My paternal grandfather Prof. C. J. George (Caleekal John George ) was a distinguished scientist born May 22, 1894 in Chengannur, Kerala,India. In spite of having left India when I was very young, the endearing memories I have of my grandfather are strong and vivid limited however to the few brief visits I had with him during my interlude of travels to India while living here in Canada.
All through my formative years I would diligently correspond with him discussing various facets of life through letters right up until I gave birth to my daughter, Tania. As I glance at this one particular letter from him dated February 20th 1985, it became significant it would be one of the last letters I would receive from him. This letter was written shortly before his demise a quarter century ago. Those were the days of hand written letters antiquated by a postage stamp. The personality reflected in the signature seeped through the ink, the hidden force behind the stroke of the hand revealing his inertia driven by his original kinetic style. The handwritten script was the personal and common means to communicate in the pre Windows 95 era. How old and obsolete this letter looked as I struggle to read my grandfather’s handwriting. In comparison to his earlier letters the writing seemed to clearly deteriorate and was in battle with the harsh turbulent reality of aging. This last handwritten letter from him looked wrinkled and the ink although water stained, hauntingly seemed to still have a pulse.
He was a strong man, with a domineering almost intimidating personality yet a surprisingly shy, gentle undercoating almost like a loner’s complex camouflaged beneath an exterior confident steel armor. His gait was brisk, adventurous and always decisive in action, perfectly fit to grasp the best opportunity in a random selection of time, space, diligence and luck. He was always well groomed having a very charismatic Napoleonic fashionable demeanor about him. At the same time his style cloaked an intellectual vigor of a genius, with the nonconformity of a juggler’s skill to balance risk with radical conservatism. He was truly a visionary in all respects, ahead of his times, yet so well grounded.
As a child I admired Caleekal John George and continued to do so throughout my life primarily because my grandfather , like my father John Caleekal George (http://www.physiology.ws/j_c_george.php) were both very learned men, both zoologists and in spite of their very rational and scientific methodology in which they were trained , both were very poetic in their expression and analysis of life. They were not mere scientists but writers and public speakers of science so when they thought and spoke of science and their work, it was with passion, almost a love affair with the discipline as it applied to their overall worldview.
As a child I admired their rigid devotion to study, the power of the pen and words. I have memories of both my father and my grandfather writing and writing endlessly into the night, publishing their scientific research well past retirement age and producing a bright and inspired flock of a vast new generation of PhD graduates.
My father left India for the West permanently in 1967 and settled in Canada with the family consisting of my mother, myself and two elder brothers. The year 1967 was also the year my grandfather retired as Professor of Zoology at Karnataka University in Dharwar, Mysore, India.
Education was always one of the highest priorities in our family and it was only when I was much older did I come to know that my grandfather went overseas in 1926 to complete his PhD at the London Imperial College of Science which was founded in 1907.
I thought to myself how remarkable this was and the genetic strengths he must have had attributing to his determination, courage and ambition. It was an incredible feat especially because he was born into very humble roots and to then follow through with a dream and embark on that voyage overseas was brave. It must have been very difficult in those days to get the resources, and to leave behind his young wife and son, my father who was merely 5 years old at the time.
I thought over and over about his mindset and whether he had a tinge of fear, or was he daring and excited or a combination of it all. To complete higher studies at the London Imperial College of Science and Technology and to be the first in his family to ever go abroad and be formally educated was an incredible seed of accomplishment for then, now and tomorrow. Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine as known today (www.ic.ac.uk) is an independent constituent part of the University of London. Today the College teaches many disciplines from science, engineering, medical to management and at the highest level boasting the largest scientific, technological and medical university institution in the UK.
I went back to his last letter hoping to find clues to his Zeitgeist and there he mentioned other Indian fellows who went to study at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine during this same period 1926-1928.The letter revealed a Hemdre Kumar Mukerjee and R.N. Mukerjee both from Calcutta who were his classmates in London. That told me there were other Indian classmates who also went abroad to pursue higher studies.
I tried to imagine India with the British colonial rule and the predominance of the English language and how it would have impacted the Indian educational infrastructure. My paternal side was very eloquent in the English language and my father who was educated in India, spoke primarily in English, so did my grandfather. In fact I hardly heard them speak their mother tongue, Malayalam.
It almost seems paradoxical that during the British rule over India there were Indians wanting to preserve the British rule, one such Rammohun Roy as early as 1823 being leader of a Calcutta-based Indian middle class proposed English education in preference over the existing Sanskrit system of education and even brought his proposal forth to the Governor General. Then in 1835, twelve years later, Thomas Babington Macaulay who served on the Supreme Council of India put forward his Minute on Indian education convincing the Governor-General to adopt English as the medium of instruction in higher education from the sixth year of schooling onwards. The Minute read:
“It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”
(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Babington_Macaulay,_1st_Baron_Macaulay)
So with the foundations of a bilingual colonial India being set in 1835 what also followed was the derogatory term “Macaulay’s Children” or “Macaulayism” making reference to people born of Indian ancestry fully adopting the western culture in terms of lifestyle, thought and culture. It started to form a class of Indian people who by being educated in English would as Macaulay envisioned would then serve as, “vehicles for European scientific, historical, and literary expression“(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Babington_Macaulay,_1st_Baron_Macaulay)
This was the educational and intellectual setting in India half a century prior to my grandfather’s birth. Also relevant to his skills in adapting to the British educational system I believe would also be that my grandfather hailed from the Syrian Christian orthodox religious background, making it easier to adapt to Christian mission schools.
My grandfather in 1917 was a student in the Madras Christian college .In 1932 C.J. George got a position to teach Zoology and research at Wilson College in Bombay, also a Mission College and was there for many years until he took up a position at American College in Madurai until 1963. Then 1963 until 1967 he was Head of the Zoology Department at Karnataka University in Dharwar, Mysore, where he retired and stayed until his death.
In his intermediate days he was student at the Madurai American College and a student of the Madras Christian College for his undergraduate Honors course of studies in Zoology. Role models such as Principal Zumbro of the American College and Dr. Skinner, Principal of the Madras Christian College played an influential impact upon C.J George to serve in a mission College such as Wilson college as opposed to private industry or government. He referred to Dr. Skinner as “a godly man” who he later visited at Aberdeen when he went abroad to study at the London Imperial College.
1922-1930 my grandfather, Caleekal John George worked in the Agricultural College at Coimbatore in the Entomology section. It was with a two year study leave he joined the entomology department in Imperial College of Science and Technology.
Caleekal John George seated far left on bench arm
The early 20th century reflected the rise of applied biology and a strong orientation toward agriculture and thus this was also closely associated with the growth in various new disciplines such as entomology. Applied biology was becoming significantly important especially to agriculture and economically important problems which required application of biological knowledge. This impacted Zoology as it became synonymous with entomology with roots stemming from agriculture. In many ways this same cycle holds true today as biological science reverts to emphasis in agriculture and the world as we know it today in 2011 being impacted by global warming and economically important problems such as providing a sufficient world food supply not only for developing countries but now for the developed world as well. The discipline of entomology no doubt continues to be significantly important to the subject of food supply as man battles changes in weather in the realm of survival of the human species.
I recall hearing both through letters and in conversations the importance in having a solid understanding of structure, form and function in understanding the onset of disease and breakdown. This understanding was the key to how biological principles governed many aspects of human and animal development over time in evolution. Physiology was drilled into me both by my father and grandfather at a very young age as the primary field in understanding how we as humans conduct our lives in stress, conflict and peace. In the last letter my grandfather never failed to emphasize this again about “medical men” and how they prescribe ” blood pressure medications” without understanding physiology and that its ironic that all his “medical classmates were the first to depart”. The “stress” factor has physiological repercussions, almost to say that we can bring it upon ourselves consciously to biologically breakdown. With an abhorrent ignorance of physiology there is then a trend to believe in the power of medical prescriptions and pharmaceutical wonder drugs for quick fixes. Knowing this about his beliefs it would be easy to predict that he would go through life never consulting a medical doctor for any personal ailment. Morphological structure and form was for him basic to the understanding of function and physiology.
In London at the Imperial College of Science and Technology Caleekal John George did his PhD thesis on “The Morphology and Development of the Genetalia and Genital ducts in Homoptera and Zygotera”. This work was published in The Quarterly Journal of Microscopial Science (1929). ( See http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/s2-72/287/447.pdf
http://jcs.biologists.org/content/s2-72/287/447.abstract Also page 9
http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/os-43/4/local/back-matter.pdf)
For this work he received significant attention and the research was summarized in the May 4 issue of the Journal, Nature. Also he received the prestigious recognition of his work when it was included by Imms in the first edition of his book, Recent Advances in Entomology” which still stands as the classic textbook in Entomology.
C.J. George was known to be the first to open his students and colleagues in india to the field of animal physiology which until then was under the study and domain of scholars solely within the medical profession. This indeed opened up a radical new branch of study in the University of Bombay. It was C.J George’s students who comprised the first batch of students who took the M.Sc degree in Zoology by “Papers” in the university of Bombay.
C.J George also was noted to start, The Journal of Animal Morphology and Physiology
By the time my grandfather was born in 1898 not only was there a strong influence of British culture among the Indian intellectual class, but the first seeds of Indian nationalism were also starting to be planted in India both in terms of politics and in the development of science. 1885 was a turning point and significant with the founding of the Indian National Congress, a secular political party opposing British rule.
By the time my grandfather would have returned from studies at the London Imperial College, The Indian National Congress became a mass political party wanting independence from Britain and an autonomous self- ruling government and an Indian nationhood. There were two strains developing in the Indian National Congress , one was led by Subhas Chandra Bose stressing violence being justifiable against colonial oppression, the other was non-violence or ‘satyagraha’ headed by Mahatma Gandhi. By 1930 Ghandian nationwide movements were being organized better than the early efforts seen in 1920-1922 and the Indian National Congress was thereafter soon to be established as the country’s dominant political party leading the way to independence in 1947.
(Source)http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/independence1947_01.shtml
In terms of science, a turning point was the establishment of The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) which is a premier scientific organization originally founded in 1914 in Calcutta. The Indian Science Congress Association was established interestingly not by Indian scientists but two British chemists, Professor J. L. Simonsen and Professor P.S. MacMahon. The Indian Science Congress Association was established along the same lines as the British Association for the Advancement of Science but with the objective to promote scientific research in India.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Science_Congress_Association
By the time my grandfather had returned to India from London and was teaching and doing research at Wilson College, the importance of science for India’s national development was very clear. The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) was all the more strengthened with the political emergence of Jawaharlal Nehru who “In 1937, on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the Indian Science Congress reaffirmed: ‘Even more than the present, the future belongs to science and to those who make friends with science and seek its help in the advancement of humanity’ (cited by Rajesh Kochhar ,Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala, Bangalore, India)http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/feb25/articles33.htm
It was not until Nehru came into power with India’s independence in 1947 that he was able to carry forth his bigger plans for India’s scientific development on a large scale nationally with scientific exchange and learning at the international level.
When I look back at my grandfather’s life as I know there must have been a real crossroad in his life in 1967. He was retiring and received a grant from India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research scheme keeping him affiliated with the Zoology Department at Karnataka University for an additional 5 years. In his eyes he would have seen the whole picture of India grow to such heights in terms of scientific growth and become independent from colonial apron strings.
When my father
John Caleekal George
J.C. George left India in 1967 with us to permanently settle in Canada I wonder what must have gone through my grandfather’s mind. I know he did not want his son to leave India. Not because of selfish reasons but because he viewed the future of the West as empty and the opportunity and future he thought lay ahead in a brave new emerging India. The same old saga must have haunted him seeing his son go West for Big Science as he too had done once upon a time. The only difference was my grandfather went only once to the West, and never went back. My father left India and went to the West three times and the third time never came back to India. I am sure my grandfather would have had a physiological explanation for my father’s quest and tryst with his destiny in Canada. Just like he humoured himself with a poem he wrote entitled, “Hormones” explaining why we are the way we are.
Hormones
by C.J. George
A stalwart Stalin can you imagine of without thyroxin?
A Churchill so chill to boil without adrenalin?
A Lenin with very little of potent pituitrin?
An Antonio or Gladstone without testosterone?
A Subash Bose without a full dose of all those?
Or a Nehru so true to all his manly crew?
All hormones in plenty for an admirable Awati
At last a pinch of each for a small Murti
Remember no woman will be of elegance without Oestrin
Nor any human shrine without endocrine.
This article is dedicated to my inspiration, my daughter Tania John( M.Sc, University of Guelph). Tania John is the great grand daughter of Caleekal John George..
Caleekal John George leaves behind three surviving daughters Grace, Ivy and Maggie, his 14 grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren one of which is my daughter Tania John, and 4 great great grandchildren. In loving memory I pay tribute to those that are no more, my dear grandfather Caleekal John George (22.5.1894 – 12.9.1987) , his sister, “Mavi”, his wife Annamma George(16.7.1897 – 13.6.1959, and to her parents Mr. Pariyarthu Eapen Varughese and Mrs.Aleyamma Varughese)
and to my grandparents’ two sons George Varughese
(16.8.1923 – 5.4.2001) and John Caleekal George (16.6.1921 – 5.4.2005)
This article is dedicated to my inspiration, my daughter Tania John ( M.Sc, University of Guelph).
Tags: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas Babington Macaulay, University of Bombay, Governor General, educational infrastructure, Indian Institute of Astrophysics
