M N Saha In Historical Perspective

This unusual collection of readings on the life and work of Meghnad Saha (1893-1956), the outstanding Indian astrophysicist best known for his seminal theories of thermal ionization and selective radiation pressure, brings together a selection of memoiral pieces, rarely accessible early responses to his work by major contemporaries like Jeans, Eddington, Russell, Mitchell, and Harlow Shapley, a more recent scholarly documentation of his work and its repercussions, and evaluations by younger Indian scientists. They add up to offer an image of Saha as man, scientist and politician and humanist - against the setting of the complex historic experience of colonial India moving towards independence and development. Saha's role in the process comes in for critical assessment, as the rich global implications mingle with the more immediately national. Aimed at both the specialist reader and the more general one, the book should serve as a fairly comprehensive account of the achievements of Saha, and what they mean to science today.

Jyotirmoy Gupta, veteran journalist and science correspondent, has recently edited (jointly with Santimay Chatterjee) M. N. Saha in Parliament for the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.