Father Racine had worked with Elie Cartan and Hadamard, both legendary figures in mathematics. He counted Andre Weil and Henri Cartan (another famous mathematician and Elie Cartan's son) among his friends. With this back ground, Racine naturally had an excellent perspective on mathematics, which he brought to India with him. He began weaning some Indian mathematicians away from traditional Cambridge-inspired areas and Minakshi was his first big success; and there was a galaxy of brilliant students to follow; the list would occupy substantial space in any 'who's who' of Indian mathematics. To mention a few names: K.C.Ramanathan, C.S.Seshadri, M.S.Narasimhan,Raghavan Narasimhan, C.P.Ramanujan.Father Racine was apparently not an exciting speaker. Students found his classroom lectures difficult to follow. His French accent combined with what amounted to mumbling to the blackboard, made things worse. It was , however, outside the classroom that his influence was decisive. He was remarkably good at spotting talent and then encouraged it. He liked talking informally to his students . Especially the talented ones and gave them invaluable advice in their career decisions. Mathematical activity was by no means Father Racine's sole preoccupation. Apparently he was a spiritual adviser to the Jesuit community of the college and was engaged in resolving personnel problems for the Catholic laity around him. The French government conferred on him the coveted 'Legion of Honeur ' in 1962. In all the 42 years he spent in India, he made only two trips to France ; yet he remained very much a Frenchman. But there can be little doubt that he loved India more than France. I was not privileged to be his student, but remember with pleasure the one long informal meeting I had with him in the company of my teacher M.S.Narasimhan.He was an excellent example-by no means unique of the coexistence of the cassock with a lively disposition.
Let me get back to Minakshisundaram. As I said, Minaksh, under the influence of Father Racine moved away from summability- though he retained a love for the subject to the end of his life-into more modern areas; speciafically he turned his attention to Differential Equations ; He took his DSc.degree at the Madras University in 1940 with a thesis on Non Linear Parabolic Differential Equations. He then found himself hopelessly stranded without a job. Father Racine helped him earn some money by arranging for him to coach a few students, till he was appointed a lecturer in the department of Mathematical Physics of Andhra university in Waltair. 
He was arguably the most gifted Indian mathematician of his generation. His work on the eigen-values of the Laplacian on Compact Riemannian manifolds was of the highest quality and has had a lasting impact. His best work, some of it in collaboration with a Canadian , Plejel, was carried out in Princeton at the Institute for Advanced Study during 1946-48, when he was visiting there. The Princeton visit materialised, thanks to the efforts of Marshal Harvey Stone, an American mathematician of the first rank, who visited India in 1946 and made more trips later.Stone was also responsible for many other Indians visiting the Institute in Princeton. That institute has certainly had a big role, even as Cambridge in an earlier epoch-in shaping Indian mathematics.
Minakshisundaram returned to India after a two year stay in Princeton. Soon after his return, Minakshisundaram was promoted to a professorship at Andhra University in 1950, he spent a few months at the Tata Institute which resulted in an excellent book Typical Means , co authored by Chandrasekharan . That year he also visited Princeton again and the next year too, he was in the US on a short visit. He made yet another trip to the US in....and on his way back to India,he gave one of the prestigious invited half-hour addresses at the International Congress of Mathematicians at Edinburgh.
As years went by, he found the university melieu stifling for creative work.He had problems getting along with some colleagues, whose mathematical credentials were nowhere near his.Minimal contact with really first-rate minds was all that he needed to produce work of Quality, but the university was unable to provide him that. He was eventually appointed professor at the then newly formed Institute of Advanced Study in Simla and was very happy to move there-there was isolation still , but at least in other respects the prospects were pleasanter. He embarked on writing a book on Spectral Theory, but unfortunately died in 1968 without completing it.Minakshisundaram's work of the forties came to the fore again around the time of his death and was an important component in a new approach to the Atiyah-Singer Index theorem-one of the great theorems of 20th century. Another Indian, V.K.Patodi was destined to play a big role in this development.
I now move on to Harish Chandra, the greatest Indian mathematician since Ramanujan.
I now move on to Harish Chandra, the greatest Indian mathematician since Ramanujan.Harish Chandra, (Harish to his friends) was born in October 1923 in Kanpur. His father Chandrakishore Mehrotra was an engineer with the Railways. After schooling in Kanpur, he went to Allahabad to pursue higher studies in physics. There , he came under the influence to K.S.Krishnan. Harish held Krishnan in great affection and esteem throughout his life. He was a brilliant student and in the final examinations secured 100% marks in one of the papers-the examiner was C.V.Raman. After taking his Masters degree, he went to Bangalore to pursue research in physics with Homi Bhabha; and Harish has some joint papers with Bhabha from that period. In Bangalore, he madeacquaintance with Raman, who apparently enjoyed taking long walks with the young man from Allahabad. He took up lodgings with the Kales-G.T.Kale was librarian at the Institute of Science and his wife, a Pole, had been Harish's French teacher in Allahabad. Lalitha, Kales daughter, would apparently attempted to distract the serious student with her pranks. She was to become his wife some years later and pampered him through life, not letting practical everyday matters distract him from his work.
Homi Bhabha arranged for him to go to Cambridge, to work with the legendary Dirac. While in Cambridge, he made a trip to Europe visiting , among other places Zurich. At Zurich, he was at a lecture by the formidable Wolfgang Pauli and had the gumption to point out that the great man was wrong on some point in the lecture. Instances like this enhanced further his credentials as a scientist, already established by his scientific work.
Homi Bhabha arranged for him to go to Cambridge, to work with the legendary Dirac. While in Cambridge, he made a trip to Europe visiting , among other places Zurich. At Zurich, he was at a lecture by the formidable Wolfgang Pauli and had the gumption to point out that the great man was wrong on some point in the lecture. Instances like this enhanced further his credentials as a scientist, already established by his scientific work.Dirac moved to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for a year long visit and he took Harish Chandra along with him. Harish's physics was highly mathematical and motivated him to study infinite dimensional representations of certain special Lie groups.
In Princeton, he met Chevalley, a great French mathematician one of the Bourbaki group-and interaction with Chevalley led to his abandoning physics altogether and taking up mathematics.He was apparently not entirely comfortable with physics, even as he admired physicists for their 'sixth sense'. Nevertheless, his mathematical work did owe much to his physics background. Infinite dimensional representation theory of Lie groups which he embarked on, was by no means a central area of mathematics in the early fifties. On the other hand, quantum mechanics led physicists to study infinite dimensional representations of the Lorentz group. Over a decade of intense single-minded devotion to the subject of representation theory from the periphery of mathematics to centre stage.
Harish-Chandra moved to Columbia University after his stint as a visiting member at the Institute for Advanced Study. He was prolific and effected the transformation of the representation theory of Lie groups , that I mentioned just now, during the Columbia years. In 1955-56 he took a year off from Columbia to visit the Institute for Advanced Study again . He spent 1957-58 in Paris on a Guggenheim Fellowship. Harish Chandra found many exciting things happening in Paris and wanted to continue there for another year. Columbia's Dean however expressed his displeasure over the request for an extension of the stay in Paris, coming as it did so soon after two leaves of absence so close together. Harish sought advice from Andre Weil, a good friend, who happened to be in Paris at that time. Weil, for whom dean-baiting was a welcome diversion, told Harish Chandra to not only insist on being given leave from Columbia, but demand a pay-raise as well. Harish Chandra took Weil's advice and found that Columbia had the good sense to retain him.
Harish-Chandra was a serious candidate for the Fields Medal in 1958. There may be some people among the readers who do not know what the Fields Medal is. Let me say a few words about it. The medal , named after a Canadian mathematician who who left a small legacy for it, is regarded by the mathematical community as the highest form of recognition extended to achievement in mathematics. Up to four medals are awarded at the International Congress of Mathematicians which takes place once in four years. It is considered the equivalent of the Nobel in prestige, ( the Nobel is not available for mathematics). At 10,000 Swiss Francs, the cash award that goes with the medal is a pittance though, compared to the Nobel. There is another important aspect in which the Fields Medal is different from the Nobel Prize, the prize is given only to a mathematician who is under 40 at the time of the International Congress. 
