Mirza Ismail played role in development of science in India

Story by  Saquib Salim | Posted by  Aasha Khosa • 2 Years ago
Mirza Ismail with Mahatma Gandhi
Mirza Ismail with Mahatma Gandhi

 

Saquib Salim

 

On the death of Sir Mirza Ismail, Nobel Laureate C. V Raman wrote in Current Science, a scientific journal, “Men of Science in India have therefore good reason to be grateful to Sir Mirza Ismail for his farsighted wisdom.” Rarely does A Journal of academic value carry obituaries of politicians, but Mirza Ismail was an exception. His contribution to the growth of education in general and science, in particular, was admired across the scientific communities. As an advisor to Maharaja of Mysore, then his Prime Minister, and later as Prime Minister of Maharaja of Jaipur, he played a key role in the development of science and technology in India.

 

Ismail took a keen interest in the development of the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Bengaluru, in the then Mysore state. He believed that “the progress of modern science has been of the highest possible benefit to mankind in every field of human endeavour.” On 31 July 1934, the best Indian scientists met to form the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) at IISc in Bangalore. The objective was to establish a national research institute and publication division. Ismail was invited to preside over its inaugural session as he was the most well-known patron of sciences among all the leaders. C V Raman later recalled that through his address Ismail expressed his “appreciation of scholarly achievements and his understanding of the value of scientific research for the advancement of the country”. 

 

Ismail stressed that the function of IASc should be “to secure the intimate cooperation of the medical, agricultural, industrial and forest research departments and to stress the importance of such cooperation among those departments for the promotion of the national health and the economic well-being of the country”. Apart from research and publications, he said, “the Academy should seek opportunities for establishing a link between Science and Government on the one hand, and on the other between Science and Society”. 

 


Mirza ismail with Maharaja of Mysore

 

With this Ismail promised that if the scientists established headquarters of IASc at Bangalore, “the Government of Mysore would be prepared to consider the grant of special facilities to the Academy”. Raman later wrote that following Ismail’s recommendation, the Maharaja of Mysore gifted eleven acres of land and sanctioned an annual grant in aid for IASc and Current Science. 

 

In 1937, Indian sciences hit its lowest when owing to differences with the ‘administration’ C V Raman, the Nobel Prize winner, was forced to resign from the directorship of IISc. Scientists at that time backed Raman and demanded that Mirza Ismail, Prime Minister of Mysore, should take over the administration of IISc to save it from ruination. A scientist wrote in Roy’s Weekly that Ismail administered Mysore was way ahead of other Indian states in education and industrialization. He wrote, “to find a real comparison of Mysore one must go to Japan or Germany - not India….. What the Indian Institute of Science wants is the Mirza Ismail spirit to watch over it, to inspire it……. Hand the Indian Institute of Science to Mirza Ismail.”

 

Raman’s student Jayaraman later wrote that it was at the behest of Mirza Ismail that Viceroy intervened in the matter and the administration of IISc had to retain Raman as Professor. Paying tribute to him Raman wrote, “Sir Mirza Ismail remained the truest of friends….. ever ready to give (him) support and advice when needed”. 

 


Mirza ismail

 

In 1942, Mirza Ismail moved to Jaipur as the Prime Minister of the state ruled by Man Singh II. G. D Birla, a native of the state, had made a name for himself in the business world by then. But the rulers did not like his affinity to Gandhi and People’s Movements. He remained in the bad books of the ruler and his ministers. For years he wanted to set up Colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Electronics at Pilani, his native town, in Jaipur state but could not get the official permission. Ismail after he was appointed PM of Jaipur immediately accorded permission of opening a degree college at Pilani. Thus clearing the roadblock for a future Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS).   

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Ismail believed that sciences are essential for national growth. He told a gathering of scientists during the Indian Science Congress of 1932;

“You (scientists), gentlemen, are engaged in a noble pursuit — the single-minded and unwavering pursuit of truth, as Nature half, reveals and half conceals it. Sometimes this research is practical in aim. Sometimes it seeks truth only. Our age is apt to forget that the latter aim is the nobler, and that noblest of all are the strenuousness and discipline in seeking which make even failure a triumph of the spirit.”

(Saquib Salim is a historian and a writer)