Ghosh is regarded as the architect of technical education in India. He was the founder of director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, the first institute of its kind to be established in the country. He played a major role in developing the country’s industrial base. He was a great institution builder.
Jnan Chandra Ghosh was born in Purulia, West Bengal (then in undivided Bengal). His father Ram Chandra Ghosh owned a mica mine. However, the family suffered difficult times because of heavy financial losses in this endeavor. Jan Chandra studied at the Giridih High School. He received a Divisional Scholarship (Chotanagpur) and on passing the Entrance Examination, he joined Presidency College, Kolkata (then Calcutta). In 1911, he passed ISc examination of Calcutta University. He passed the BSc (1913) and MSc (1915) examinations of Calcutta University from Presidency College. He stood first in both the examinations and won some medals. At Presidency College he was greatly influenced by his illustrious teacher Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray.
In 1917, Ghosh was appointed a lecturer in chemistry at the University College of Science of Calcutta University. He was awarded the DSc degree of Calcutta University for his work on the theory of strong electrolytes. In 1919, he was awarded the Sir Tarak Nath Palit Scholarship. This Scholarship took him to work under the supervision of F.G. Donnan in the University College of Science, London. He also met Nernst and Fritz Haber in Germany. Both of whom evinced keen interest in his work. On his return to India from England in 1921, he joined the newly established Dacca University at Dhaka (then Dacca), now in Bangladesh, as Professor and Head of the Department of Chemistry. In joining the newly established University, he was persuaded by its Vice Chancellor-designate Sir Philip Joseph Hartog. His contribution to the development of the newly established university was very significant. At Dhaka, Ghosh established a robust school devoted to photochemistry and the study of gas reactions. These studies attracted research students from all across India.
In 1939, Ghosh joined the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru as its Director following Dr C.V. Raman. He introduced aeronautical engineering, internal combustion engineering, fermentation technology and high-pressure technology. In spite of heavy administrative responsibilities, Ghosh actively pursued his research activities. He switched to fields of research pertaining to problems faced by the industry. Ghosh and his group pioneered investigations on the Fischer-Tropschsynthesis for obtaining liquid fuel from carbon monoxide and hydrogen and step-wise mechanism of ammonia synthesis from its elements, nitrogen, and hydrogen.
In 1947, Ghosh was appointed as Director General, Industries, and Supplies, Government of India and so he moved from Bengaluru to New Delhi. One of his tasks was to process several industrial schemes in collaboration with European and American experts. Under the leadership of Ghosh, several industrial schemes were formulated. These laid the basis for petroleum, petroleum-refining, machine tool, cable, wireless equipment, and radar industries in the country. He served as a member of the All India Council of Technical Education and as the President of the Principals of Technical Institutions in India and helped in the organisation of training programmes in these institutions.
He took note of the paucity of trained personnel for taking up large-scale industrial development projects in the country. This realization led Ghosh to create technological institutions in India. Ghosh himself became the founder Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, the first institute of its kind in the country. The Institute was inaugurated in August 1951 wherein Ghosh established most of its departments.
In 1954, Ghosh left Kharagpur to become the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University. He was not very willing to leave Kharagpur, but he was persuaded by Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal and an eminent physician. Ghosh did not stay long in this post as he was made a member of the Planning Commission in 1955. However, during his short tenure as Vice Chancellor, he undertook a very painstaking survey of the living conditions and educational facilities of students and colleges and the university. He initiated the establishment of “Day Students’ Homes” for providing facilities for study, rest, and recreation to a large number of floating students when they had no classes.
Ghosh joined the Planning Commission in 1955 at the invitation of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. In Planning Commission, he was in charge of Education, Scientific Research, and Health. He persuaded the Government of India to grant a crore of rupees to the universities of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai to help projects during their centenary celebrations. He made it possible to allocate large amounts of money for medical research and organizing medical relief in rural areas.
Ghosh believed it was essential to be conscious of social justice and that development of science and technology by itself cannot advance the goals of civilisation. In his Presidential address to the Indian Science Congress in 1939 at Lahore, he said: “Every intelligent man and woman have got to ponder deeply over the problem that scientific research for truth has not assured the advance of civilisation. Inventions intended to relieve toil, and to control the forces of nature which should have given to all a fuller and more satisfying life, have been perverted into forging instruments of destruction. The paradox of poverty amidst plenty mocks us in the face. In one part of the world wheat and cotton is being burnt and milk thrown into streams, while in another part half-naked people are starving. It is not difficult to get at the root of this evil…The chaos of modern world is calling out to every man of good will and understanding to join in a great educative effort, with a view to removing those narrow prejudices which are chocking the paths of progress. These prejudices did not matter much in olden days, when communications were difficult−in fact they were born because of such inaccessibility. But today when increasing rapidity of communications is causing the world shrink with a disconcerting rapidity, these prejudices spell disaster for mankind.”
Ghosh with J.N. Mukherjee and S.S. Bhatnagar was largely responsible for establishing the Indian Chemical Society. The first President of the Society was Prafulla Chandra Ray. Ghosh also served as its President. He was the President of the National Institute of Sciences of India (later renamed as Indian National Science Academy and its headquarters shifted to New Delhi) in Kolkata. He was also the President of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (1951-55). He was the General President of 26thSession of the Indian Science Congress in Lahore (now in Pakistan).
J.N. Mukherjee, a fellow-student of J.C. Ghosh in Presidency College, Kolkata, writes in his memoir, “During his student life in the Presidency College he had friendly association with many fellow-students of whom mention should be made of such distinguished names in science as S.N. Bose, M.N. Saha, N.R. Sen, P. Parija and P.B. Sarker. I was also his fellow-student in the Presidency College. Five members of this batch of students later became General Presidents of the Indian Science Congress Association; Bose, Saha, Ghosh, Mukherjee, and Parija.
“Apart from initiation and development of research in India in the subjects mentioned earlier, his main contribution to the progress of science and technology is that he stimulated and provided opportunities to a team of brilliant young scientists to develop their talents. They now occupy positions of importance in several universities and other important research establishments as also in some industries.”
He was a member of Indian Scientific Mission to England (1944-45). He attended the Royal Society Empire Scientific Conference (Great Britain) in 1946 as an Indian delegate. He represented India at the 4th General Assembly of the UNESCO held in Paris in 1946 and at the United Nations Conference on the Conservation and Utilisation of Resources held at Lake Success, New York in 1949, which was sponsored by the US President Harry Truman. At the time of his death in 1959, he was still a member of the Indian Planning Commission.