THIS DAY IN HISTORY

30 - November - 1858: Jagdish Chandra Bose, botanist and physics expert, was born at Mymensingh (now in Bangladesh).

Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose

Early life :

• He was born on 30 November 1858, in Mymensingh, Faridpur, part of the present-day Dhaka District in Bangladesh.
• He was known for using scientific demonstrations in class. He was an excellent teacher, which is why some of his students like  S. N. Bose become famous physicists.

Scientific Achievement’s :

• He used galena crystals to make receivers, both for short-wavelength radio waves and for white and ultraviolet light.
• In 1895, he was the first to demonstrate wireless communication using radio waves.
• He developed and used many scientific instruments such as waveguides, horn antennas, polarizers, dielectric lenses and prisms, and even semiconductor detectors of electromagnetic radiation.
• In 1944, his theory related to the existence of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun was confirmed.
• He invented ‘Crescograph’ for measuring plant response to various stimuli such as mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical.
• In 1917, he was knighted in 1917 and was also elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London as physicist and biologist.

He was ahead his time and established, Bose Research Institute in Kolkata, which later became to be a famous centre of research in basic sciences.

30 - November - 1896: Gandhiji sails for South Africa with wife and children.

Gandhi in South Africa

• During the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, Gandhi gathered around 1,100 Indians and organised the Indian Ambulance Corps for the British.
• Gandhi formed the Natal Indian Congress in 1894. This organisation led non-violent protests against the oppressive treatment of the white people towards the native Africans and Indians.
• English artist John Ruskin's book Unto This Last inspired Gandhi and he set up Phoenix Farm near Durban.
• In September 1906, Gandhi organised the first Satyagraha campaign to protest against the Transvaal Asiatic ordinance that was constituted against the local Indians. Again in June 1907, he held Satyagraha against the Black Act.
• In 1908, he was sentenced to jail for organising the non-violent movements. But, after his meeting with General Smuts, a British Commonwealth statesman, he was released.
• He also fought against the nullification of non-Christian marriages in 1913.
• Gandhi organised another peaceful resistance campaign in Transvaal against the oppression that Indian minors were suffering from.