One of the well-accepted ways of introducing undergraduates to the method of scientific inquiry is to introduce them to primary literature. A matter of concern is that undergraduate students of Indian universities are generally not trained to read primary literature. We combined traditional teaching and student-centered approach in a 3-day module…

This paper is an attempt to reconstruct how C.V. Raman, a peripheral scientist in the early 20th century colonial India, managed to develop a research programme in physical optics from his remote colonial location. His attempts at self-training and self-education eventually led him to the discovery of the Raman Effect and to the Nobel Prize in…