Woman who overcame `Raman effect’

MUMBAI, July 7: The famed `Raman effect' - which put India on the Nobel map in 1930 -- might well have had its impact in areas other than s...

MUMBAI, July 7: The famed `Raman effect’ – which put India on the Nobel map in 1930 — might well have had its impact in areas other than science. It now transpires that the great physicist, C V Raman, who discovered the optical effect in crystals, failed to foresee any significant role for women in the field of science.

This side of the `Raman effect’ became known only when the renowned bio-chemist Kamala Sohonie, 82, narrated how she was denied admission to the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, because Raman did not want women-scientists.

Sohonie, formerly director of the Mumbai-based Institute of Science, revealed this to members of the Indian Women Scientists’ Association (IWSA) gathered to felicitate her at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) here recently.

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The great institution-builder that he was, Raman established the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Raman Research Institute (RRI) and laid strong foundation for journals in India. When Sohonie applied for postgraduate degree, after completing her graduation from Bombay University in 1933, Raman summarily dismissed her application despite her having topped the university merit list that year. And the reason: Sohonie happened to be a woman!

“I am not going to take any girls in my institute,” Raman had told the girl. But Sohonie went all the way to Bangalore to confront the Nobel laureate and demand the reason for being refused admission despite her outstanding academic record.

“Though Raman was a great scientist, he was very narrow-minded. I can never forget the way he treated me just because I was a woman,” she told the audience. But, she challenged Raman that she would complete the course with distinction. After much hesitation she got admission, the first women to be admitted by Raman.

“Even then, Raman didn’t admit me as a regular student. This was a great insult to me. The bias against women was so bad at that time. What can one expect if even a Nobel laureate behaves in such a way?” she asked.

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Sohonie completed her course with distinction and got admission to Cambridge University in 1936. “This incident forced Raman to change his opinion about women and from that year he admitted a few students every year,” she said.

Discarding these setbacks, she continued her research under the Nobel laureate Fredrick Hopkins and went on to make one of the fundamental discoveries in plant biochemistry – that all plants had a common protein binding – which won her a doctoral degree, the first Indian woman to get a doctorate of philosophy in science discipline.

Back home, she established the biochemistry department at Lady Harding Medical College, Delhi, and later became the assistant director of Nutritional Research Laboratory at Coonoor. After resigning that post, she came to Mumbai and established the biochemistry department at the Institute of Science and headed it for the next 20 years .