent
on the purchase of new books in my favourite subjects. In later years my
own collection was substantially enlarged by the addition from time to time
of presentation copies from the publishers. My private library was not only
of great use to me in the thorough preparation of my lectures, but more than
once it also helped me in various other ways.

At the School of Art

Soon after joining the College Staff, I attended the carpentry classes at the
Mayo School of Art for about six months. I found this training of great use
to me in my routine work at the college. At the School of Art I was fortunate
to make the acquaintance of Lockwood Kipling (Father of Rudyard Kipling),
Bhai Ram Singh and Mr. Sher Muhammad. Mr. Lockwood Kipling was then
the Principal of the School of Art, while the other two gentlemen were
senior pupil-teachers there. The arrangements suited both Mr. Kipling and
his pupils. Ram Singh and Sher Muhammad got good stipends and were thus
kept on the school roll for many years before places were found for them on
the staff of the school. Ram Singh afterwards rose to become Principal of the
school, with (Khan Sahib) Sher Muhammad as his Vice Principal. Ram
Singh was a genius in artistic designing while Sher Muhammad equally
distinguished himself in decorative art. I may mention that most of the best
buildings at Lahore, including the University Convocation Hall, the
Museum, the Chief Court and the Aitchison College were designed by Ram
Singh. I believe his best designed building I mean from the artistic point
of viewis the Khalsa College at Amritsar. Sher Muhammad did not have
the same opportunities, but it is worth mentioning that he is responsible for
the wall decorations in the Lahore Government House. I have always
considered it a valued privilege to have counted them among my friends. It
is a thousand pities that the Punjab has not honoured their memory as they
deserved. Backward in many respects, the Punjab is specially lacking in
appreciating the worth of many of her gifted sons who carried on their work
in a quiet and unostentatious manner I look upon Bhai Ram Singh and
Munshi Sher Muhammad among gifted sons of the province who have been
quite forgotten and whose valuable services in resurrecting Indian art and
craftsmanship have not received the appreciation that was due to them.
It is a pleasure to me to record that when I presented myself before
Lockwood Kipling with the object of learning some carpentry, it was Bhai
Ram Singh to whose care and instruction I was assigned. Naturally carpentry
became a subsidiary object with me and the appreciation of art the major
interest. Even as a pupil-teacher Ram Singh was delighted to show me works
of art in the nearby museum and explain to me the criteria of the artistic
values of paintings, sculptures and other works of art. The present Tollinton
market was the Lahore museum at the time while the School of Art was
housed in an old unpretentious structure on the side of which the present
respectable and commodious buildings was erected soon after.

Period of Difficult Indo-British Social Relations

I had not been long at the Government College when an interesting
incident took place. It was the first of its kind in my official life, and looking
back upon it and reflecting on all that it implied, I cannot say I quite regret
it. From many points of view, closing quarter of the last century was a
difficult period in the Indo-British social relations. For the Britishers it was
the time when the Empire was rapidly expanding, and more important still,
both the meaning and the value of it were changing. (The author refers here
to his book A Century of Cultural Ferment (Chapter: Growth of Nationalism
in India) but we are yet to come across the book cither in published or
unpublished form.)
At the same time, India was now experiencing the effects of a social and
intellectual awakening the like of which she had not known before. The
whole intelligentsia of the country, while reluctant to leave the ancestral
moorings, was seized with a passion for the culture and civilisation of the
West. True, they severely criticised some of the official measures, but in the
same breath they gave expression to their sincere love and admiration for the
European arts and sciences, the liberalising English literature and, above all,
the gift of social and political freedom promised by the Proclamation of the
Queen the Magna Charta of Indian liberties. (I do not remember a single
speech of Surendranath Bannejea in the closing two decades of the last
century that did not end with the peroration: I take my stand upon the
Proclamation of the Queen-the Magna Charta of Indian liberties. I really
find it difficult to describe the tremendous enthusiasm with which this
peroration was received by the audiences.)
In 1894 or 1895, I had a strange experience which gave me a shock. It
was the first experience of the kind for me, though, unfortunately not the
last. One morning a student from a sister college came to my house and
asked me a question in Chemistry (practical paper) which he expected to be
set in the Intermediate examination the next day. He was himself appearing
at the examination. Mr. A., as I would call him for the sake of convenience
was related to some friend of mine and he used to see me now and again. I
considered the question a most unlikely one to be put to an intermediate
candidate and told him so. But Mr. A. would not listen to me. As he insisted
upon having an answer, I explained the question to him with the help of a
pencil diagram. What was my surprise to discover the next day that what I
had called an unlikely question had actually been asked! I could not explain
it in one way or the other. It will be unnecessary for me to go into the
background of the incident here. It will be enough for my present purpose to
mention that, on the recommendation of the Public Service Commission
presided over by Sir Charles Aitchison, it was decided in 1886 to divide the
higher education services into two distinct classes called the Indian and the
Provincial Services. Not only were the salaries attached to the posts in two
classes substantially different, but there were, in addition, certain
undesirable discrimination which gave rise to a bitter controversy in the
Press. One day Mr. TO. Lewis, our Principal, sent for all the four Indian
Assistant Professors L. Sagar Chand, Babu Shashi Bhushan Mukherji, G.
N. Chatterjee and myself. As soon as we were seated in the Principals
room, Mr. Lewis informed us that according the instructions he had received
from the Director of Public Instruction, in future full Professors would be
required to teach three hours a day (The present practice of lecturing
for 3 or 4 periods of 40 to 50 minutes each day during summer came into
vogue much later), while the Assistant Professors would be expected to
lecture four hours a day. Moreover, while the Professors would teach one
subject only, the Assistant Professors may be asked by the Principal to take
up two or more subjects, if necessary. To my enquiry as to why these
distinctions were to be made between senior and junior Professors, Mr.
Lewis informed us that the Assistant Professors were young men and had
not yet specialised in any particular subject while the Professors were
expected to be specialised and were generally older men. Then it would
mean Sir that a Junior Professor would never be a full Professor as he would
not be able to specialise in any one subject, I submitted. This was too
much for Mr. Lewis. In an angry mood, he asked me to repeat my words, as
it was necessary he said, to report them to the Director of Public Instruction.
As he said these threatening words, he took up his pen so as to take down
my words and report them verbatim to the Director of Public Instruction
Before I had time to open my mouth and explain myself, Lala (afterwards
Rai Bahadur) Sagar Chand came to my rescue. These may be taken as my
words also, he said, in a strong firm accent. And mine too, added Babu
Shashi Bhusan Mukherji and Mr. G.N. Chatterjee, almost in the same breath.
I shall never forget what the effect of the firm stand we all took in the matter
was upon Mr. Lewis. I am not exaggerating in the slightest degree when I
say that the pen actually dropped involuntarily from his hand.
Very well, you may go, were his final words to us. We never heard any
more about the strange proposal which would have for ever disqualified us
for holding, even temporarily, the post of a senior Professor of any subject in
the college.
Of course, there were other ways of keeping the Indian members of the
newly created Provincial Educational Service in their places and not aspiring
for a position in the Indian Educational Services (I.E.S.), a strange name for
a service from which Indians were, to all intents and purposes, excluded. It
will be enough to mention here even at the time of my retirement from
services in 1918, there were, so far as I knew, only three Indians in the
whole of India who could flourish the coveted letters I.E.S. after their
names. Even Sir P.C. Ray, D.Sc., remained in the provincial service all his
life. And there were several others equally well qualified. (Sir Jagdish
Chandra Bose, F.R.S. (Physics), Dr. D. N. Mullick (Mathematics) and an
Indian Christian gentleman (English) in Madras)
About the same time, or perhaps a little later, another incident took place
which would also seem to call for a brief reference here. As was to be
expected, the 1893 session of the Indian National Congress the first to be
held at Lahore created a sensation which I find it difficult to describe.
Practically the whole of Lahore (The front had reached the Water-Works
reservoir where an address was presented to Dadabhai Naoroji while the rear
was still thronging the open ground in front of the Wazir Khan mosque.) was
out to give a befitting reception to Lord Salisburys Blackman who had
been recently elected to the British Parliament by a liberal constituency. At
one point in the city the procession was easily a mile in length.
I must not spend too much time over these details, but hasten to describe,
as briefly as I can, the incident that concerns myself and my Indian
colleagues on the staff of the Government College. In view of the popular
excitement likely to be caused by the forthcoming Congress Session at
Lahore, the Punjab Government had issued elaborate instructions to its
servants, high or low, not to take an active part in the Congress movement,
nor to help it in any way with funds or use their influence in support of it.
This was all the more necessary because, at that time, Government servants
were not debarred from joining political organisations. As I have already
mentioned elsewhere, several college professors were regular members of
the local Indian Association of Calcutta, then the most influential political
society with branches all over the country. Accustomed to greater freedom
as we had been, we felt there was no justification for the severe restrictions
put upon our liberty of action. All the four Indian Assistant Professors met in
a room at the college to consider the position under the altered
circumstances. There was absolutely no difference of opinion upon one
point, namely, that we should all stand together and that, whatever our
decision, we should remain steadfastly united in support of it. In the event,
we resolved that we should all attend the Congress as Visitors, that each of
us should purchase a distinguished visitors ticket, the fee for which was Rs.
50, but that instead of occupying a seat on the dais to which we were
entitled, we should content ourselves with a chair on the back row of
ordinary visitors. We did not like to make ourselves too prominent in the
Congress as that might have been construed as using our influence. Whether
our line of argument was sound or otherwise, our decision served our main
purpose of making a small contribution to the Congress funds within the
four corners of the newly promulgated instructions for Government servants.
It only remains for me to mention now that everything went off even better
an we had expected. On the opening day a student steward (volunteer) came
round to see our tickets. Finding out that we held distinguished visitors
tickets, he politely begged us to move to the more comfortable seat on the
dais, but we made some excuse. The news soon spread among the small
number of University students who had been persuaded not without some
difficulty, to volunteer their services for the Congress session. Next day we
learnt from Mr. Charles Golaknath, Barrister, who was captain of the
Congress volunteers trial on the previous evening a large body of college
students had presented themselves before him for enrolment as volunteers.
He added that while before the session began he was experiencing serious
difficulties in finding men for taking up the various duties in connection
with the Congress, he had now more offers even from senior students, than
he had room for. We were further told that he had asked several of the
candidates why they had been holding back so long as their uniform reply
was that they had been advised by some friends not to enrol themselves as
volunteers as that was sure to affect their prospects of service under the
Government, when, however, they discovered that all the Indian members of
the Government College staff had purchased, on payment of
Rs.50each,fhedistinguishedvisitors tickets they took courage and offered
their services in a body to the Congress. That such thing was likely to
happen had never entered our heads before. Our only object in purchasing
the distinguished visitors tickets was to make a small contribution to the
funds of the national gathering.
Now let me come back to my own experience referred to earlier. On going
to the college after the examination was over, I spoke to Professor Oman
about my strange experience. Without a moments hesitation, he asked me if
I was prepared to report the matter to the Principal (Mr. Eric Robertson). I
said I had personally no objection to reporting it to anyone if he considered
it advisable for me to do so. He said it was a serious matter and he thought I
might speak about it to the Principal. I soon found out that the Principal was
alone in his office room and as I was about to go down to see him, Professor
Oman asked if I had any objection to his accompanying me to the Principal.
I could not possibly have any objection, though I could not understand at the
time why Professor Oman had made such a suggestion to me. Mr. Robertson
heard me patiently and put one or two questions tome, but said nothing more
definite to us than making the formal remarks; :I do not know what I can do
in the matter I was, however, glad that I had unburdened myself both to my
senior Professor of Science and the Principal of the College. As the sequel
would show, it was fortunate that I had seen the Principal in company with
Professor Oman.
Nothing more was heard about the matter for a whole year. Next year
something similar happened. I was selected one of the Superintendents of
the examination for the practical examination in Physics. All the students
were first assembled in the Government College Hall and it was my duty to
send batches of students to the three or four examiners in a certain order
fixed by the university authorities. In the hall, I heard some students
discussing certain questions. Two of these questions I considered to be
rather too advanced to be put to intermediate students but it was no part of
my business as Superintendent to say any thing. I was there simply to
maintain order and see that right batches were sent to the several examiners.
When the examination came to an end, to my surprise I had good reasons
to suspect that, probably, some of the students knew at least two of the
questions before-hand. As before, I brought the matter to the notice of
Professor Oman. He said: You reported the whole thing in my presence to
Principal Robertson last year. I would not advise you to jump into hot water
for nothing. Mr, Robertson had now left India and Mr. Dallinger has taken
his place Mr. Dallinger was a new-comer and I was not very familiar with
him as I was with Mr. Robertson.
This time Professor Oman was also one of the examiners for the practical
examination. A few days passed quietly enough when, one day, I was sent
for by Mr. Dallinger to see him immediately. When I appeared before him,
his first question was if I knew anything about the leaking out of the
Physics practical paper. I told him exactly what I knew and how my
suspicions were aroused. But you never reported the matter to me or to the
Registrar of the University (Dr. Aurel Stein), he said in an angry voice. He
went on to say a good deal about my responsibility as a Professor in the
college and as Superintendent of the examination. As I began to explain
myself, he cut me short and in rather a rough manner informed me that I
should see Dr. Stem at a certain hour.
There was not much time to lose I went straight to Dr. Stem. He was
alone and was, in fact, waiting for me. He received me as one would receive
a man who had already been adjudged a criminal. I found him in his
classroom at the Oriental College. Dr. Stem held the joined post of Principal
of Oriental College (I was then acting as Kapurthala Alexandra Scholar at
the Oriental College in addition to my own duties at the Government
College As Alexandra Scholar I had to deliver three lectures a week in Urdu
to the University Science Class at the Oriental College. I had also to
translate a scientific book into Urdu with the approval of the university
authorities. I may mention hero that I translated the Conservation of Energy
by Balfour Stewart (International Scientific Series) but, for eternal want of
funds, the book was never published.) and the Registrar of University. The
moment he saw me enter and even before I had come up to his table, he
shouted gruffly at me: Ruchi Ram, why did you not report the leakage of
the Physics Practical paper to me? I did bring the matter immediately to
the notice of Professor Oman and he advised me not to jump into hot water
for nothing, I submitted. This made him almost lose his temper. I did not
know all that had happened during the last few days. Lala Ruchi Ram, do
you understand your responsibilities as a Professor at the Government
College, and the Alexandra Scholar at the Oriental College, and as an
University Examiner and Superintendent of the examination. I know my
responsibility full well, Sir Last year I brought the matter to the notice of my
Principal (Mr. Eric Robertson), but nothing happened and did not consider it
necessary to bring the matter again to the notice of my Principal or yourself.
But I informed Professor Oman immediately of all that I had come to
know, I said. Far from my answer satisfying Dr. Stein, it made him
extremely restless as if he did not know what to say or do. Eventually he
said: This means that if an honest and straightforward examiner had not
brought the matter to my notice, we would never have come to know of it.
Whom do you mean I asked I mean, of course , he said. At this reply,
which would remind one of the well-known Persian couplet. (I do not know
if it came to ray mind at the time, but certainly I did not use it, through it
would have been quite appropriate for the occasion.) I could not contain
myself but said: Then your honest and straightforward examiner is himself
responsible for the leakage.
A scene that followed now was fit for angels to witness. A young Indian
Professor, who was yet on the threshold of his official career, had dared to
bring a serious charge in unmistakable language against a White man.
Thinking of the incident many time during all these subsequent years, I have
realised something of the infinite power and potency of Fact as against the
reverse of it. Truth is too sacred a word to be used in the present setting.
This incident like some others to which I have referred to in their proper
places, has been a beacon light in the so-called difficult path of my life. I
have not found it very difficult after all. The sacrifices that I was called upon
to make were as nothing when put by the side of the peace of mind and the
satisfaction of the soul that I felt whenever I had the courage to walk along
what Mazzini calls the right line.
Dr. Stein was sitting in a chair on the dais with a table in front of him,
while I had been standing on the floor below. There was no other chair in the
room. Hearing the terrible words from my lips that his honest and
straight-forward examiner was himself responsible for the leakage, Dr.
Stein flew into a rage. Suddenly, he came down from the dais, and stood as
closely as possible face to face in front of me. I believe for once his nose
touched my nose, but I would not be positive about it. Lala Ruchi Ram, he
said in red hot anger: Do you know what you are saying. You are bringing
a most serious charge against a White man. He added: It will be necessary
for me to report this matter to the Vice-Chancellor. Unmoved by his angry
words and unshaken by his threat, I said; Sir, I know exactly what I have
said. This is not the first time that the questions were communicated to his
own students beforehand by I lost no time in mentioning the matter to my
Senior in the college whenever anything came to my notice and every time I
followed his advice. Very well, you can give your explanation to the Vice-
Chancellor. Saying this, Dr. Stein asked me in a pre-emptory voice: Give
me a written statement which I will place before the Vice-Chancellor. I
pulled out a sheet of paper from a wooden desk on his table and removing
his inkstand and pen to a student desk in the room, I began to write out my
statement. But somehow or other, at this moment there was a compete
change in Dr. Steins attitude towards me. He came up to where I was sitting
and, speaking gently tome, said; Lala Ruchi Ram, this is a very serious
matter. Do not be in a hurry. Think over it carefully and send me the
statement by tomorrow 4 Oclock. Ready as I was to write out my
statement, I really was glad to be allowed more time for it, especially as I
could have a talk with Professor Oman about the startling new turn of events
before sending it to Dr. Stein.
From Dr. Steins room I went straight to the house of Professor Oman. He
was so much excited at hearing of what had passed between myself and Dr.
Stein, that he rushed into an adjoining room to call his wife to listen my
story. After I had repeated the tale of my recent adventure practically to the
whole family who had now gathered around me, Professor Oman threw a
further light on the real situation. He told me that he had quite independently
known for several years in succession that the particular White man had
been in the habit of explaining some of the questions set for the university
examination to his own class a couple of days before the date fixed for the
examination. The exact method adopted by him was as follows: The whole
class was sent for one evening immediately before the examination when the
Professor would explain to them some eight or nine questions including the
two or three that were set for the examination. As it happened once a student
of Professor Omans own class was also present when the important
questions were being explained. He had been invited by a friend of his in the
class of Dr. Steins honest and straightforward examiner. This happened a
year or two before my own suspicions were aroused and it was really to
confirm his own information received from one of his students that Professor
Oman had suggested to me to report the matter to Principal Eric Robertson
and even offered to go with me. This was a valuable piece of information
that lent strong support to my own statement made only a couple of hours
earlier to Dr. Stein. Another useful bit of news that I now heard for the first
time at Professor Omans house was that for reasons of his own into which I
need not enter here, Dr. Steins honest informant had thrown the
responsibility for the leakage of the examination paper of the year upon
Professor Omans shoulders. He did not know that incontestable evidence
could be produced to show that the Physics practical paper had become
known to some of the candidates for several years in succession when
Professor Oman was not one of the examiners but he himself was.
Immensely fortified in my position in the manner I have explained,
Professor Oman and myself together prepared a statement for submission to
Dr. Stein. Professor Oman was now personally interested to clear up his own
position. Dr. Steins informant had over-reached himself and there were
many things that made the case against him as clear and conclusive as is
possible in such circumstances.
Next morning when the university office opened, I personally handed
over the document in a sealed cover and obtained a receipt for it. I never
heard of the matter again. I do not know if my statement was placed before
the Vice-chancellor, or anybody else. The erring examiner continued to act
in the same capacity for a couple of years longer when his name was
dropped. From the increased consideration with which I was treated by
many gentlemen high up in the counsels of the university at the time, I guess
that at least some of them had come to know of what had happened.

III
My First Visit to Europe
Although I had long been wishing and planning to spend sometime in a
British or continental university, it was under strange and entirely
unexpected conditions that, at last. I was led to make up my mind, early in
1914, to carry out my long cherished intention. While I was yet a student at
the Government College,! first conceived the idea of going to Europe for
further study and there was a fair prospect before me of securing a loan at a
small rate of interest, but as the scheme was about to mature I began to be
troubled with the thought of educating myself with borrowed money. Again
immediately after the arrival of Mr. A.C. Hermuryas Professor of Science, I
wanted to take one years furlough, but I was asked to wait on the ground
that my chief was a stranger to the country and it was not considered
desirable that both the men in the Science Department should be new to the
work. A year or two later I decided to give up service altogether and start
some chemical works. This idea had also to be abandoned. But then an
extreme painful incident came to passperhaps the most depressing and
oppressing one that I have had to face in all my life. I have spent a long time
in considering whether I should not slip over it altogether but in view of the
fact that the eventual publication of any autobiography will depend upon
others, and not upon myself, I have with some reluctance come to the
conclusion that I may leave the facts, as I know them, on record.
This unpleasant incident which forcibly turned my attention towards the
desirability of spending sometime in Europe and carrying out some
important piece of research particularly in the new subject of radioactivity.
Somehow or other for the past two or three years, I had been very much
interested in that subject and had been studying everything that I could lay
my hands upon whether in journals or in books on that subject. Soon after
my election as a Fellow of Punjab University, I became a Syndic and but
for a break for a year or so, remained a Syndic up to the year 1921 when I
resigned my Fellowship and all in obedience to the Congress mandate. As
was to be expected during all these years I was one of the most active
members of the university. Of course, I had my share of the examination
work of the university. Once, about the time I am speaking of, I happened
to be absent from the Board of Studies meeting at which examiners
for the next year were to be elected. A few days later, I discovered that my
name had been dropped as an examiner for the degree examination in
science. There were two separate examinations in those days, as they are
now, namely one on the arts side and the other on the science side. For
several years continuously I was selected as an examiner either for the B.Sc.
or the B.A. examination Professor Mouat Jones, then senior Professor of
Chemistry, being appointed for the other examination. For the M.Sc.
examination most of the work was taken up by Professor Jones. I may
mention that I was at that time full Professor of Chemistry but in the
Provincial Services while Mr. Jones was in the Indian Educational Service. I
was much surprised to find that somehow or other the Board of Studies had
selected Professor Jones as an examiner both for the B.A. and B.Sc.
examinations. This I regarded as a slur upon me, but I believed at the
moment that the omission of my name was from the list of examiners was
nothing but a mistake and that there was no design on the part of any body to
supersede me. For an old teacher, as I was at the time, an examinership was
not to be regarded as a question of money but of kudos Besides there was no
reason why Professor Jones should have been appointed an examiner for
both the B.A. and B.Sc. examinations while his colleague in the Provincial
Service who had been teaching the classes for quarter of a century was
unconsciously ignored altogether. Puzzled and perplexed about the matter, I
brought it to the notice of R.B. Shadi Lal (afterwards Sir Shadi Lal). He
agreed with me that some mistake had been made and he said that he would
see that my name was restored when the list of examiners was placed for
confirmation before the Syndicate meeting. I may mention that both R.B.
Shadi Lal and myself were members of the Syndicate and so was Professor
Mouat Jones. Dr. J.C.R Ewing was Vice-Chancellor of the University at the
time.
When the list of examiners proposed by the Board of Studies came up
before the Syndicate for confirmation, Mr. R.B. Shadi Lal proposed me the
examiner for the B.A. examination in chemistry. The proposal was negatived
by 5 against 4 I did not vote at all. He then proposed me for the B.Sc.
examination with the same result. Next he proposed me for the M.Sc.
examination with the same result again. The same thing happened with B A.,
B.Sc., and M.Sc. examinations in physics. In the case of each of these six
proposals made by R.B. Shadi Lal one after another the voting was 5 against
4. R. B. Shadi Lal then lost his temper, rather an unusual thing for a man
who was well-known all over the province for remaining calm and cool even
under circumstances of great provocations. Addressing the Vice-Chancellor,
he said that he would ask for permission to propose that members of the
Board of Studies should not take part in their own election for examiners
hips. Dr. Ewing replied that various complaints had come to his notice from
other sources also but he asked R B. Shadi Lal not to press his motion at that
meeting adding that he would see to it that some reform in the direction
indicated by Shadi Lals proposal was adopted Sir Shadi Lal then withdrew
his proposal.
At the close of the Syndicate meeting, Mr. J.C. Godley (Director of Public
Instruction) took me aside and asked me why the whole European staff of
the Government College was against me All that I could tell my boss in
reply to his sympathetic enquiry was that my relations with them were
generally very cordial and that I had no reasons to believe that any of them
was hostile to me. He said that everyone of the European Professors in the
college had voted against me in each of those six proposals. He surprised me
by expressing himself somewhat bitterly against the members of the college
staff for reserving all their support for Professor Mouat Jones. He said that it
was but fair that I should have been given part of the examination work for
the senior classes, as I was teaching those classes myself along with
Professor Jones. I thanked Mr. Godley for his sympathy and support and
came away. Before leaving the room Mr. Godley himself told me that he had
voted for me on each of Shadi Lals six proposals.

Who is Better Chemist?

 Next day as I was about to leave college after the days work, a very
carious dialogue took place between myself and Professor Mouat Jones. He
took me to his office room and offering the chair to me while he himself was
perched on the corner of his writing table, he put the extraordinary question
to me. (Professor Jones was all smiles as he spoke.)
Jones: Rai Sahib, May I know who is the better chemist yourself or
myself?
R.R.: I do not know how that question arises.
Jones: You allowed yourself to be proposed as an examiner for the
degree classes while the Board of Studies had selected me for the work.
R.R.: Let me tell you first, Mr. Jones that you are wrong in
supposing that I allowed myself to be proposed for the Examinership. The
fact is that I asked Mr. Shadi Lal to propose me. I believed ray name had
been dropped through some mistake.
Jones: Oh! I did not know that you asked him to propose your name
while the Board of Studies had definitely selected me for the work.
R.R: Yes, that is so.
Jones: Then surely you consider yourself to be a better chemist than I
am. How is it that Mr. Godley is so well disposed towards you!
R.R.: I do not know, I do not know how much chemistry you know
and you have no means of knowing how much of it I know. I do not know if
the D.P. I, is particularly kind to me. For the rest you may ask him directly.
Jones: But surely you know that I am taking the M. A. classes in
chemistry while your work is confined to the B. A. and B.Sc. classes. [He
surprised me very much by telling me that he had overheard the whole
conver-sation between Mr. Godley and myself. He was behind the curtain
between the Syndicate room and the big room used for senate meeting in
those days.]
R.R.: You were keen to take up all the teaching work for the M. A.
classes and I did not mind it. In the other subjects young Assistant
Professors are given M. A. work while I am a full Professor in the Provincial
Service with a quarter of centurys teaching experience to my credit.
Provincial Service has been defined as a provincial service to the Indian
Educational Service.
Jones: Whatever the reason may be, the fact is I am taking the M. A.
classes while you are not.
 R.R.: Mr. Jones you have been here for about six or seven years. Do
you know that I have been in sole charge of the M.A. classes both in physics
and chemistry for nearly seven years.
Jones: When was it?
R.R.: The first time I took the M. A. class was more than 20 years
ago and since then I have off an & on been in charge of the M.A. classes in
physics or chemistry for odd periods of a year or so at a time. I believe the
total period will come to about seven years.
Jones: (Somewhat angrily) What did you say, about 20 years?
R.R.: Yes, Mr. Jones, you must be very young at the time.
Jones: (Losing his temper). What did you say? Will you repeat it?
R.R.: Mr. Jones we need not talk like this within College walls, I am
quite ready to discuss this matter with you outside the precincts of the
College.
Jones: (Angrily) I want to know when was it when you taught the M.
A. classes.
R.R.: I have told you, Mr. Jones, it was more than 20 years back
when I first taught the M.A. class in Chemistry. As a matter of fact it was in
1887 that I first taught the M.A. classes in Chemistry.
Jones: (Furiously) Oh! Oh!
RR.: We need not talk further about this matter.
Jones: No, No It is very interesting: What did you say? I was very
young at the time!
R.R.: Mr. Jones you must be trotting on your knees at the time.
Jones: (Loudly) Then surely you must be a very great chemist!
RR: I do not know, I have not said so, Mr. Jones, it is not nice for
two members of the Staff to be talking like this within the College
premises.
Jones: But you must answer my plain question. Who is a great
chemist?
RR: I have said I do not know. I had no occasion to test your
knowledge of chemistry and I do not think you had occasion to test my
knowledge of chemistry. But if you like we can easily find that out. You fix
a portion of the subject for me and I will lecture on that subject to any of the
classes you name. You can be present while I am lecturing, say for a
fortnight. Similarly, I can name a subject for you and ask you to teach that
subject to a class selected by me for a fortnight, while I would be present in
the class room. At the end of the period, we can criticise the work of each
other and thus find out how much we really do know and how much we do
not know.
Mr. Jones was very much upset over my suggestion of a method for
testing each others abilities. After a little further parley leading nowhere, he
took me into his confidence and told me that the Board of Studies had
passed me over, because in their opinion, I was a very lenient examiner. I
asked him why he not mentioned this interesting fact at the Syndicate
meeting to explain the reason for omitting my name from the list of
examiners and selecting him instead. I added that if I was a lenient examiner
I was lenient for one and all and not only for my own students. Although I
was an Indian and therefore more accessible to everybody than, perhaps he
was, no one had dared to approach me for any special favour. On the other
hand, it was well-known that he (Mr. Jones) would go round to his own
students, in the Hostel and hint to them what questions were going to be set
for the practical examination. I further explained to Mr Jones that it was a
habit with me to give a grace mark to everyone who failed for one mark
only. Thus if the pass marks were 25, all students who got 24 marks would
have the benefit of grace mark from me. This was done for years in the past
in the case of all candidates and not of a selected few only. On the other
hand, I told him I knew of a case when he (Mr. Jones) and another Professor
from a sister college at Lahore were co-examiners. A certain student got 16
marks only while 17 marks would have seen him through. Mr. Jones was not
willing to give the examinee one mark more. He was in favour of keeping
back while his colleague was of a different opinion. I told Mr. Jones that we
had no fine chemical balance to judge of the abilities of students. If I was a
lenient examiner, he (Mr. Jones) was a stiff examiner, I said. Further I
added:
I am sorry, Mr. Jones, you did not tell the Syndicate on that day why my
name was omitted for degree examination. If you had done so then I would
have asked the Syndicate to leave out your name instead of mine. I would
have told them of the case of the poor candidate who got only 16 marks
while 17 marks could have seen him through. Yourself and your colleague
discussed the fate of the poor fellow for 10 or 15 minutes and as you both
did not agree as to whether he should be declared to have passed or
otherwise, on your suggestion it was decided to settle the matter by a toss of
the rupee. Luckily for the candidate, he won the toss and became a B.A. I
would have taken out a rupee from my pocket and, tossing it up, I would
have told the Syndicate that was how the B.As of the University were
made.
This almost frightened Mr. Jones and he at once softened down and told
me in very gentle words that we were friends and had worked together for a
number of years. He added that at the next Syndicate meeting, he himself
would propose that I should be appointed an examiner for one of the degree
examinations in the manner I had served in previous years. We parted as
friends and in due course of time I was reappointed an examiner for the B.A.
or B.Sc. examination. After this I remained under the impression that we had
completely made up with one another and that not a trace of ill-will
remained between us. Strange as it may seem, this was far from being so,
although, outwardly our relations with each other remained cordial.

I Was Kept in the Dark

Sometime later Mr. Jones accepted a post in England. There was thus a
vacancy in the Chemistry Department of the College. In ordinary
circumstances, there was no reason why I should not have automatically
stepped into the shoes of Mr. Jones leaving my own post to be filled up by
someone else. As things stood, however, this was too much to expect, as I
have already explained at some length. On the recommendation of the
Public Service Commission (1886) with Sir Charles Aitchison as Chairman,
all the higher posts were put into separate categories called the Indian and
the Provincial Services. They were declared to be parallel services but, in
practice, a wide gulf was created between them not only regarding the
salaries of the incumbents, but even more so in respect of the conditions of
service and the privileges attached to the two classes of appointments.
Indians could aspire to rise to the top of the Provincial Service with Rs. 700
as their mensum pay, while ordinarily, Europeans were appointed to the
Indian Educational Service. On the retirement of Mr. Oman, the Senior
Professorship had been put into the Indian Educational Service, a solution
being offered to me by creating a second Professorship in the Provincial
Service. It was well-known that though theoretically there was no bar to an
Indian being appointed to the Indian Educational Service, the doors of the
coveted service were so jealously guarded against the admission of Indians
that to all intent and purposes it was treated as a close service reserved for
Europeans only. With my previous experience I could see no reason that an
exception would be made in my case and that I could aspire to fill the new
vacancy permanently. Even at the time of my retirement in April, 1918,
there were only three Indians in the whole country in the Indian Educational
Service. But it was a foregone conclusion that till the permanent incumbent
was appointed I would have to act as Profess or-in-Charge of the Chemistry
Department and that someone else would be selected to act in my place. Mr.
Jones himself went a good long way to confirm this belief although it was
not necessary for him to do so. He would often tell me how much each of his
classes had done, in what subjects they were weak and what portions had
been left out so that I might know exactly what work had already been done
and what portions had been left out altogether or not done sufficiently well. I
am sorry to have to record here that this was all a camouflage adopted
purposely with the object of throwing me off scent. While he was spending
so much of his time with me in explaining to me in minute details even the
stocks of chemicals and other incillers to which only the man in charge of
the laboratories has to add, he had made a secret report to the head of the
department against me and as there was no one else in the province to take
up the work someone should be imported from outside Punjab. By a mere
accident I came to know only a couple of days before Mr. Jones left Lahore
that one Mr. A who had lately passed the Ph.D. examination of a German
university and was then preparing himself for the M. A. examination of an
Indian university had actually been selected for the officiating post and that
he was expected to arrive at Lahore in a day or two. It is difficult to imagine
the shock which the news gave me, the more so as it was against all my
previous conceptions of men in the position of Mr Jones. I cannot put down
on paper all that passed in my mind but certainly my whole conception of
things was a good deal recast. For the last day or two that Mr. Jones was at
Lahore, our relations were very strained and everyone could see that
whatever might happen I was not expected to be present at the farewell
meeting which was being arranged in his honour. Once again I was fooled.
Professor G.A. Wathen came to me and begged me not to keep away from
the meeting. He had some kind of a story about the appointment of the new
man according to which Mr. Jones had not played any important part in the
bringing of a young chemist fresh from the university to supersede me. He
told me that he had read Mr. Jones address in reply to the students farewell
address and that, in that address, Mr. Jones had said a great deal about me
which he could never have said if he had been responsible even in the
remotest manner for what had happened. With great difficulty he got a
promise from me that I would not keep away from the farewell meeting. Mr.
Jones did read out the appreciatory remarks about which Professor Wathen
had spoken to me, but I found out afterwards that these remarks had been
written out on a separate slip and that this slip was taken away by Mr. Jones
while the rest of the address was handed over to the Principal for
reproduction in the college magazine. When I pointed this out to Professor
Wathen, he admitted the trick that had been played upon me and said with an
air of boasting that Mr, Jones had proved himself to be cleverer than myself
I would add that although Mr. Jones was certainly cleverer than myself, he
as a victimiser had lost a great deal more than his victim.
A day or two after Mr. Jones departure I went up to Principal Col.
Stephenson and complained about my suppression and the false report by
Mr. Jones against me. I reminded him of the grudge which he bore against
me on account of the incident in the Syndicate meeting over the Degree
examinership. I spoke rather sharply about this matter and happened to say
more than once; That will not do. Col. Stephenson turned round and took
me severely to task for speaking against an Englishman saying how dared I
tell him that an Englishman would make a report like that against me
because he bore me a grudge. He asked me angrily; What will not do?
What will not do? I said that hitherto I had been under the impression that
I was a senior officer of the department, but now I understood that was not
so. I had put in 27 or 28 years of service and could not afford to say goodbye
to the department and walk out of the college without a pension, that while I
stuck to my own opinion I would not say more about the matter to him
because I could not afford to lose my pension, that I had so nearly earned. So
saying I got up and walked towards the door. Col. Stephenson then rushed
towards the door and opened it for me to pass through. I said that I would
not commit another indiscretion in allowing the head of the college to open
the door for one of the junior most men under him. I remained there for 2 or
3 minutes while die Principal also stood there all the time holding the door
wide open. None of us knew what to do. He would not go back to his chair
and I would not pass through the door which had been opened by him
.Eventually Col. Stephenson solved the problem by saying: Oh! I am also
going home and with these words he passed out of the door first and
walked away to his own bungalow.
 I would not commit another indiscretion in allowing the head of the
college to open the door.
Now a strange psychological phenomenon took place. Coming home form
the college I found that my whole soul was on fire. I did not know what to
do. I remember walking up and down the big room which is now the
drawing room in our house. It was a strange state of pain and agony in which
I found myself. Who is this man, Jones? I said to myself, to sit in
judgement upon me and my abilities? But the thing had been done and both
the Principal and the Director of Public Instruction have unhesitatingly put
the seal of their approval upon what Mr. Jones represented to them. I was in
intense agony at the thought that my life-long service should have been
brushed aside under some report of a young man simply because he was an
Englishman. I remained in that intensely perplexed and agonised frame of
mind for about half-an-hour all the time walking up and down the room.
And then suddenly I burst out with the following words which I uttered
again and again as I walked up and down the room: Am I a live fish? Am I
a dead fish? Can I swim up the current? Can I swim against the current?
Shall I float down the current? Am I a dead fish? Am I live fish? Then after
a few minutes I said to myself: I am a live fish, I can swim up the current. I
shall swim up the current. I am a live fish.
The utterance of these words gave me intense satisfaction and brought me
a great relief. After a short time I went to bed and had a sound sleep for an
hour or so. The same afternoon I made up my mind finally and irrevocably
to go to Europe and spend sometime there in research work. Hitherto I had
been anxious to carry on research work for the love of it. In-spite of great
difficultiessome idea of which may possibly be formed by the incident to
which I have just referred (I wish to save myself the pain of mentioning
some of these difficulties. In the India of those days very little research work
in science was done. In the case of Indians there were serious difficulties and
in the Punjab these difficulties were multiplied tenfold.)I had been
occupied with several problems hoping to finish the work after a visit to
Europe. Mr. Jones1 action had added a spur to my desire to visit Europe
which nothing could resist. Before the night came I had gone round and
fixed up with a German Catholic padri (then working at the Roman Catholic
Church at Lahore) to teach me the German language.

My Interest in Radioactivity
The subject which I wanted to study in particular was radioactivity.
Somehow or other for the past few years I had, so far as it was possible with
the help of books and one or two journals I had made myself quite at home
with it on the theoretical side. As I was anxious to set to work as early as
possible I had written to Professor Smithels to make the necessary
arrangements for me at a German university where I could study the subject
and carry on research in it with a competent Professor.
Immediately before leaving Lahore I had been particularly interested in
the exact determination of the atomic weight of lead and of bismuth. My
interest in these two problems was excited by the fact that in the course of an
elaborate investigation into the laws of solubility of salts of various kinds, I
had noticed that the atomic weights determined by several competent
investigators showed variations far beyond the limits of possible errors of
experiment. After some reflection I came to the conclusion that some
extraneous factor was interfering in the exact determination of the atomic
weight of these two elements and that, very probably, in both cases, some
other metal was mixed up with the so called pure lead and bismuth, in
minute but varying proportions and that it was this unknown metal (or
metals) that was responsible for the different values for the atomic weights
obtained by various experimenters.
It was Dr. Kasimir Fajans to whom I was directed to go by Professor
Smithels and in whose laboratory I finally settled down for research work on
the problems Dr. Fajans had himself been occupied withthe possible
existence of the extraneous matter to which I have just referred to.
 It was not necessary in those days to obtain passports from the
government. A certificate of identification was sometimes taken by people
proceeding to a continental country. I, therefore, had applied for a certificate
of identification to the Deputy Commissioner of Lahore but when the time
came for me to leave India, the certificate was not ready. I was assured by
friends that, although it was good to have a certificate of identification, it
was not essential to provide myself with one and that very likely it will not
be required at all during my whole stay abroad. It so happened that at
Bombay I went to see an old friend, Seth Bhagwan Dass, who had travelled
a good deal both in Europe and in China. On his advice, I wired to the
Deputy Commissioner of Lahore to send me the certificate of identification
care of the post office at Heidelberg, This advice proved to be of immense
help tome because, owing to the outbreak of the First World War20 while I
was in Germany, I would not possibly have got out of the country without
this certificate.
On board the steamer, I had the good fortune of meeting a Tyrol German
who was going home after a stay in this country for 18 years. I used to
receive regular lessons from him and carry on a little conversation in
German-with him. The steamer belonged to the Austrian Lloyd Company I
landed at Trieste. On the way I had also frequent occasions to talk to the
crew who, though Italian, knew German very well. It was in the course of
these conversations that I came to know my deficiency in spoken German.
My Padri teacher at Lahore had been so long away from home that his
pronunciation was more English than German so that when I first heard
German spoken on board the steamer by which I sailed from Bombay, I
could not understand a word of it. Luckily for me, I had my companion a
Lahori friend who was going to England through Germany for purposes of
trade. He was of considerable help to me in various ways. He was doing
some kind of agencies business in Anarkali. He was a very enterprising
and entertaining youngman. It was a real pleasure to make his acquaintance.
I have a foggy notion that his name was Lala Shankar Dass but I am not
quite sure. I have met him once or twice at Lahore since our return to India.
On board the steamer I also made friends with the wireless operator and used
to spend portion of my time off and on sitting by his side learning all about
the working of his apparatus. It was of the Crystal type and he told me with
unconcealed pride that he could send messages to a distance of 2,000 miles.
He was a talkative fellow who had travelled a good deal and was full of
interesting stories about various countries. Another person whose
acquaintance I cultivated was the chief cook of the steamer. He used to give
me some of the best dishes and nice pastry some times at tea or on other
occasions. I believe he looked after me so well because once specially when
he became ill and was confined to his cabin I attended him in his sick bed
and gave him a few shillings, over and above the usual contribution of 10
marks which was collected from all the passengers and distributed among
the servants of the ship.

At Heidelberg
I was directed by Professor Smithels of Leeds University who had made
ail the arrangements for me to go to Dr. Fajans at Karlsruhe about 25 miles
from Heidelberg. Somehow or other I came to know that at Heidelberg a
German lady, Frau Scherer, kept a home for lodgers from all parts of the
world. She was a born teacher of the German language. I decided to stop at
Heidelberg for a day or two before proceeding to Karlsruhe. On the way I
wired to Frau Scherer to send someone to meet me at the railway station. On
getting down at Heidelberg I found her daughter waiting to receive me and
conduct me to their pension situated on the slope of a hill on the right bank
of the beautiful Neckar river. Here I was lucky to meet an Indian student
who was of very great help to me afterwards. His name was Dr. Hudlikar.
He was an M. A. in geology from the Bombay University. He had worked
for sometime as a Professor of the subject, I believe, at the Ferguson
College, Poona, and had been making a further study of it at Heidelberg. Dr.
Hudlikar was staying at the Home where I lodged for two or three days
before proceeding to Karlsruhe We became great friends and almost every
evening we had long walks together. During my stay at Karlsruhe I also used
to come to Heidelberg to seethe University and meet some of the famous
Professors there It was also here sometime later, that I met another very
charming Indian student who is now son-in-law of Pandit Motilal Nehru
Mr. Ranjit Singh Pandit of Rajkot. He claims of a very high family and
certainly his bearing and manners were those of high bred young gentleman.
A special link was established between us when I came to know that he
was a nephew of a great Vedic scholar, Shankar Pandurang Pandit, who was
a leading member of the Prarthana Samaj and whom I had known
intimately 28 years earlier. Personally, I shall never forget the kindness
which both Hudlikar and Pandit showed to me at the time of my sudden
departure from Germany. I will have something to say about it later on. On
more than one occasion when we went out for an evening stroll together-
Hudlikar, Pandit and myself I noticed that Pandit attracted the attention of
young German girls by his handsome face and soft dark curly hair. Twice I
saw these girls approaching him and apologetically requesting him to
let them enjoy the feel of the soft velvety hair on his head.

It was at Heidelberg, again that I met Professor Leonard. He was an

interesting figure. He used to have a daily walk on the banks of the beautiful
stream, Neckar, moving his head from side to side as he walked. At
Heidelberg I went to see Professor Goldschmidt. He was kind enough to
come to the laboratory during vacation time specially to show me his
elaborate goniometer and explain its construction and working to me.
From Heidelberg I went to Karlsruhe in the company of my friend
Professor Hudlikar and having left our things at the hotel we went to see Dr.
Fajans at the Technische Hochschule Dr. Bredig, the famous specialist in
catalysis, was the director of the Institute.
Dr. Fajans was about forty years of age at the time and he had already
made a name for himself in radioactivity. The London Times mentioned his
name as one of the six best men in that department of science living at the
time. Dr. Hudlikar left me within a few minutes of our arrival at the Institute
as he had to catch a train back to Heidelberg. But I had absolutely no
difficulty in making myself at home with Dr. Fajansthanks mainly to his
kindly and cheerful temperament, no less perhaps, than the commonality of
interest which was soon established between us. After the necessary
formalities and trivial comments about the voyage and so forth, the
following interesting conversation ensued between us.
Dr. Fajans: Professor Sahni, may I know if you have been at all
interested in any problem connected with lead.
 R. R. Sahni : Yes I For the last few months I have been working on the
very interesting question connected with the atomic weight of lead.
Dr. Fajans. How far did you proceed with the work?
R. R. Sahni : I have been engaged on the purification of one or two
compounds of the metal and the study of some of the literature connected
with the best determinations of the atomic weight of lead. (I also told him
that I had got the notes of what I had done.)
Dr .Fajans : This is very interesting, but how were you led to think of
this question?
R. R. Sahni : I have been occupied with the formulation of certain laws
or relationships between the solubilities of various compounds and their
contents, the atomic weight being an important factor in these studies It
became necessary, therefore, for me to find out the most careful
determination of atomic weight for each of the element with which my
studies were concerned. In the case of lead, I was surprised to find the
atomic weight determinations made by competent chemists varied
con-siderably from one another. I, therefore, came to the conclusion that
these divergences could not be due to mere errors of experiment but were
caused probably by the presence of a small but varying quantity of some
other compound mixed up with the lead salt.

Dr.Fajans: This is very interesting, Indeed. It is a pity you did not

proceed very far. You will be interested to find that I have antici-pated you.
And with these words he pulled out from his drawer a short paper which had
just been published on Radium D. He explained to me that he was led to
think of the question on somewhat similar lines and that Radium D was the
substance which mixed with metal lead in varying quantities. It was causing
all the mischief which had perplexed a whole generation of chemists
including the two persons who were talking together in that laboratory.
Dr. Fajans next question to me was related to bismuth. I told him that
while I had thought of a similar problem in connection with the atomic
weight of bismuth, I had not done any practical work in connection with it.
Dr. Fajans was very much struck by the fact that I should have thought of
two problems one of which he had himself just solved and the other of
which he had only lately taken up. He asked me to join him in attacking the
second problem. On my showing some reluctance in accepting his
suggestion, he said: Perhaps you would like to do it all by yourself. To this
I said: No! Dr. Fajans that is not the real reason of my hesitation in taking
up this question in collaboration with you. It would be a matter of real
pleasure to me to work at a problem in collaboration with you, but I realise
now that the problem of the atomic weight of bismuth is at bottom not a
chemical problem at all but a problem in radioactivity. The problem of the
determination of the atomic weight of lead which you have just succeeded in
solving was also not a chemical problem, as I had imagined it to be, but a
problem in radioactivity as you have just explained to me. The whole stock-
in-trade of my knowledge of radioactivity consists of book learning. I have
never handled even the simplest measure instrument arid it would be wrong
of me to retard your own progress by presuming to work in collaboration
with you.
Dr. Fajans: No, Professor Sahni, you will not take more than a month to
learn all the tech-niques of radioactivity. It is a young branch of knowledge
and there is really not much to learn about the measurements such as we will
have to carry out in connection with this question. On the contrary as a
chemist you will be of real help to me in the preliminary operations of
various kinds which it will be necessary to carry out before we come to the
stage of subjecting the purified compounds to exact measurement of their
radioactive contents.
The long and short of it was that I consented to join Dr. Fajans in
undertaking to determine the correct atomic weight of bismuth. There were
some seven Professors and private-docents in the Institute with about twice
the number of research workers. All the workers were men of advanced age
though much younger than myself One of them was an English lady, Miss
Jones a very interesting figure, who was as clever in her research work as
she was in making arrangements for providing tea for all the workers in the
Institute. The Director of the Institute I knew by reputation long before I left
India. I had once written out and delivered six lectures on his researches in
catalysis. Of all the men in the Institute, Dr. Bredig was the most shabbily
dressed person to be seen in the laboratories. He was very slow in his
movements and in every way quite unimpressive. He would often come to
try my room and sitting by my side for a few minutes would discuss with me
how I was getting on with my problem. One Dr. Reiss a private docent
appeared to be the smartest man. I had nothing to do with him, but he would
come to me now and again to offer suggestions to me. On one occasion he
asked me to accompany him to the library where he pulled out some ten
volumes of journals and pointed out a number of papers which he said would
be helpful to me in the particular investigation upon which I was engaged.
The whole place was charged with inspiration and enthusiasm for work. I
found myself working in his laboratory as an earnest student on a definite
problem which I had assigned to me and in which I found myself quite
absorbed as if I had been working at it for years. I am sorry to say that the
work was interrupted before it had proceeded very far by the outbreak of
hostilities at first between Germany and Russia followed by those between
Germany and Austria on one side and France, England etc., on the other. It
is a matter of very great regret to me that I was deprived of the splendid
opportunity of carrying on an important piece of investigation in
collaboration with such famous scientist as Dr. Fajans. It is interesting to
recall some of the incidents connected with my short stay at Karlsruhe. I
used to go to the laboratory at about 9 A.M. after taking a simple breakfast at
the Carpfen Hotel. The breakfast generally consisted of small roll of bread,
some honey, an egg, a cup of coco or milk and some fruits. At about 1 P.M.
I would have my lunch in a neighbouring restaurant. From half-past-one to
half-past-four I was busy with my work again in the laboratory when I
would go and make a little tea myself and take a cup or two or rather a
beaker or two with a couple of biscuits. This tea arrangement was very
simple but interesting affair. Miss Jones whom I have already mentioned
would light up a Bunsens burner in one of the windows of a corridor and
place a large tea kettle filled with water on the flame.
One day returning to my hotel I found any number of troops marching
through the street and in some places it was difficult to pause for half-an-
hour or so. Within a few hours the whole aspect of the place was changed
and everyone was talking about the war; probably it had been declared by
that time. Although my impression is that all that I saw at Karlsruhe was
only for the preparation of the war that was coming. When I got to the hotel
Mr. Koch, the proprietor of the hotel, told me that it was too late for me to
leave. He advised me to remain at Karlsruhe as it was almost impossible for
me to get away from the country. I was just two days late, he said. I asked
him if I could get a car to take me to Heidelberg but he shook his head and
said it was impossible. He said he would not advise me to move out of the
hotel for a few days, adding that the preparations on a great scale had
already began and the troop trains were in motion. I sent telegram to my
friend Dr. Hudlikar at Heidelberg asking him to come and take me away, as
I was feeling very nervous in my loneliness at Karlsruhe. A few hours later I
had a call from Dr. Fajans. He apologised vociferously for having detained
me. He said it had become too late for me to get away to England. He
advised me to remain in Karlsruhe during the war promising that his wife
would look after me although he did not know where he himself would be as
he was a reserve officer and would be called to his regiment soon after the
war was declared. Both Koch and Fajans promised to help me with money to
any extent in case my own money did not come. I told them I had a few
hundred pounds with me lying in a bank at Karlsruhe and that it would last
me for a year or more I shall never forget the excitement which was to be
noticed all round at Karlsruhe.
After waiting for some hours, I got a telegram from Hudlikar informing
me that he had been 5 or 6 hours at the railway station but could not get a
seat in a train to take him to Karlsruhe although troop trains were running
every few minutes. While I was yet reading the telegram I heard a knock at
the door and on opening it I was delighted to find that the caller was no other
man than Dr. Hudlikar himself. He said he had bribed a porter who had
shoved him in one of the guards carriage just as the train was about to start.
My things were already packed up and within half-an-hour of his arrival at
the hotel we got into taxi which my friend found with some difficulty and
drove to the railway station. Here we again used the same magic words
open sesame as Dr. Hudlikar had found helpful in getting me an admission
clandestinely into the carriage. We reached Heidelberg late at night and were
comfortably accommodated in the hospitable pension of Frau Scherer.
I stopped at Heidelberg for a couple of days during which time I made all
the necessary arrangements for leaving Germany for England. I tried to get
one or two companions from among the Indian students who were living at
Frau Scherers. There were a dozen men at this time but one and all of them
said they were advised not to leave the country because it was dangerous to
do so. The troop trains had began to move in every direction and the whole
country was in a state of commotion. The one subject which was being
talked everywhere was the war with Russia and the chances of war breaking
out with France and England the position of England was being
particularly discussed. Instead of inducing others to leave the country and go
with me to England, I was being induced by everybody to stay there I
was told that it had already become too late. The last train that was to leave
Heidelberg by which we could travel to Holland was that which was timed
to start sometime in the afternoon of the 2nd August, 1914.I had to change
at Manhein a distance of about 25 miles. I think from Heidelberg. While
passing through the streets to the railway station in order to make certain
enquiries I noticed that I was being shadowed by a German. I was then
accompanied by Dr. Hudlikar. In order to make sure if our conjecture was
correct we passed right through a big crowd which had collected in the street
watching and discussing an aeroplane which had appeared overhead. It was
said that it was a detective Serbian aeroplane. On passing out of crowd and
walking on we found the same person still following us. Reaching the
railway station I stood outside while my friend went in to make necessary
enquiries. The detective, for such be proved to be afterwards, was standing
at some distance from me. When my friend came out of the station, we two
walked up to the detective and told him that he had been following us. He
said, Yes. We asked him if he wanted to know who we were and what we
were doing at Heidelberg. In a short time we had told him all about us. He
then told us that we had been taken for Serbian spies and that is the reason
why he had been following us, Serbia was at that time at war with Germany.
On the 2nd August I left Heidelberg. My two friends Dr. Hudlikar and
Ranjit Singh Pandit accompanied me as far as Manhein. It was very brave
and kind of them to do so. They knew that there was no return train that day
as every passenger train had been cancelled for the movement of troops
backwards and forwards. The popular excitement knew no bounds. Even
little children were talking of the speedy accession of Russia. That shows the
spirit of the German children at the outbreak of war with Russia. I remember
a little boy, son of a German Professor at Heidelberg shouting out to
Hudlikar: Hudlikar, Hudlikar! Russland badshe sein (Russia will become
part of Baden). There were other incidents also which told the same story.
The Professors were as much excited over the war as anybody else. I
remember attending a meeting of about 10,000 persons where learned
lectures were given by the university Professors detailing the history of the
relations of Russia with Germany in the past and justifying the declaration of
war against Russia on the present occasion. One thing, however, showed to
me as clearly as anything could do within a few days after my arrival in
England that Germany was no match for England. It was this:
I had the equivalent of about 3,000 rupees deposited in German banks at
Karlsruhe and at Heidelberg. Within a couple of hours I was able to get back
the whole of my money from the banks in English sovereigns. They charged
me a small discount for this purpose but otherwise they made no difficulty
whatsoever in allowing me to bring gold from Germany into England.
Arriving in England and depositing all my money in a bank I found to my
great surprise that I could not draw back a single gold sovereign from the
bank. Most of the money I wanted was given to me in paper and only a small
amount in silver or copper. Even when I was leaving England for India, I
could not induce the bank manager to give me five gold sovereigns to be
used for my expenses at Bombay or on my own way to Lahore.
 This is a digression. As I have said above on the afternoon of 2nd August
1914, I left Heidelberg for Holland. Hudlikar and Pandit got into the same
train with me. They insisted upon coming with me as far as Manhein so as to
see me safely got into the train again. Brave fellows, they must have walked
back the whole distance to Heidelberg that afternoon.

IV
The Punjab Science Institute
The Punjab Science Institute and the Scientific Workshop which I
established in connection with it absorbed such a big slice of my time and
attention that some account of them would seem to be called for in a stow
of my life. The idea of the Institute originated with Professor J.C. Oman of
the Government College, when I was yet in the M. A. class at the college
and before, I had proceeded to Calcutta. We used to discuss the need and
scope of such an institution. But it was only in the summer of 1885 to say
after I returned from Calcutta and explained to Professor Oman what I had
seen in the Sircars Institution, that a society under the name of the
Punjab Science Institute was actually established with Professor Oman as
Honorary Secretary and myself as Joint Secretary Our original aim and
object in founding the Institute was the popularisation of all kinds of
scientific knowledge throughout the province by means of lectures (in
English and the vernacular) illustrated with experiments and lantern
slides, as well as the publication of tracts. After a couple of years we
expanded these objects to include the encouragement of technical education
and in particular, of chemical industries. For this purpose some cash prizes
were also offered by the famous Malik Jowala Sahai of Miani (near Bhera),
for short papers on the manufacture of soap, indigo and such like industries.
In pursuance to the original object of the Institute, Professor Oman
delivered several lectures on various subjects connected with electricity and
magnetism, while Dr. C.C. Caleb of the Medical College, selected subjects
illustrating different aspects of the Build of the human body. Two of his
lectures which had to be repeated were particularly well received by the
public which consisted mainly of students and teachers with just a sprinkling
of the general public. Calebs two lectures I am referring to were entitled
Mans fear and Smokes: poisonous and non-poisonous. Subsequently,
several other gentlemen, almost all of them lecturers in colleges, also came
forward to take a share in the activities of the Institute. One of these
gentlemen who had a special gift of making his lecture interesting and
popular was Dr. Grant, for sometime he served as Chemical Examiner to the
Punjab Government. He spent an enormous amount of time on the
preparation of his experiments which were, as a rule, repetitions of published
lectures delivered at the Faraday Institute or other similar scientific bodies in
England. Several of his most successful lectures were thus repetitions of
popular lectures published in the form of Romance of Science Series such as
C.V. Boys Soap Bubbles, Michael Faradays Chemical History of a Candle,
Percys Spinning Tops, The story of the Tender Box etc. Very often even the
language and stories were reproduced from those books without a word of
acknowledgement.
Although I was appointed as joint secretary from the very beginning and
was a co-founder of the Institute with Professor Oman, for the first two years
I was posted at Simla. As I have mentioned elsewhere in this chronicle, I
began my official career as Second Assistant Meteorological Reporter to the
Government of India, Mr. W.L. Dallas occupying the position of First
Assistant. While thus employed in the Meteorological Department, I
delivered three lectures in connection with the Punjab Science Institute on
the Weather, of course with special reference to India. At two of those
lectures, Mahadeoa Govind Ranade did me the honour to preside. This was
in 1886, when he had come to Simla as a member of Finance Committee
appointed, I believe, in connection with some riots in the Deccan arising out
of rural indebtedness. Ranade was at Simla for several months together and
the public made excellent use of the opportunity of meeting and listening to
him as well as Shankar Pandurang Pandit, a great Vedic Scholar. Shankar
Pandurang Pandit was an uncle of Mr. Ranjit Singh Pandit who was happily
allied with the illustrious Nehru family. My three lectures on the weather
were given in the hall of Government School, then situated a little below the
Mall. What surprised and pleased me immensely was the fact that Ranade
showed an unexpectedly good acquaintance with some of the facts and
problems discussed in the lectures. Shankar Pandurang Pandit also attended
the lectures. Pandit and Ranade lived together while in Simlaand took a
keen interest by asking some questions at the end of each of my lecture. The
lectures were illustrated with charts, some of which I had brought from my
office. One big chart showing the course of the monsoon and the cyclonic
storms had been specially prepared for the occasion. The lectures created
great interest and were attended by several Indian and European gentlemen.
The bulk of the audience, of course, consisted of Bengali clerks with whom
all the Government of India offices were in those days packed. I well
remember, the Bengalis brought the house down with their laughter when, in
the course of one of my lectures I said that the Government of India might
be able to go on without the Bengali clerks in their Simla offices, but I did
not know what northern India would do without the monsoon rams almost
the whole of which came from Bengal, the Bombay current being mostly
spent on the way and what was left of it being completely stopped by the
Aravalis. I pointed out that the difference between the green northern
districts of the Punjab and the arid south eastern districts such as Hissar and
Sirsa was the difference between the contribution of Bengal and Bombay to
our agricultural prosperity. Hailing as he did from the western Presidency,
Ranade, as Chairman made some illuminating remarks about Bombays part
in the economic welfare of our province. Similarly, my Muslim friends must
have been gratified to learn that we were indebted for our winter rains to
Persia. The serains came to us with the anti-cyclones whose Persian origins
had by this time been fairly well established. I may mention that one of the
three lectures was devoted entirely to the complete change over of the
weather conditions from the summer to the winter and vice versa, both the
turning points being marked by the occurrence of somewhat unusual
meteorological phenomena like heavy dust-storms, thunder-storms and hail-
storms.

Lantern Slides
I have said that the lectures were illustrated by lantern slides in addition to
charts. Now it was not easy in those days to get lantern slides made. Perhaps
even now most teachers cannot obtain their necessary appurtenances for
popular lectures and, except at a few metropolitan towns no professional
facilities exist for the manufacture of lantern slides. It may interest teachers
to learn that in the absence of modern help in the form of the epidiascope, it
is possible to make simple slides for illustrating such lectures as I was called
upon to deliver at Simla. I smoked over a candle flame a few glass pieces cut
to the size of lantern slides and then with the point of pin traced the arrow
heads long or short, as the case may be, representing the direction and
strength of the wind currents as well as isobaric and isothermal lines. A
lecture on the cyclones or anti- cyclones can thus be very well illustrated to a
large audience without incurring any expense whatever. The smoked slides,
with which my own lectures were, in part, illustrated, went off beautifully.
When, a little later, I joined the staff of the Government College at Lahore, I
repeated these lectures. On the advice of Professor Oman one of these
lectures was written out in full and published in pamphlet form. I am sorry,
no copy of this lecture is now available. I believe this was the second of the
series of lectures I delivered at Simla and repeated, with certain
amplifications, at Lahore. It related to the monsoon rains and the cyclonic
storms.
In repeating the lectures at Lahore, I also varied the forms of my slides,
some of which showed very well on the screen. Instead of smoking the glass
plates on a candle flame, I dipped the plates in a thin solution of gum and
then let them dry in the sun. The object of this simple operation was to make
the surface of my plates slightly rough so that it was quite easy now to trace
an outline of India on the plates and then draw the arrow heads, the isobars,
the isotherms and, indeed, whatever other lines it was necessary to draw on
the gummed (roughened) plates. Printing ink gives very good results.
Frequently, in the course of my own popular lectures, I have used these
simple slides in preference to the photographic slides, not only because they
do not cost any money, but also because they take less time to prepare than
that taken in writing a letter to the professional maker to prepare the slides
for you. The great advantage in using these slides for popular lectures is that
it encourages scores among your listeners to prepare their own slides and
illustrate their own lectures with them. Of course, for certain purposes,
photographic slides cannot well be dispensed with.
Various other kinds of simple slides will also suggest themselves to a
teacher. Some of those I made for my own popular lectures were prepared in
one or the other of the following ways. (The teacher will soon be able to
judge for himself which method will be suitable in each particular case).
1. Trace with a fine pointed drawing pen (or otherwise) the plan, design or
picture on a tracing paper. Then paste this tracing paper on the plate of glass.
For most purposes pasting the corners only will do. If the glass plates are
thin enough and good black ink has been used, the tracing paper with the
design on it may be placed between two plates kept together by means of a
piece of thin strong cotton string. For obvious reasons I would avoid using
rubber bands. Very slightly oiling the tracing paper sometimes improves the
picture.
2. By method No.1, even a picture in different colours can easily be made.
3. If the design is not a complicated one but can be drawn in lines, it may
be cut straight out of the paper. The paper in this case will, of course, be
thick brown paper, so that the light cannot readily pass through it. The
design will then appear on the screen in bright lighten a dark background.
4. In some cases I found it more convenient to cut out the design and paste
it directly on a glass plate or place it between two glass plates.
 I am sorry to notice that the magic lantern for popular scientific
instruction has to all intents and purposes gone out of use. Indeed, even the
popular science lectures like those the Punjab Science Institute was the
means of introducing in the province have become so few and far between
that one seldom hears of them.
I will not stop to discuss the reasons for the prevailing indifference to the
spread of popular scientific knowledge in our province. I say our province
deliberately, because I am not in a position to speak about other parts of the
country. As I have mentioned elsewhere, in 1885, while I was a student in
the Presidency College at Calcutta, I attended some of the most inspiring
popular lectures at Dr. Mahendra Lals Institute. Mahendra Lals Institution
was, indeed, our own model in founding the Punjab Science Institute at
Lahore immediately after my return from Calcutta. As I have already
mentioned, the idea of establishing a society with the express purpose of
popularising scientific knowledge had occurred to Professor J.C. Oman a
few months earlier, but when on my return from Calcutta, I explained to him
what I had myself seen of the popular lectures of Father Lafont of St.
Xaviers College, he made up his mind not to lose any more time to give
effect to what we had been only discussing before.

The Popular Lectures

I find it difficult to describe the interest and in fact, the enthusiasm
which the popular lectures of the Punjab Science Institute excited over the
length and breath of the province including some of the native states as well
as Quetta. From all sides there was a demand to us to send out lecturers and,
in a very short time, it was even decided to charge a small fee, at the
muffassil stations, to cover at least part of the expenses incurred in
sending out lecturers generally accompanied by a laboratory assistant and
the necessary apparatus to illustrate the lecture. In the majority of cases the
lectures delivered both at Lahore and the out-stations were illustrated by
actual experiments, though magic lantern lectures were not quite ruled out.
I do not remember the fee being charged at the muffassil stations for lantern
lectures, but after 1896, a fee ranging from 1 to 2 annas became a common
feature of the popular lectures given in the muffassil even when the lecturer
was a local man. As a rule, in such cases part of the apparatus and, very
frequently, an assistant to manipulate the apparatus had to be sent out from
the headquarters.
 I need scarcely mention that in nine out of every ten cases, I was called
upon to perform this duty of responding to the call. Apart from other
circumstances, those were special reasons for my services being
requisitioned for this purposes. For some years, specially between 1890 and
1898, that is till I became absorbed in the Dyal Singh Will Probate Case, I
had delivered so many popular lectures at Lahore and at other stations in the
Punjab, that I was never at a loss for a subject for my lecture or the
appropriate apparatus with which to illustrate it. A lecture that had
created interest at one station was sure to be listened to with attention at
other stations as well. Indeed, sometimes a definite request would be made
to us for a particular lecture that had already been delivered at one place to
be repeated at another place also. I had a large and rapidly widening circle of
friends and pupils who would send me an insistent personal request to pay a
visit to their station for a popular lecture. The influential parents of some of
my students would now and again send me an invitation couched in such
kind terms that it was not quite easy to decline it. I may mention an
invitation that came to me from the Prime Minister of Kapurthala two of
whose sons were at the time reading in the Intermediate classes of the
Government College. This letter was supported by another high official of
the State who was a personal friend of mine and a supporter of the Punjab
Science Institute. I gave three public lectures at Kapurthala, all the expenses
being borne by the State. Similarly, I gave at least two lectures at Patiala,
one in Mandi and one in Bahawalpur, the last when I went to this state in my
official capacity as Inspector of Schools. The lecture was given at the
pressing request of a Sikh student of mine who held a high post in the state
at this time. These lectures became popular and attracted such large
promiscuous audiences that I still meet grey beards every now and again
who remind me of having attended one or more of them when they were yet
in their teens at a muffassil station. At a modest estimate I must have given
something like five hundred such lectures.
Let not the reader be alarmed at this figure. For years I gave in the
compound of the Baoli Sahib at Lahore (near the golden mosque) a regular
annual course of about 20 lectures in the Punjabi language. All the lectures
were illustrated by easy experiments, often with simple apparatus which any
one could make for himself. The large audiences consisted almost entirely of
shopkeepers from the surrounding bazars with just a sprinkling of English
knowing clerks in the offices. I consider these to have been the most
successful popular lectures I ever gave. The fact that, week after week, they
attracted a large number of shopkeepers at a time of the day when the
householders are out for making their daily purchases was encouraging
testimony, that they supplied a real want. The casual remarks of the
shopkeepers sometimes supplied me with valuable hints for giving Punjabi
names to well-known scientific apparatus. Once I overheard a shopkeeper,
describing the electric plate machine as Bijli dacharkha, a very apt and
expressive name, I think, for the machine. Sometimes when I was at a loss
to express myself, I would invite the audience to suggest a name or a word
for which I was struggling. It was very seldom that I failed to receive a
suggestion or two that solved my difficulty, occasionally, a most
appropriate, commonly used and easily understood word was forthcoming.
Besides explaining and illustrating the simplest facts and principles of
physics and chemistry, every year about ten lectures were devoted to
common subjects as: How does the telegraph wire speak, The common
flame, The water Lahoris drank before 1880, Pure and impure air, The
toys and their lessons, Soap making, Electroplating, and Electricity in
the service of man (a series of three or four lectures), Glass Making, Punjab
and its rivers (illustrated by a large Relief Map made in clay under my
direction for an educational exhibition at Lahore) and so on. I have
mentioned these few titles of lectures actually delivered monthly in the Baoli
Sahib simply as showing the sort of subjects that were selected for the
popular lectures in the Baoli Sahib at Lahore. Several of those lectures,
specially those of a little more advanced kind, were repeated at the Muffassil
stations or in other places at Lahore. It will be no exaggeration to say that
there was a real furore of enthusiasm created in the province about scientific
studies. I wish here to state it as a fact which I took the trouble to verify by
actual enquiries that there were more schools teaching science as a regular
subject of studies and more scholars studying elementary physics and
chemistry in the Punjab than in any other province of India.
One word more about these popular lectures. With a view to create
widespread interest in scientific subjects as also to convey useful
information to the public at large, now and again, I chose the more striking
of the latest scientific discoveries as subjects for my popular lectures. They
proved a success beyond my wildest expectation. Indeed, so great was the
interest created by the public demonstrations with the newly discoveredX-
Rays, Edisons phonograph, and The wireless telegraphy that persistent
demands came for the repetition of the lectures at the same place twice,
thrice and oftener. All the expenses of these lectures were, as a rule, covered
by the fees charged for them. The demonstration of the wireless was given
in the original form of the Hertzian Electric Waves and the first
experimental form of the iron and nickel filings coherer, but, even so, the
popular interest it excited was wonderful. These were perhaps among the
earliest experiments repeated in India. It may be of interest to mention that
when a little while later Pandit Suraj Kaulfather of Raja Jaykishen Kaul,
Dr. Balkishen Kaul, and Raja Sir Dayakishen Kaul, was awarded the title of
Raja it was decided to give a public entertainment in his honour, the
organisers,(Sir) Prafulla Chandra Chatterji and (Sir) Shadi Lal asked
me to give an exhibition with the newly discovered Wireless caherer on
the occasion. Wireless signals between two points about 150 ft. apart from
each other were transmitted and several skeptics moved across the path of
the waves to see it there were any fine, carefully concealed wires through
which the current was really passing.

The casual remark of the shopkeeper sometimes supplied me with

valuable hint for giving Punjabi named to well known scientific apparatus.

At the suggestion of some of the gentlemen present, Sir Macworth Young,

the Lt. Governor, asked all the guests (300 to 400 in number) to crowd up
between the sending and the receiving stations to make sure that the
Wireless waves passed through their bodies. Sir Macworth was himself so
much interested in this and some other experiments which I showed, that he
invited me specially to show the same experiments, on two occasions, to
certain European guests, who were dining with him. The experiments were
shown after the dinner was over.

At a public demonstration of scientific experiment

Punjabi as Vehicle of Scientific Ideas

One thing mote I should like to mention here for the benefit of the
skeptics who are never tired of opposing in the meeting of the University or
outside all proposals for making the Punjabi and other vernaculars the
medium of collegiate instruction. At the Garden Party to which I have just
referred me first explained to the assembled guests the benefits of the
Wireless in English. But as there were some big Raises who did not know
that language, His Honour asked me if I could explain the same thing in the
vernacular. I agreed and repeated my explanation in the Punjabi language.
When I had finished, His Honour turned round and asked Mr. Madan Gopal,
M. A. Bar-at-Law, a leading lawyer of the time, if, in his opinion, I had
succeeded in making myself clear to the old, conservative gentlemen. Your
Honour replied Mr. Madan Gopal, the fact is I myself have been able to
understand it better in Punjabi than when the explanation was given m
English. Mr. Madan Gopal was not a Punjabi gentleman but hailed from
Delhi.
Speaking of the Punjabi as a vehicle of scientific ideas I may refer to a
little incident which occurred to me in connection with one of my popular
scientific lectures. At the close of a lecture at Rawalpindi, Sir Baba Khem
Singh Bedi, who was present came up to me and told me that he had never
believed before that it was possible to teach science through the medium of
the Punjabi language. He pressed me to be his guest for two or three days
and deliver a couple of more lectures on popular science in his own garden.
Baba Khem Singh was the religious head of the Sikh and as such, had a
large following in the whole of Dhani Pathowar. At the two lectures I
delivered under his own auspices, he took the chair himself. The audience
consisted very largely of Sikhs from the villages, many of whom had been, I
was told, specially invited for the purpose of listening to me.

The End of the Institute

In the light of what I have said about the popular interest created by the
lectures of the Punjab Science Institute, it became quite easy for us to collect
large funds for the association. We had invested part of the money in the
purchase of scientific apparatus and of books for a scientific library and had,
besides, about Rs. 3000 with us in cash when it was decided to close the
Institute under circumstances to which I will refer presently. Our original
plan was to build a Lecture Hall at Lahore and thus provide a permanent
local habitation for the Institute. This was, however, not to be. Some
students of the Lahore Medical College started a small association under the
name of the Society for the Promotion of Scientific Knowledge (S.P.S.K)
practically with the same objects as the Punjab Science Institute. They
induced Dr. C.C. Caleb to become a permanent President of the Society. By
this time, Professor Oman had left India while I was absorbed, as I have
already explained in serious and complicated litigation in connection with
the Dyal Singh Will case which lasted for about ten years Dr. C. C. Caleb
and with him some other influential workers of the Institute had transferred
their interest to the new body. There was not room enough for two bodies
with identical objects to work side by side.
At the Government College with Mr. A. S. Hemm now installed as the
head of the Science Department certain practical difficulties, to which I need
not refer, were also thrown in our way. Under these circumstances, it was
decided to close the Institute and transfer the assets in the form of cash,
books and apparatus to the youthful society under the leadership of Dr. C.C.
Caleb, one of our own most active members. The fact that Dr. Caleb was at
the head of a large scientific department made it easy for him to carry on the
work of the Society for the Promotion of Scientific Knowledge.
 V
The Punjab Science Institute Workshop
I must now go back a good many years and give a brief account of the
origin, the early difficulties and future successes of the Scientific Workshop
which I established in 1888. It was in March 1 887 that I joined the staff of
the Lahore Government College. Very shortly afterwards Professor J.C.
Oman left on a two-year furlough for England when the responsible work of
taking all the classes in chemistry from the intermediate to the M.A.
devolved upon me. I was also appointed Honorary Secretary of the Punjab
Science Institute. My extensive contact with the management of popular
lectures, my own and those of other gentlemen who were induced to come
forward to take a share in the work, soon made it clear to me that no science
teaching in the province was possible without the provision of ordinary
facilities for the repairs of simple school apparatus. But there were no funds
available for the foundation of even a small workshop. A further serious
difficulty which long stood in our way was that I could not convince any of
the other members of the Institute that, even if we could find the money for
the establishment of a small workshop, it would be possible for us to
undertake the repairs of scientific instruments. All of us were overwhelmed
in those days with strange apprehensions of the difficulties we would be
courting by undertaking the repairs of scientific instruments, not to speak of
manufacturing them from start to finish. It must be remembered in this
connection that establishment of a workshop attached to science department
of a college was a much later idea. Everybody threw cold water on my
project. But somehow or other I had faith in myself and I was convinced
that, after some failures, my labours would be rewarded with success. I am
quite convinced in my own mind that the hard, very hard, experiences I had
gone through in early life had filled me with courage and confidence to a
degree to which my co-workers in the Institute had not qualified themselves
in the school of adversity. At times I was myself assailed with serious doubts
and misgivings about the success of the experiment. I was just starting life
and had no spare money of my own and the only assets upon which I could
bank at this time consisted of my faith that, somehow or other, if I
persevered with my project, success would descend (as the Punjabi proverb
says) as rain from the skies even after piercing the roof over your head.
Who says faith is blind? Certainly not the man of faith but only one who has
never risked and has succeeded because he had no faith. Faith is not blind.
The man of faith has a piercing vision. He sees things clearly in the distance
which the others who have no faith cannot see. Truly has it been said: Faith
works wonders.

Allah Bakhsh - the Head Mistri

As I had no money of my own to set up even a small workshop, and as the
other members of the Institute opposed my fantastic project, I arranged
with a mistri employed in the Railway Workshop to manufacture for me a
few simple pieces of apparatus at his own house. This man, Allah Bakhsh,
subsequently became the Head Mistri of my workshop. Allah Bakhsh was
getting about Rs. 25 a month at the Railway Workshop to which he used to
add about Rs. 10 a month by making keys, mending locks and doing other
little odds and ends for the neighbours. For this purpose he had provided
himself with a few ordinary tools and plants. There was also a simple
charcoal furnace with a single goatskin bellows. This was early in 1888.I
used to spend about 4 hours every day 8 P.M. to midnight-at the house of
Mistri Allah Bakhsh. All my own preparation for my class work was made
in the morning. With the popular lectures in connection with the Science
Institute, long hours of attendance at the house of Allah Bakhsh to supervise
my new baby workshop and my own official duties, never in my life have I
harder worked as during the year 1888,whenlwas supposed to be busy
making scientific instruments. That was the joke of my friends of the
Institute. But taunts and jokes apart, in very truth I was at this time laying
the foundations of the future scientific and technical workshop which
achieved, as I will explain later on, a no mean reputation. The few simple
things I made at the house of Allah Bakhsh were sold to schools at cost price
or even less. The cost price, of course, took no account of the long hours of
my own supervision. I was simply repaid for my labour by the joy of making
them. Allah Bakhshs house was situated at the far end of a long narrow
lane, the very thought of which now fills me with a shudder, but I was so
mad after my hobby that it was a delight to me to walk through a lane that
would hardly allow two persons to pass abreast, and spend hours together
sitting in the small courtyard of a dirty, dingy house.
 Punjab Science Institute Workshop - An artists imagination

A year passed in this way. Both Allah Bakhsh and myself were satisfied
with our outturn of scientific apparatus. If I were to mention what things
exactly we were able to make, it might rain a laughter. But we must not
judge of what we could make in the year 1888 by what we can make in the
year of grace 1942. The important thing was that Allah Bakhsh and myself
began to understand each other. He was convinced that I was in dead earnest
about my scheme of setting up a workshop for the repairs of all kinds of
apparatus and the manufacture of simpler kinds of it. When at the end of
about a years experimental work, I proposed to transfer the workshop to my
own house then situated near Raja Nau Nihal Singhs haveli, with Allah
Bakhsh as a whole time mistri on Rs. 45 a month, he was quite pleased with
the offer, but he would not give up his permanent job at the Railway
Workshop for what might, after all, prove to be not more than a few months
engagement. Eventually I succeeded in overcoming his doubts and fears by
giving him a stamped agreement guaranteeing him at least two years
appointment, which, considering the salary I was offering him, really meant
nearly four years of his Railway Workshops pay assured. As it was, Allah
Bakhsh remained at the head of my workshop till actually the last day of his
life. During the closing six or seven months of his serious illness, he was
paid his monthly salary of Rs. 60 in full. On his death a pension was allowed
to his widow, but after drawing it for few months she married another man
and forfeited her right to further payment from the funds of my workshop.
 When Allah Bakhsh started the workshop at my own house he was the
only workman with a couple of unskilled labourers, but by and by as the
work increased, he trained more men. He was very reluctant to engage new
grown-up men. He preferred to take boys of 12 to 15 years of age whom he
would train himself and who would, therefore, be not only attached to him
but who would be fully conversant with the elementary principles of science
which he had himself picked up during his intimate contact with me while he
worked at his own house and in after years. My own experience also shown
that Allah Bakhsh was quite right in admitting, as far as possible, young
boys to the workshop in preference to grown up men whose habits were
already formed and whom it was by no means easy to tram to new ways of
work. I have known boys of 20 years of age who had been six or seven years
in our workshop under Allah Bakhsh and who had risen from a monthly
salary of Rs.10 or 15 to Rs.35 or 40 being appointed to posts of Rs. 150 to
200 at once by Balmer Lawrie & Co., Calcutta, or the North-Western
Railway in their own province. I have known two of my men so employed in
testing and mending electric fans and doing other odds and ends requiring
some intelligence and skill. Small boys placed under competent supervision
can easily be trained to make electric fans and motor engines from beginning
to end. Of course, the man in supreme charge of the Department should not
only be thoroughly competent, but also be keen to train the men under him,
each in his own branch of the work. Mass production is not difficult. Its one
main pre-condition of success is mass-consumption.

Lock and Safes Department

After I had appointed Allah Bakhsh as a whole timer and started a regular
workshop with an outlay capital of not more than Rs. 1500 or so,
representing all the savings from my own salary as Professor at the
Government College, the operations expanded by leaps and bounds. At first
even the brass casting and all the turning was done on the piece work system
outside the workshop. But, curiously, as the work expanded the piece work
became more and more troublesome. The men demanded higher rates of
payment. Sometimes they asked for rates that it was impossible for us to
pay. A casting department on a small-scale was added to the workshop. As
there was not work enough for all the men I had been compelled to engage, I
allowed the Head Mistri to take outside work. After some years, a
department for the manufacture of locks was also started as a side line, the
chief object being to keep the increasing number of our trained men
occupied for half-the-day with lock-making. As my means did not allow me
to undertake the responsibility of paying the salaries of such a large number
of men, month after month, the lock-making department, or rather the Lock
and Safes department, as it soon came to be called, was placed on a
piecework basis. I and my chief mistri spent about a month together in
discussing and devising, designing and experimenting with different kinds of
locks and keys Eventually we turned out a particular type or rather two
types of locks to which no other key would fit and which could only be
opened broken open. The keys were all made by the Head Mistri and kept
in my own personal possession. Two keys were supplied with each lock. All
the locks were made at our own workshop under my own personal
supervision and the direct supervision of the Head Mistri I will not go into
the system but as I have already mentioned, the locks were made by a few of
the men working during half the time on the piece or contract system. With
the exception of the keys, we paid the men Rs. 1 for the locks (one type).
Every piece of each lock was examined by myself and the Head Mistri
jointly. The keys were made by the Head Mistri and tested by us both. What
tests were applied need not be mentioned. So quickly did the demand grew
that within a short time we began to make a net profit of Rs. 100 a month
from this department. The success of the scientific department of the
Workshop was now assured, because, although lock making was no part of
my original business, my ambition being confined to the repairs and
manufacture of scientific instruments, I had now discovered a source of
regular monthly income upon which I could fall back in case the scientific
department did not quite pay its way. After a year or two I had a windfall in
the shape of an utterly unexpected gift of Rs. 3,000 from Luck herself,
which convinced me once for all that, come what may, the workshop was
going to be an unqualified success. The Locks Department was closed after
sometime under brotherly pressure from R.B. Laddha Ram, Rai Mul Raj and
some other gentlemen who wanted to start the manufacture of the same on a
large-scale for which they had, I was assured, already subscribed liberally.
The new Locks Workshop was actually established and was in working
order for three or four years, but for want of proper supervision, inferior
stuff began to be produced with the result that the locks of the company lost
their reputation and the concern had to be closed with a heavy loss.

The Lathe
To show that success follows like a shadow the footsteps of a man who
has faith in himself and in his cause, I must stop to refer, in some detail, to
an incident which tried all my patience and which threatened at that early
stage almost to nip my cherished venture in the bud. I have said that, in the
beginning, I got part of my work done on the contract system outside the
workshop. The workshop did not possess such a necessary outfit as a lathe,
simply because I could not afford at the time to purchase one. There were
only a couple of men in the city who had lathes of their own, and I had
arranged with one of them to do all my metal turning on the contract system.
But as my work began to expand, instead of reducing his charges, he became
increasingly truculent, and the more I yielded, the more exorbitant became
his demands. The other man said that he would only undertake to do my
work if I purchased his lathe at an unreasonable price which was, moreover,
beyond my means. I tried every method to bring the men to a reasonable
frame of mind, but failed. Both my mistri and myself were at our wits ends
and we did not know how to get out of the scrape. Even if I should find the
money for a new lathe by borrowing from a Bank, would the machine be
suitable for my work? Without personal experience of a lathe, would it be
safe to negotiate with a Calcutta or a Bombay firm? It was more likely than
not that they would not be able to supply me with a lathe according to my
specifications from their stock. Very probably they would register my order
and ask me to wait three or four months till the machine arrived from
England. The two men at Lahore who had lathes of their own probably knew
all the difficulties with which I was confronted or they would have thought
many times before they assumed such an unreasonable attitude as they did.
In a mood of utter despair, I one day asked Mistri Allah Bakhsh, supposing
somehow I purchase a lathe, shall we be able to find a good turner besides
the two men who had machines of their own. It would have been foolish on
my part to employ one of these men in my workshop; they would not only
have been a source of trouble to me, but they would also have encouraged
some other of my men to acts of indiscipline. Allah Bakhsh said he knew
three or four men who were fairly well trained turner. I asked him to send
for them one by one. As they appeared before me, after a few preliminary
enquiries I put one question to each of them. I asked them if they knew of a
second hand lathe that was available, promising to employ the man on a
decent salary who should help me to find me one at early date. Now it so
happened, such things happen only to a man who deserves success that
there was a good lathe available at Kusur which the owner was anxious to
part with at a fair price. I jumped at the idea. Luckily the man who gave me
this information was out of employment and in search of a job. He was not
only a trained turner but could lend a hand at fitting work as well. I at once
fixed his monthly salary with him on the condition that the lathe was
purchased.
 They were thunderstruck to see the lathe fixed up
I began to see light where for a month or more there had existed darkness
and despair before me. My workshop may yet be saved from a collapse! On
the first holiday, I and my new turner started for Ferozepur 16 miles beyond
Kusur. I had some good friends there. I asked one of them to send with me
someone who might know the owner of the lathe at Kusur Everything went
wonderfully well. Within an hour or two, a watch-maker was placed at my
disposal who knew the Kusur man very well and who could help me in
arranging the bargain. We left for Kusur immediately. The owner of the
lathe knew me and had even been to my workshop at Lahore to get some
parts of a machine made by my mistri. As he was keen to sell the machine,
he placed the original bill for it before me. It had cost him something in the
neighbourhood of a thousand rupees. He had used it for not more than two or
three years. It was fixed up at the time with pulleys, brackets and all and my
own turner saw that it was in good working order. Most important of all, the
price he demanded was Rs, 350. Nothing could be more welcome to me. He
left no room to me for higgling and haggling. The price was reasonable and
within my means, I gave him a cheque there and then which he was glad to
accept. Being now the owner of a good working lathe myself with all the
fixtures down to the last nail, I did not like to wait an hour. My joy might
well be imagined as I stood there watching the machine and the fixtures
being taken down and loaded into a cart bound for the railway station. I was
so happy-with my valuable possession that I decided to take it with me in the
passenger train to Lahore. The train reached Lahore at about 10 P.M. as soon
as the lathe and the two or three boxes of tools and fixtures were taken down
I sent my turner to fetch a bullock cart. I was impatient to carry the lathe
home and see it fixed in my workshop. Promising the turner a days holiday
as his additional reward, I induced him to fix up the lathe with the help of
my own private servants. By 2 A.M. everything was shipshape and I had the
satisfaction of even seeing one of the barrels of an air-pump the very
apparatus which had been the root of the whole trouble with my old turner in
the cityfixed up on the lathe and the first scraping actually begun.
Next morning when the doors to the workshop were thrown open and the
workmen, only about half-a-dozen in all, entered the big room, they were
thunder-struck to see the lathe fixed up in working trim; how could it have
come there. When could it have been transported to the workshop and fixed
up as if it had long been in use where it stood. When they left the workshop
the previous evening, there was no trace of it, and now, well, they saw what
some of them called a miracle performed before their very eyes. The news of
it soon reached the two lathe owners and, indeed, the whole Mochi Gate
Quarters where most of the Railway Workshop men and other skilled
artisans lived. It is needless to add that I had no more trouble with any of the
workmen. Indeed, both the lathe owners begged my Mistri not to undertake
private turning work in competition with them.

Repairs of Delicate Apparatus

By the middle of the summer of 1889, Professor Oman had returned from
his furlough. He did not quite like the idea of my having started the
workshop during his absence. He insisted that our operations should be
strictly limited to the repairs of school apparatus. I considered it prudent to
slow down my pace, but the difficulty was that there was not enough
repairing work to be done and, if a workshop was to be maintained, at least
the simpler kinds of scientific apparatus had to be turned out on the spot to
find work for even the small number of artisans I had on my establishment. I
could easily have obtained enough private work on remunerative payment,
but then my workshop would have lost the character of a scientific
institution, and, for more reasons than one, such a thought I was determined
to brush out of my mind.
With our daily widening experience, we were able to undertake the repairs
of more complicated apparatus. The popular lectures to which I have
referred at some length spread the reputation of my workshop to all parts of
the province and even some of the P. W. D. Officers began to extend their
patronage to us by sending instruments like the theodolites, prismatic
compass etc., to our workshop for repairs The new opportunities for
overhauling and examining the working of delicate instruments of all kinds
and sorts created self-confidence in my mistries. This, in turn, made them
bolder to undertake the manufacture of more advanced school and college
apparatus.

My Contact with Hira Lal of the Central Province

By the beginning of the closing decade of the last century, my workshop
had, despite all my self-restraint, developed into a small but well-appointed
institution, both as regards the appliances and the workmen, for the
manufacture of a decent set of scientific apparatus. Our progress surprised
everybody, myself most of all. Most encouraging help came from
unexpected quarters. Meeting with considerable difficulties in purchasing, in
the local market, brass, zinc and other metal plates as well as brass and
copper wires of suitable thicknesses for my purpose, I decided to pay a visit
to Bombay during my summer vacation. I had somehow or other saved
about a thousand rupees. In the hope of being able to buy something that
might cover at least part of my travelling expenses, I took the whole of my
Capital with me.
Arrived at my destination, I found luck escorting me at every turn of the
streets of the commercial metropolis. I had paid several visits to Bombay
before this time, but never on a business of this kind. After making my
purchases of the few articles that had prompted me to undertake my present
trip, I paid a visit to a local English firm that inter alia, dealt in scientific
apparatus. My workshop had placed a small order for some glass tubings,
rods etc., and I thought I would take these to Lahore with myself The
shop assistant whom I approached did not know about my requisition .
He took out a big book in which all orders for scientific apparatus were
registered. As he slowly turned over the pages of this to me, I noticed an
order for a Tates Air Pump registered from Mr. Hira Lal, Science Instructor,
Hoshangabad, Central Province. This was a valuable bit of information for
me As soon as I had finished my own business with the English firm, I
returned to my residence to post my own small catalogue to Mr. Hira Lal
along with a Song letter. In this epistle, I gave a brief history of the Punjab
Science Institute and the Scientific Workshop which I had lately established
at Lahore in connection with it. Referring to his requisition of an Air Pump,
I informed him that I would be glad to send one to him along with any other
apparatus that he might require. I added that we were willing to send him
everything on approval and that the apparatus could be returned to us, if
need be, at our own expense. Our catalogue prices were about half of those
shown in the catalogues of British firms. With an offer of such liberal terms
and conditions, there would be only one kind of response from an Indian
customer. On my return to Lahore, I found a very encouraging letter
waiting for me. Needless to say that we long enjoyed the patronage of Mr.
Hira Lal which meant. Practically the whole of the Central Province. Mr.
Hira Lal was paraplegic Instructor for the Central Province Schools being
sometime in one District and, again, in another district. He was a very able
and enterprising gentleman, as will become evident from the fact that he rose
to be an officiating Deputy Commissioner in his own province. I met him
several times in subsequent years and as good friends we long corresponded
with each other.

Lucks own Handsome Gift to the Workshop

I have yet to mention another incident at Bombay when, under very
strange circumstances, luck threw a present of no less than three thousand
rupees into my lap. It is an old habit with me that when I go to a new place, I
reserve a day or two, if possible, for rambling through the streets at random.
In a big city like Bombay, after finishing my own particular business, I have
often felt myself overcome by a sort of passion for aimless tramping from
early morning till late at night. Regular meals were, of course, out of
question. On such occasions, I take delight in contenting myself with
whatever lean get and wherever I can get it. I would sometimes walk in to a
wayside Armenian restaurant, and ask for a cup of tea with a piece of cake
or a couple of eggs with bread and butter. If I feel so inclined, I would have
a fowl roasted and dispose off the whole of it.
Now, it was on one of these tramping days when it was raining hard that I
saw a promiscuous crowd of people inside a shop. Looking in more for the
sake of taking shelter from the drenching rain outside than for making any
purchases, I noticed that a public auction was going on. A firm of scientific
instruments had gone into liquidation and its stock-in-trade was being
disposed off to the highest bidders. A Parsi auctioneer was holding three
metal cups shining like white silver and shouting out the last bid: Four
rupees! Four rupees! Anymore bid! Four rupees! Advancing towards the
man, I asked him if I could have a look at them. As soon as I saw the shape
and the colour and felt the elasticity of the cups, I knew at once what they
were. Only a fool could make a mistake about them. I returned the cups a id,
at the same time, I gave my bid for six rupees. A man standing next to me
was surprised at this sudden jump and told me in low voice: If you think
they are made of silver, you are mistaken. No, said I, they are not made
of silver but of gold. The auctioneer demanded a cash deposit before he
would accept my bid. I pulled out seven one hundred rupee notes from an
inner waist coat pocket and handing over one of them to him, I said: Keep
this, I may buy some more things also. I heard several persons round about
me expressing surprise at my manner and, when I told them that I was going
to spend all the money I had with me in Bombay, I could hear a titter of a
madman, a madman, among the people near about me. This was a turning
point in my favour. No one would bid against a mad man. The three
platinum crucibles for such in fact they were were knocked down in
my name for Rs. 6.1 secured them in my waist-coat pocket. One lot of all
sorts of scientific apparatus followed. These included about 20 platinum
plates for Groves battery cells, three or four Wimsbursts machines, and a
huge lot of carbon plates, lot of cotton and silk covered insulated wire, some
electric bells with batteries etc. It will be profitless to give a long catalogue
of all the things that were put to auction on that rainy morning. Never has
my ramble been better spent. All or most of the lots were knocked down in
my name for a total sum of Rs. 124. I had everything safely packed in my
own presence (with the exception of the platinum articles) and saw them
despatched by railway to my Lahore address.
On my return home, I disposed off most of things, with the exception of
the platinums, the insulated wires and the carbon plates, at about half the
English prices. Most of the platinum plates and the crucibles I sold at about
75 per cent the market price. At a modest estimate I made a net profit of at
least Rs.3, 000 out of a madmans bargain. The whole of this money was
credited to the workshop funds and went to swell the initial working capital
of the institution. I have only to mention that encouraged by the handsome
gift which luck presented to me at Bombay, I invested the balance of my
seven hundred rupees in the purchase of vices, bigger fire clay crucibles than
any we had dared to use before, and other necessaries required for expanding
my Workshop out of it.

Master Pyare Lal Inspector of Schools

The financial position of the workshop was now assured. Such a big
windfall was not without a purpose. I sent presents of some of the simpler
apparatus costing not more than Rs.7 each to some of the schools. A couple
of hundred rupees were spent in this manner. I also sent a circular letter to
all the Inspectors of Schools informing them of the satisfactory progress of
the workshop and offering to send them a dozen selected pieces of apparatus
made by ourselves with a competent mistri who would show the working of
all the instruments. My object in taking this step was obviously to interest
these officers in our enterprise in the hope that, if satisfied with the products
of the workshop, they would instruct the schools under their charge to
extend their patronage to us. No reply, not even an acknowledgement, came
from four out of the five senior Inspectors in the province. The fifth
gentleman, the only Indian Inspector of Schools in the province, Master
Pyare Lal, Inspector of Schools, Jullundhar Circle, wrote to say that he had
been hearing of the success of the Institute and, that he would certainly avail
himself of the opportunity of seeing a set of the apparatus made at Lahore,
but that, for this purpose, he would not put us to the trouble and expense of
sending the instruments to Jullundhar. He would be glad to pay visit to the
workshop and see the apparatus in the actual process of manufacture at a
very early date. After sometime I received intimation from him informing
me that he would be paying a brief visit to Lahore and staying with his
younger brother, Mr. Madan Gopal, Bar-at-Law, on certain specified dates.
At an appointed time, I called on him and brought him with me to the
workshop. He spent about three hours at the workshop, seeing everything
with his own eyes and making minute enquiries about various matters. I
wish here to record my deep sense of gratitude to him for the interest he
showed ever since his visit in the progress of the workshop. It will be the
simple truth to say that, but for the encouragement we received from Master
Pyare Lal and Mr. Hira Lal in those early days, the success of the workshop
would have been slow, pitiful and uncertain. One high placed European
gentleman even happened to blurt out the opinion that he would not cut the
throat of his own people by encouraging an industrial undertaking like the
workshop. He seemed to regret the remark afterwards because he tried to
explain himself away. The Head of the Department of Instruction, however,
officially expressed his gratification that the workshop was providing
facilities for the teaching of science subjects to the schools in the province.

Industrial Conference at Poona

About this time, a most gratifying testimony was forthcoming from
perfectly independent sources and under circumstances that at first seemed
to be anything but cheerful, that the products of our little workshop could
compare favourably with those imported from abroad. In the summer of
1893, when my pet child was hardly five years old, I received an invitation
from my friend Mr. Madhavrao Namjoshi of Poona to attend an industrial
conference that was being held there during the ensuing autumn. Mr.
Namjoshi was a well-known public worker in the cause of the industrial
advancement of the country and, quite fittingly, he himself had been selected
by the organisers of the conference to act as Honorary Secretary. I believe he
had also got up a small exhibition of Maharashtra products. An opportunity
like this for bringing my workshop to the notice of a wider public specially
interested in new industrial undertakings was not to be missed. The dates of
the Conference suited me perfectly. I accepted the invitation, and arrived at
Poona accompanied by my Head Mistri who was put in charge of several
boxes of scientific instruments made by us at Lahore.

Mr. Namjoshi had kindly made arrangements to accommodate me at his

own house, but an interesting incident took place on the opening day which
deserves a passing reference. Mahadeo Govind Ranade arrived at the
Conference while the proceedings were in full swing. He occupied a chair
just opposite to my own seat with a passage five or six feet wide between us.
I bowed my respects to him. As soon as he noticed me, he got up from his
chair, walked across the open space that separated us, and coming up to me
embraced me to his bosom as if he had met a long lost child and, without
speaking a word to me, said: Gentlemen, let me introduce to you my friend,
the Lahorewala. I do not know if he had forgotten my name at the moment.
I myself do not believe so; it is more probable that he used the
unconventional word, Lahorewala as a term of endearment. The point to
which I wish to draw the special attention of the readers here is the liberty
Ranade took in interrupting the regular proceedings of the Conference for a
trivial matter like the introduction of someone whom he noticed at the
meeting. Unconventional behaviour of this sort was characteristic of Ranade.
It came naturally to him. If there was any one who did not care for the
conventions of society it was the Grand Old Man of Poona. The universal
respect, or rather reverence, with which he was received wherever he
appeared, made it even graceful in him as being essential part of his
patriarchal attitude towards his people. At the close of the mornings
proceedings, he simply asked Namjoshi to have my things sent over to his
house. There was no question of making a request to him. Thus it was that I
had the honour of living for five or six days under Ranades roof, a privilege
which I also enjoyed more than once during the remaining seven years of the
great savant-statesmans life.
I should not like to pass on to the Conference without saying a few words
about what I saw of Ranade. I can only refer here to one or two things that
particularly interested me. He used to have long morning walks. Of course, I
enjoyed the privilege of accompanying him. On the way he would pick up a
friend here and there not always the same man. In spite of what I had
known of his unconventional habits and ways, I was much amused to hear
Ranade shouting out from the middle of the street at the top of his voice to a
friendmay be some honourable member of the Governors Council-whom
he wanted to accompany him in his morning stroll. To a Punjabi-my
province is known to attach more importance to small outward appearances
than any other part of India this and some other things I noticed were
novel experiences. Both at Simla and Lahore, I had myself seen Ranade in
situations of characteristic simplicity, while a friend once told me that he had
seen him driving in an ekka at Lahore. Only Ranade could be expected to do
these things. The impression made upon my mind has endured more than
half-a-century and is as fresh and strong as ever.
On the way, Ranade was the chief talker and much of his time was taken
up with pointing out to me hills, houses and places of historical interest,
especially those associated with the exploits of Shivaji and other incidents of
the old days of Maratha greatness. Seeing how graphically and impressively
he described them, I ventured to suggest that he should write a History of
Maharashtra. He made some non-possumus remark. Little did I know at the
time that Ranade had already taken the work in hand.
About the conference itself I need not say anything except that, as was to
be expected, some of the papers read on the occasion were as illuminating as
they were practical. But what about my own exhibits. They remained on
view on the tables throughout the Conference. At Mr. Namjoshis
suggestion, the Conference appointed a small committee of three men to
examine the apparatus and make a report on them. To my surprise a
confidential report was made. What was it? Either those whom I put this
question did not know themselves, for reasons of their own, or they did not
wish to tell me what it was like. At last my friend Mr. Namjoshi took me
into his confidence. From the point of view of the reporting committee, it
was as damaging to me personally and to the reputation of the Workshop as
it could possibly be. As I shall show presently, from my own point of view,
the Committee could not possibly have made a more flattering report than
they did. I got the permission of the President to speak for ten minutes about
my workshop with special reference to the instruments that were exhibited
on the Conference tables. I broke the seal of secrecy that had been
deliberately put upon the report of the Committee out of a delicate regard for
my feelings. I spoke frankly, and even bluntly, as the occasion required. I
said that through the courtesy of the Secretary, I had come to know
something about the report on my apparatus. The substance of it was that the
Committee did not believe that the apparatus could have been made at
Lahore or anywhere else in India. They were even more explicit in their
charge, they were convinced, they said, that the instruments exhibited on the
tables were really made in England and that all that my Workshop had done
as to remove the old fine varnish and replace it by crude varnish of their own
so as to give it the appearance of an Indian origin, and the proof of it was the
further fact that, with all their own resources of skill and appliances in
Bombay and elsewhere, they themselves could not turn out similar articles. I
said that as I interpreted the Report of the Committee, I considered that the
Committee could not possibly have made it more flattering to us. For it
meant two things and two things only:
Firstly, that but for the varnishing not a very material factor my
apparatus stood on a par with the imported British made apparatus in
respect of the actual working. Only in our case the varnishing was not as
good as it might have been.
In the second place, the Report showed that we had been able to achieve a
success that was admittedly beyond all the resources of the more advanced
presidency of Bombay.
In order to convince that the apparatus was really made at Lahore under
my personal supervision, I made them three alternative offers:
i) That the Conference could depute any number of men to visit the
workshop at Lahore to see the apparatus in the actual process of manufacture
and that, if they were not satisfied with the claim that the exhibits they saw
before them were made at Lahore, the workshop would be responsible for
the payment to them of second class fare for both journeys.
 ii) That they could place a large order for any of the apparatus with the
workshop. As the prices we charged were about half of the English prices,
they would be gainers by the bargain at our expense. Only a fool would
consent to purchase an article for ten rupees and offer it for sale at half-the-
cost price, and if a knave did make an offer of that kind for his own purpose
only, fools would not take advantage of it.
iii) The last alternative which I offered to them was that I would leave my
head mistri at Poona or anywhere else where he could be provided with the
necessary facilities for the manufacture of the apparatus. He would then
make any of the articles they liked under their own eyes. All that they need
guarantee in return was the salary of toe mistri for the time, not exceeding a
month that he was away from Lahore.
Words fail me to describe the loud applause which followed as I sat down.
Professor Modak of Baroda, who was I believe, president of the reporting
committee, came forward and embraced me. From Baroda he also sent me a
copy of his book on intermediate Physics in Marathi language as a mark of
his friendship. The subsequent history of the workshop was a record of
continued progress. Perhaps that is not the proper word except in a merely
business sense. No conspicuous departure was made from the hum-drum
routine of the manufacture and sale of apparatus. The business side of the
workshop, however, expanded steadily from year to year. Our output
increased, our sales mounted up and the reputation of the workshop spread
to the neighbouring provinces and we received some orders even from the
most distant parts of the country. When some years later, an industrial
exhibition became a regular adjunct of the annual sessions for the Indian
National Congress, exhibits from our Workshop attracted particular notice
and were recommended by the judging Committees for the award of gold or
silver medals. It goes without saying that the Committee of judges always
included eminent men of science belonging to the province where the
exhibition of the year was held. At the Calcutta Exhibition of 1906, for
instance, Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was on the Committee of judges for the
Department of Scientific Exhibits. He spoke in very flattering terms of our
contribution to the exhibition. At Calcutta as at many other places our
workshop was awarded a Gold Medal. With the passage of time and the
increasing encouragement from the public, the quality of our apparatus
improved. We made more advanced and more delicate pieces of apparatus
such as resistance boxes, chemical balances and the like. In point of
accuracy of measurements these instruments compared favourably with most
of the imported articles. It was no disparagement to the workshop that we
could not come any where near the best instruments used for research work.
But even for such of the delicate instruments as we were able to produce the
demand was very limited, so much so that we found it difficult to make
suitable arrangements for the calibration and reliable testing of the
instruments. If I were free from my official and other preoccupations, I
could possibly have secured a few more orders by personal visits to other
provinces. In the then existing conditions of the country it was not easy to
inspire confidence simply by carrying on correspondence with gentlemen
whom one may never have met. My previous experience at Poona was no
less a warning against too much optimism than an encouragement.

My Visit to Sulphuric Acid Plants at Calcutta

Towards the close of the century, certain circumstances of my official life,
led me to think of chucking up Government Service and devoting myself to
an industrial career. The scientific workshop, of course, formed a part,
though not the major part, of my programme. The establishment of a big
chemical factory at Lahore was the pivotal idea of the new project. With this
object in view, I spent a part of my summer vacation in 1898 in making a
practical study of the different aspects of the problem. Apart from other
steps that I took, I paid a visit to Calcutta and explained the whole position
to Dr. (now Sir) P.C. Ray. As sulphuric acid is the first thing one has to
think of in connection with a chemical factory, I pressed my friend to show
me some factories for the manufacture of the acid. There were several such
establishments known to Dr. Ray, but he said they would not admit an
upcountry man. His own visits did not excite any suspicions as he was well-
known to the people there as a Professor of Chemistry and a customer. He
was, besides, sometime approached by them for advice in their difficulties.
Dr. Rays objection in my case was, however, easily overcome. I agreed to
accompany him in black Bengali slippers, a dhoti and a shirtwithout head-
dress of any sort or kind. The new sartorial outfit served our purpose
admirably. We visited two moderate sized sulphuric acid factories where I
saw all the practical details of the process. Dr. P.C. Ray also placed an order
for 30 or 40 jars of the acid. These were meant for me and I had them
despatched subsequently to Lahore. While at Calcutta I also had occasion to
study the practical working of certain other factoriesthe manufacture of
chemical fertilisers being one of them.

Despite all these preparations, however, nothing came out of my efforts to

turn a new leaf and become a chemical industrialist (Ruchi Ram did
establish a Sulphuric acid plant which nourished for several years).
I am not a fatalist but I am bound to say that, considering everything I did
to shake myself off from the uncomfortable position in which my official
super session had now left me, only some powerful hidden hand could have
come in my way and dashed the cup from my lips.
To return to the story of my workshop. Welcome as the success of the
business side of the concern was, I was not quite happy that for so many
years no new department had been built up. I was particularly keen to fit up
my workshop with up to-date appliances for grinding lenses and then to add
a department for the manufacture of binoculars, students microscopes and
the like for which a fairly large demand had by this time grown up. I was not
satisfied with the replies I received to my enquiries. For this and other
reasons, nothing could be done till early in 1914 when I decided to proceed
to Germany for research work in radioactivity. I took a large sum of money
with me for the purchase of the necessary appliances with the help and
advice of some competent persons. But as if ill-luck was dogging my feet,
the war (First World War ) broke out and after spending about a year in
England so far as my workshop was concerned, I had to return home as
empty-handed as I had gone.

VI
My Public Activities
Judged by the present day standard, there was little about public life
before the Indian National Congress came into existence (December, 1885).
The only organisation worth mentioning that existed at the tune in Punjab
was a branch of the Indian Association of Calcutta.Surendranath
Bannerjeas or Sir Syed Ahmads occasional visits to Punjab stirred up a
great deal of public interest but it was short-lived and did not leave much
tangible effect behind. In these circumstances, as we, college students,
belonged to the first generation of English knowing Punjabis, we were often
spoken of as the hopes of the country. On our own part, we were also led
to think that we should try to deserve at least a little of the nice things that
were said about us.

Local Self-Government
The first public activity in which I remember to have taken an active part
was the agitation all over the province in connection with Lord Ripons
Local Self-Government Resolution. It is impossible for me to describe the
excitement that was created by an announcement of what will now be called
a simple reform. In 1882, however, when the resolution was first passed by
Lord Ripons Government it gave rise to wild excitement from one end of
the province to the other.
The little incident which came under my own observation will suffice to
show how extremely disturbed the social and political atmosphere of the
province became. I was then living in the College Boarding House at 47
Court Street, quite close to the Office of the Civil & Military Gazette which
had been established only a few years earlier at Lahore. One day, as I came
out of my hostel, one of the editorial staff of the Gazette joined me and
began to walk side by side with me. For a considerable distance when he
thus kept company with me, he would, again and again, look at me and shout
out: Local slough, Local slough, making hideous faces at me and
spitting repeatedly on the ground. It was sometime afterwards that I fully
realised how important the Ripons new Resolution was as providing the
necessary preliminary training for us in modern citizenship and laying the
foundation for representative government. We read the discussions in the
Civil & Military Gazette on the one side and the Tribune on the other. The
two vernacular papers the Kohinoor and the Aftab-i-Punjab were
considered of no account.
We also attended the public meetings in support of the Resolution. We
also held our own meeting in the Boarding House at which we resolved to
go round to the nearby towns and villages in our own centres during the
summer vacation that was close at hand and address public meetings
explaining the objects and importance of the reform. This was the first time
that I took active interest in a public movement of any kind. I do not attach
much importance to my little part in the Census operation of a few months
earlier (Feb. 1881), as in that case we took up the work under the
instructions of our Professors. During the vacation when I went to my native
town, Bhera, I got together three or four meetings, mostly of shopkeepers
along with a few school teachers, and set out to them, as well as I could, the
aims and objects of the new reform and what good it was going to do to the
people. I also went round to some of the villages in the neighbourhood and
addressed similar meetings. It was a novel experience both for me and my
audiences.

The Idol Contempt Case

Early in 1883 a case then pending in the Calcutta High Court gave rise to
veritable storm of popular indignation which upset the whole of Bengal and,
indeed, the repercussion of it were soon felt from end to end of India. This
was known as the Idol Contempt Case. In that case, Mr. Justice Morris had
the impudence of sending for a Hindu Idol for identification in Court. The
Brahmo Public Opinion, a weekly paper edited my Mr. Bhubon Das, father
of Deshbandhu C.R. Das, commented strongly on the conduct of Justice
Morris. Mr. Surendranath Bannerjea took up the question with his
characteristic enthusiasm and wrote strongly in his own paper, the Bengali.
He was at once placed on trial for Contempt of Court. His Counsel, Mr. W.
C. Bonnerjee, offered to apologise for his client but the apology was not
accepted and the distinguished leader of Young India was sentenced to
simple imprisonment for two months.
The incident gave rise to a universal outburst of grief and indignation, the
echoes of which were soon heard all over the country.
Public meetings were held in every part of India. Popular as Mr.
Surendranath Bannerjea was with the people of India in general; he was
looked upon as their idol by the youth of the country. It was, therefore, in the
fitness of things that college students everywhere should hold demonstration
of protest against the severe judgement of Justice Morris.
Shortly after Mr. Bannerjea was sentenced, a letter was handed to me
addressed to the B.A. students, Government College, Lahore. On opening it,
I found it was an appeal to us to hold a public meeting in connection with
the incident. We at once called a meeting in the Boarding House and decided
to hold a public meeting the very next day. We hit upon a novel method of
circulating the notice. A short notice was drafted at the meeting. All die
students present then undertook to make fifteen or twenty copies of it each.
This done they went out to different parts of the city allotted to each of the
students. We fixed the hand-written notices inside the Mohallas. This was a
novel method and at once attracted attention. In addition to the college
students, a good many people from the city attended the meeting which was
held in the premises of Tribune press, Lahore When the proceedings of the
meeting were subsequently published in the papers my professors came to
know of my part in the demonstration and one of them, Professor J.C. Oman
was very angry with me for having passed the resolution in favour of a
dismissed government servant. As it is well-known Mr Surendranath
Bannerjea was a distinguished member of the Indian Civil Service, but very
early in life was dismissed for some trivial fault. I may mention in this
connection that many years subsequently I myself saw a letter from Mr.
Bourdilhon as one time Lt. Governor of Bengal saying that if the
government had known what a powerful public speaker and agitator
Surendranath would become then it would have thought many times before
dispensing with his services. The letter was shown to me by Mr. N. Gupta,
the Editor of the Tribune, but I do not know how it came into his hands.

The Hindu Family Relief Fund

When I came down to Lahore in March 1887 as Assistant Professor in the
Government College, there were very few public institutions in Punjab, and
the membership of such as did exist was confined to comparatively young
men, the older men not knowing English and not being familiar with the
advantages or importance of associations founded on the Western model It is
perhaps not exaggeration to say that from the time I joined the staff of the
Government College at Lahore to the end of the century, myself and L.
Harkishen Lal were responsible for drafting the constitution of at least two-
thirds of the Associations most of them proved to he ephemeral that
came into existence at Lahore during the period. Very often we were
together, but now and again we did the drafting independently of each other.
L. Harkishen Lal returned to Lahore after his studies in England in the
early nineties. The Hindu Family Mutual Relief Fund had come into
existence a year or two earlier when the constitution of the Fund (drafted by
me) was discussed by a committee of five or six persons of which I was one
and it was adopted after minor changes. The idea of the Fund originated with
a clerk in one of the railway offices very probably serving under R. B.
Bishen Dass. A clerk had died in very indigent circumstances and it became
necessary to raise a subscription from among the clerks of the railway
offices for the benefit of the widow. Such an idea is repulsive to Hindu
instinct. Working on the principle of the Hindu customs of Nendra, the
clerks evolved the happy idea of having a regular fund for the mutual benefit
of the survivors of its members. He communicated his proposal to R.B.
Bishen Dass who was for a long time Personal Assistant to the Manager
of the Northern Western Railwaythe name North Western Railway came
to be given to the system much later. When I first came to Lahore as a
student in October 1879, it was known as the Sindh, Punjab and Delhi
Railway.
This is, however, a digression. R.B. Bishen Dass called a small meeting of
five or six men at his house and placed the proposal of his clerk before them.
I was one of this small committee and from the very beginning I was very
much taken up with the idea. My cousin R.B. Ladha Ram Sahni was posted
at Lahore at the time or was posted soon after So far as I remember he was
not one of the five or six who formed the original committee which
discussed the proposal and formulated a scheme to give effect to it. After the
rules and regulations had been drafted and adopted by the committee, a
larger and more representative meeting was called in the Sikhsha Sabha Hall
to formally inaugurate the Fund. The meeting was held in the long verandah
of the building. I have not visited the place for die last 40 years and do not
know what changes have been made in the building during this time. So far
as I can recall, about 60 of the town attended the meeting. The draft
constitution was discussed in detail and finally adopted by the meeting and
by a formal resolution of the meeting the Fund was inaugurated. The men
present at the meeting, or most of them, became the original founders of the
Fund and signed a membership form there and then. My membership No.
was 31. I cannot now recall any of the original members who are living
today, but there may be some. R. B. Ladha Ram Sahni became the first
President of the Fund with R. B. Bishen Dass as its Honorary Secretary.
Both took very great interest in the management of the Fund and in
popularising it. After the death of my brother Ladha Ram, R.B. Bishen Dass
became the President of the Fund. He was a very good natured gentleman, of
a pious disposition and very conscientious in the discharge of his duties,
both official as well as non-official He was an ornament of the Hindu
society. His brother L. Madho Ram, who was also employed in the railway,
was another gem of a man whom it was a pleasure to know. I have known
very few gentlemen who were as deservedly popular as these two
gentlemen. I wonder if they had any enemies at all. They were ready to offer
their help to every good cause and in their personal character and dealing
they were altogether above suspicion. I had the pleasure of counting several
sons of the two brothers among my pupils and friends. The most
distinguished of them of course was Mr. Balak Ram, I.C.S., who met with a
fatal accident some years back, while yet in service as a judge of the High
Court, Bombay.

The Himalayan Union Club

Soon after I had joined my appointment at Simla, I fortunately made the
acquaintance of Mr. (afterwards Nawab) Maula Bakhsh which did not take
long to ripen into an intimate friendship. It so happened that my house
adjoined that of Mr Maula Bakhsh. It is not often that one comes across such
good hearted people. He was there employed as a clerk in the P.W.D., but he
was known, so it seemed to me, to every Indian at Simla. Earlier in life he
had served as clerk on a low salary in the Post Office and it was only by dint
of ability and hard and honest work that he had risen to his present position
of a senior clerk in one of the Government of India offices. He was a shrewd
man but extremely affable in his manners and always ready to help friends
and strangers alike. Before I left Simla for Lahore, he accepted an
appointment in the Political Department and was deputed as an interpreter in
Persia. He was a good Urdu writer and was fond of contributing news and
notes to the columns of Tuti-i-Hind, a weekly journal published at Meerut.
He could speak Persian with a fair degree of fluency. In Persia, he made
himself especially useful and was helpful to Khan Bahadur Allah Bakhsh in
inducing the ex-Amir Ayub Khan to accept the hospitability of the
Government of India. He soon rose to the position of an Attach. Returning
to India he was at first appointed as Extra Assistant Commissioner but was
soon transferred to the Political Department at Delhi, from where he retired
with the title of Nawab.
 I must now retrace my steps and return to the happy days that Maula
Bakhsh as he was to me and I spent together at Simla. We soon
formed a public association at Simla under the name of the Himalayan
Union Club. I became the Honorary Secretary of the Club while my friend
accepted the office of Honorary Treasurer. This distinction existed only on
paper. In practice we worked in absolute union of heart and spirit not only in
tbe affairs of the club but in many other things. For the club, we had an
ambitious programme of work, but for the present our activities were
confined to the establishment of a public library at Simla and arranging
public lectures on all kinds of subjects. The only library that Simla possessed
at the time was small collection of books, consisting mostly of presents
made by members of the United Service Club. It was located in the
Assembly Hall, popularly known as the Nach Ghar, then situated a little
above the Cart Road but afterwards transferred to the new stone building on
the Mail. The building accommodated the municipal offices and the hall on
the top roof and some adjoining rooms were used by the A. D.C. etc. The
whole building was known to the public as the Gaiety Theatre. The Library
in the Gaiety Theatre was not open to general public.
We had a fairly large number of good books in the Himalayan Union Club
Library. Some of them were received as presents both from European and
Indian residents, while others were purchased with the donations from
friends. We were on the look out for a site for a permanent Library and had
even opened negotiations with the owners of three or four suitable places.
But unfortunately the institution languished after the departure from the
station of both Maula Bakhsh and myself and our successors finding it
difficult to maintain it handed over the books and other assets of the library
to the Simla Municipality which was supposed to maintain some sort of a
Library on the Cart Road. Several years later I once paid a visit to the
Library on the Cart Road and was greatly disappointed with what I saw of it.
The Lecture side of the Himalayan Union Club also remained in a most
flourishing condition, during the two years that I and Maula Bakhsh were in
charge of it. Among other lecturers I can recall the names of Pratap Chandra
Majumdar, Shankar Pandurang Pandit and Mahadeo Govind Ranade. I also
gave several lectures, three of them being on the weather and one on some
other subject. Mahadeo Govind Ranade took the chair on the lectures on the
weather which were delivered in the hall of the Government School.

The Indian National Congress

 It need scarcely be mentioned that, the first session of the Indian National
Congress at Bombay in closing days of 1885, created a stir in all overlndia.
Elsewhere I have described some of the scenes of sudden political
awakening that were witnessed during the first four or five sessions of the
National Assembly. A.O. Hume, the founder of the Congress, threw himself
heart and soul into the new movement, hi 1886, he published three
pamphlets written in vigorous, eloquent and moving language every
paragraph of which breathed a spirit of hope and courage. According to the
story current at the time, not less than fifty thousand copies of each of them
were circulated. We could get half-a-dozen copies, or even more, on
assuring the distributors that they were to be sent out to friends.
I was very much impressed by the fact that an English gentleman, who
had risen to the position of a member of the Viceroys Council and who
might have become the head of a provincial Government, should have taken
it upon himself to plead the cause of India. I was anxious to meet Hume and
hear from his own lips as to what had led him to take such a step. In those
days Government servants were not debarred from joining political
associations and taking part in public discussions of political questions.
While being a Professor in the Government College at Lahore, I myself was
a member of die Indian Association, Lahore, and the fact was very well-
known to my Principal. Once he himself presided when, in the hall of the
College, the Indian Association with myself as a member, presented an
address to Mr. W.S. Caine, M.P., for taking great interest in Indian affairs in
general and in connection with the Temperance Movement, in particular.
As a Government servant, I could not take an active part in the Congress
activities till my retirement in April 1918, but I attended some of the most
important annual public meetings of the National Assembly in the capacity
of a visitor. I remember the wide-spread stir created by mass distribution of
two or three vernacular pamphlets. These pamphlets were published in all
the provincial vernaculars and copies circulated, broadcast, all over the
country. This method of mass political agitation created something like an
alarm in official circles, with the result that although at its birth Lord
Dufferin had blessed the Congress, before the child was two years of age
the Government threw all kinds of obstacles in the way of the third annual
session that was to be held at Allahabad under the presidency of Sir Andrew
Yule, a well-known Calcutta merchant of the time. Sir Auckland Celvin, Lt.
Governor of the province, strongly criticised the Congress movement as
seditious. The Allahabad Session marked an open rupture between the
Congress and the government.
 Patriotic Associations and Loyalist Associations were soon started in
important centres all over northern India with the avowed object of opposing
the Congress. Secret circular letters were sent round to all the Local
governments to enlist, so far as was possible, more Mohammedans in the
services.
In the United Provinces, a number of such associations were started, it
was believed, under official inspiration. In the Punjab, at least one
association was started but it came to a premature end. The place of
Patriotic Association was, however, taken by a weekly. This was not the
time for starting an Indian daily. Even the Tribune of Lahore was yet a
weekly paper with the name Punjab Patriot. It was long edited by a well-
known Indian gentleman. The name of the proprietor was never made public
but it was widely believed that certain influential Englishmen, who were
also interested in the local Anglo-Indian Civil & Military Gazette, were at
the back of it. I may mention that the popular view was confirmed by Mr.
Rama Krishna, founder of the well-known firm of Messrs Rama Krishna &
Sons, Booksellers, who told me that he himself was approached to take up
the editorship of the paper before the post was offered to the gentleman who
subsequently resumed the responsibility. The main purpose of the paper was
obviously to counteract Congress activities. About the same time, another
paper, The Observer, was started at Lahore as the exponent of Muslim
opinion. Both the Punjab Patriot and The Observer carried on a vigorous
propaganda against the Congress. In this work they received substantial
official support by the purchase of a large number of copies for government
institutions. I doubt very much, however, if they achieved much success in
the province thanks mainly to the enthusiasm created for the Congress
cause chiefly among the students by frequent visits of Hindu and Muslim
Congress leaders from other provinces. The two men who paid frequent
visits to the province and greatly influenced public opinion in favour of the
Congress were Raja Rampal Singh and Mr. Ali Mahammad Bhimji. Neither
of them was a fluent speaker, but they more than made up for their linguistic
shortcomings by their enthusiasm and the wonderfully impressive manner in
which they spoke. Raja Rampal Singhs quaint dress attracted crowds to see
him wherever he appeared. He wore a hat which he continued to keep on his
head while he was addressing a Congress meeting, but the rest of his dress
was that of a gorgeously attired grandee of Mughal Court. He was a taluqdar
and hailed from the neighbouring North-West Province (present U.P.). He
always spoke in English, but in spite of his manifest deficiencies of grammar
and idioms, he never failed to make a wonderful impression upon his
audience. Mr Ali Mohammad Bhimji addressed meetings in Urdu, but as
Khoja from Bombay he had no better command of his vernacular than the
Raja had over his English. And yet it would be perfectly correct to say that
he was one of the most impressive speakers lever heard. Both the speakers
were regular annual visitors to Lahore for several years in succession.
Returning to the Punjab Patriot I well remember that once when the
Editor wrote a letter headed: Why we oppose the Congress? some wag
replied to it by scribbling the words: Because you are paid for it, across
the College Reading Room copy. On another occasion, a student wrote one
letter and he added a slanting stroke to the letter P in the word Patriot
and rearranged the order of the letters in the manner to spell Traitor. Add
the slanting stroke to the opening letter of Patriot making the letter P into
R and rearrange the letters as follows:

2 3 5 7 4 6 1
R A T R I O T

Equal to

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
T R A I T O R

This was really an ingenious way of changing the word Patriot into
Traitor. Passed from mouth to mouth the paper was soon known as the
Punjab Traitor, all over the province. Even to this day, a quarter of a
century after the extinction of the paper, every Punjabi above the age of
forty will tell you who the Punjab Traitor was.
One of the earliest of the public gatherings, at which I was present, was
the remarkable second Bombay Session popularly known as the Bradlaugh
Session held in 1889. It was remarked at the time that this session was
attended by exactly 1889 delegates, though the number of visitors far
exceeded the delegates. Sir William Wedderbum, one of the small band of
Englishmen known as the friends of India was in the chair. The presence
of Charles Bradlaugh had attracted a large contingent of both delegates and
visitors from the Punjab. I remember Professor G. K. Gokhale as he then
gave a short address at the open session on bi-metallism, then a burning
topic of the day. Another noteworthy thing that I feel inclined to mention
here is the fact that, on a call for subscription to the Congress funds being
made, there was a never-to-be forgotten shower of cash, notes, cheques and
even slips falling into the large number of hats that were sent round, and
money was still pouring in when further subscriptions were stopped for want
of time specially as Mr. Bradlaugh, who had arrived at the pavilion in the
midst of wild enthusiasm, was not keeping good health. Mr Bradlaugh was
not well at this time and in fact he had undertaken the voyage to India in
search for health. But the shadow of death was already hanging over him
and he passed away not long after his return home. For the same reason, he
could not make a more than a few days stay at Bombay. A number of
addresses from different provinces were presented to him. His own speech
was, it is not necessary to say, a masterpiece of eloquence the like of which I
have not heard. What this means may be judged from the fact I have heard
again and again, men and women like Surendranath Bannerjea, Mrs Sarojmi
Naidu, Ananda Mohan Bose, Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, Swami
Vivekanand and Mrs. Annie Besant, whom I once quite audibly but
involuntarily called sorcerers. The subject of her magnificent oration was
pantheism which I could not accept but towards which I was being carried
away by her oratory in spite of myself; this took place in 1893 at Lahore.
Among other many distinguished men, it was at this Congress that I saw for
the first time, Pandit Ajudhiya Nath, father of Pandit Hirdaya Nath Kunzru.
Mr. Bardley Norton, then an ardent congressman, had remarked that he and
his fellow congressmen from Madras had been escorted to Bombay by a
posse of policemen, when Pandit Ajudhiya Nath sprang to his feet and
announced that the honour of having a police escort was not reserved for
Congress leaders from Madras, but that it was shared by himself and his
Congress companions from the U.P with the additional distinction that, in
their case, they came in charge of a police escort headed by a high European
police officer whom he named.
While I am referring to the Bradlaugh Congress at Bombay, I may also
mention a personal incident that took place in a Congress session in that city
on that occasion or, probably, on a subsequent occasion. Ranade occupied a
seat amongst the distinguished guests on the dais. As he wanted to talk to me
about some social conference matter, he sent for me from my place on one
of the back seats reserved for visitors. While I was sitting on the dais Mr.
Ranade happened to go out for a few minutes leaving me seated where I
was. Presently, a well-dressed gentleman he was obviously one of the
officials of the Congress - came up to me and began speaking rudely
somewhat in the following language: Who are you7 Why are you here?
and so on and so forth. I was much amused and at once repeated exactly the
same questions to him. A little scene was created on the dais when Mr. Daya
Ram Cidduma I. C. S. of Shikarpur, who was also sitting on the dais next to
me, intervened and explained to the presumptuous Congress official who I
was and how I came to be there. The official then apologised and retired.

The Punjab Enquiry Committee

In one way those were the most inspiring days I have ever spent in my
life. I lived on terms of the most intimate confidence with Malaviya Ji,
MotilalJi, C.R. Das, Abbas Tyaibji, and others and I could see the working
of the mind of these leaders in connection with not only the Enquiry but also
in the matter of their dealings with Government. I cannot tell how many
anxious hours Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya spent in running about the
Central Jail and L. Harkishen Lals house. Pandit Malaviya was charged
with the duties of finding out on what terms L. Harkishen Lal and his
companions were willing to appear as witnesses before the Hunter Enquiry
Committee. At the same time Mr. C. F Andrews was running backwards and
forwards between L. Harkishen Lals house and the Government house to
find out if those terms were acceptable to the Government. The breakdown
of these negotiations was the signal for the starting of non-co-operation with
the Government.
The final decision was taken at two long sittings of selected leaders at the
house of Malik Girdhari Lal at the back of L. Harkishen Lals house. One
sitting lasted nine hours almost at a stretch. Some fruits and light
refreshments were kept in the adjoining room and who felt the need to attend
to the inner man could slip out into the room and help himself to anything
that was available on the table. On the second day the meeting continued
similarly for about eight hours. At the conclusion of these two meetings it
was decided that if the Government was not prepared to allow L. Harkishen
Lal, L. Duni Chand and Pt. Ram Bhai Dutt and one or two others to be
brought into the enquiry room and allowed to remain there throughout the
time the witnesses were examined against them, the Congress should boycott
the official enquiry committee altogether. It was explained that no
satisfactory enquiry could be made unless the witness were examined in the
presence of the principal accused and such instructions as they could give to
their own counsel. It was further explained that the officials who had
arraigned the accused on such serious charges were allowed to be present in
the enquiry room all the time that the committee was sitting and examining
witnesses while the counsel for the accused was forced to take his
instructions from his clients in jail. The accused were deprived of the
advantage of hearing what was being alleged against them by the witnesses
and then instructing their counsel to cross-examine the witnesses. In these
circumstances the enquiry was reduced to a farce and Mahatma Gandhi,
C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru were very strong on the point that no fair trial
could be held under those circumstances. On the second day the last two
hours were very anxious indeed. The final decision was taken with a very
heavy heart. No one knew what was going to happen. Everyone was indeed
filled with the gravest apprehensions and it was only the feeling that no other
course could be taken consistently with the self-respect of the people which
forced them to arrive at the final decision. Even so, as I have said above for
a couple of hours there was a very tough struggle in all opposing minds but
on minds that were conscious on the one hand of the great risks which they
were running in adopting the course. They did simply because there was no
escape visible to them unless they were prepared to mortgage the self-
respect and sense of honour of the people themselves. I remember that for
a couple of months I reviewed the things that were said again and again by
the leaders with grave anxiety during those two hours.

The decision finally reached was the decision of brave men who did not
like to risk so much if only some narrow escape could be found. Their
demand was reduced to the absolute minimum when they said that, the
Government must be, prepared to allow the leaders to remain in the
committee room, it may be in chains, during the course of the enquiry at
least into their own individual conduct, so that they might hear what was
being said against them and instruct the counsel to put the necessary
questions to the witnesses. Until and unless this minimum demand was
acceded to they should risk everything and tell the Government that they
would hold their own independent enquiry committee and publish a separate
report of their own. That evening I saw Sir John Maynord and told him that
the breaking point had been reached and that until the Government was wise
enough to retrace its steps and allow the concession for which Malaviyaji
and C. F. Andrews had been striving for at least a fortnight, the final word
would be passed on the following day and then it would be too late for the
Government to make (he concession with any sense of grace. Sir John
Maynord was very much upset at this news and he wanted to know
authoritatively if in case that minimum demand was acceded at that stage
the trouble would be over I told him. This was my definite information but
that I could not take the responsibility entirely on my own shoulders. I said
that if he agreed in writing to approach the Governor with that request,
promising his own support to it, I would get the minimum demand of the
Congress party put down in black and white by someone who was in a
position to speak with authority about the matter. He gave me a letter
promising his own support to the minimum demand as I had explained it to
him provided someone on the other side also would state in writing that
the satisfaction of that demand would conciliate the Congress leaders
and that thereafter they would promise their co-operation in the work of the
enquiry committee. I took Sir John Maynords letter to Pandit Madan Mohan
Malaviya. Both he and Pandit Motilal Nehru felt very much relieved to see
that there was yet a ray of hope of an rapprochement being arrived at. In
consultation with Pandit Motilal Nehru, Malaviya Ji drafted a letter which I
took to Sir John Maynord that very evening. Sir John Maynord immediately
went over to Government house and pressed that the Congress demand be
accepted. Unfortunately Sir Edward Maclagan was then under the influence
of Mr. (now Sir) John Thomson who was not in a mood to listen to the talk
of any concession being made to the Congress party. Sir John Maynords
negotiations ended in fiasco and the Congress Enquiry Committee set to
work with redoubled zeal in carrying out their enquiries into the atrocities
of the Martial Law Regime of Sir Michael O Dwyer.
The reader of these notes will hardly be able to realise that how much the
people of Punjab had been struck with terror by the happenings of the
memorable week which is now glorified as the national week followed by
about two months of Martial Law Regime. One or two incidents may be
mentioned here to drive home the helpless condition to which the people had
been reduced. Pandit Malaviya, the idol of the Punjab Hindus, was more
than once seen driving about at Amritsar in a common tum-tum making
enquiries as to what had happened.

No one dared come near him lest by so doing he should offend the
officials. No respectable person would even think on placing his Gari at his
disposal for fear of incurring the dire displeasure of the higher officials.
Even tanga walas would fight shy of driving the man like Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya about in the town lest their licence should betaken away
with one pretext or another by the municipality. Again on another occasion
Pandit Malaviya wanted to go and spend a couple of days in Gujranwala in
connection with the Congress enquiries Mr. Mela Ram Anand one of the
Gujranwala accused gave him permission to go and live at his house during
those two days. The house was then lying vacant. Pandit Malaviya had to
make his own arrangements for his food etc., but even so when Mr. Mela
Ram Anand (pleader) returned to Gujranwala some weeks later he was sent
for by one of the high officials and asked in an angry mood why he had
allowed Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya to stay in his house. The official
insultingly added that the Pandit could live in the Serai for the night. Mr.
Mela Ram felt the insult but was so helpless as not to be able to say anything
in reply. Mr. C R. Das and Pandit Motilal Nehru used to take their own car
to Amritsar not merely for the sake of convenience, although the
convenience was the most important consideration but also because they
knew that they would be putting someone to very serious risk of displeasing
the officials if they used the conveyance of any of the people at Amritsar;
even food and drink for them were carried from Amritsar in the car. Even so
they could not induce many people to come forward and make their
statements as boldly and frankly as one could have wished them to do. Many
of the statements had to be verified again and again by corroborative
evidence because we were afraid of official pressure being brought to bear
upon the witnesses with the result that even statements recorded before the
Congress Enquiry Committee and signed by the witnesses were likely to be
withdrawn later under official pressure. Some of the more startling
statements which reached the Enquiry Committee were not recorded at all
because they were so startling that unless we could be quite sure that the
men making the statements would stick to them even under grave threats
from the official circles, we ran serious risks of ourselves recording
statements which were not true.
Mahatma Gandhi in particular was very strong about not recording such
statements at all because they exposed the witnesses to very serious risks
and he would say that we had no right to do so even in the name of
patriotism. It was an interesting sight to see Mr. C.R. Das sitting in the
middle of the street at Amritsar smoking his beautiful Pachwan Huqa and
recording evidence of men and women living round about. He would go in
his Rolls Royce in the morning and come back late in the evening; so did
Pandit Motilal Nehru and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya. It was very
difficult to persuade people to come forward and give evidence although
they felt resentment in their hearts. One could see the frightened faces of
men and women as they appeared before the judges of the Congress
Committee.
While the independent enquiries of the Congress Committee were going
on, Mr. C. R. Das had made arrangements to get day after day a verbatim
report of what transpired before the Hunter Enquiry Committee. The
Committee held its sittings in the Town Hall. Mr. C.R. Das had brought two
expert stenographers with him to Lahore; both of them were mainly
occupied with taking down the evidence tendered before the Hunter
Committee. The more important evidence was taken down verbatim. Every
evening the typed report of the evidence was read out to Mr. C R. Das so
that he could know what evidence had been given before the official
Committee perhaps several hours before the Governor himself came to know
of it. I remember particularly the day when one of the stenographers read out
to Mr. Das the evidence of General Dyer. Mr. Das face brightened up and it
was within five minutes after the evidence was read out to him he sent the
man at once to the telegraph station and asked him to wire the whole of it to
his solicitor. I forgot the name of the gentleman although we saw him at
Lahore when he came in connection with the Congress Enquiry Committee.
I think it cost Mr. Das something like fifteen hundred rupees to telegraph the
whole of General Dyers evidence to England. It may be imagined what a
sensation it must have created in the official circle in the liberal atmosphere
of Great Britain. It was a great turning point in favour of the popular view
though, of course, the British officials were so well disciplined that they did
not show the least nervousness at the exposure which General Dyers
evidence must have made of the official position. They put a brave face on
the whole show and stuck their guns that a big rebellion bad been averted by
the timely action of General Dyer; so much the worst for them because it
gave a rude shock to the peoples faith in India in the good intentions of the
British Government. As we know the House of Lords by a resolution
actually commended the action of General Dyer.
I should like to mention here what is perhaps not generally known that the
question asked by the Indian members of the Hunter Committee were strictly
inspired by us. We had formed a small committee of 3 or 4 men with Pandit
Motilal Nehru at its head for drafting the questions which were to be asked
by Pandit Jagan Narain, Nawab Sultan Ahmad and Mr. Chimanlal Setalvad.
We knew what witnesses were to be examined by the Hunter Committee and
we set about diligently collecting all the information that was suggested to
us by our leaders and framing questions to be put to each witness. Typed
copies of these questions were supplied to each of the three Indian members
on the previous night at the latest. Generally I was sent with these copies to
two of the gentlemen, Pandit Jagan Narain and Sultan Ahmad. I do not know
who went to Mr. Setalvad. The whole thing was kept strictly confidential
and the typed copies of the questions had therefore to be sent through some
reliable persons who could not only hand over the copies to the Indian
members of the Enquiry Committee but who could also discuss and explain
the questions and supply such other information as the members might want.
Pandit Jagan Narain won a great reputation for putting a large number of
searching questions not because he was better posted than the other two
Indian members but simply because he occupied a position at the Enquiry
Committee table which gave him the first chance among the Indian members
of putting the questions. Nawab Sultan Ahmad was the last of the three and,
therefore, his questions were fewest because the whole list had been already
exhausted by Pandit Jagan Narain and Mr. Setalvad before his turn came.
All the same he was able to put some very shrewd questions and made a
good reputation for his cross-examination of witnesses. The Government
must have come to know that the three Indian members were being
thoroughly coached by those who had openly boycotted the official Enquiry
Committee but so far as the general public is concerned, they were, I am
absolutely sure, in the dark about our activities. It is but fair to add that
Mahatma Gandhi was kept scrupulously ignorant of this procedure. We
knew that he would have looked askance at anything that was not quite open
and straightforward; the other members were not of the same mind and in
several things the same weapons were used which the government would
have welcomed and which indeed the government was freely using with the
great resources at its command. I might mention an instance which shows
the distance that existed between the Mahatma and the other great leaders of
the Congress movement. A certain gentleman not directly connected with
our movement brought an official document once which was of very great
use to us for our own enquiries. The document had been obtained by means
which were not quite fair. It was a confidential paper belonging to some
official records of a government department. I told the gentleman to take it
directly to Pandit Motilal Nehru. He knew both Pandit Motilal Nehru and
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya fairly well. The document was shown to
both these leaders and they had a good word for his cleverness and
resourcefulness in obtaining a copy of such an important paper. The man
then wanted to show it to Mahatma Gandhi. I warned him against doing so
but he was so filled with the idea of his own cleverness that he wanted
perhaps to have a word of praise from the mouth of Gandhiji himself as he
had received from the other two great leaders. I think Mr. C.R. Das was not
at Lahore at the time because I do not remember that the paper was shown to
him. Anyway our friend took it to Mahatma Gandhi I was not present but my
friends told me what had happened Mahatma Gandhi looked at the paper for
a minute and at once asked the gentleman how he had come by it and when
he told, Mahatma Gandhi refused to look at such a dirty rag. He took the
gentleman very severely to task for having put one of the officials in such a
wrong position and he said that our work was clean and we could not only
encourage such methods but we must positively discourage them. He added
that the information contained in that document should not be used in the
course of their enquiry and that for them that document did not exist at all.
This information was communicated by me both to Pandit Madan Mohan
Malaviya and Pandit Motilal Nehru and they both said that they knew what
Mahatma Gandhi would think of it. It is necessary to mention here that at
this time Gandhiji was not known as Mahatma although now and again
someone would speak of him as such. It was only when the non-co-operation
movement spread during 1921 that the name Mahatma was given to
Gandhiji by the people at large.
 During the Punjab disorder enquiry days Mahatma Gandhi was staying at
the house of Pandit Ram Bhai Dutt. He used to receive crowds of women as
visitors. I used to wonder what there was in him to attract so many women.
He had only two-word sermon for them spin and be fearless. Many a time
his sermon did not last more than 5 minutes only but even so the women
visitors were mightily pleased with themselves and thought that they had
gamed some merit by going to see him and hear these words from his lips. I
confess that I used to wonder a good deal what the advice really meant or
what it was worth, hi later years, however, I understood the real import and
significance of spin and be fearless. I wondered if the women cared to
understand what he really meant. In order to please him and with no other
motive perhaps women would spin and take spindles of yarns as a present to
him because he liked no other present so much as the present of spindles of
yarn. I do not exactly know what he did with the many spindles of yarn he
received as presents. The lash ion of making a garland of them had not then
come into vogue. I dare say the spindles remained with Sarla Devi
Chaudhrani who became a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi. Of the
Congress Enquiry Committee report I need say nothing as I had nothing to
do with the actual compilation of the report itself. I was mainly concerned
with the collection and the recording of evidence. This was done at the
residence of Lala Harkishen Lal. The gentlemen who were selected for the
purpose of recording the evidence were Mr. C.R. Das, Pandit Motilal Nehru,
Mr. Abbas Tyaibji, Fazal-ul-Haqand Mr. Abhyankar. I believe Mr. M R.
Jayakar also carne for some little time but did not stay for long. The report
itself was written by Mahatma Gandhi himself.

On the Khilafat Issue

During the First World War a society known as Kudam-i-Kahva was
formed for the protection and preservation of the holy places of Islam of
which Mecca is the centre and the crown. They had suffered a good deal for
their love of Islam. It is a pity that this love did not take any constructive
form but was largely a mere sentiment, f do not know if the Kudam-i-Kahva
was a large or influential body, at any rate one never heard of any other
members of the Kudam-i-Kahva than the Ali brothers themselves. At the
time of my writing about, Ali brothers had gathered a fairly large and
influential body of other
Mohammedans chiefly learned maulvies and divines who joined them in
their advocacy of the integrity and independence of Turkey and their severe
condemnation of the violation of the promises and pledges which had been
given by Lloyd George to the Indian Musalmans. Thus for a short time the
Mohammedan sentiment became very bitter. Mahatma Gandhi with the true
insight of politician made the Muslim cause as his own and with the duel cry
of the Punjab wrongs and the wrongs of Turkey he raised a standard of
revolt against the British government. For the accomplishment of his object
he adopted what has since become famous as the non-co-operation
movement. The Ali brothers started the Khilafat movement which-became
a parallel organisation with the non-co-operation movement. In August 1920
Gandhiji and the Ali brothers paid a visit to Lahore. Gandhiji addressed
about a couple of hundred men who were specially invited to meet him at
the house of Lala Harkishen Lal. It was here that he laid out his plans
fully and made an appeal to those around him to join the non-co-operation-
cum-Khilafat movement. The Ali brothers also spoke and especially Shaukat
made a feeling speech to Hindus to support the non-co-operation movement
at least for the sake of Khilafat wrongs. Some of the words he used are still
ringing in my ears. In the light of what followed I would say without the
least hesitation that they were hollow and hypocritical words. He said that
the Hindus and Mohammedans were brethren and that the Muslims will
never forget so long as the word gratitude remains in the vocabulary of the
country. They will cherish feeling of gratefulness for any help which the
Hindus might give them in saving Turkey from the disruption to which the
greed and selfishness of the British government had consigned her. It was a
most powerful speech indeed. Addressing me personally he asked me to give
up the title which I had held for something like 11 years. As I had no
particular liking for a title I told him there and then that he could have my
title if it served the purpose of the Musalmans in any manner whatsoever. He
was mightily pleased with it and after the meeting when I had left he sent me
word to make sure if the promise I had made at the meeting would be kept.
He asked me to make the announcement the very next day which I did. He
wrote to me a letter expressing his gratitude on behalf of the Musalmans for
supporting the cause of the Khilafat. I do not know myself how in giving up
my title I was supporting the cause of the Khilafat or the cause of non-co-
operation, but I must say that at the moment in announcing the
relinquishment of my title I made it quite clear that I was not a non-co-
operator and that I had been led to give up my title to please my Musalman
friends who felt let-down at the treatment of Turkey at the hands of British
government after the conclusion of War.
I cannot say that Mahatma Gandhi made a very great impression by the
announcement of the non-co-operation movement in the Punjab. A special
session of the Congress was convened at Calcutta on the 20th of September
1920. Lala Lajpat Rai was elected president of the Congress. A large number
of Punjabee delegates, myself amongst the number, accompanied L. Lajpat
Rai to Calcutta. My eldest son Dr. B. J. Sahni was also with us. The chief
business of the Calcutta special session of the Congress was done at the
Subjects Committee meeting which is now known as the All India Congress
Committee. The special committee meeting was held in the hall of the Indian
Association of Calcutta. It was a most remarkable meeting. The main subject
which engaged the attention of the delegates for a whole day was the
resolution of non-co-operation. Mr. C.R. Das was opposed to the resolution
and he was ably supported by his then lieutenant Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal. On
behalf of the non-co-operation movement Gandhi himself was the chief
spokesman although M. Mohammed Ah also took part in the discussion now
and again. Mahatma Gandhi was a host in himself. I can never forget the
duals which took place every now and again between Mr. Das and Bepin
Chandra Pai on one side and Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammed Ali on the
other. As I sat and watched there C.R. Das and Mahatma Gandhi struggling
with each other, each with the mighty weapons of frenzied art in his hands, I
could picture to myself two big armies opposing one another in deadly
combat. Here was Das at the head of one of the armies hurling a detachment
here and ordering another detachment there as he saw weak point in the
ranks of the enemy. On the other hand Mahatma Gandhi was no less skilful
in the handling of the resources of the warfare as were at his command. It
was indeed a wonderful fight and I find it very hard indeed to forget the deep
impression which it made upon me although as I am dictating these words I
find my sentences are much too poor to express with anything like adequacy
the real state of things as I saw developing before me in that great fight
between two intellectual giants.
In the final result Mahatma Gandhi won the vote of the Subjects
Committee though by a very narrow majority, indeed so narrow that a
recount of the votes had to be made but the result of it was the same as
before, that is to say Mahatma Gandhi winning by a very small number of
votes. I do not remember this number exactly but I believe it was not far
removed from 10 The open session of the Congress was interesting in a way
but everybody knew from the beginning that the final voting would end in
favour of Mahatma Gandhi. The canvassing on behalf of both parties was
very brisk and energetic immediately before the voting look place, but
Mahatma Gandhi won, as I have already said, by an overwhelming majority
of votes. I need hardly say anything else about the special session of the
Congress. Mr. C. R. Das remained unconvinced and so also was Lala Lajpat
Rai. Both of them became converts of Mahatma Gandhi at the Nagpur
session of the Congress in December 1920. I was not quite convinced of the
correctness of the non-co-operation views expressed at the Calcutta
Congress but the speeches of Mahatma Gandhi and others at Calcutta made
a deep impression upon me so much so that although I was not quite
convinced in favour of non-co-operation I decided to withdraw from the
contest for the Council elections for which I had been working hard before.
After the Nagpur Session I became a firm non-co-operator although in
certain matters I had my own mental reservations.These mental reservations
remained to the end though in all other matters my conviction in the non-co-
operation movement strengthened and deepened as time went on. Before
going off the subject I should like to mention that the Nagpur Session of the
Congress was unlike any other that had been held before that date. I was a
fairly regular attendant as a visitor at the annual sessions of the Congress but
on no previous occasion had I noticed even a tenth of the intense enthusiasm
which one could see on every side at the Nagpur Session of the Congress in
December 1920. Apart from everything else, the singing of few national
songs and songs written on success of charkha and Hindu-Muslim unity and
the Punjab and Khilafat wrongs, all these sung by groups of men and women
from different provinces in so many different languages, was a unique sight
indeed. I took down a good many of these songs which were being sung in
the improvised streets of the Congress Camp.
Salem Vijayaraghavachariar, the veteran leader from the south, was the
President of the Congress. He did not go the whole way with Mahatma
Gandhi. His presidential address was consequently a half-hearted plea for
the non-co-operation movement. One of the mistakes, as I consider it, which
was made at this Congress was the decision to stop the publication of the
Congress organ India in England. India had done very great service to the
cause of the country for something like quarter of a century and we felt it a
great pity that in his enthusiasm as a thorough going non-co-operator,
Mahatma Gandhi was prepared to have nothing more to do with a
publication, howsoever useful it might be, issued from England. In a big
den, outside the pandal, the question of the continuance of India was debated
amongst some of the leading representatives of the Congress movement
from different parts of the country Three European friends of India also took
part in these discussions. They all pleaded very hard indeed for the
continuance of support to India. They said that the organ had been doing
very great service to the cause of the country and at that critical moment its
continued publication was imperatively necessary. One of these gentlemen
who was very enthusiastic in the expression of these views was Mr. Halford
Knight. I do not remember exactly the names of other two gentlemen but I
believe Dr. Rutherford was one and Mr. Ramsay Macdonald was another
Anyway, in spite of the hard pleading of the three European friends of India
as well as a number of Indian gentlemen, it was decided mainly because of
Mahatma Gandhis advocacy to stop publication of India altogether. It was a
sad blunder to take this decision. From that moment up to this we have been
without an organ of our own and the amount of mischief which our enemies
have been able to do to us on account of the absence of an independent
organ of our own, has been enormous. I do hope that steps will be taken
before long to establish an organ of our own in England.

My Connection with the Brahmo Samaj

So far I have said nothing on an important department of life. Before I
came to Lahore in October 1879, I had not heard of any reform movement.
As I have already indicated, I cannot say how exactly to describe my fathers
faith. He had his daily role of idol worship with all the warmth of a sincere
believer, so much so that when he was ill, he would ask me to go through the
forms and formalities of washing the idols in the morning, properly dressing
them and making them the usual offerings of flowers, sweets and scents. On
such occasions, my fathers bed was carried to where the idols were, and he
would himself sing the hymns at appropriate places. I never questioned
myself whether it was right or wrong to do what I was bidden by my father
to do. It was enough for me that I was carrying out the wishes of my father.
To judge from the warmth of feeling and regularity with which the worship
was conducted, I have every reason to conclude that my father was a sincere
idol worshipper. The only thing that now raises doubts in my mind is the fact
that both in the morning and at night, he recited, with equal warmth and
regularity, the Sikh scriptures Rohoras and Sukhmani. How he could
reconcile these recitations with idol worship I do not know. Probably, like
millions of other persons, he had never troubled himself with such questions.
It was enough for him that he was stirred by the puja as much as by the
recitation of the purely theistic adoration of the God without form, unborn,
unbreakable, eternal omnipresent and omnipotent. As for myself, the idol
worship never stirred feelings of reverence in me but neither did Hook
upon it as wrong. Ninety-nine persons out of every hundred never care to
think of the how and the why in matters religious. They go on doing what
they see their elders doing and consider it right conduct because their parents
never questioned it.

When I came to Lahore, however, the whole scene was changed. My

father had passed away. My pedestrian journeys had brought me into
intimate contact with a new world! They had broadened my mind, and, in
many ways liberalised my views. I was fond of the Sikh scriptures at the
Dharam Prakash School at Dera Ismail Khan, I had learnt Gurmukhi and
when, on one occasion a gentleman of the town Lala Hukam Chand Gadhi,
visited the school, he gave me a copy of the Panj Granthi as a prize from his
own pocket for reciting the Japji My religious belief was as fragile and
indefinite as that of my father, but in my case at least there was a distinct
leaning towards the tenets of Sikhism Not that I made any distinction
between orthodox Hinduism and Sikhism.
My previous religious training, such as it was thus formed a good basis
for my association with a remarkable man in some ways, who was chiefly
instrumental in bringing me within the fold of the Brahmo Samaj. Pandit
Shiv Narain Agnihotri, who was our teacher of drawing and mensuration at
the Government School at Lahore. He was an ardent Brahmo, an enthusiastic
social reformer and a very good Urdu speaker. Public speaking was a
novelty for me at Lahore. With the exception of a padri occasionally
addressing exhortations on Christianity in broken Urdu in the bazar at Dera
Ismail Khan, I had never before heard a public lecture. At Lahore, I used
regularly to attend the weekly Divine Service in the Brahmo Mandir
which was generally conducted by Pandit Navin Chandra Rai or Pandit
Agnihotri. Navin Chandra Rai was a good Sanskrit scholar. He was not a
very fluent speaker, but his sermons were thoughtful and impressive, chiefly
because he would illustrate his points by quotation and stories from the
Hindu scriptures, etc. Agnihotri made up by his earnestness and eloquence
what he lacked in scholarship. He seemed to take great pains in the
preparation of his sermons and public lectures, especially on social and
religious subjects. The Indian Association of Calcutta the only all-Indian
political organisation before the establishment of the Indian National
Congress in December 1885had a branch at Lahore of which Agnihotri
was one of the most prominent members and, certainly, the most impressive
speaker. Occasionally, I also went to the evening lectures at the Rang Mahal
Mission School and the morning service at the Arya samaj. Sometimes in
1882, Agnihotri gave up his appointment in the Educational Department,
and, becoming a Sanyasi, devoted his whole time to the Mission work of the
Brahmo Samaj. I well remember the scene in the Brahmo Mandir when
Agnihotri publicly accepted the role of a Sanyasi. Pandit Navin Chandra Rai
acted as the priest and conferred on him the changed name of Swami
Satyanand Agnihotri - a name which he bore from this day to the end of his
long life. So far as I know, this was the first occasion when an English
educated person had given up a well-paid post (He was drawing a salary of
between Rs. 150 and 300 at the time he became a sanyasi) in order to
devote his life to public preaching. The hall was too small to hold the
audience and many had to stand outside in the verandah and the compound.
We must remember that, in those days, a meeting of not more than 200
persons was looked upon and reported as a monster meeting. Tall, slim
and handsome as Agnihotri was, he looked the very picture of a man
commanding respect as he stood before the large audience clad in his loose,
sanyasi garments. He himself was listened to in pin drop silence but once
when Navin Chandra was addressing him some words regarding his future
life, his new duties and obligations as a religious teacher, there was a little
noise. With a certain class of people the Brahmo Samaj was most unpopular
and it was believed that an attempt at creating a disturbance was
contemplated. Noticing this, Agnihotri sprang to his feet and lifting up the
hem of the Sadhus toga, he said: India has lost everything that once made
her a great country, but even in her poverty, subjection and ignorance, one
thing she has not lost the respect for these (ochre coloured) clothes still
remain as her prized and proud possession. The appeal went home and even
the mischief-maker had not the courage to create uproar as they had intended
to do.
The event created a great impression and attracted several enthusiastic
young men to the Samaj. Some of them determined to follow Agnihotris
own example in relinquishing their future prospects in life and dedicating
themselves to the service of the theistic church. Prominent among these were
Devi Chand Gupta (better known by his Sanyasi name of Shradhe Prakash
Deva), Bhai Sunder Singh, Bhai Harbhagwan, Bhai Chattar Singh and
Pandit Girdhar Rai Biswasi. The first two became whole time missionaries
of the Samaj. Bhai Sunder Singh (better known as Sadhu Seva Singh) did
not livelong. He was a most humble soul and had the real spirit of a Sadhu.
He lived with his wife and children in the Ashram behind the Mandir hall. I
sometimes saw him sweeping the floor of the Mandir. I believe hard work
combined with extreme self-denial was the real cause of his premature
death. He was a good singer and he would often walk through the streets of
Lahore with an Ektara (one stringed musical instrument) in his hand, singing
Hari Ram Bhajo and other religious songs. He was a constant companion
and co-worker of Shradhe Prakash Deva to whom he looked upon a guide
and elder brother. It is not my purpose in this book to give a biography of
these two good men to whose ministration the Brahmo Samaj all over
Northern India owes a deep debt of gratitude. Both were among the best
specimens of sincere believers whom the Punjab has produced. Shradhe
Prakash Deva has left a valuable legacy to future generations in the form of
a number of religious publications to some of which I will have occasion to
refer later on in this chapter.
Pandit Girdhar Rai Biswasi is another good soul who was attracted to the
Brahmo Samaj at this time by Agnihotri. He and the other whom I have
named above made best personal sacrifices. I believe at one time they gave
up everything they possessed to the Samaj, and but for a certain change in
Agnihotri himself, to which I will refer presently they might have
consecrated their whole life to the service of the Samaj like Shradhe Prakash
Deva and Sadhu Seva Singh. As a poet and singer, Pandit Girdhar Rais
services to the Samaj and the cause of theism in the whole province will not
be easily forgotten those who had the good fortune to hear his inspiring
songs either from his own lips or from others. Till quite lately he was a
constant attendant at the Mandir and, of course, on such occasions he would
take a leading part either in singing his own songs or other hymns. His
collection of songs, Biswasi Binai, has found its way into many Punjabi
homes not Brahmo families alone.
Bhai Chattar Sings name is not much known even in Brahmo Samaj
circles, I am sorry to say He died young-a victim, like Sadhu Seva Singh-to
a consuming passion for the service of the Samaj. Whenever any work for
the Samaj was to be done, Chattar Singh would be the foremost man to offer
his services for it. He was a poor man. He was a clerk in one of the Railway
offices on Rs. 20, I think. Worse still, with a quarrelling, ill-tempered wife,
his home life was far from happy. But even so, it was a real pleasure to see
his cheerful face while his overdone enthusiasm for service in the cause of
the Samaj was sure to inspire the dullest person. Bhai Chattar Singh was a
truly religious man. I was by his side at the time of his death. A couple of
hours before the end came, sometime in 1894 or 1895, I noticed him moving
one of his hand on a pillow that was lying close to him on the bed. I did not
understand what it meant. The movements were repeated again and again.
Looking more carefully at the tracing of the fingers on the pillow, I could
vaguely decipher the word Reading. I asked some one to sing hymn and
give reading from some religious book when the movements stopped. A
couple of hours later the patient peacefully passed away. Bhai Chattar
Singhs constant struggles between the miseries of an unhappy home and his
passion for carrying out what he regarded as the sacred obligations of his
faith made a deep impression upon me.
I have, perhaps, devoted too much space to these details. My only excuse
is that I am anxious to convey at least a faint idea of the type of men with
whom I came into intimate contact in the early years of my association with
the Brahmo Samaj at Lahore. I have said nothing so far about four other
men who along with Navin Chandra Rai are generally regarded as the
founders of the Samaj. In their own way all of them were noteworthy men.
There are more good, honest and courageous men in what many people
would call the common flock of society. The reader will find it extremely
difficult to realise that in the early eighties of which I can speak with
personal knowledge and even bitter experience, it required no small courage
even to make the verbal profession of the Brotherhood of Man and to
acknowledge openly that Mohammad, Christ and all other great teachers of
humanity were as worthy of a homage and reverence as Rama or Krishna or
the one of the other saints, sages and seers of our own country. Let no one
point to me well-known texts from the Hindu scriptures and the songs of
great Hindu reformers saying the same thing as the Brahmos professed.
More than once I was challenged to a public discussion on such subjects by
educated men who called themselves reformers. I wish to emphasise, that I
myself noticed scores of times that the mere mention of Christ or
Mohammad with respect as a great religious teacher, immediately led to the
emptying of the Samaj hall of practically everybody excepting the few
Brahmos. How many times, on such occasions, have I not heard people
exclaim, as they rushed out of the hall, Oh, they are Christians; They
are followers of Mohammad; They have no faith of their own; They are
denationalised people and a dozen other similar opprobrious epithets. My
friend Bhai Kashi Ram remained an outcast from his community and
many other well-educated and highly influential mensimply because he
had taken a cup of tea at the house of a Christian missionary. I have myself
been abused in my face by educated persons for being Brahma and even for
eating with an outcast like Lala Harkishan Lal. I was twice persecuted
myself, once in 1882 for readmitting a recent Christian convert into
Hinduism and, again in April 1884 for eating with a young man who, though
a Hindu had adopted the Mohammadan faith some years earlier and was
most anxious to come back into the Hindu fold. By getting up a feast and
eating with him, we (Lala Harkishan Lal and myself) were the means of
fulfilling his wish to become a Hindu again. Sometimes in the early nineties,
I think, Bhai Kashi Ram and myself were openly asked by certain highly
educated persons, including two Rai Bahadurs, and District Judges, to
leave the floor at a public meeting when they were going to distribute some
sweets to those present. This they could not do, so long as two Brahmos
remained on the durri on which they themselves and the rest of the company
were squatting. Such instances can easily be indefinitely multiplied, but I
believe those I have given above with suffice to drive home the fact that a
Brahmo was looked upon as the most hateful of persons.
I do not know when exactly I joined the Brahmo Samaj as a regular
member, but I was admitted as a sympathiser within a year or two after my
arrival at Lahore. Before long my interest in the Samaj became so keen that I
was treated by many persons as a member of the Samaj. In conjunction with
Bhai Kashi Ram, I established a Young Mens Religious Association which
used to meet weekly in the Mandir. I was the Secretary of the Association.
The membership was open to all. Under the auspices of the Association we
used to have prayer meetings, lectures and debates. It proved to be a very
active body and, in particular, the debates were very largely attended, the
outsiders freely taking part in the discussions. They initiated the debates.
The President was always a member of the Association. Summaries of two
or three of my lectures in connection with the Young Mens Religious
Association were printed in the form of pamphlets. One of these on Book
Revelation long remained for sale on the book-stall of the Samaj. Book
Revelation, The Existence of God, The Existence of Evil and Prayer
were among the chief subjects of discussion. This was a great time for public
debates on religious and social subjects, though scholarly subjects like
Tennyson and Science, Mysticism in English Poetry, Shakespeare as a
Moralist and Sir Walter Scotts novels were also occasionally taken up.
There were two other debating places for young men close to the Brahmo
Mandir. One was known as Ramji Dass Public Rostrum and the other the
Latafat Hall. The former was simply a shop at the left hand corner of the
Hospital Road leading from Anarkali Bazar toward the Brahmo Mandir. As
it opened on Anarkali Bazar, it was very well situated for attracting an
audience. Ramji Dass was a gentleman of liberal views though he would not
ally himself with any particular faith. He had been a Christian, a
Mohammedan and has professed several other faiths besides. He belonged to
Kusur and early in life he had kept a school of his own. Finally, he settled
down at Lahore. He lived a simple life and if he was in want, he would go to
one of his friends and ask for a rupee or two, being convinced that he would
not be turned away. Most of his time would be devoted to his Public
Rostrum. He would fix two or three popular subjects for debates. If there
was no one else present to start a debate, he would begin it himself and goon
till some one appeared to speak on it. Everyone who wanted to have a turn
at speaking had to deposit a paise on the table before he was allowed to open
his lips. The collections thus made were sufficient to pay for the rent of the
shop, with, perhaps, a few annas over and above for Ramji Dass own
expenses. In this manner the Rostrum was fully occupied for two or three
hours in the evening. The audience stood in the Bazar and consisted of the
floating mass of humanity passing through the street. Sometimes, several
young men, chiefly college students, would fix up a subject for debate
among themselves and going to the Rostrum would talk the matter out to
their hearts content. Like other students I also occasionally took part in the
public debates at the Rostrum. I particularly remember one debate when the
subject for discussion was Book Revelation.I took with me in my pocket
two or three beautiful stone paperweights cut in the form of small bound
books. These were made at my native town and were sold for a few annas
each. In the course of my own remarks, I pulled out a paperweight from one
of my pockets and holding it out to my audience told them that some people,
would ask us to consider this book as the sole repository of Gods truths,
while another person would point to this other book (at this stage, I pulled
out another paperweight from another pocket and held it out to my
audience), and make the same claim for their own book. There are many
other persons also each making similar claim for his own book to the
exclusion of all right claims, I said.
The other public debating place, the Latafat Hall was also close to the
Brahmo Mandir. Roughly, it occupied the same position as the front of the
late RB Lal Chands house does today. I believe there was a tomb in the
neighbourhood. There was no hall, or any other kind of building. The Latafat
Hall was just an open piece of ground with a portion raised a couple of feet
above the level of the public road which it faced. Who was in charge of the
arrangements I do not remember, but public debates on various subjects as
well as public lectures were held there twice a week on the hot summer
evenings. These discussions were of a somewhat superior kind and,
occasionally, literary addresses were also arranged there.
Looking back upon these debating contests, I do not think they served a
very useful purpose. The one thing that attracted us, college students, was
that they provided us, as we believed, opportunities for practising the art of
public speaking and improving our knowledge of the English language. All
speeches were made in English. An Urdu speech, except by a practised
speaker, would not be tolerated in those days. However, there was a great
deal of unreality about most of the debates. Besides, they bred a spirit of
contention and on the whole, I am not sorry that they have almost
completely gone out of fashion.
Reference to the interesting debating centres, the Public Rostrum and the
less romantic but more useful Latafat Hall, has taken me somewhat far from
the reminiscences of my early association with the Brahmo Samaj but in a
personal narrative, such occasional out of the track excursions are
inevitable. At the time of my first introduction to the Samaj, the whole body
was in the throes of an internal commotion over the Kuch Behar marriage.
The Lahore Samaj had adopted a neutral attitude in the schism but in reality,
it was dominated by Sadharanists, as the secedes from the Brahmo Samaj of
India were called. I need not go into these schismatic differences and
disputes as they made no appeal to me and, up to this day, I have never taken
the smallest part, even as the supporter, on either side. It is interesting to
note that the fanatics in both parties would sometimes contend that a man
like myself who strongly refused affiliation with either side could not strictly
be regarded as a Brahmo. The number of such persons, however, was
insignificantly small with the result that I have, throughout my life, enjoyed
the fullest confidence of the leaders on both sides. On my own part, I have
always showed equal respect and regard for them.
It is a matter of no small pain to me to record that it was because of the
schismatic differences in the Lahore Samaj that two weekly services began
to be held in the Brahmo Mandir, one on Sunday evenings and the other on
Wednesdays. Lala Kashi Ram or Bhai Ralla Ram Bhimbat officiated at one
of these services, while as a rule, Agnihotri or Navin Rai would occupy the
pulpit on the other. Even so, the disputes became somewhat unpleasant and,
as Agnihotri had a large and devoted following especially among the young
men whom he had recently attracted to the Samaj, he came to the
unfortunate conclusion that he could make himself more useful if his
activities were left quite unfettered. Friends tried to dissuade him, but his
success, especially after he had dedicated his life to the public, had now
developed in him strong autocratic tendencies. The man who used to appeal
to us so vehemently in the name of reason and conscience probably came to
believe, as his later life showed, that nature had endowed him with some of
extraordinary powers and faculties which were denied to common humanity.
It has often struck me that the life of such a man as Agnihotri should be a fit
subject for studies in human psychology.
 This is, however, a soliloquy. At one time Agnihotri decided to form a
new centre for his religious activities. I have the authority of one of his most
devoted followers and admirers, Shardhe Prakash Deva, to say that in this
resolve he had the fullest support of a large number of Brahmos, several of
whom formed the nucleus of the Centre. It was to be, so everybody
believed, nothing but another place for preaching Brahmoism with even
greater zeal and devotion than was found possible in the neutral Brahmo
Samaj. This view was soon justified and confirmed by the publication by
Agnihotri of an inspiring work Ruhani Zindagi (Spiritual Life), copies of
which were to be found in many Brahmo households. A few Brahmo and
others made regular use of it as a help to their religious discipline. For a few
years, the Deva Samaj, as Agnihotris new centre was called, made rapid
progress. Everybody regarded it as a branch of the Brahmo Samaj any of us
who would not follow Agnihotris lead in separating ourselves from the
parent Samaj, now and again attended his services. Before long he had a
large house built with a bigger hall than that of the Brahmo Samaj. With a
band of enthusiastic and devoted young followers to help him in his mission
work, Agnihotri carried his message to several other districts. In particular,
he was able to produce a large volume of religious literature. In the midst of
such activities one day, quite abruptly so, a great change came over
Agnihotri. He lost complete faith in God and calling his religion as science
grounded, he adopted all the symbols of orthodox Hinduism that he had so
enthusiastically discarded on his joining the Brahmo Samaj.
How had the change come about? The current story was that in some
litigation with Chanda Singh, a blind pleader at Ferozepur, he had been very
badly worsted. Agnihotri believed himself to be in the right, although the
court had decided against him. How could God, he was said to have
argued with himself, see him let down so completely! If God could not
uphold a righteous cause, such as his was, of what use could he be for frail
humanity? There is nothing in, the world so tragic as the moral fall of a
man. Like so many others, Agnihotri lost his moorings, and once set adrift
without rudder and compass to steer his course on the stormy ocean of life,
he tossed up and down. Such moments come, I believe, in the life of
everyone. It requires no small courage to stand firm and unshaken. In
Agnihotris case, unfortunately, courage failed him and in the pride of his
self-conscious righteousness, he conceived himself as the highest product of
humanity. It is not necessary to labour the point. It will be enough for me to
say that like the Archangel Lucifer he lost his paradise and fell.
 I have myself seen Agnihotri being worshipped by some of his followers
exactly as I had worshipped my fathers idols at Dera Ismail Khan ten or
twelve years earlier. I cannot say why knowing my views as Agnihotri and
others did, an invitation was sent to me to witness, perhaps, the most painful
spectacle of my life. The big hall of the Deva Samaj was crowded with men,
with only a sprinkling of women. I imagine, the great majority of these
persons were visitors who had been, like myself specially invited to the
function. On one side of the hall a high richly covered platform had been
erected. In the centre of the platform, there was a wooden chawk provided
with a back. Overhead, there was a gorgeous canopy, the pillar supporting it
being decorated with buntings flags, festoons and flowers. On every side this
feast for the eyes was ample evidence to show that we had been invited to
some great ceremonial occasion. We were not kept long in waiting. After
everybody had been seated, from adjoimng room emerged Agnihotri robed
in what appeared to be red silk garments with a golden mukut over his head.
Altogether, he did not seem to be very different from the representation of
Krishna in Ras Leela performances such as those I myself had seen many a
time in the courtyard of Seth Kalyan Dass firm at Dera Ismail Khan. He
was appropriately led by some of his followers to his place on the platform
just below the canopy.

I would have refused to believe that of all the men in the world, Agnihotri
would allow himself to be worshipped
 I am not exaggerating when I say that the scene had a most depressing
effect upon me. But even a more painful sight yet remains to be described.
Frankly, had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would have refused to believe
that, of all the men in the world, Agnihotri would allow himself to be
worshipped with lights, scents and flowers, all placed in a thali (plate), or
that well-educated men, including graduates could so far forget themselves
as to perform what I certainly consider degrading act of human worship. My
anguish was all the keener to see one of my own friends, S. Gurmukh Singh,
B.A., leading the party of five worshippers who performed the regular
ceremony of the arti before Agnihotri in the presence of some five hundred
visitors. Involuntary tears flowed down my face. Is this the man, I asked
myself again and again, who both by precept and example had brought me
into the Brahmo Samaj?
After this sad experience I made up my mind to have nothing to do with
the Deva Samaj or its founder. Many years passed when one morning, I met
Agnihotri on the road near the University Convocation Hall. He stopped to
talk to me. The following conversation took place between us:
Agnihotri: You have not come to see me for a long time.
R R Sahni: We are going different ways. You go one way and I go
another way.

Agnihotri: Have you lost all respect for me?

R R Sahni: No. I am grateful to you for having attracted me to the
Brahmo Samaj. I sincerely respect you for what you did for me.
Agnihotri: Why do you not follow my lead now if you have respect for
me!
R R Sahni: Maharajji! I have sincere respect for you for teaching me to
look first and foremost to my own reason and conscience for guidance, to
honour great men, but to follow them only so far as their teaching may
appeal to my own reason and conscience. In what I am doing i try to follow
your own advice because it appealed tome. You have abandoned your own
old teaching. You observe caste and many other practices of orthodox
Hinduism which I gave up under the influence of your own precept and
example.
Agnihotri: Achcha! (With this monosyllable, he abruptly left me,)
I never met him again.
 Here I consider it necessary to mention that atheism, as such never had
any terrors for me, though I believe that agnosticism would be a more
consistent and reasonable attitude for the sceptic to adopt. While a student at
college, I read a good deal of the atheistical literature issued by Charles
Bradlaugh, Mrs . Annie Besant and one or two other members of the Secular
Society. This I did, not in the spirit of a scoffer, but of an inquirer. I also
studied two or three biographies of Bradlaugh with great interest, and
although his atheism, made no appeal to me, I take pride to count myself
among his sincere admirers. I wish many of those who call themselves
theists were a tenth as honest, as truthful, as fearless, as helpful to the poor
and the needy and as ready to take serious risks and fight for the freedom of
subject nations as Bradlaugh was. His offer of personal services to Mazzini
for instance, at a most critical and dangerous stage in the freedom movement
of the Italian patriots in the 1860s, must be an inspiration and source of
strength to every lover of humanity. Again, I have myself seen his letter to
A.O. Hume in which he gently rebuked the founders of the Indian National
Congress for offering him some monetary help for his great sacrifice of time
in the interest of the freedom movement in India. Mr. Bradlaugh was angry
with Hume and said that if he heard again about any suggestion of
compensating him for what he was doing, he would drop the Congress cause
as not worth supporting. I saw and heard Bradlaugh when he undertook a
voyage to this country chiefly for the benefit of his health, but also to attend
the fifth session of the Congress held at Bombay (December 1889), Sir
William Wedderbum presiding.
I have entered into this rather long digression about Bradlaugh to show
that I was really upset by Agnihotri making such a somersault as not only to
cut off his connection with the Brahmo Samaj, but also to abandon his faith
altogether in the existence of a Supreme Power. But I lost all patience with
him when I found him usurping the place of honour that no human being can
or should arrogate to himself.
I do not know when exactly I joined die Brahmo Samaj as a regular
member. Certainly it was not before I lookup service. I had discarded my
sacred thread and lost faith in caste soon after I came into contact with
Agnihotri, Navin Chandra Rai, Lala Kashi Ram and other leaders. I was
invited to all the important functions of the Brahmo Samaj. I regularly joined
the Priti Bhojan (Love Feast), which was an essential part in those days of
the utsav (celebrations). Though I was not a member of the Samaj, my
liberal habits and way of life led everyone to believe that I was well on the
way to become a Brahmo. I remember attending the marriage ceremony of
Mulk Raj Bhalla (elder brother of Lala Hans Raj) with the daughter of Lala
Beni Prasad, an ardent Brahmo leader. It was solemnised according to
Brahmic rights in the hall of the Samaj. I think it is time now to say a few
words about Mr. Navin Chandra Rai especially as some of the things to
which T wish to refer are not likely to be known to any one else now living.
Babu Navin Chandra came to Lahore in 1869 in the joint capacity of Vice-
Principal of the Oriental College and Assistant Registrar of the Panjab
University. The University got a charter to grant degrees only in 1882, but
before this the charterless University held its examinations for granting
diplomas. Navin Chandra was a remarkable man. It will be no exaggeration
to regard him as the founder of Hindi literature in the Punjab. Before the
time I do not know of any Hindi book produced in the Punjab. He not only
wrote Hindi books himself, but also encouraged local pandits to write books
in the Hindi language. It was said that sometimes, he would write a book
himself and, with a view to encourage others, he would ask someone else to
publish it in his own name. He was a most unselfish man who was always
thinking of doing good to others. He was accessible to everyone who cared
to approach him fur advice or help of any kind. All his spare time was spent
in teaching, preaching, advising and helping all who came to him. It will be
news to many to know that in one way Navin Babu was the real founder of
the Akhbar-i-Am. Pandit Mukand Ram was employed in the Anjuman-i-
Punjab which was virtually under the Punjab University. On Pandit Mukand
Ram asking Navin Chandra Rais advice as to what his two sons should do,
he was told that they should start a weekly or fortnightly paper in Urdu.
Navin Chandra would himself write notes and news in Hindi which Mukand
Rams sons would then translate into Urdu for their paper. Navin Chandra
continued this kind of help to the Akhbar-i-Am for a considerable time. The
two sons of Pandit Mukund Ram would often be seen in the hall of the
Government College in the early eighties taking down notes in Urdu from
the Civil & Military Gazette for their own paper. One of the most
remarkable things to the credit of Pandit Navin Chandra Rai (as he was
generally called) was to train and bring up a waif for a life of honourable
citizenship.
One day Navin Chandra found a small boy begging in the streets. On
enquiry he found the boy had lost his parents and that he had no one to
support him, excepting a brother who was himself in need of help. Navin
Chandra took him home and started an account in the name of Udho, the
waif boy With this capital Navin Chandra started the boy on a career of
hawker of boiled gram. Udho would take his food in his benefactors kitchen
and, day after day, would go round into the streets with a basket of boiled
gram. Navin Chandra would himself see what the net profit of the boy was at
the end of each day. A strict account was kept of the daily earnings of the
boy. After some months, a few rupees had accumulated to his credit.
Pandit Navin Chandra now asked Udho to discontinue selling boiled gram
in the streets. Instead, he would take him with himself to public auctions and
bid forhim for small articles, books, looking glasses, crockery etc., always
taking care not to bid for anything that was not readily saleable and to go in
for nothing that was outside the means of the boy to purchase. The corner of
a room in Navin Chandras own house served as Udhos store room. Navin
Chandra would himself direct Udho to take the articles to particular
individuals whose names Navin Chandra would suggest to him. For
instance, a science book Udho would be instructed to take to a certain
Professor of Science. He was further told to ask for a certain price for the
book, no more and no less- In this manner, working under the detailed
instruction of Navin Chandra, Udho was able to put a few hundred rupees.
His chief source of profit was the purchase of useful second hand books at a
public auction and their sale to persons who were likely to want them.
Sometimes, a book purchased for a few annas was readily disposed of for
several rupees. Udho was now in a position to be launched upon the third
and last stage of his career As advised by Navin Chandra he rented a small
shop in Anarkan Bazar where he would exhibit his miscellaneous collection
of articles purchased at auctions, sometime under the guidance of Navin
Chandra and at other times, independently. I may mention that I had these
details from Udhos own lips. Udho Missar, as he afterwards came to be
known, was a well-known figure at Lahore. To wards the end he rented a big
shop and even so he had to keep his surplus goods in the go down at the
back of his shop. For several years before he died he became a dealer in
sports. When I asked him once what his goods were worth, he replied that he
would not part with them even for forty thousand rupees. Naturally, he was
much attached to Navin Chandra Rai and the Brahma Samaj. In 1886, so far
as I can remember, Navin Chandra Rai retired from services and left Punjab,
Udho then allied himself to Agnihotris Deva Samaj where he remained to
the end of his life. He brought up his brothers daughter and gave her some
education. In this work he was helped both by Navin Chandra Rai and
Agnihotri. The girl subsequently became the wife of Agnihotri, his first wife
having died sometime earlier. Udho Missar always dressed himself in a most
humble manner and, I do not think in his whole flock Agnihotri had a more
sincere, faithful and devoted follower than Udho Missar, the waif boy,
whom Navin Chandra Rai found in the streets of Lahore and brought up as
an honourable, simple, straight forward, unostentatious citizen.
In writing this article of my own life, I have felt again and again that I
have frequently stayed away from my main theme, but my excuse is that it is
not the school and college education alone that makes a man, but that his
social surroundings often leave in him even more abiding impression which
deeply influences his whole course of life and which may even become an
integral part of his mental and moral make up. This is, perhaps, more
particularly the case with a man like myself, who was early thrown on his
own resources and, more important still, brought into intimate contact with
entirely new surroundings that made powerful appeal to him.

VII
The Ethics and Technique of Maintaining Self-Respect
One of the hardest tasks with which a middle class Indian was faced in the
closing two or three decades of the great Victorian era was to maintain his
self-respect. Those who have not yet crossed the line, say, at forty, will,
perhaps, find it difficult to understand what I mean. Those were the days of
what has aptly been called imperialistic jingoism. The feverish territorial
scramble in the no mans landsa heartless phrasein Africa, and the
newly found doctrine of spheres of influence in the East, made statesmen go
mad. They said they were charged by providence to impose their own
civilisation and culture on them, but, in practice hated those who had the
ambition to adopt their ways. They spoke of freedom but actually robbed
nations of whatever of that commodity their victims had long possessed. The
conflict and the clash of the two opposite types of cultures gave rise to
misunderstandings. A writer is of the opinion that Gladstone was no
statesman while he admits Benjamin Disraeli to be a statesman but only of
a very low order. Who is then a statesman? In the words of John Bright, the
right hand of W. E. Gladstoneonly the man who acknowledges the
supremacy of the moral law in international affairs as in personal affairs.

Tu....Tu....Tu....Kidhar Jata?
My present purpose is not to write an essay but simply to refer to personal
experiences. The realisation of the new-born jingoism of the time came to
me in a shock, which I will certainly fail to properly describe. In the
mid-summer of the closing year of the eighteen eighties or the opening year
of the following decade, I happened to come down from Simla to Lahore.
The only means of conveyance between Simla and Ambala available in
those days was the Tonga Mail Service. Between Kalka and Ambala I had
only one fellow-passenger, a European, whom I would call Mr. A. I think he
got in at Kalka as I do not remember seeing him in the earlier part of
the journey. Up to Ghaggar, rather more than halfway, not a word passed
between us. As a matter of fact, we did not share the seat: I was sitting in
front by the side of the coachman, while he was master of the whole of the
back seat, meant for two passengers. Arriving at Ghaggar, we found the
stream in flood, which we had to cross on the back of an elephant and then
to get into another conveyance waiting for us on the opposite bank.
While sitting on the back of the beast, in mid-stream an incident happened
which gave me the shock of my life. After the lapse of half-a-century, the
mere recollection of it makes my nerves tingle. All on a sudden, Mr A broke
the silence with the question to me: tu... tu... tu kiddhar jata (where are you
going)? Not minding the insulting tone of the question and believing that
Mr. A. did not know the vernacular well enough to express himself properly,
I replied to him in English that I was on my way to Lahore. Without another
word, Mr A. gave me a sharp cut on the head which made it bleed. By this
time we had crossed the torrent (Ghaggar is only a small hill torrent which is
ordinarily formidable in a few minutes but becomes dangerous immediately
after heavy rainfall.) and were deposited on the other side of it. I was very
much perplexed. I did not know what to do. After a few minutes while
sitting in a shikram (not a tonga), I ventured to ask Mr. A. why had he given
me the cut, He simply grinned and made faces at me but said nothing. Still I
did not show my resentment by words or acts. I was pained and bewildered
at what had happened. I thought I would take the matter to court. I must find
out his name and address at the Tonga Terminus at Ambala. Once or twice
on the way I thought of taking the law into my own hands but I was soon
assailed by thoughts of prudence. It is too late now. I cannot even plead
provocation. I would put myself in the wrong, and so forth.
At Ambala I got the information from the Tonga office about Mr. A. In a
short time I found myself in the train bound for Lahore. But the irritation of
the incident would not leave and I could not make up my mind about the
redress that I should seek with a fair chance of success. My mental agony
may well be imagined. Considering everything I would not see any way out
of the ugly situation into which I had landed myself. Mr. A. was a civilian
from Nagpur and it was impossible, so I thought, to get him brought to book.
I recalled casesall too numerous-of verdicts of enlarged spleens, and
various incidents on Railway train: Whatever the result, I believed one thing
was certain; I would be a marked man and in one way or another I would be
made to lose my job.
I remained in this mood of painful suspense for nearly four months At
least a couple of times I slapped myself violently for having been so careless
about my self-respect. At last I heard the comforting though unspoken words
Never mind, Ruchi Ram. Bury the past decently but with sincere penitence.
You are yet standing on the threshold of life. Let the past be a warning and a
lesson There is no teacher so loving and yet so stern, so stern and yet so
loving, as life itself.
This revelation it was a real revelationcame to me with the force and
authority of a commandment. For several months I repeated it again and
again in my mind. I thought of various situations that might possibly arise. I
carefully considered the circumstances of each case and how to avoid a clash
or to face it consistently with the maintenance of my self-respect and in strict
obedience to the demands of upright and gentlemanly behaviour. In self-
defence, see that you do not put yourself in the wrong More than a dozen
cases had actually arisen The following three or four instances will serve to
illustrate the underlying principles of my conduct when a clash became
inevitable, after every attempt had been made to avoid it

I Returned the Blow with all the Force I could Command

Travelling by railway was a constant source of friction. Such cases are
very infrequent now, but have not quite disappeared. In the last century they
were reported in the Indian section of the press every now and again. I can
easily recall several cases in which some of our biggest men were involved.
I refer to the fact here simply as showing the prevailing atmosphere of the
time. In my own case, it will not be difficult to mention four or five incidents
on the railway but I will content myself with referring to only one of them.
Sometime in the late nineties I was on my way to Simla. At Kalka we had
to change to the small gauge line. In order to secure a comfortable seat near
the window, I got hold of my hand bag and left it on a vacant seat in a
Second class compartment. Only one seat had then been occupied by a
European. I now went to get my luggage booked. On coming back to my
compartment after ten or fifteen minutes, I found all the seats occupied and
my hand bag lying in the corridor. The rest of the story may best be told in
the form of a dialogue.
R. R. Sahni: (Addressing the man m the corner say, Mr. C who had
occupied my seat.) I am afraid you have made a mistake in occupying my
seat. I find some one has removed my hand bag from the seat and thrown it
into the corridor.
Mr.C: (Growling) There is no seat for you here. You see all the seats are
occupied (all were Europeans).
R R. Sahni: But this is my seat. I placed my hand bag here while only
that corner seat was occupied. I only went out to get my luggage booked.
Mr.C: I do not know. Go and find a seat in another compartment.
R.R.Sahni: I might not have minded it but I am afraid it is too late now.
Mr.C: Do not bother me. Go and find another seat.
R.R.Sahni: But this is my seat and I beg you to vacate for me,
Mr.C: Get out, I say.
R.R.Sahni: Mister, you can go and get the station master to find a seat for
you. This is my seat.
Mr.C: (Lifting up his hands) Will you go out?
R.R Sahni: This is my seat. If you strike me, I will also strike you. (Then
softening down) Mister, do not create a scene here, please let me have my
seat.
At this Mr. C. gave me a sharp blow on my left cheek with the full, open
big palm of his hand. I was expecting this and was prepared for it. Without
the loss of a moment, I returned a blow with all the force I could command.
All the other passengers in the compartment simply looked on, except Mrs.
C., who occupied a seat on another bench opposite to her husband, ((retting
up from her seal, she was about to strike me with her folded umbrella).
RRSahni: (Interrupting Mrs. C. and crossing my arms on my breast).
Madam, beat me as much as you like, but remember, for every blow you
give me (flourishing my hands at her) I will give two blows to your
husband.
Mrs.C: (Shrieking to her husband) Get out and bring the Station
Master.
S.M.: (A big bulky fellow, even bigger than Mr, C addressing me). Will
you please come out, I will put you elsewhere. The whole matter will be
reported to the police at Simla. Someone will meet you there. There is no
time for the police to come here to make enquiries.
R.RSahni: I will beg you to give the seat to this man (Mr.C) who has
occupied my seat. That man in the corner knows it
 S.M. I have no time for this. I have only one seat vacant in the first class
compartment or I would have asked Mr. and Mrs. C. to change over there.
R.R.Sahni: But how do you know the vacant seat has not since been
occupied?
S.M. Yes, that is reasonable. Give me your hand bag, and I will place it
on the seat and also put a man there.
R.R.Sahni: Very well. Here is my hand bag. The station master soon
returned and took me away with him and saw me comfor-tably seated in the
1st class compartment. As he left me, he reminded me that some Police
Officer will meet me at Simla.
A few stations further, I was met by a European Police Sergeant who
asked for my name and address. I told him that I would do this with pleasure
if he would please let me have the same information about Mr. C. as also the
man in the other corner as he was to be my best witness. He ran to the
compartment and soon brought me the information I wanted, when l handed
over my card to him on which I put down both my Simla and Lahore
addresses.
Getting out at Simla I was not surprised to find that no Police Officer
appeared there even after I had waited on the platform for quarter of an hour.
I never heard of the matter again.

In the Spirit of Philosophic Amusement

Scene: Simla Railway Platform. A European crowd of passengers
standing round a heap of luggage waiting for their own beds, boxes and
baskets. A European passenger standing next to me pushed me with his
shoulder. Perhaps, he mistook the platform for the football ground. I
returned a mild dig with my elbow. A stronger shouldering followed by a
sharper dig. This went on three or four times the intensity of both the
shouldering and the elbow dig increasing with each successive bout. There
were altogether four rounds, I think, when my opponent obviously came to
the conclusion that there was no use continuing the contest. Not a word was
exchanged. I can say, for my part that not a muscle of my face moved. The
shouldering was taken and returned in a spirit of philosophic amusement. I
must say that I expected more serious developments, but I was prepared for
the worst. The contest was, however, broken off, as I have said, in the
middle. I was not sorry for what happened including the break off by the
other party.
 Next morning I was break-fasting with an Indian friend, a senior I.C.S.
Officer in the U.P. At the table I also met a highly cultured lady, the wife of
a Muslim Talukdar. As soon I had taken my seat, the lady opened the
conversation. A great change is coming over our Indians, she said. I did not
know what she was referring to and asked her: What has happened? Rani
Sahiba. She explained to me what her son had been telling her about that
very morning. The young man had been on the platform on the previous
afternoon and had watched the whole scene. I joined here in her
astonishment that Indians should have become so bold as to protect their
self-respect against the unprovoked assaults of Englishmen. For her this was
a novel experience. I then asked her if she would like to see the man himself.
Shrewdly guessing, she said: Kiya ap he nahin hain? (Was it you) ?

In the Mail Tonga

Third incident. During the tonga service days, I was once going from
Kalka to Simla. I shared the back (double) seat with a European while a
military officer occupied the front seat by the side of the coachman. This
was too much for my companion. I could see that he was very
uncomfortable but did not know what to do. He uttered or muttered some
unparliamentarily words meant for me in Hindustani but was met with a
grim silence, as if I had not heard him, or having heard him, had not
understood him. He asked the coachman several times to put me down
somewhere. This was, of course, an impossible request and he was told so
by the coachman. Halfway, at Solan, he made a great fuss over the matter;
he even spoke to the tonga clerk there but found the man as unhelpful as the
coachman. He threatened to remain behind but even then no redress was
forthcoming. Frothing and foaming he got into the tonga again.
Chagrined at his failures, he would now and again give me a push with his
shoulder which I would return with an elbow dig.
An interesting part of the story is that the military gentleman was for the
six hours of the journey an amused but otherwise indifferent observer. The
two men did not speak a word to one another. No one suggested to me to
take the front seat and I did not move in the matter myself though I would
have readily accepted the proposal, if it was made to me with a polite word.
This would have been within the compass of the elaborate code which I had
laid down for myself soon after the insolent Ghaggar incident.
At Simla before parting company with each other, we had even a more
hearty exchange of amenities than at any time during our forced partnership
of the double seat in the mail tonga. The reader may imagine half-a-dozen
variations of this incident on different occasions, but there was one element
common to all of them. We parted with a particularly hearty shouldering on
one side and elbow dig on the other So frequent was this experience that I
was always prepared for it and I do not think I was ever disappointed.

Remember I am a Punjabi!
I should have liked to refer to one incident in which I was brought face to
face with eight or nine young men, but I have forgotten the full details of it.
One lesson of it, however, I have not forgotten. When the situation became
desperate and I came to the conclusion that showing fight was the only
remedy left for me, I told them rather abruptly and sharply: Remember I am
a Punjabi I Come along. As I tucked up my sleeves, the young men,
probably returning from a lost football match, were sure the game was up
and soon retired. My own plan was to catch hold of the nearest of them,
whoever he might have been and deal with him as well as I could, so that I
might be quits with at least one of them. I was prepared to take the beating
from the others, but by the rules of fair game this would have been no
victory for them. In a way, the scales of honour in the fight would have been
in no small measure tipped in my favour. That was my belief and it was in
that spirit that I had laid down the technique for myself when I should
happen to have to face several persons together all intent on assaulting me.

One Final Incident

I will mention here simply as it belongs to a type of cases which I have
not yet had an occasion to refer to before. Some ten years back I was
standing on the footpath of the mall at Lahore along with two friends when
two Englishmen happened to come up that way. There was plenty of rooms
for them to pass, but, perhaps, not as much as they would have liked to have
to themselves. Possibly, they could not pass abreast of each other and with a
comfortable space between them. As it was, they passed us in single file.
The first man on coming up, without saying a word, shouldered one of my
friends and passed on. I just touched him on the back lightly with a walking
stick. He did not mind it but walked on. I think he did not feel it and my
object was simply to remind him that he might have behaved better. His
companion who was following him at a little distance now ran up and
flourished his stick at me. I at once moved back a few paces and, drawing a
line with my stick on the ground, told the man that if he crossed that line I
would also beat him. Why did you strike my friend on the back with your
stick? he asked. Do not ask me, but ask your friend about what happened,
I said. My experience is that when a talk about the how and why begins, the
first flush of anger cools down and the whole thing ends in a more or less
heated discussion followed by a let go decision. It was the same in this
case. The great thing is that, in all such cases, you should not have taken the
initiative and that your own action should not exceed the bounds of a
reminder and an active protest.
By the time the last incident took place, the older violent assaults had
become quite rare. They had not altogether ceased, but, whatever their
nature and intensity my technique was sufficiently elaborate and elastic for
all contingencies. Looking back upon my experiences following the
unfortunate cut when I dared to share the pride of an elephant ride through
the Ghaggar torrent with a British civilian, I find nothing to regret except
that it should have been necessary for me to act in the manner I did. I wish to
close this section with the sincere confession that I regarded these incidents
in the light of individuals lack of manners and nothing more. They did not
interfere with my own political philosophy of the time, despite a great deal
that had happened, the advent of the British in India was a dispensation of
Providence. Such was the teaching of Ranade, Dadabhai Naoroji
Pherozeshah Mehta and others. All these three men had themselves been the
victim, as all Indians know only too well, of serious misunderstandings and
unjust treatment at the hands of short-sighted, power-proud Englishmen. But
these great and good men could take a comprehensive grasp of the situation
as a whole. They were gifted with vision and imagination, and a generous
measure of what I would call political sagacity. How the change in Indias
attitude came about is a different matter. It does not belong to this personal
chronicle.
 I would bring this section to a close with a reference to a little incident,
not because it belongs to the category of events I have mentioned above, but
because it will show the spirit in which I tried to meet the situations as they
arose. The sixth session of the Science Congress was held at Lahore in 1917.
Professor H. and myself were appointed Local Secretaries while Professor S.
was General Secretary of the Congress. As one of the local secretaries I had
a good deal of correspondence with Professor S. (I may mention that
Professor H. & S. were both Europeans). When I got my first letter from
Professor S., I noticed that the envelope was addressed to me as Mr Ruchi
Ram Sahni, Government College, Lahore. In replying to him, I also
addressed to him in the same fashion. As other letters came, each of them
was replied to Professor S. in exactly the manner he had addressed me. It
was too trivial a matter to make a fuss over it. But this was not the view
which other Indian Professors and other gentlemen seemed to take of it. I got
a number of angry letters from some of them asking me to bring the matter
to the notice of the President, Sir Gilbert Walker, Director of Meteorological
Observatories. I informed each of them that it was too small a matter to be
taken serious notice of and explained to them how I had myself treated the
matter.
One day I mentioned to Professor H. that several members of the
Congress had been complaining to me about the discourteous manner in
which they had been treated by Professor S This is one way of addressing
letters, said Professor H. He thought the gentlemen who had written angry
letters had really no grievance to grumble about. I told Professor H. that if he
could kindly show me one single letter addressed to him by Professor S. in
the manner he had been addressing Indians, I would be quite satisfied but
not otherwise. I further explained to him that I personally I had nothing to
complain against Professor S. as had been squaring my account with him.
Thereafter I dropped the matter so far as I was concerned.
During the Congress Session I noticed that the complaint had been made
to the President, probably by one of the aggrieved persons. I say this because
I found Sir Gilbert very particular in consulting me about various matters
concerning the Indian Professors-matters which no one would mind it in the
smallest degree.
At the end of the Congress Session the Vice-Chancellor gave a luncheon
to the President and some of the members of the Congress. At the table I was
seated next to Professor S. This was an interesting situation. I soon
discovered that we were seated next to each other for a definite purpose.
Professor S. was the first to speak to me and the first words were words of
regret that he had not properly addressed the letters to me. Thus it was that
the matter was satisfactorily closed.

VIII
The Secret of Long Healthy Life
One question that has been put to me a thousand times by young and old,
by friends and strangers, is what is the secret of your long healthy life? This
question is invariably followed by half-a-dozen other associated enquiries
about what I eat, how many times I eat, when do I go to bed, how many
hours do I sleep, am I a good sleeper, what about my walks, and so forth and
so on Most people seem to imagine that if they ate, slept, and walked as I am
in the habit of doing, all may be well with them. Personally I am not quite so
sure about it. Some may even come to harm by strictly following me in
these respects or any of them.
Let no one forget that my food, sleep, walks etc., are more or less,
adjustments to my whole previous life. I do not believe in any violent break
in my habits whether good or bad. The human system by which I mean the
entire make up of a man, including his mental, moral and spiritual aptitudes
no less than his physical constitution, is an extremely complex and
complicated thing, and, despite our much boasted sum of knowledge in the
various departments of science and philosophy, we really know precious
little yet about its working. By far the greater part of our knowledge, such as
it is, empirical.
 The Law of Repetition
Now, of the whole stock of knowledge or wisdom that humanity has
treasured up through the countless aeons of time, I consider the Law of
Repetition as I call it to be of greater practical value in my own
philosophy of life than any other I can think of. I do not know if others have
also called it by the same name. Anyway the principle which the Law
illustrates is well established. Every acrobat, every drill sergeant and every
teacher knows it. A habit a good habit as well as a bad habit is nothing
but an act repeated a great many times till it has the appearance of an
instinct. You cannot give up a habit once formed by an inhibitory act
repeated a great many times.
Consider one thing more. It is not merely the repetition of an act that goes
to form a habit, it grows with progressive intensity. A man may begin with
smoking a couple of cigarettes a day. But presently he would take to
smoking two, three. . ten or twenty cigarettes. I have known men who had
got into the habit of consuming a whole tin of fifty cigarettes between
morning and bed time. The point which I want to make clear is that they did
not begin to smoke twenty, thirty or fifty cigarettes a day. And they can best
get rid of the habit by reducing the number little by little. In other words, as
the habit grew up by the repetition of the act with progressive intensity, the
inhibitory act should also be repeated with progressive intensity.
I may give an illustration from my own life. I have never smoked or used
any kind of drink or drug even in the smallest quantity. But from the time I
entered service, I have been a tea-addict. Perhaps that is rather a strong
word. I have never taken strong tea or even ordinary tea in large quantities. I
have, however, been very particular about having my usual cup or a cup-
and-a-half of tea at the usual time, and however busy I might be, I felt the
need for it when my tea-time came. With advancing years, I was told that tea
was harmful for me and noticed some indication that it was so. I did not
like to give it up altogether. I progressively weakened my usual cup or cups
with hot water, so that at the present time my two morning cups of tea
contain no more than a couple of spoonfuls of the tea that I took, say thirty
or forty years back. My present tea, moreover, is not made with tea leaves
but with a mixture of tea and binafsha (violets). This has a double
advantage. A mild beverage of binafsha in the morning is good in itself and
it also lends colour to my otherwise almost colourless tea. This second
reason is a question of human psychology. It is good not to be reminded
pointedly, day after day, that you have reached a time of life when it would
not be good for you to take tea of the ordinary strength.
 Human psychology to which I have just referred plays a most important
part in our daily life - very much more important than many people imagine.
I confess I am some what of a faddist in this respect. As one illustration of
what I mean, I may mention that, for the past thirty years or more, I have
deliberately avoided calling a man, say, fifty years old. Instead, I would say
he is fifty years of age. I have known many men who were obsessed with the
idea that as they had crossed the age of forty or fifty years, they must think
of themselves as old men. Some there are who would, at what I would call
middle age, even claim the privilege that must belong to old age. Again, I
have deeply resented when people quote the well-known Persian Line:
Grey hair brings you the message of death. I know that one cannot cheat
nature but at the same time, in my whole philosophy of life, I assign a very
important place to optimism I must now go back to what I was saying about
the formation of habits or giving up habits that may have once been formed.
If my own views backed by long experience have any value, I would insist
that nothing should be done that would mean a violent wrench with long-
formed habits or ways of life. To take up an extreme case, as an instance, I
would say that a fat man should do nothing intended or designed to reduce
his obesity quickly. He must remember that he did not go fat overnight and
no particular kind of diet, medicine or physical movements of his limbs will
succeed in slimming him within a period of time considerably lower than he
took in the fattening process The change comes slowly and imperceptibly
any violent change will probably do more harm than good, especially with
people above the age of forty or fifty.
This means that I have no faith in the claims for the much advertised
Yogic exercises for the restoration of youth. I have reason to believe that, in
spite of what the votaries and admirers of the cult may tell us, any violent
departure which these exercises must make in the life and ways of a man
past his middle age cannot but do serious injury to his whole physical system
and materially hasten his end. There are few sincere admirers than myself of
the ancient civilisation of India, but my partiality for it shall not allow me to
forget that the age of miracles is over.

Prevention is better than Cure

So far as I know, the first rule of health is to avoid medicating yourself, as
far as possible, by leading a clean, natural, regular life. Remember that my
advice to one and all is to avoid medicines. I have not to say any one: Do
not go near a doctor I have strictly tried to follow the dictum: Prevention
is better than cure. But this is exactly what people will not do, though
everybody talks about it. I have not known a man in perfect health going to a
doctor and paying him a good fee for advice about his continued future
health. Perhaps I cannot do better to impress upon others the value of
consulting a competent doctor while one is in perfect health than by
explaining what I myself used to do, year after year, for about twelve years
Soon after I came to Lahore in 1887 on the staff of the Government
College, I made the acquaintance of a very competent and genial medical
man, Dr. Beli Ram, who remained our family doctor till his universally
lamented death by car accident. In 1912, my eldest son Dr. B.J. Sahni, also
returned from England and the whole family had the benefit of his constant
care and advice.
This is not all. When I was about thirty-five years of age, I came to know
of an exceptionally able physician Col. Hendley who was posted at Lahore. I
saw him at his house and arranged with him to devote at least an hour to
thorough examination. I explained to him that, so far as I could see, there
was absolutely nothing wrong with me, but he might discover trends and
tendencies or pre-dispositions that should be checked or habits of life that
deserved, in his opinion, to be either modified or continued and encouraged.
These annual visits lasted for many years, so long, in fact, as Col. Hendley
did not leave the Punjab altogether. Sometimes, when he was posted at some
other station in the province, I would make it a point to visit him there. I
used to pay him Rs.32 each time I saw him professionally but I am sure, my
visits were worthwhile and that they probably saved me a mint of money in
cash besides being the means of conferring upon me the inestimable boon of
continued good health. Several times he did not examine me at all I mean
in the ordinary sense of carrying on a medical examinationbut he
generally, spent an hour-and-a-half, more or less, talking to me over a cup of
tea about my long hiking excursions, my food, sleep, work and recreation
hour, of my friends and studies and, in fact, every detail of my life of the
past year. Knowing me thoroughly as he did after the first couple of years
his questions became very searching and, frequently, apparently small
suggestions thrown out here and there in the- course of those talks proved to
be very helpful to me in avoiding slips and pitfalls that might have cost me
dear.
I will mention one or two of them. One day I happened to tell him about
my monthly visits during the previous winter to a friend at Amritsar.
Sometime after his retirement from the Government College in 1896 or
1897, Professor Oman accepted the Principalship of the Khalsa College. I
had a standing invitation to spend the last Sunday with him which I made
full use of, whenever I was otherwise free. After a very early cup of tea, I
would cycle to Amritsar; spend the day with him, talking about books, the
university, men and movements in general. Politically Professor Oman was
an Anglo-Indian, but both of us scrupulously avoided politics. After taking
my evening tea with the Oman, I would get on my cycle again, visit the
Golden Temple, look up a couple of friends and return to Lahore at night by
train The point is that, on these days, I used to do something like forty miles
on my wheel. Now Col. Hendley knew that I had twice injured my left knee,
once in a carnage accident and another time in a friendly competition in the
College Boarding House on a Giants Swing, when my rope snapped while I
was going at top speed. I was thrown off at a distance and was confined to
bed for a considerable time. On further enquiries, Col. Hendley also
discovered that, when it was very cold, I occasionally felt a little pain in the
injured knee. Sometime before this visit, he had also suspected rheumatic
tendencies in me. Taking everything into consideration, he advised me to
give up cycling altogether. Since then only once have I used a cycle when it
became necessary for me to go on a cycle for a couple of furlongs in the
interest of a patient?
Speaking about cycling, it may amuse some to know that, in the early
eighteen nineties a great many people at Lahore, Europeans and Indians
alike, were to be seen going about on their three-wheeled machines. When
exactly the bicycle was introduced in Punjab I am not in a position to say,
but so far as I remember, even in the mid nineties, there were not more than
half-a-dozen machines in use. The front wheel was very big, say five feet in
diameter, while the hind wheel was not more than eighteen inches across,
possibly only 15 inches. I have still got one of these machines lying in my
lumber room. (It will not be a bad thing to exhibit it on a suitable occasion).
I never used it. One or two mistries in the railway workshop had these
machines and, perhaps, there were two or three other machines in the whole
station, One day while I was going past the telegraph office (I am not sure if
the post office had been shifted by this time to its present position), I saw an
European coming from the opposite direction on a bicycle with the wheels
nearly of the same size That very day I discarded my bicycle and soon
managed to provide myself with a new type of bicycle. I took it to the parade
ground (now Minto Park) and after about three hours trials rode back on the
machine.
I must now say a few words about the rheumatic tendencies which Col
Hendley discovered in me quite early in the course of my annual visits to
him. He advised me to avoid constipation On his recommendation, I used to
take Kutnews Powder whenever there was the slightest cause for
complaint. I was told not to habituate myself to its use I used to have a
bottle of the powder in each of the three or four boxes that T might be
carrying with me during my hiking excursions but I would only take a small
doze when I noticed that there was a tendency towards constipation.
After a short time, I myself started a practice, the mere mention of which
will, I am sure, make some people laugh at me. I refer to it here as I feel that,
by doing so, I may be helping a few persons appreciably to improve their
health. This will more than compensate me for becoming the target of the
taunts and sneers of scoffers.
For the last forty years or so I have made it a habit not to leave my
bathroom without examining the faeces with regard to its colour, quality and
consistency. If on any occasion, I was not satisfied with the evaluation, in
any of these three respects, I would at once make the necessary change in
my diet, sometimes even necessitating the omission of a whole meal, but,
generally, only reducing the quantity of food or discarding one or more of
the dishes. In this connection, I may mention that, for the first ten years or
so, I kept a strict record of the results of my observations. Each of the three
conditions of the faeces had ten marks assigned to it, and under each head I
would enter in the appropriate column the number of marks which my
observation led me toward. In subsequent years, I merely used adjectives
like satisfactory, not very satisfactory, unsatisfactory and others. Long habit
has enabled me for some years past not to make any kind of record, but the
examination of the faeces has become such a confirmed habit that I find it
difficult to give it up. I do not feel quite happy on a railway journey when I
have to empty my bowels without being able actually to see the contents
with my own eyes.
This habit instinctively makes me think of the food I may have taken
during the preceding 24 hours, with the result that I have to adjust my daily
diet so as to fit it in with my system for this purpose, I find, for instance, that
with advancing years, vegetables and fruits have been gradually displacing
meat as an article of my diet While in earlier years I had a voracious appetite
for fowl, fish and lamb, but at present I do not take more than a small piece
of fish or the leg of a fowl. I also like mutton soup to be occasionally served
to me. I do not consider it profitable to enter into greater details about my
diet because, as I have already remarked, the exact kind and quantity of the
various dishes must be determined by each individual; it is simply a matter
of adjustment with a particular system and must vary from individual to
individual and even with the same person from year to year and from season
to season. So many diverse factors are involved in the question of the
composition of diet that no single rule can well be laid down. I take about
two pounds of good milk in one form or another such as milk, dahi, lassi
or in milk pudding. I also take a couple of eggs every day in one shape or
another. I am very fond of fruit both after lunch and dinner. For the past
forty years or so, I have avoided ice or ice creams scrupulously.
Some ten years ago, that is at the age of about seventy years, I gave up
dining out. Even before that time whenever I happened to dine out, I made it
a practise not to touch, if possible, many of the dishes placed before me.
This was done as much to avoid over-loading my stomach as to select only
the dishes approximating, so far as that was practicable, my usual menu. I
have developed a sort of horror of a too complicated composition of dishes,
though by most people my own daily food would not be regarded as quite
simple. I like to have a little of a new dish, but the trouble arises when one
finds on the table half-a-dozen or more dainties
On one occasion when I was invited to dine at the house of a friend, I
actually found as many as fifty-two different kinds of dishes. My host was
not a prince and not even a particularly wealthy man, but as we had not met
each other for a long time, he somehow thought of entertaining me to a
sumptuous feast even beyond his means. I also pitied his servants who must
have been at the pains of exercising their brains to recall all their half-
forgotten knowledge of the cookery books of many countries in order to
assemble such a wonderful menu of dishes. I do not know what these dishes
exactly were, for, beyond counting them, they did not attract me. I told my
friend that I was the same simple and unsophisticated fellow that he had
known me many years back and that, according to my philosophy of life, I
saw disease lurking in many of the tempting things placed before me.
Knowing my intimate relations with him, I even ventured to tell him frankly
that there were as many dishes spread on the table as there are cards in a
brand new pack of them and I did not feel inclined to gamble with my
health. I begged him to order his servants to take away all but four or five
dishes of their own choosing. But he would not listen. He said I could take
whatever I liked and leave the rest-the usual, wasteful Indian practice of
entertaining friends Eventually, I had to exercise a little self-restraint myself
and take only the four or five dishes that were nearest to me without even
looking at the others.

Avarice is the Root of All Evil

 An even more intriguing situation presented itself to me a few years later
when I was dining out with a gentleman of a princely family. There were
three of us at the table on this occasion. The third diner also claimed noble
blood in him. Ours was thus a triangular company, the interesting part of it
being that the three angles were, socially speaking, quite unequal to one
another. It was a round table at which sat a mere professor with a nobleman
to his right and a prince to his left. Presently, the dinner was served. To
begin with, a huge silver thal with large number of dishes arranged in it, was
placed before all of us. The size of the thal alone was enough to frighten me
for, although I had the honour of dining at the high table, so to say, of some
of the biggest men in the province, I had not seen the like of it before. I
knew my princely host intimately, but I did not like to say anything about
the grand feast that he had arranged for us. In view of his high position he
could not have done otherwise. During the dinner also I scrupulously
avoided admiring any of the dishes lest I should attract more attention than I
liked and be pressed for another dish of the same kind. From the very
beginning I made up my mind to confine myself to as few dishes as possible.
Indeed, I did not make a preliminary survey of the dainties that filled the
capacious thal or were spread out on the table. I distinctly remember saying
to myself in so many words, though of course, without uttering a word: A
grand feast! Avoid the temptation and go home safe and sound as you came.
Will You? And I replied; Yes certainly. I decided to partake of not more
than two dishes, if that was possible, out of the couple of dozens that were
placed before us together with any other that might be specially pressed
upon me. I began with the pulao and another dish that was nearest to it in the
thal. This happened to be cauliflower. Occasionally I made a show of
touching two or three of other dishes but without allowing a single morsel to
enter my mouth. I did not care to look at them and I do not know what they
were. It is unnecessary to enter into further details. A couple of other dishes
were specially recommended by our kind host which I accepted and
disposed off They were, of course, very palatable. The nobleman to my right
admired them vociferously as he was admiring many of the other dishes. Of
the two dishes the one that he admired most was a sweet dish of almonds.
Hearing the special praise of the dish, the attendants, with or without a sign
from the host, at once produced three more dishes, one for each of us. I
excused myself with many apologies adding: Raja Saheb, I am not used to
such rich dishes. I think the nobleman took four dishes of almonds pudding,
but I am not sure. On coming home, I took lot of fruit, as I used to do at the
end of my every day dinner and one or two vegetable dishes without any
bread. Next day, when I met the nobleman, he complained to me of the
extremely uncomfortable night he had spent while I reminded him that it
was not for nothing that our Sastras had said (it is best to quote the authority
of the Sastras for everything): Lobh papun ka mul hai (Avarice is the root
of evil). As it was, I had my three miles walk in the morning and went
through my days routine duties as if nothing had happened.

Notes
1. H.F. Blanford, FRS., was the first meteorologist who did extensive
studies of the Indian rainfall (Blanford, H.F., Rainfall of India, Mem. India
meteorological Department, 3, 658; 1886).
2. J.C, Bose (1858-1937) was a pioneer researcher in the fields of
physical, electro-physical and plant physiological sciences in India. He
started his research career in or around 1894 when his interest in
electro-magnetic waves was roused by the work of Hertz through an account
of Oliver Lodge. Bose retired from the Presidency College, Calcutta, in
1915. In 1917, he founded the Bose Institute at Calcutta with a self-raised
endowment of Rs. 11 lakhs (1 Lakh = 100000) for plant physiological
research.
3. P.C. Ray (1861-1944), popularly known as Acharya Prafulla Chandra,
was a chemist of international fame. He was a pioneer in setting up chemical
and pharmaceutical industries in Bengal. His many-sided interests made him
an ardent educationist, a selfless patriot and a devoted social worker.
Jawaharlal Nehru described Acharya Ray and his work in the following
words: Acharya Ray was one of the giants of the old and, more
particularly, he was a shining light in the field of science. His frail figure, his
ardent patriotism, his scholarship and his simplicity impressed me greatly in
my youth.
4. Denzil Ibbetson served as Superintendent of Census, Director of Public
Instruction and Financial Commissioner in the Punjab province and as Chief
Commissioner in the Central province.
5. Ananda Mohan Bose (1847-1906) was Indias first Wrangler. He was a
leader of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the pioneers of the freedom movement,
educationist and a social reformer. Bose was associated with the Indian
National Congress since its inception and was elected President at its Madras
session in 1898. He founded the City College of Calcutta in 1879. In
recognition of his services to education he was nominated a member of the
Education Commission of 1882.
 6. Syed Ahmad (1817-1898) founded the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental
College (1875), which was raised in 1920 to the present Aligarh Muslim
University. In 1882 he was made a member of the Government appointed
Education Commission. His important archaeological work Asarus-sandid (a
graphical study of Delhis monuments) was published in 1847. He started
the famous weekly Aligarh Institute Gazette (1886)
7. Alexander Pedler, F.R.S., taught Chemistry at the Presidency College,
Calcutta. He served as Meteorological Reporter, Bengal Government;
Principal, Presidency College, Calcutta (1896); Director of Public
Instruction, Bengal (1899) and Vice Chancellor, Calcutta University (1904).
8. Asutosh Mookerjee (1864-1924) is regarded as a great educationist and
a great jurist of his time. He was the living spirit in the field of higher
education at the Calcutta University and for twenty years he was a judge of
the Calcutta High Court.
9. Guru Govind Singh (1666-1708) was the tenth and last Guru of Sikhs
(1675-1708). He remodelled the Sikh religious beliefs and practices and
renounced social inequality and caste distinction. The successor of Teg
Bahadur, Guru Govind Singh set himself the task of organising his followers
with the thoroughness of a Grecian law-giver. He compiled a
supplementary GranthDasween Padshah ka Granth (The Book of (he
Tenth Sovereign). Guru Govind fought against some neighbouring hill-
princes and Mughal officers with remarkable courage and tenacity.
10. Maharaja Ranjit Smgh (1780-1839), is one of the most important
personalities in the history of Modern India. A born ruler of men, Ranjit
Singh transformed the warring Sikh states into a compact monarchy. At the
age of 20 he took control of Lahore and in 1802 seized Amritsar, the holy
city of Sikhs. Though a great conqueror, Ranjit Singh was not stern by
nature.
11. Hari Singh Nalwa (Naola), the Sikh general who captured the citadel
of Peshwar on May 6, 1834.
12. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was one of the most versatile sons
of India Humayun Kabir in his introduction to Tagores selected essays
titled Towards Universal Man wrote thus about Tagore In considering
Tagores life and work one is again and again struck by the amazing
versatility of his genius. He was essentially a poet but his interests were not
confined to poetry. In sheer quantity of work few writers can equal him. His
writings include more than a thousand poems and over two thousand songs
in addition to a large number of short stories, novels, dramatic works and
essays on the most diverse topics. In quality too he has reached heights
which have been trodden and that too rarely by only the noblest among
men...He was also a musician of the highest order. He took up painting
when he was almost seventy and yet produced within ten years about three
thousand pictures-some of them of exceptional quality. In addition, he made
notable contributions to religious and educational thought, to politics and
social reform, to rural regeneration and economic reconstruction. His
achievements in all these fields are so great that they mark him out as one
of the greatest sons of India and indeed one who has message for the entire
mankind
13. Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833) was a social reformer and
statesman, the Raja founded the Brahmo Samaj. He successfully agitated
against the evil custom of sail. He visited England to represent the claims of
Akbar II to the Moghul throne and died in Bristol.
14. Devendranath Tagore (1817-1905), the leader of the Brahmo Samaj
came from the well-known Tagore family of Jorasanko, Calcutta. In his
childhood Devendranath came hi contact with Rammohan Roy, one of the
architects of modern India. Rammohan Roys personality left a deep
impression on Devendranaths mind. The historic Tattwabodhini Sabha,
which largely shaped opinions and ideas of modern Bengal, was established
by Devendranath in 1839. A staunch patriot, Devendranath also founded a
society called Sarvatathvadipika Sabha in 1882 for propagation of the
Bengali language. Devendranaths contribution to political awakening was
considerable. His friends and disciples called him Maharshi with reverence
and gratitude.
15. Mahendra Lal Sircar (1833-1904) passed the final examination in
Medicine from the Medical College, Calcutta, in 1860 and took the M.D.
degree in 1863. Dr. Sircar was appointed a Fellow of the Calcutta University
in 1870 and the Sheriff of Calcutta in 1887. He was a member of the Bengal
Legislative Council from 1887 to 1893 and was associated with many
learned societies of Calcutta. In 1876, he founded the Indian Association for
the Cultivation of Sciences, the first institute for scientific research in India.
16. Father Eugene Lafont (1837-1908) was born in Belgium. He came to
Calcutta in December 1865 to the Jesuit Mission of Bengal and immediately
after his arrival at Calcutta he was attached to St. Xaviers Col-lege to which
he remained associated for 43 years that he spent in Calcutta. He rendered
yeoman service to science in Bengal by popularising it among students and
public. The acquaintance and friendship between Father Lafont and Dr
Mahendra Lal Sircar, which probably started in 1869, was to exert a
profound influence on the scientific renaissance in Bengal. From the very
begin-ning, Father Lafont lectured at the Indian Association for the
Cultivation of Science (founded by Dr. Sircar) every Thursday evening and
this he continued, for 19 long years. Father Lafont lectured on all the recent
scientific discoveries viz., the telephone, the phonograph, Teslas high
frequency currents, X-rays, colour photo-graphs, the telegraph, and
radioactivity and so on, with very striking experimental illustrations. Dr.
Sircar in his fare-well talk referred to Father Lafont as the one without
whose ungrudging and long continued aid the Associa-tion could never have
been an accomplished fact.
17. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was a British writer and a poet. Born in
Bombay, he was educated in England. He worked in India as a
joumalistfroml882to 1889. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1907.
Some of his important works are: The Jungle Book, Kim, Just So Stories,
Puck of Pooks Hill, Debits and Credits, Limits and Renewals etc.
18. Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1877) was an Italian patriot, who played a
leading role in the movement for Italian unification. In 1831, he founded
Young Italy-a movement that sought to establish a united republican Italy.
Mazzini lived mostly in exile-in France, Switzerland and England.
19. Kasimir Fajans (1887-1975) discovered the radioactive displacement
law simultaneously with Frederick Soddy of England. According to this law,
when a radioactive atom decays by emitting an alpha-particle, the atomic
number of the resulting atom is two less than that of the original atom and
when a beta-particle is emitted, the atomic number is one greater. Fajans
studied at the universities of Leipzig, Heidelberg, Zurich and Manchester.
He served on the faculty of the Technische Hochschule at Karlsruhe(1911-
1917).Fajans in collaboration with Otto Gohring discovered uranium x2 now
called protoactmmm-234.
20. First World War (1914-1918) was fought between the Allied Powers
(UK and other countries of the British Empire, France, Russia, Belgium,
Japan, Serbia, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Greece) and Central Powers
(Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria). More than 8 million
people were killed and about 210 million persons wounded in the War.
21. It was the Brahmo Samaj movement which led to the establishment of
the Prarthana Samaj in Maharashtra. Like the Brahmo Samaj, its objectives
were rational worship ofGod and social reform. The Prarthana Samaj has
been the centre of many activities for social reform in western India and its
success was chiefly due to Mahadeo Govind Ranade.
 22. Mahadeo Govind Ranade (1842-1901), the author of Indian
Economics and Rise of the Maratha Power, is called the father of Indian
economics. He was a judge of the Bombay High Court during 1893-1901.
Ranadewas one of the founders of the Widow Marriage Association in 1861.
The famous Deccan Education Society owes its origin to his inspiration.
C.F. Andrews observed: the last and in many ways the most enduring
aspect of the new reformation in India has had its rise in the Bombay
Presidency and is linked most closely with the name of Justice Ranade.
23. Madhavrao Namjoshi (1853-1896) was convinced that India could not
make progress without industrialisation. He played a leading role in the
establishment of the Deccan Paper Mills, The Reay Industrial Museum and
the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute. In 1888, he organised an industrial
exhibition at Poona for the benefit of industrialists. At the same time he
organised an industrial conference of which he was the Secretary
24. Shivaji (1627-1680) occupies an important place in the history of
India. He was a born leader of men. He rose from the position of a Jagirdar
to that of Chhatrapati by dint of his unusual bravery and diplomacy. His
most important achievement was the welding together of the Maratha race
into a powerful nation, which defied the Mughal Empire during and after
Aurangzebs rule. The Maratha nation built by Shivaji remained the
dominant power during the eighteenth century.
25. Lord Ripon seriously tried to introduce a real element of local
self-government somewhat on the lines of the English Law. His ideas were
laid down in the form of a Government Resolution in May 1882. The
purpose of introducing the resolution was described by Ripon in the
following words: It is not primarily with a view to improvement in
administration that the measure is put forward and supported. It is chiefly
desirable as a measure of political and popular education. However, the
liberal views of Ripon were not appreciated by either the local governments
or the authorities in England.
26. C.R. Das (1870-1925) was a towering personality m the freedom
movement. He was endearingly called Deshabandhu (friend of the country).
After graduating from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1890 he went to
England, where he joined the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in
1894. By the year 1917 he had come to the forefront of nationalist politics.
In 1922, Das was elected President for the Congress session at Gaya. He
wanted to give anew direction to Indian politics through his Council Entry
Programme i.e., Non-co-operation from within the Councils But he could
not muster enough support to carry this out and consequently he resigned
from the Presidentship of the Congress. Thereafter Das organised the
Swarajya Party within the Congress. In the words of Tagore, the best gift
that Chittaranjan left for his countrymen is not any particular political or
social programme but the creative force of a great aspiration that has taken a
deathless form in the sacrifice which his life represented.
27. Surendranath Banerjea (l848-1925) was the collector, Sylhet (now in
Bangladesh), but he resigned from the I.C.S. owing to differences with
superiors. He edited the daily Bengalee. He became the President of the
Indian National Congress in 1895. Sir Henry Cotton wrote in his book New
India: The idea of any Bengalee influence in the Punjab would have been a
conception incredible to Lord Lawrence...yet it is the case that during the
past year the tour of a Bengalee lecturer lecturing in English in Upper India
assumed the character of a triumphal progress; and at the present moment
the name of Surendranath Banerjea excites as much enthusiasm among the
rising generation of Multan as in Dhaka.
28. W.C. Bonnerjee (1844-1906); Barrister-at-Law. Bonnerjee was the
first Indian to act as a Standing Counsel to the Government (1882, 1884,
1886-1887). In 1883 he defended Surendranath Bannerjea in the famous
Contempt of Court case.
29. A.O. Hume (1829-1912) is the father of the Indian National Congress
(1885). He helped in bringing out a vernacular paper Janamitra (1859).
Hume, when he was Secretary to the Government of India, Department of
Revenue and Agriculture, prepared schemes of redemption of agricultural
indebtedness and village panchayats.
30. Sir William Wedderbum (1838-1918) was one of the founders of the
High School of Indian Girls, Poona, and of the Alexandra School for Girls,
Bombay. Wedderbum helped in starting and maintaining, at considerable
sacrifice of his time and money, the Congress organ India, published from
London. He became the President of the Indian National Congress first in
1889 and then again in 1910.
31. Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) was a British free thought advocate.
He pressed for greater freedom for the individual and in 1877 he was
unsuccessfully prosecuted with Annie Besant for republishing Fruits of
Philosophy which advocated birth control. He was elected to the House of
Commons in 1882 but refused to take his seat until 1886. He attended the
Bombay session of the Indian National Congress (1849).
32. Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) was one of the architects of
modern India. Mahatma Gandhi regarded Gokhale as his political guru. He
became the President of the Indian National Congress at thirty-six and, for
about twenty-five years, occupied an outstanding position among Indian
political leaders. He also founded the Servants of Indian Society.
33. Bimetallism refers to a monetary system in which currency was
convertible into either of the two metals, usually gold and silver in a fixed
ratio. When adopted by many countries at the beginning of the 19th century
it proved unstable as one of the metals was always undervalued and the other
overvalued.
34. Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) played a very important role in the
freedom movement. She took a leading part in the Salt Satyagraha. In 1929
she attended the Round Table Conference. She became the first woman
Governor in independent India. On her death, Jawaharlal Nehru said: Here
was a person of great brilliancevital and vivid. Here was a person with so
many gifts, but above all some gifts which made her unique. She infused
artistry and poetry into our national struggle.
35. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902):Vivekanandas ideas and patriotism
inspired many to serve the country combining spirituality with intense
activity in their own lives. He dealt with all the main problems of modern
India. He advocated the spread of education to the masses, both men and
women. He laid stress on technical education and also on learning Sanskrit.
His idea of religion was universal. He wrote: Each man is potentially
divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external
and internal. That is the whole of religion.
36. Annie Besant (1847-1933) was associated for many years with
Charles Bradlaugh. She was an early advocate of birth-control. In the late
1880s she became a prominent Fabians under the influence of G. B. Shaw.
She spent much of her life in India. She was a prominent leader of the Indian
Home Rule League. She was President of the Theosophical Society from
1907 until her death.
37. Pandit Ajudhia Nath (1840-1892) was a Law Professor at Agra. He
founded the Victoria High School at Agra. In 1879, he started an English
daily called the Indian Herald and then in 1890 he started another organ, the
Indian Union. He was the General Secretary of the Indian National Congress
during 1889-1892. Ajudhia Nath was the first Indian Member of the N.W.P.
Legislative Council (1886-1890).
38. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861-1946), founder of the Benaras
Hindu University, attended the Indian Round Table conference in London
(1931). In 1914, he became the President of the Indian National Congress.
He was one of the founders of the Hindu Mahasabha.
39. Motilal Nehru (1861-1931), father of Jawaharlal Nehru, was an
eminent lawyer and politician. In 1909, he was elected a member of the U.
P. Legislative Council and in 1891 he was elected to preside over the
Amritsar session of the Indian National Congress. He was an eloquent
speaker, a great parliamentarian and a great organiser.
40. Abbas Tyabji (1854-1936) was a member of the Indian National
Congress from its inception. An embodiment of traditional Indo-Islamic
culture and modem Western thought, Tyabji broke formally with the British
after serving at the instance of Mahatma Gandhi on the Congress Enquiry
Committee (1891) into the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He was second-in-
command of the Salt Satyagraha and became its leader after Mahatma
Gandhis arrest. He was one of Mahatma Gandhis most loyal and trusted
followers.
41. C.F. Andrews (1871-1940) was a well-known educationist and social
reformer. He joined the Cambridge Brotherhood in Delhi. He was associated
first with the St. Stephens College, Delhi (1904-1907) and later with the
Vishwa Bharati, Shantiniketan (1920-1921). Andrews was greatly interested
in the problem of overseas Indians
42. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) was born at Porbandar (Gujarat) on
October 2, 1869. He went to England in 1888 to study law. In 1893 he
moved to South Africa to practise law. There he became a champion of the
rights of the Indian community, and introduced policy of non-co-operation
with civil authorities (satyagraha) which became his chief instrument in
Indias freedom struggle. From South Africa he came back to India in 1915.
He was a dominant figure on the Indian political scene from the end of
World War 1 to the achievement of Independence. He was not only a man of
action but also a man of ideas. Many detailed studies have been made on his
philosophy of life and on his political, social, religious and economic ideas.
43. Sir Chimanlal H. Setalvad (1866-1947) was a lawyer and liberal
leader. He attended the Indian Round Table Conferences in London in 1931
and 1932. He was a member of the Hunter Committee to inquire into the
Jallianwalla Bagh massacre (1919). He was also Vice Chancellor of the
Bombay University for twelve years.
44. Muhammad Ah (1878-1931) and Shaukat Ali (1873-193 8) were
important freedom fighters of India. On the eve of the First World War the
Ah Brothers became vociferous critics of the British Government on their
anti-Turkey attitude. For years they remained very close to Mahatma
Gandhi. Muhammad edited his English weekly, Comrade and the Urdu
daily, Hamdard-Shaukat took over the managerial responsibility of the
papers. Muhammad Ali was the first Shaikut-Jamia, the Vice Chancellor of
Jamia Millia Islamia which was started in 1920- Muhammad Ali attended
the Round Table Conference of 1930. Shaukat Ali founded an organisation
known as Anjuman Khuddam-i-ka bah to see that the building of the
kabah at Mecca was not damaged by Saudi soldiers and to provide facilities
to the Muslim pilgrims going to Mecca for Haj.
45. After the First World War, the Indian Muslims adopted an aggressive
anti-British attitude. This was because the religious sentiment of Muslims
was offended by Britains role in the defeat of Turkey and the
dismemberment of the Turkish Empire in the First World War. To canalise
the anti-British attitude of the Muslims towards a nationalistic goal, the two
Ali brothers Shaukat Ali and Muhammad Ali and Maulana Abul Kalam
organised a mass movement of the Muslims known a s the Khilafat
movement. Mahatma Gandhi wholeheartedly supported the Khilafat cause
with a view to uniting Hindus and Muslims.
46. Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928) was popularly known as Punjab Kesari
Lajpat Rais political activity began in 1888 when he attended the Congress
session at Allahabad. He presided over the special Session of the Congress at
Calcutta (1920). Lajpat Rai was a prolific writer. He was deeply interested in
journalism and founded an Urdu daily, Bande Mataram and an English
daily, The People . He was closely associated with the Arya Samaj and in
collaboration with Mahatma Hans Raj, founded the D.A.V. College at
Lahore.
47, Bipin Chandra Pal (1858-1932) started his career as Head Master of a
high school at Cuttack-the Cuttack Academy (1879). He took keen interest
in journalism. He started the Bengali weekly, Paridarsak in Sylhet (1880),
served as Assistant Editor of the Bengali Public Opinion (1882) and worked
for the Lahore Tribune (1887). His world view was deeply influenced by
Keshab Chandra Sen, Sivanath Sastri and Bijoy Krishna Goswami. He was a
staunch nationalist. Through his weekly journal, the New India (1902), he
preached the idea of Swaraj (complete political freedom to be achieved
through courage, self-help and self-sacrifice). In 1906, he started a daily
paper, the Bande Mzfaram, with Aurobindo Ghose as its Editor. He started a
monthly journal, the Hindu Review (1913) to popularise the idea that the
British Empire should be reconstituted as a federal union in which lndia
would be treated as an equal and free partner. He was not only a great
preacher but also a prolific writer.
48. Salem C. Vijayaraghavachariar (1852-1944) was a very able advocate
and a leader of the Bar at Salem. He successfully fought the charges framed
against him in connection with a Hindu-Muslim riot (1882) in the Court of
Law. The Salem riot made Vijayaraghavachariar famous overnight. He was
a close associate of A.O. Hume, the founder of the Indian National
Congress. In 1920 he was elected to preside over the Congress Session at
Nagpur where Gandhijis advocacy of Poorna Swaraj through non-violent
non-co-operation was debated and accepted.
49. The Brahmo Samaj was founded by Raja Rammohan Roy in 1828.
Originally it was called Brahmo Sabha - an assembly of all who believed in
the unity of God- After the death of the Raja, Devendranath Tagore infused
new life into the Society. Devendranath formally joined the movement in
1843 but the spread of the organisation was largely due to Keshab Chandra
Sen who joined the movement in 1857. In 1865, the Brahmo Samaj was
divided into two camps-the conservatives and the progressives. The latter
camp was headed by Keshab Chandra Sen. Then again the marriage of
Keshabs fourteen-year old daughter with the Maharaja of Cooch Bihar in
March 1876 led to the second schism in the Brahmo Samaj. Keshab Chandra
held moderate views about womens education and womens emancipation.
He believed higher education, particularly university education, would not
be suitable for women and unhindered mixing of men and women or the
complete ban on the purdah system was fraught with grave danger to
society. Those who differed with the great leader formed a different
organisation known as Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.
50. The Indian Association of Calcutta was founded by Surendranath
Banerjea on 26 July 1876. The Association was formed to be the centre of
an All-India movement based on the conception of an united India, derived
from the inspiration of Mazzini.
51. The Arya Samaj was founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824-
18S3). Swami Dayananda wanted to shape society on the model of the
Vedas by removing all later outgrowth. He believed in one God, opposed
polytheism and image worship. He raised his voice against the restrictions of
caste, child-marriage and prohibition of sea-voyage. Dayanand started the
Shuddhi movement, that is conversion of non-Hindus to Hinduism-an
attempt to realise the ideal of unifying India nationally, socially and
religiously, He also encouraged female education and marriages of widows.
His most famous writing was Satyartha Prakash, which expounded his
doctrine, hi the early years Dayananda also tried to come to terms with the
Brahmo Samaj-, to achieve this, a conference was held at Calcutta in 1869.
But nothing came out of it. The Arya Samaj, however, absorbed the Brahmo
Samaj movement in the Punjab, where the Samaj had already started at
Lahore in 1863. Dayanandas chief followers were Lala Hansraj, Pandit
Guru Dutt, Lala Lajpat Rai and Swami Sharddhananda.
52. Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) was one of the founders of the Indian
National congress (1885) and thrice its President in 1886, 1893 and 1906.
He founded the East India Association, London (1867). In 1892 he was
elected to the British House of Commons. His important publications are
Poverty and un-British Rule in India, Englands Duty to India and
Financial Administration of India.
53. Pherozeshah M. Mehta (1845-1915) was a founder member of the
Indian National Congress (1885). He became the President of the Congress
in 1890. In 1910, Mehta became the Vice Chancellor of Bombay University.

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