SIR C.V. RAMAN- THE MAN WHO SAW THE SEA DIFFERENTLY
September 1921
SS Narkunda,
Mediterranean Sea.
Figure 1: Sir C.V. Raman, a simple man with his signature white turban and sharp, thoughtful eyes.
A fairly tall, young, handsome man was watching the seas from the ship's deck. The sea stretched endlessly before him, sparkling under the sun — but something kept bothering him.
Back then the idea was that sea is blue because it reflects the skies. Lord Rayleigh, a legendary figure in physics stated this principle and according to him tiny particles in the air scatter sunlight, and the blue part of light gets scattered the most — that’s why the sky looks blue. And since the sea reflects the sky, the sea must look blue too. Simple, right?
The man we mentioned about earlier in the text was not convinced about this idea and decided to conduct some onboard experiments to validate his queries. He pulled out a small, portable device called a spectroscope (a tool that helps break light into different colors) and a Nicol prism (which helps filter out reflected light). Holding them up to his eye, he peered down into the water — directly into the sea, not just at the surface.
What he saw surprised him. Even without the sky’s reflection, the water was still brilliantly blue! This meant the blue color had to come from the water itself, not just from the sky. The moment the ship reached Bombay, he sat down and wrote a paper titled- The Colour of the Sea, which got published in the science journal Nature. In it, he challenged Rayleigh’s explanation and said:
"The sea’s color comes from what’s happening inside the water itself."
Figure 2: Raman and Compton (centre)
At the Toronto conference, scientists were arguing about the nature of light — was it a wave, or was it made of particles?
Arthur Compton, an American scientist stood up and proudly presented his new results, showing that X-rays (a type of light) could behave like particles when they hit something. It was bold and revolutionary — but not everyone agreed.
One of the people who strongly disagreed was William Duane, a scientist from Harvard University. Duane argued that light was still just a wave, no matter what Compton said. And standing right there with Duane was none other than C.V. Raman.
Raman looked straight at Compton and said:
"Compton, you’re a clever speaker, but you’re wrong — and you know it. Why don’t you explain this in simple words?"
That moment — that fiery debate — stayed with Raman long after the conference ended. It was like a seed planted in his mind. And when, in 1927, Raman heard that Compton had won the Nobel Prize for his work, that seed burst into life.
Raman thought to himself:
"If this particle-like behavior happens with X-rays, it must happen with ordinary light too. I just have to prove it."
Without wasting a moment, Raman and his trusted assistant K.S. Krishnan rolled up their sleeves and started experimenting. They shone light through different liquids and closely studied how the light scattered. And before long — they found it!
RAMAN EFFECT
"We tested 60 different liquids and all of them showed this amazing new effect"
Sir C.V. Raman & Sir K.S. Krishnan
Figure 3: Raman and Rayleigh Scattering
(notice how only a part of the laser is absorbed by the molecule in the case of Raman scattering resulting in an entirely new ray with an entirely new wavelength!)
Their experiment was simple, but clever.
Step 1: Use sunlight, because they are plenty of in Calcutta back then.
They shined sunlight through a colored filter to only let through blue-violet light.
Step 2: Shine the blue-violet light into different liquids.
As the light passed through the liquid, some of it scattered — meaning it bounced off the molecules inside.
Step 3: Check the colour of scattered light.
They placed another colored filter to check if the scattered light changed color after bouncing off the molecules. And it did!
This color change meant the light was losing energy — just like X-rays in the Compton Effect.
Figure 4: An experimental set-up of Raman scattering
But Raman’s waves were tidy and lined up, which meant the light had never been fully absorbed. Instead, the light just bounced off the molecules. Ang guess what!
The colour of the light also changed!
When the light bounced off the molecules, it came out a slightly different color — meaning the molecules stole a tiny bit of the light’s energy when they hit it.
Through this experiment, Raman discovered a new way light and molecules interact, like a light "handshake," where molecules slightly change the light’s color and line up its waves.
In March 1928, Raman proudly presented these results to scientists in south India and published them in the Indian Journal of Physics and later in 1930 won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
RAMAN: A CLOSER LOOK
Figure 5: A living memorial of a legend
(The "Raman Tree" at the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru is a commemorative tree planted at the exact spot where Sir C.V. Raman was cremated after his death)
Sir. C.V. Raman has become an icon of modern science in India and has inspired countless generations to advance scientific research for societal and national development. He became the first Indian Director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the premier research institute of India and later established the Raman Research Institute (RRI) close to IISc where he spent his last days of his life.
When Raman received his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, it was a moment of immense pride and deep pain for him. Why? Because India was still under British rule at that time.
At the ceremony, the British flag (Union Jack) was raised when they announced his award — because India, as a colony, did not have its own independent flag to represent itself.
Raman was overwhelmed with a mixture of joy and sorrow — joy because his years of hard work had been recognized, but sorrow because he couldn’t stand under India’s own flag.
He had proven that groundbreaking scientific discoveries could come from India, not just Europe or America...
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