Acharya P.C. Ray

Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray (P.C. Ray), born 2 August 1861 in Raruli-Katipara village of Khulna district (then Bengal Presidency, now Bangladesh), was among the first generation of Indian scientists to gain international recognition while binding scientific work to the cause of national regeneration. Educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, and the University of Edinburgh — where he earned his D.Sc. in 1887 with a thesis on conjugated sulphates — Ray returned to India and joined Presidency College in 1889 as Assistant Professor of Chemistry. His landmark research, the discovery of stable mercurous nitrite in 1896, established his reputation in inorganic chemistry. He later became the first Palit Professor of Chemistry at the University College of Science, Calcutta (founded by Sir Taraknath Palit and Sir Rashbehari Ghosh), training a generation of chemists including Meghnad Saha, Jnan Chandra Ghosh and Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee.

Ray fused scientific enterprise with economic nationalism. In 1901 he established the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works, India's first indigenous pharmaceutical company, beginning operations on modest capital to prove that Indians could build modern industry and reduce dependence on imported drugs and chemicals — a practical expression of the Swadeshi ideal that gathered force during the 1905 anti-Partition agitation. His two-volume A History of Hindu Chemistry (1902, 1909) recovered India's pre-modern scientific tradition, drawing on Sanskrit texts to argue that chemical knowledge had deep indigenous roots; it remains a foundational work in the history of science. Ray combined this intellectual labour with austere personal habits, philanthropy, and famine and flood relief work, and he openly aligned himself with the nationalist movement, supporting Gandhian ideals of self-reliance and village industry.

Ray authored the autobiography Life and Experiences of a Bengali Chemist (1932), in which he urged educated Indians to abandon clerkly ambitions for productive industrial and agricultural enterprise. Honoured with a CIE in 1911 and a knighthood in 1919, he is conventionally addressed as "Acharya" (teacher) in recognition of his role as mentor and nation-builder. He died on 16 June 1944 in Calcutta. The Royal Society of Chemistry in 2011 recognised the Bengal Chemical building as a National Historic Chemical Landmark, the first such recognition outside Europe and the United States — marking the 150th anniversary of his birth.

For UPSC and state PCS aspirants, Ray appears in the Modern Indian History and General Studies (Science & Culture) components, typically tested under the Swadeshi movement, the growth of indigenous industry and scientific institutions, and biographical match-the-following items pairing scientists with their contributions or institutions. Examiners favour factual prompts: his founding of Bengal Chemical (1901), the mercurous nitrite discovery, A History of Hindu Chemistry, and his mentorship of Meghnad Saha. A common analytical angle asks how figures like Ray linked science, education and economic nationalism — illustrating the constructive, self-reliance strand of the freedom struggle distinct from purely political agitation.