Saha’s patriotism and fighting spirit was evident from his school and college days in Dhaka when this boy from a poor family got to the Dhaka Collegiate School after getting scholarship. But his strong political conviction and patriotism led him to take part in the Swadeshi movement in 1905 and the following years. Saha was expelled from this prestigious school for his political activities. He took admission to another private school and passed entrance examination in 1909 standing first among the students from eastern part of Bengal.

Saha took admission to Dhaka College and passed Intermediate in Science in 1911 with brilliant results. He then left for Calcutta to study in Presidency College for B.SC and this Presidency period played an important role in making him not only a renowned scientist but also as staunch anti-imperialist with global outlook. Saha belonged to the lower caste in Bengal. He suffered discrimination, both in his high school days as also in the Eden Hindu Hostel where he was a boarder during his Presidency days. His interests in the welfare and education of the lower castes of Bengal grew up during this period after getting treatment from the high caste wealthy Hindu classmates.

This was also the period in which Saha got as his contemporaries many later day famous scientists like Satyendra Nath Bose, Jnan Chandra Ghosh, Nikhil Ranjan Sen among others. Saha was quite friendly with Satyendra Nath who was also a polymath and had big interest in music and literature apart from physics and Mathematics. They both had long discussions on the global situation and the movement against the British. While Satyen was philosophical, Saha was looking for bringing about change.

Saha was impatient and wanted to do something concrete for the movement against the British but Bose, despite his strong nationalism was not for immediate active participation in freedom movement, but advised him to pursue his study and then research to contribute to the development of Indian science. Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose was his teacher at that time. It was a highly satisfying period for Meghnad Saha in terms of his growing up as a scientist

Saha completed his B.Sc in mathematics in 1913 and M.Sc in 1915. In both these examinations, he stood second while his good friend Satyen Bose stood first. This combination between the two greatest minds of Bengal in that early part of 20th century remained all through till Saha died in 1956. The extent of Saha-Bose collaboration can be understood from the fact that in 1919, when both of them were working as lecturers in Calcutta University, they jointly translated Einstein’s Theory of Relativity from German to English. Bose was following Einstein Theory and he took the help of Saha who knew the German language quite well in translating it. In fact, it was this English translation made in 1919 that helped the English educated world to understand the Relativity Theory of Albert Einstein who later got Nobel prize in 1921. In 1919, Saha got his D.Sc from Calcutta University. After eight years, in 1927, he was admitted as a Fellow of Royal Society, London despite some reported objections by the British officers of India.

Saha was famous in global scientific community for his Saha isolation equation. This isolation equation is essentially on application of quantum mechanics to atomic physics. Saha’s equation opened up a new area of research in physics which helped other great scientists to follow up his work. Saha got global recognition and was nominated for Nobel Prize seven times between 1931 and 1955. But he was denied the Nobel prize award just as his teacher Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose was also denied the Nobel prize for his path breaking work.

Saha’s views on socialism take a concrete shape after his visit to the Soviet Union after the end of second world war. This was a game changer in the evolution of Saha’s attitude towards social change. He wrote a travelogue titled My Experiences in Soviet Russia which came out by 1947 end. By then India was independent and Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister. Saha, from his student days, had no confidence in Gandhian path though he had deep personal respect for Gandhi. Saha differed with the first Indian PM also on many issues but still he had faith in Nehru’s industrial plans and took part in Planning Commission work

In his travelogue on Russia visit, Saha dealt at length on the challenges of Russian economy after 1917 revolution and how technology and planning had played an important role in changing Russia by improving the living standards of its people. Being the child of a poor family himself, his emphasis was always on the betterment of the living standards of the Russian people who were marginalized during the Tsar regime. Saha elaborated on the four types of revolutions that had taken place in the Soviet system- namely technological, political, socio-economic and religious. He also mentioned about the Soviet planning process and how some of the models can be replicated in the Indian planning system.

After independence, Saha took active part in the rehabilitation of the partition-affected people from East Bengal. He was highly emotional about his ancestral home, but after 1911, he had to focus his activities in Calcutta only. He could not return to Dhaka. He took active part in the rehabilitation programme for the refugees. Many colonies for refugees were set up at that time. Saha gave all assistance to the refugee leaders who were working for them. Saha became closer to the Left and stood in the first Lok Sabha election as an independent candidate supported by the United Left Front led by the CPI. He won.

During his four and half years in Lok Sabha, Saha was an active Parliamentarian taking up all the right causes of the people, especially the refugees from eastern part of Pakistan. He took part in meetings and demonstrations. He was having heart problems, but he did not care. In Dhakuria, the southern part of Calcutta, where our family also shifted after 1950 riots in eastern part of Bengal, a refugee colony was set up as Meghnad Saha colony. During his tenure in Lok Sabha, he visited this colony a number of times to discuss urgent issues faced by the refugees and tried to solve them.

He was an institution builder. He set up National Academy of Sciences, Indian Physics Society and then the Institute of Nuclear Physics which was renamed later as the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. He was the founder editor of the journal Science and Culture. He was a multi tasker but beyond everything, Saha was a great human being who always worked for the poor and never forgot his own roots. (IPA Service)