Meghnad Saha - Saha and Calendar Reform

Saha and Calendar Reform

Saha's work relating to reform of Indian calendar was very significant. Saha was the Chairman of the Calendar Reform Committee appointed by the Government of India in 1952 under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Other members of the Committee were: A. C. Banerjee, K. K. Daftari, J. S. Karandikar, Gorakh Prasad, R. V. Vaidya and N. C. Lahiri. It was Saha's effort which led to the formation of the Committee. The task before the Committee was to prepare an accurate calendar based on scientific study, which could be adopted uniformly throughout India. It was a mammoth task. The Committee had to undertake a detailed study of different calendars prevalent in different parts of the country. There were thirty different calendars. The task was further complicated by the fact that with calendar religion and local sentiments were involved. Nehru, in his preface to the Report of the Committee, which was published in 1955, wrote: "They (different calendars) represent past political divisions in the country…now that we have attained Independence, it is obviously desirable that there should be a certain uniformity in the calendar for our civic, social and other purposes and this should be done on a scientific approach to this problem." Some of the important recommendations of the Committee were:

1. The Saka era should be used in the unified national calendar. (The year 2002 corresponds to the Saka era of 1923-24.)
2. The year should start from the day following the vernal equinox (occurs about March 21) day.
3. A normal year would consist of 365 days while a leap year would have 366 days. After adding seventy-eight to the Saka era, if the sum is divisible by four, then it is a leap year. But when the same becomes a multiple of 100 it would be a leap year when it is divisible by 400, otherwise it would be a common year.
4. Chaitra should be the first month of the year. From Chaitra to Bhaadra each month would have thirty-one days and the rest to have thirty days.

Saha was deeply concerned with the recurring disastrous floods in many Indian rivers. The extensive damage caused by floods in North Bengal in 1923 prompted Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray to organize relief operation under the aegis of North Bengal Relief Committee. Ray was able to collect a large fund from the general public for the relief work and he was assisted by Subhas Chandra Bose, Meghnad Saha and Satish Chandra Dasgupta. And it was while carrying out the relief work Saha got a first hand experience of the devastating power of floods. Saha wrote about his experience in newspapers and magazines. In his Presidential address to the Indian Science Congress in Mumbai in 1934 he drew specific attention to serious problems caused by floods. He also emphasized the need for a River Research Laboratory. Again in 1938, in his presidential address to the National Institute of Sciences he made this topic the theme of his discourse and highlighted the danger posed by recurrent floods in Indian rivers, particularly in the deltaic ones. After the 1923 flood, Saha witnessed two major floods in 1931 and 1935. In 1943 the flood in Bengal isolated Kolkata from rest of India and Saha wrote extensively on the issue. Saha's writings and speeches made the government realize the gravity of the situation. As a result the Damodar Valley Enquiry Committee came into being in 1943. The Committee was chaired by the Maharaja of Burdwan. Saha was also a member of the Committee. Saha presented a plan for handling the Damodar river system before the Committee. He also wrote extensively on river control based on modern science and technology. He argued that the model of Tennessee river system under the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in United States could be adapted to the Damodar Valley. The Central Government appointed a technical advisory committee in 1945 under the chairmanship of Mr. H.M.Mathews. Another member of the committee was Mr.W.L.Voorduin, who had earlier served on TVA. The committee supported the claims of Saha, and at the instance of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the then member-in-charge of power and works in the Viceroy's cabinet, the Government adopted a resolution to set up a Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) after the model of TVA. The DVC was set up in March 1948.