M N Saha in Historical Perspective

Early responses to his work by major contemporaries like Jeans, Eddington, Russell, Mitchell, and Harlow Shapley, a more recent scholarly documentation of his work and its repercussions, and evaluations by younger Indian scientists. They add up to offer an image of Saha as man, scientist and politician – and humanist – against the setting of the complex historic experience of colonial India moving towards independence and development.  Saha’s role in the process comes in for critical assessment, as the rich global implications mingle with the more immediately national. Aimed at both the specialist reader and the more general one, the book should serve as a fairly comprehensive account of the achievements of Saha, and what they mean to science today.