E T Bell on Ramanujan

E T Bell in his book, Men of Mathematics (published by SIMON & SCHUSTER, 1937), has covered all great mathematicians till the nineteenth century. The great scientists of the twentieth century have just found an occasional mention. One finds “Einstein” scattered here and there. But in the chapter on Euler, this is what Bell says of Ramanujan, ‘It is fashionable today to despise the “mere algorist”; yet, when a truly great one like the Hindu Ramanujan arrives unexpectedly out of nowhere, even expert analysts hail him as a gift from Heaven: his all but supernatural insight into apparently unrelated formulas reveals hidden trails leading from one territory to another, and the analysts have new tasks provided to them in clearing the trails. An algorist is a “formalist” who loves beautiful formulas for their own sake.’

Only if we had more men in the mould of Ramanujan, I suspect, we would have been more advanced a nation. It is indeed a regret that the sciences continue to get neglected in this country of over a billion.