The Indian Physicist who was told Cambridge was out of reach

Daulat Singh Kothari met Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge after being told that the Cavendish Laboratory was beyond his reach. The young scientist from India had been advised to stay away from the laboratory, but everything changed after Rutherford revealed that he had read Kothari's paper.

In Short

• A scholarship and Rs 3,500 loan enabled his overseas studies
• His pressure ionisation research advanced understanding of dense stellar matter
• He completed his doctorate in 1933, earning praise from his examiners

Daulat Singh Kothari was 24 when he arrived in England. India was still under British rule; and for a young physicist from Udaipur, the journey was more than a voyage across the currents at sea. He wished to work under Lord Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory, where some of the foremost questions in physics were being examined.

Kothari's circumstances were not those of a man of means. His father, Fateh Lal Kothari, a school headmaster, had died during the plague epidemic of 1918, leaving the family in financial difficulty. Kothari had pursued his studies at Allahabad University, where the physicist Meghnad Saha recognised his aptitude for research.

The Uttar Pradesh government awarded him a scholarship for higher studies abroad. Mewar State granted him an interest-free loan of Rs 3,500, which he undertook to repay upon his return, in monthly instalments of Rs 60.

England, however, did not receive him as he had hoped.

At India House in London, the British officer responsible for admissions informed him that he was being considered for Oxford. The Cavendish Laboratory, he was told, was “totally out of question”. Kothari was disappointed. Yet, the matter was not settled.

THE SUNDAY THAT CHANGED HIS COURSE

The following Sunday, a friend from Udaipur, Gulam Ali, invited Kothari to accompany him to Cambridge. They went, in part, to see the Cavendish building, which they expected to find closed.

Instead, they entered and were met by a woman who asked the purpose of their visit. On hearing Rutherford's name, she took them to the library.

There sat Rutherford, reading a journal.

Kothari introduced himself and explained that his teacher, Professor M.N. Saha of Allahabad University, had written to the physicist on his behalf.

Rutherford looked up.

“Oh, Mr Kothari, I am reading your paper right now. It is very interesting. Have you finished all admission formalities? If not, please complete them soon. My secretary will help you,” records the later accounts of Kothari's biography .

The encounter, recorded in Kothari's biographical memoir published by the Indian National Science Academy, altered the course of his stay. The man who had been told that the Cavendish was beyond reach was admitted to the laboratory.

At Cambridge, Kothari worked on problems in theoretical physics and astrophysics. He completed his doctorate in 1933. His examiners, Rutherford and the physicist John Lennard-Jones, spoke warmly of the quality of his thesis, according to a report by H. Thirkill, President of Clare College, to the High Commissioner for India.

His work on pressure ionisation would bring him recognition beyond the laboratory.

FROM THE STARS TO THE CLASSROOMS OF INDIA

The question Kothari pursued was one of matter under extreme pressure. Under suitable conditions, increasing pressure can alter the behaviour of atoms and cause ionisation, even when heat alone cannot account for the process.

His work helped develop the theoretical understanding of dense stellar matter, including white dwarf stars. The British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington later wrote that he believed Kothari had been the first to state explicitly that ionisation could be produced by high pressure as well as high temperature.

One consequence of Kothari's calculations concerned the mass of a cold, self-gravitating body composed largely of hydrogen. His analysis placed an approximate upper limit near Jupiter's mass under the model's assumptions; beyond that point, adding mass would cause further contraction rather than continued growth as an ordinary cold body.

It is a striking reminder that the universe does not always obey the intuitions formed by everyday experience.

Kothari returned to India in April 1933 and joined Delhi University in 1934. There, he helped build its Physics Department into a centre for teaching and research.

After Independence, the government appointed him the first Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, on July 12, 1948. He began organising the Defence Science Organisation, bringing scientists from universities and different disciplines into work on problems of military importance.

The organisation began with a small establishment in a hutment near the Central Secretariat; it provided the nucleus for what would later become the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

In 1961, Kothari became chairman of the University Grants Commission, a position he held until 1973. He also chaired the Education Commission of 1964–66, whose report examined the structure and purpose of education in independent India.

Its opening words remain among the most enduring statements in Indian educational policy:

“The destiny of India is now being shaped in her classrooms.”

Kothari died on February 4, 1993. His life had carried him from a family struck by bereavement in Udaipur to Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, and from theoretical physics to the organisation of India's defence science and education.

The episode at Cambridge endures for a simple reason. An official had judged what was possible for a young Indian scientist; Rutherford, having read his work, judged the work itself.

The difference between those two judgements changed the course of a life.

- Ends