Author: Jayant Sahasrabudhe

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born on this day (21 July) in Ratnagiri in the coastal belt of Maharashtra. He was popularly called the ‘Father of Indian Unrest’, because the British called him so, as he successfully created unrest those days against the British government. He was a great force of India’s freedom struggle. The prefix ‘Lokmanya’ was used before his name because his leadership was readily and widely accepted by the people, not only of Maharashtra, but of the entire country. Today, in our History text books, we read about three people — the trio— Lal, Bal, Pal and they…

Jayant Sahasrabudhe ‘(there was)a need for national self-expression — to show the West that, in all realms including science, Indians were equals’ — this was the reply of legendary astrophysicist and Noble laureate Dr S Chandrasekhar when he was asked: ‘Why was there a sudden surge of modern scientists of international repute in the first three decades of 20th century in India?’ This reply, on one hand, reflects the discriminatory and hegemonic tendency of the West (the British) against the Indians, and, on the other, it precisely captures and highlights the patriotic spirit of those world-class scientists who squarely challenged…