SIR RONALD ROSS- WHY SHOULD NOBLE PRIZE NOT CONSIDERED INDIAN ?

2nd August, Sharon, MA , USA 

INTRODUCTION

After retirement and completing work on schistosomiasis under Emeritus Scientist scheme of ICAR , a new interest brewed in me about knowing more on the history of parasitology ,in relation to India ( Earlier, I have contributed an article " Parasitology in India since independence" in Journal of Animal Sciences,1998 (special issue) ) ; perhaps , it was also because our Veterinary Council of India , has somewhere  emphasized that our future veterinarians ( hence Parasitologists also ) should be made aware about history of the subject ;  obviously, this means  to highlight the work of our past eminent scientists who unrevealed so many mysteries of science and helped in advancement of science till date. As I belonged to Parasitology, I confined my interests to Indian Parasitologists .  I checked if any of our three associations on parasitology e.i. Indian Society of Parasitology , Indian Association for Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology and newly formed Indian Academy of Tropical Parasitology are enriching our young Parasitologists by providing profiles of the eminent Parasitologists on their websites or  showing links where one can log on to get such information . Sadly, I could  find nothing . 

website on Dr S C Dutt

 As I have edited a book in 2002 on our great Parasitologist  , Dr S C Dutt, who was awarded prestigious  Rafi Ahmad Kidwai award of ICAR (in association with Dr H D Srivastava) in 1964-65, first time in Animal Husbandry subject (prior that , the award went to other fields of Agriculture) , I considered it pertinent to start a website in his name and soon it was aired (www.drscdutt.com) with the help of Department of Parasitology, College of  Veterinary Science and AH, Jabalpur India in the year 2012. 

To start blog on Indian Parasitologists 

However, I realized it may be a better idea to include profiles of other eminent Parasitologists and as the website was hacked ,sometimes, I considered  it better to start a blog in the name of Indian Parasitologists hence this blog originated (surprisingly, no one earlier  authorized this name )  . I requested IAAVP and other  contemporary Parasitologists to provide me profiles of past Indian Parasitologists to be included in this blog (of course with due acknowledgement ) .I am still awaiting to receive the profiles . 

Let me clarify that I am of the opinion that science is boundless, can not be demarcated  on political grounds therefore all the Parasitologists, to wherever they belong, should be identified without their political linkages .However, as I do not have  resources to contact world over, I confined my energies to India , where I may pay more attention , being located to this place ( at this time, we are visiting USA on the request of our son-in -law) . Moreover, there are various links, world over, to provide details of eminent parasitologists of other countries , hence it may be prudent to  link these sites to receive details about them, which is not  the case with Indian Parasitologists .

INDIAN PARASITOLOGISTS OF NINETEENTH CENTURY  


 Though India has a history of five thousand years with enriched literature on life sciences particularly by Indian sage Dhanvantri ( 800 B C ) who wrote that bites of mosquitoes could cause diseases, fever ,shivering (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/mosquito_net ) , it is difficult to search the old literature with out the help of any organization .Therefore, it is better to confine our studies from the date the modern  Parasitology emerged in the country. 

Obviously, during the nineteenth century, India was under British rule, hence the old Parasitologists were persons of British Origin who served this country during that  period and made some outstanding  contributions by their hard work. There are many names which are referred in the Parasitology books like Lieper , Bomford, Montgomery, Fairlay, Chandler (who wrote beautiful book on Parasitology), Fletcher etc (should their work not be called as Indian and they as Indian Parasitologists , though of different nationality . If not,  what will be the appropriate term ?). 
Sir Ronald Ross : 

Among all these names , name of  Sir Ronald Ross emerges distinctly as he  has not come from United kingdom to serve India but  was born in India in the family of General CCG Ross  on 13th May,1857 in Almora district of India . Like any other Indian of those time, he went London, UK to study Medicine at St Bartholomew's hospital  in 1875 and entered Indian Army Medical Services in 1881.

I need not to elaborate  details of this Nobel laureate as all the details are available on the websites e.g.  www.peoplesmart.com , www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/  Moreover,the point of discussion, here, is some what different  .A little bit may be academic discussion while other is with regards to parasitic diseases in the country -where Ross worked on malaria. 

Whether Indian or British citizen  

When Ross was born in India , as per birth rights (of present India law ) , why he should not be considered an Indian citizen ? I think this question might have never been raised, though only of academic interest, due to two probabilities. First , birth rights and citizenship might not be existing in nineteenth century hence there was no question of raising his citizenship or it is of two types- one for native persons and other for Britons (though Ross was born in India and worked in India,afterall he was a Briton and left India to British in twentieth century) . Second , it might be unthinkable at that time to link any Briton with Indian originality- this might be due to simple reason of Rulers and ruled and no body will like to take sides of  disadvantage category.   

Not only birth rights, it is important to note that Dr Ronald Ross joined Indian Army Services and served this country for a pretty long time .Interestingly, we considered Rabindra Nath Tagore ,as Indian though he was awarded noble prize in 1913- first in literature in whole of Asia 

Whether contribution Indian or British

If you read the noble lecture , delivered by Sir Ronald Ross ( www.nobleprize.org ) , he has provided all the details of his research ( a must to read by every Parasitologist). The beauty of his research work, in my opinion,  is not in associating  mosquito with malaria (that was existing since long ) but proving that its mosquito bite which transmits malaria parasite in two ways - taking parasite from humans ,developing in it, and again inoculating in man through mosquito bite and thereby illustrating whole life-cycle of the parasite . This was the first proof how an insect can transmit a parasite to a man or animal.

The important fact is that all his research work was carried out in India , at different times, with different experiments ; by visiting different places like Calcutta ,Assam, Darjeeling while main work was carried out at Secundrabad or  Hyderabad. Thus it was India where he experimented which led to the award of noble prize.

 It is than an obvious question why this contribution should not  be considered  Indian ? 
I am mentioning in my last blog the contributions on Malaria transmission of an Indian and sadly Ross has not given credit to this person who was ultimately given Gold Medal by Lord Curzon. Such events show that at that time also , awards were not free from Politics. I am downloading the same and leave the readers to decide the matter. They may express their opinion. This write up is provided by Shri Chattopadhyaya from Kolkatta and we express our thanks for looking to opposite site of the opinion.   

National conference of Parasitology in 1998 at Hyderabad :

Admittedly, I was not well aware about this great scientist and his noble prize  wining research work (there are many others like me ) . It  was only in 1998 when Indian Society of Parasitology ( President- Dr VP Sharma) arranged its national conference of Parasitology in Hyderabad to celebrate hundred years of path breaking research on malaria by the noble laureate Sir Ronald Ross .Fortunately, I attended the conference (where some British scientists also participated ) and received souvenir ,abstracts ,  one poetry book "The Exile" written by Ross and some other literature on  Sir Ronald Ross. A trip to his laboratory was also arranged where we witnessed a bust of Ronald Ross as well as the old microscope which was used by him for elucidating  the life cycle of malaria  parasite.

ANY MONUMENT OF ROSS IN INDIA ? :

I tried to know how memory of this great scientist has been preserved in India. Except that mentioned above, I could not see any site or institute which has been linked with this noble laureate. If you log Google on Parasitology institute in India, it refers to Ross institute of malaria, affiliated to Osmania University ,Hyderabad. But a deeper investigation revealed that there is no faculty attached to this institute , neither any degree is awarded by this institute - it is rather a defunct name. 

It is not that no  foreigner (Ross whether Indian or ...)  has any memorial in India.   We are not talking  pre-independent era ,when there were many colleges like St Stephen college ,Delhi,  St George college, Agra or Robertson College, Jabalpur in the name of famous foreign dignitaries  ; we are taking stock of present situation .     At least ,three glaring examples are coming to my mind . One is Izzatnagar of Bareilly district, Uttar Pradesh where  prestigious Indian Veterinary Research Institute is situated ;  the name Izzatnagar is christened on the name of Alexander Izat, a Scottish Engineer who was the Director of the Bengal and North Western Railway. Second is  Saleemnabad  Road railway station and  the  village near Jabalpur ,which is named after British collector of Jabalpur . And most important name  is the Haffkins Institute at Parel, Mumbai which was Plague research laboratory of Dr Waldemar Mordecai Haffkins who worked there on his Plague and Cholera vaccines since 1899 and later as its Director. Its name in 1906 was  Bombay Bacteriology Laboratory which was changed to present name in 1925 due to the efforts of Lt Col F B Mackie ( till that time , Dr Haffkins had left India ) . Does it mean  that no efforts had been made by the erstwhile  fans of Sir Ronald Ross to built any monument in his name in India ?

National Institute of Parasitology in India

It is surprising why this noble laureate has been forgotten in India ; it is more disturbing when we note that even scientific community of India or Parasitology societies of India have remained mute spectator in whole episode. 

 Ross was not only an academic scientist but was a good poet, playwright, writer and painter ; he continued his work on eradication of malaria and  later developed mathematical models which greatly helped in studying epidemiology of the diseases.

Perhaps, the greatest tragedy with this scientist ,with regards to India , is  how India neglected  parasitic diseases, even afterwards, though still existing and affecting its population (both man and animals ), unabated . So much so, that its Medical Colleges do not have separate departments of Parasitology . Even , there is no national institute of Parasitology which can deal the subject in more holistic perspective. I think it will be a right tribute to Sir Ronald Ross to start  not national but  an Inter- National Institute of Parasitology in India in his name, being the first Indian citizen ,conferred with noble prize in science.