Jagadis was born on November 30, 1858 in Mymensingh in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) as the only son of Bhagwan Chandra Bose, a civil servant, and his wife Bamasundari. His early childhood was spent in the town of Faridpur, where his father was posted as Deputy Magistrate. Despite being a servant of the British government, Bhagwan Chandra Bose was not a blind follower of their ways but a man of enduring vision with a deep love for his country and his people. He had started a Bengali-medium school in Faridpur and sent his son there, instead of the local English school, so that he would learn his own culture. Young Jagdis grew up interacting with the children of local farmers and fishermen. He imbibed from them a keen interest in the workings of nature – an interest that was to serve him in good stead in his later career. He was always thirsty for information. His father – his hero and role model – never tired of answering his endless questions and encouraging him to be ever inquisitive.
After doing his B.A, Bose went to England in 1880 to study medicine. However, he soon fell ill, and the odours of the dissection rooms aggravated his illness. He had to give up medical studies. He then joined Christ’s College, Cambridge to study Natural Science. Here he was taught by the outstanding scientist Lord Rayleigh, with whom he struck up a lifelong friendship. He obtained his Tripos degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a B.Sc degree from the University of London simultaneously in 1884. Returning to India the following year, Bose took up a job as Physics Professor at Presidency College, Calcutta. To his consternation, he subsequently found out that Indian professors were paid only two-thirds the salary their British counterparts received for the same job. Deeply hurt by this blatantly discriminatory policy, Bose decided to protest in a novel manner. He did his work meticulously but refused to accept his salary, even though he badly needed the money. This went on for three years, during which time he became popular as a highly gifted teacher. Finally, his protest shamed the authorities into relenting, and he was paid the full salary with arrears.
In 1887, Bose’s parents got him married to Abala, the daughter of a lawyer. An intelligent and educated woman, Abala proved to be a true companion to him. Her support and encouragement helped him to scale the peaks of scientific achievement, and he eventually dedicated one of his books to her with the note, “To my wife, who has stood by me in all my struggles”. Bose’s efforts to develop research facilities in Presidency College were thwarted by the authorities. Eventually, he set up a laboratory in an abandoned bathroom in the physics department, where he pursued original research with very rudimentary equipment, spending his own money and using his ingenuity to fabricate the instruments he needed. Working under such conditions, he invented a device for producing electromagnetic waves that won him much acclaim from the scientific community. It was he who first made a public demonstration of wireless radio in 1895; however, the credit for the discovery went to Marconi who held a similar demonstration and patented his discovery two years later. Bose refused to cash in on his inventions, believing that science was for the benefit of mankind and should not be commercialized.
Next, his interests turned to plant physiology. He invented a sensitive instrument, the crescograph, to measure the growth rate of plants. He proved, for the first time, that plants, like animals, respond to stimuli such as electric current, heat and chemicals.
In recognition of his findings, Bose was knighted by the British government and subsequently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
