SHAPING THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY AND SAVING THE COTTON

268 SCIENCE AND CULTURE, JULY-AUGUST, 2021

SHAPING THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY AND SAVING THE COTTONINDUSTRY: ROLE OF SIR P C RAY, A VISIONARY ENTREPRENEUR

OF BRITISH INDIA*

SYAMAL CHAKRABARTI**

India was treated as the ‘industrial hub of the world’ during the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies. However, the country lost its prominence and was transformed into an importing countryfrom an exporting one due to two important reasons. This kind of transformation had beendiscussed by Karl Marx in one of his famous articles. Industrialization later slowly diversifiedand two units deserve special mention. One is the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) foundedby J N Tata and the other is the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works (BCPW) foundedby Sir Prafulla Chandra Ray. The initial history of growth of BCPW has been discussed tracingthe ups and downs in the fortune of the company at different times. The second part of the articledescribes the tireless efforts of the scientist in saving the capitals of the shareholders of a textilecompany named Banga Sree Cotton Mills Limited whose shares he had endorsed earlier.

ARTICLE

Background

India was called the ‘industrial workshop of theworld’ during seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, e.g.the demand for Indian cotton goods in England duringthe above mentioned two centuries was unprecedented.Woolen and silk items were also in high demand. The bigcapital (finance capital) might have a different role to playin the era of present day globalization but the situationwas different during that period. They introduced severalacts and legislations to restrict the import of Indian cottonsand other textile materials in England.

India was undoubtedly ahead of the British so farthe industrialization is concerned. However, it took anentirely different path due to certain developments. Thefirst one is the industrial revolution in Britain and thesecond one is the loss of freedom to East India Company.The British rulers initiated one way free trade in order tothrottle the business of India.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36094/sc.v87.2021.Shaping_the_Chemical_Industry_and_Saving.Chakrabarti.268

Sci. and Cult. 87 (7–8) : 268-274 (2021)

* Reprinted from Indian Journal of History of Science (2018)** Department of Chemistry, University College of Science

and Technology, 92, A P C Road, Kolkata-700009, India,email: [email protected]

Indian market became flooded with machine-producedgoods at a lower price. India was then forcibly transformedfrom being a country of combined agriculture andmanufacturers into an agricultural colony of Britishmanufacturing capitalism. Karl Marx wrote,

Till 1813 India had been chiefly an exportingcountry, while it now became an importing one; andin such a quick progression, that already in 1823the rate of exchange, which had generally been 2/6per rupee, sunk down to 2/ per rupee. India, thegreat workshop of cotton manufacture for the world,since immemorial times, became now inundated withEnglish twists and cotton stuffs. After its ownproduce had been excluded from England, or onlyadmitted on the most cruel terms, Britishmanufactures were poured into it at a small andmerely nominal duty, to the ruin of the native cottonfabrics once so celebrated. In 1780 the value ofBritish produce and manufactured amount only to£ 386 152, the bullion exported during the sameyear to £ 15041, the total value of export during1780 being £ 12,648,616, so that the Indian trade

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amounted to only 1-32 of the entire foreign trade.In 1850 the total exports to India from Great Britainand Ireland were £ 8024,000 of which cotton goodsalone amounted to £ 5,220,000……(Marx, 1853).

There were a number of prominent sectors whereindustrialization and marketing were running in the fullswing. In order to name a few, they were mining, jute,steel and cotton sectors. It is interesting to note, exceptthe textile factories, all other sectors by this time werecontrolled by the British owners. In the area of mining,there was coal only. However, the development in thisarea was relatively slow. There was a great demand forjute for which it flourished rapidly. Jute industries weremainly controlled by the Britishers whereas the cottonindustries were mainly run by the native Parsees.

There were some stray attempts during nineteenthcentury to develop iron and steel industry in India. Themost successful attempt had been taken by Jamshedji Tata,a native Parsee. Having scientific and technical advice fromP N Bose, an experienced geologist and a graduate fromthe University of London, Jamshedji established Tata Ironand Steel Company in 1907. The company startedproducing pig iron in 1911 and steel from next year.

Excluding the above mentioned important sectors,there were other sectors such as woolen mills, breweries,paper making, tanning, vegetable oil processing, glassmaking, leather goods manufacturing etc. most of whichwere not sound during the period. We have not mentionedthe history of chemical and pharmaceutical industries inBritish India. The pharmaceutical industry was establishedin India primarily to cater to the requirements of BritishArmy suffering from tropical diseases. Accordingly, almostall the early pharmaceutical units in India engaged inproduction as well as research, focused exclusively ondrugs/vaccines for infective tropical diseases. Most of thepre-independence pharmaceutical companies were ownedby the British, perhaps with the single exception of BengalChemical and Pharmaceutical Works. The production ofpharmaceuticals started in India since the late nineteenthcentury. But India continued to remain import dependentand ‘an exclusive preserve for unloading the products ofthe British drug industry’ (Rangarao, 1975, p.15). In mostcases, the British and other European manufacturers usedto market their products either through their own Indianbranches or through various trading companies.

Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works:Formative Year

Let us discuss the initial phase of formation of Bengal

Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works (BCPW). We all knowthat Sir P C Ray was the founder of this well-knownorganization. Prafulla Chandra was awarded D.Sc. degreefrom the University of Edinburgh and joined PresidencyCollege, Calcutta in 1889. He became absorbed in teachingand research but he had also a plan in his mind. PrafullaChandra asked himself in his autobiography,

How to utilize the thousand and one raw productswhich Nature in her bounty scattered broadcast inBengal? (Ray, 1996, p. 92).

As a member of the Edinburgh Chemical Society,Prafulla Chandra visited a number of industries in Englandand Scotland. He also utilized his ‘Hope prize’ not only tovisit the research laboratories of the leading scientists ofEurope but also to look after the fruits of industrialrevolution. According to him,

In England and Scotland Chemical Works areconducted on an extensive scale, there are sisterindustries side by side, the one dependent orderiving nourishment from the other. I had read inmy text books that sulphuric acid is the mother ofall other industries. A visit to mammoth sulphuricacid works of Tennant & Co., St. Rollox, Glasglow,convinced me of its significance (Ray, 1996, p. 94).

Not only sulphuric acid, a country also needs goodquality steel for its development. In India, production ofsteel was brought about by Tata Iron and Steel Companyvery successfully. In his autobiography, Ray appreciated JN Tata for his pioneering contribution and the fruition ofthe great enterprise.

One needs capital in order to establish an industryof sulphuric acid which was not available to PrafullaChandra at the beginning of his career. Let us quote him,

…..I had rented 91, Upper Circular Road, which wasto be my residence for the next quarter of a century.It was also here that the foundation was laid of theBengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works.

Prafulla Chandra realized that chemistry and industryhad to work hand in hand. He started his industrialventure by extracting citric acid from lemon juice. Thelemons were not available in the local markets at a cheapprice for which his first attempt was not financially viable.However, he did not drop his idea. He understood thatsuch articles could be manufactured on a small scale andwould find a ready sale in the market. After so manypreliminary attempts, the scientist became ready forpharmaceutical preparations. But a proper market surveyis necessary before producing a material. Prafulla Chandra


did the same by moving around the important drug storesin Calcutta. He enquired the amount of imports of differentdrugs made on the basis of British Pharmacopoeia. ButtoKristo Paul and Co. was a premier drug store in NorthCalcutta. The owner assured good number of purchasersprovided the right sort of things are made.

Though the official declaration of the beginning ofBCPW was 1901, the previous few years were not lessimportant.

Pafulla Chandra’s monthly salary was Rs 250/- fromwhich he kept very little for himself. He started his venturewith a capital of Rs 800/- only in his residential laboratory.Prafulla Chandra stated,

……I took to preparartions of the BritishPharmacopoeia. I was relieved to find that SyrupFerri Iodidi, Liquor Arsenicalis, Liquor Bismuth,Spritus AEtheris Nitrosi and several tinctures didnot present much difficulty to a trainedchemist…….And now I seriously thought ofpushing my preparations in the market (Ray, 1996,p. 99-100).

Marketing of a product is intimately associated withits advertisement. The following was one suchadvertisement in the widely circulated vernacular paper,‘The Sanjivani’ (November 3, 1894) (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Advertisement of the Products of BCPW; ‘The Sanjivani’(November 3, 1894)

In the above advertisement, it had been told that‘some three hundred medicines have been prepared andare for sale.’ This was impossible with a capital of Rs 800/- only. The fact is that Dr. Amulyacharan Bose, a physicianwith a very good practice shared a comfortable sum into

the business. A good number of very famous doctorsnamely R G Kar, Nilratan Sircar and Suresh PrasadSarbadhikary used to prescribe the medicines prepared byBCPW.

Amulyacharan was not merely a financial partner. Hegave a new direction in the business. ‘He consulted severalKaviràjas and collected from them formulae and recipesfor the Ayurvedic preparations, e.g extracts ofKàlamegh….and Kårchi….; syrup of Vàsaka; AquaPtychotis (Ajowan water)….Amulyacharan himself took thelead in boldly using these in his prescriptions ….Our newlyintroduced indigenous drug preparations thus began tomake headway on their own merits’ (Ray, 1996, p. 104).

The journey of BCPW started in 1892. It became ‘TheBengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Limited’ onApril 12, 1901. Prafulla Chandra after coming back fromPresidency College would go through previous day’s ordersand arrange accordingly.

There were problems of procurement of raw material,production and sales. Prafulla Chandra hadappointed a broker on commission on sales andprocurement of raw material but that was only alimited help. The most formidable obstacle he facedwas the prejudice of the local dealers, customersand even physicians – they all preferred importedmedicines to those manufactured locally. The localdrug market was in the grip of persons whomPrafulla Chandra called illiterate banias. They didnot have the spark of patriotism in them (Mukherjee,2004, p. 10).

Bengal Chemical was at the height of its productionduring 90’s in the nineteenth century. Satish ChandraSinha, a Chemist by training and also a law degree holder,brother-in-law of Dr. Amulyacharan Bose, was inspired byPrafulla Chandra to join Bengal Chemical instead of joiningin the legal profession. Satish Chandra also brought somecapital for the company. It was painful that after workingfor about one and a half year, he became a victim ofaccidental death while working with deadly poisonoushydrocyanic acid. It might be the first recorded death ofchemical poisoning in industry in our country. PrafullaChandra, for few days, was at a loss. He told, ‘I had againto take all the responsible duties on my shoulders’ (Ray,1996, p. 108).

Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works:As Public Limited Company

Tragedy became deeper when Amulyacharan died ofpneumonic plague contracted during his professional work.

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He died on September 4, 1898. The scientist again becamealone. He immediately understood that in order to savethe factory, it had to be converted into a public limitedcompany. We mentioned earlier that the day was 12 April1901. In a sense, it was the first public limitedpharmaceutical company in India.

From the history book of the Company, we quote,

The Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical WorksLimited that time was with an authorized capital ofRs 25000. Five days later, the stock, assets andgoodwill of the old private concern were boughtby the new company. It started business at thesame Upper Circular Road premises where PrafullaChandra had his residence (Mukherjee, 2004, p. 12).

The first ordinary General Meeting of shareholdersof the company was held on May 5, 1901 at the residentialpremise of P C Ray. The company needed more space andfund. The ‘articles of association’ was signed by PrafullaChandra, Kartick Chandra Bose, Bhootnath Paul, ChandraBhusan Bhaduri, and Charuchandra Bose besides others.It must be noted that Prafulla Chandra did not forgetAmulyacharan and Satischandra during the preparation ofthe articles of the association. Nripendranandini Bose, wifeof Amulyacharan, and Promilasundari Sinha, wife ofSatischandra were included as shareholders of thecompany. The proceedings of the first ordinary generalmeeting of the shareholders was written by PrafullaChandra himself (Fig. 2).

Kartick Chandra Bose, a medical practitioner becamethe first Managing Director of the Company. He stoodfirst in all the medical examinations. He established ‘Dr.Bose’s Laboratory’, ‘Standard Drug Stores’, ‘StandardXRay Laboratory’, ‘Standard Clinical Laboratory’, ‘Calcutta

Optical Company’, ‘Beleghata Engineering Works’and‘Rajlaxmi Sugar Mill’- an outstanding business andindustrial entrepreneur. He published health magazines inBengali, English, Hindi and Urdu languages. He edited theBengali one for long forty five years. Dr. Bose with anotherphysician Gananath Sen demonstrated ‘the first modernevidence for successful therapy of violent mental disorderswith the extracts of the plant Rauwolfia serpentina in 1931.During fifties, the western scientists followed this work togain new insights into brain Chemistry and develop anti-psychotic drugs’ (Sen and Bose, 1931).

Bhootnath Paul was the owner of M/S B. K. Paul &Co, one of the largest dealers in medicine in Calcutta. WhenBhootnath came to know that Bengal Chemical ismanufacturing medicines following British Pharmacopoeia,he used to place orders regularly in large amounts.

Chandrabhusan Bhaduri was employed in PresidencyCollege as a demonstrator in the Department of Chemistry.He helped Prafulla Chandra in designing different chemicallaboratories. When Ray planned to purchase a smallsulphuric acid plant near Tollygunge, he accompaniedChandrabhusan and his younger brother Kulbhusan (M.A.in Chemistry) to visit the site.

After the first general meeting of BCPW DirectorKartick Chandra also became the medical advisor of thecompany and Director Bhootnath Paul became the chiefagent of BCPW. Chandrabhusan was authorized asengineering chemist and Charuchandra became themanager of the company. There were employees under thenames operative chemist, accountant and head Bottler.

Kaviràj Upendranath Sen became a Director in 1904.He was known for his Ayurvedic medicine preparation and

as a publisher of Ayurvedic books.He financed a good amount bywhich a three-acre land waspurchased in Manicktala area andthe manufacturing section ofBCPW was shifted there from 91,Upper Circular Road, Calcutta.From a ‘Cottage industry’, BCPWwas improving into a ‘modernindustry’. The first plant was theplant for sulphuric acidpreparation (Chamber Process)which went into operation in 1907.It was installed by the Indianswithout the help of any foreignexperts - a brilliant example of self-reliance.Fig. 2. Proceedings of the First Ordinary General Meeting of the Shareholders


Dr. Travers, the first Director of Indian Institute ofScience, Bangalore submitted a report to the University ofCalcutta where he mentioned,

The design and the construction of the sulphuricacid plant and the plant required for the preparationof drugs and other products involved a largeamount of research work of the kind which is likelyto be the greatest service to this country.

Chandrabhusan was credited for radically altering thecrude and elementary processes into newer ones. Heintroduced stream pans, disintegrators, vacuum Stills, filterpresses and other modern pharmaceutical appliances.

Rajsekhar Bose, also a very well-known name inBengali literature as Para÷uràm joined BCPW as a chemist.He obtained B.A. and M.A. in Chemistry standing firstclass first in both examinations. Later he also got a lawdegree. He was promoted to the post of Company Secretarywithin a very short period and in 1906 to Factory Manager.Rajsekhar became a member of the Board of Directors in1924 (Fig. 3). His contribution in BCPW was immense. Thecentennial history publication mentioned him as a thinkerof product development, guiding research, coining brandnames, devising market strategies, writing advertisementsand finalizing expansion plans.

Fig. 3. Board of Directors of BCPW (1924) (Standing L to R) RaiBahadur Haridhan Dutt, Atyananda Bose and Rajsekhar Bose. (SittingL to R) W. M. Roy, Sir P. C. Ray, Rai Bahadur Chunilal Bose andRai Saheb Kunja Behari Basu.

During first decade of the twentieth century, alongwith chemicals and pharmaceuticals, BCPW wasmanufacturing different scientific apparatus. The companyalso took up the job of designing, equipping and fittingscience laboratories in different parts of the country. Whatabout the sales? The following figures are the answers.

Table 1. BCPW Sales during 1901-1915

Year Amount (in rupees)

1901 25,371

1910 3,00,000

1915 5,00,000

An employee of the company named ProbodhChandra Chattopadhyay developed ‘oxygen apparatus’ andtook its patent giving money from his own. It must benoted that the Board of Directors sanctioned him 50% ofthe profit. The company, by that time, was producingChemical Balances, Gas Burners, Fire Extinguishers andhospital appliances. Prafulla Chandra once said, ‘Theestablishment of a large chemical industry was the dreamof my youth. That dream is being given effect to by twoof my pupil’ (Mukherjee, 2004, p. 50). One pupil wasRajsekhar. Another one was Satishchandra Dasgupta, bornin the same year as Rajsekhar, did his M.A. in Chemistryfrom Presidency College, Calcutta. Satishchandra joined inthe same year with Rajsekhar and became FactorySuperintendent within a short period. He innovatedChemical fire extinguisher named ‘Fire King’. Thisinnovation brought a huge amount of profit to thecompany. Satishchandra left BCPW in 1926 in order towork full time with Gandhiji. When Prafulla Chandra wasaddressing meeting of the shareholders in August, 1921, asection of them raised voice against the functioning ofsome senior officials. Prafulla Chandra replied,

The share-holders have not realized what they oweto Rajsekhar and Satishchandra, the Manager andthe Factory Superintendent. If Bengal fails toappreciate their splendid services, I, ever in mypresent old age, have the confidence to build withthe aid of these men a new industry in a new place(Mukherjee, 2004, p. 50)

The second plant of BCPW started at Panihati, 13Km away from Kolkata. A plant for coal tar distillation, aunit for large scale preparation of alum and a larger unitfor sulphuric acid manufacture by contact process wereintroduced during 1920-1921. A third unit was also set upin Bombay in 1934. However, from that time, a group ofshare holders asked for more dividends rather thanspending the capital for expansion. They also objectedRay’s plea for keeping away certain portion of the profitfor modernization of the factories. Prafulla Chandra alsosuggested induction of professional scientists on theBoard, diversification and spending more on research anddevelopment. He himself felt a doubt about his presencein BCPW and submitted his resignation from the Board

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on 26th August 1939, just one week ahead of the SecondWorld War. When he was requested to withdraw hisresignation he replied as follows:

My joining the Board is out of question speciallyin view of their attitude towards the research workas evidenced by their letter to Dr. M. N. Saha. I amglad I can wash my hands of all the responsibilityin the matter of the failure of the Bengal Chemicalin the research line at this psychological moment.The fixed running idea of yours and Directors hadalways been to squeeze out everything (likesugarcane) as long as they could offer largedividends.

(Sd)P. C. Ray

An evicted and homeless stranger in the land (i.e.BCPW) he once called his own1

Banga Sree Cotton Mills Ltd.

The first cotton mill in India was established in 1818by the British people. It was only as late as 1905 that themodern cotton textile industry of Bengal was establishedas a result of purely indigenous Bengalee enterprise duringthe Swadeshi Movement. The first cotton mill by theBengalees was Banga Laxmi Cotton Mills, Seramporeestablished in the year 1906 under the leadership of SirSurendranath Bandyopadhyay. Then we had the followingCotton Mills in Bengal.

Table 2. Cotton Mills in Bengal

Name Year ofestablishment

Mohini Mills, Kushtia 1908

Dhakeswari Cotton Mills, Dacca 1924

Maha Laxmi Cotton Mills, Palta, 193024 Parganas

Bangeswari Cotton Mills, Serampore 1931

Banga Sree Cotton Mills, Sodepur 1932

East India Cotton Mills, Mourigram 1933

Basanti Cotton Mills, Panihati 1936

Prafulla Chandra Cotton Mills, Khulna 1936

P C Ray wrote an article in Bengali in the journalBasumati (Ray, 1344 B.S.) where he cautioned the MillsOwners and Managers to take experiences from the othersin order to run their Mills. Prafulla Chandra observed that

a number of people suddenly issue advertisements for bigcompanies, and begin to sell shares as managing agents.According to him, the process is quite unbecoming of agood entrepreneur. In fact, exactly because of this reason,Banga Sree Cotton Mills faced the serious problem wherethe scientist tried his best to intervene. During the troubledperiod, Prafulla Chandra made an appeal to the people tobuy shares of this establishment. People responded andthe number of shareholders became 2000 two years later.Prafulla Chandra expressed satisfaction as ‘Patron’ of thecompany. Few years later, when the functioning of themanagerial staffs were not satisfactory, P C Ray suggestedthe agent of the Company to stop taking more shares(Fig.4).

Fig. 4. Appeal of the managing agent

The financial situation of the company wasdeteriorating day by day. P C Ray became deeplyconcerned and published a letter in the widely circulated‘The Anandabazar Patrika’ on 17th September, 1939(During the time of Second World War).

He made an appeal to all share-holders of the industryto send letters authorizing the capital withdrawing rightsto him. There was an immense response. The scientistreceived huge number of letters from the share-holders.We are showing later, a letter of this kind (Fig 5.) (Mostof the letters were written in Bengali, Chakrabarti, 2011).

Conclusion

Prafulla Chandra pioneered the chemical andpharmaceutical industry in India. He was aware that to

1 P C never drew any Directors’ fee and donated the same for employees welfare. His holdings in BCPW and industries amountedRs. 56000/- which he donated in a trust fund for widows (Mukherjee, 2004, p. 36).


sustain the industry and make it competitive in the worldscene, it is necessary to reinvest a part of the profit for

Fig. 5. Appeal to share-holders authorizing capital withdrawingrights to PC Ray

modernization and expansion. He wanted to develop thecotton industry for the benefit of the rural producers aswell as the small investors. He himself appealed to thepeople to invest in indigenous industries and, when theirinvestment was threatened, took upon himself theresponsibility to safeguard it.

References1. Syamal Chakrabarti, Oitihya Uttaradhikar O Bijnani Prafulla

Chandra, Sahitya Samsad, Kolkata, 2011, p. 172.2. Karl Marx, The East India Company-Its History and Results,

New-York Herald Tribune, London, Friday, June 24, 1853.3. D. Mukherjee, edited, One Hundred Years of Triumps and

Travails, A Biography of Bengal Chemical, Bengal Chemicaland Pharmaceutical Ltd., Kolkata, 2004.

4. B. V. Rangarao, Indian Drug Industry, Mainstream, 1 March1975.

5. Prafulla Chandra Ray, Bastroshilpe Bangali-Ashar Pathe(Bengali article), Basumati, Magh, 1344.

6. P. C. Ray, Life and Experience of a Bengali Chemist, TheAsiatic Society, Kolkata, 1996, Vol. I.

7. G. Sen and K. C. Bose Rauvolfia serpentina: a new Indiandrug for insanity and high blood pressure, Indian MedicalWorld, 11 (1931):194-201.

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SHAPING THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY AND SAVING THE COTTON