C. V. Raman and Indian Journals

Recently I read the Parmeswaran’s biography [1] of Sir C. V. Raman, India’s only Nobel laureate in Physics, as well as looked up at several other sources.  It is needless to say that Raman was highly committed, hardworking, and inspiring scientist.  I rather highlight a less-known fact about Raman: how publishing in Indian journal helped him win the Nobel prize, and how he supported Indian journals.

Raman was intrigued by the deep-blue light of the Mediterranean sea during his travel to Europe in 1921.  He disbelieved Lord Rayleigh’s theory that it is due to the reflection of the sky.  After a series of works, the last conclusive experiment on the vibrational spectra of liquid was performed by Raman and Krishnan on 16 February 1928. Raman and Krishnan sent a telegram to Nature on the same that was published on 31 March 1928 with submission date as 16 Feb. 1928 [2]. Raman gave a public lecture on 16th March 1928 in Bangalore; his lecture was published in Indian J. of Physics [3].  Raman won the Nobel prize due to these articles.  Incidentally, there were two simultaneous discoveries on the same effect in then USSR by Landsberg and Mandelstam,  but their work were published only later (June 1928).  Hence, if Raman did not publish his discovery in Indian J. of Physics, he may have missed the prize [4].   

Almost half of Raman’s work is published in Indian journals (Indian J. of Physics, Proceedings of Indian Academy of Science, Current Science).  Almost all of his last works on color and vision are published in Proceedings of Indian Academy of Science and Current Scince.  It is not surprising that Raman started these journals. One of his dying statements to Ramaseshan is “Do not allow the journals of the (Indian) Academy to die, for they are the sensitive indicators of the quality of science being done in the country and whether science is taking root” [5].   Also, Raman published prolifically.  For example, after wondering about the deep-blue color of the Mediterranean sea, he wrote a paper on the ship itself, and he sent the paper immediately after disembark the ship. 

It does haunt us why S. N. Bose missed the Nobel prize for the discovery of Bosons.  He sent his discovery on new statistics of photons to Philosophical Magazine in 1924 but it was rejected. Subsequently Bose sent two papers to Einstein for comments and translation in German; these papers were published in Zeitschrift fur Physik after forward from Einstein.  A question does linger: would Bose’s work have received independent recognition and consequently a Nobel  if Bose published his works in India and advertised like Raman.

It is ironic that the same journals that Raman promoted to the hilt are languishing at present.  The scientific community is chasing western journals.  The scientific administrators and the community have hardly any pride in the Indian journals; Editors and Editorial Board members hardly publish in these journals, in sharp contrast to the western counterparts and Raman.   The tragedy goes to the extent that for job selection and promotions, the papers published in Indian journals are listed as “Indian journal papers” and are not counted. 

Shouldn’t we learn the obvious lessons on publication  from Raman?

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[1] U. Parameswarm, C. V. Raman, Penguin India, 2011.
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/121501c0; See below.
[3]http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~phys191r/References/a8/Raman1928.pdf

[4] Many Nobel laureates have published their Nobel prize winning works in not-so high profile journals, but in local journals in order to get priority. For example,  Bednorz and Muller published their discovery on high-Tc superconductor in Zeitschrift fur Physik in April 1987.  Tanaka and Chu independently discovered this phenomena by the end of 1987.  Given this, it is imperative that local journals should be strengthened.

[5] Scientific Papers of C. V. Raman, Volume VI, Introduction by Ramaseshan.