Kailas Nath Kaul
Encyclopedia
Professor Kailas Nath Kaul (Hindi
, Marathi
, Nepali
, Kashmiri
: कैलाश नाथ कौल, Urdu
, Persian
, Kashmiri
: کیلاش ناتھ کول, Russian
: Кайлаш Натх Кауль), FLS (1905–1983) was an Indian botanist, agronomist
, agricultural scientist, horticulturist, herbalist
, and naturalist
, and a world authority on Arecaceae
in the 1950s. He has been recognized for his interest in phytomorphology, phytophysiology, phytogeography
, phycology
, lichenology
, bryology
, palynology
, pharmaceutical botany
, ethnobotany
, herpetology
, palaeobotany, palaeoecology, palaeovulcanology, hydrogeology
, limnology
, anthropology
, epistemology, and aesthetics
.
Kaulinia
, a genus
of polypodiaceae
, has been named after him.
at Lucknow
, India
, in 1948, after working in the Herbarium
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
, at the Natural History Museum
, formerly the British Museum (Natural History), London, and lecturing at several universities in the United Kingdom, including the University of Cambridge, in the period 1939-1944. He remained Director of the National Botanical Gardens till 1965. In this period, the National Botanical Gardens, Lucknow (India), became one of the world's five best botanical gardens, along with the botanical gardens at Kew
(England), Java
(Indonesia), Paris (France) and New York (USA). From 1953 to 1965, Professor Kaul surveyed botanically the whole of India, from the Karakoram
Mountains in the north to Kanyakumari
at the southern tip of the country, and from the North East Frontier Agency and Assam
in the east to the Rann of Kutch
in the west. During the same period, he contributed to the development of the botanical gardens at Peradeniya
(Sri Lanka), Singapore
, Bogor
(Indonesia), Bangkok
(Thailand), Hong Kong, Tokyo (Japan), and Manila
(Philippines). He represented India at the International Botanical Congress
es in Paris (1954), Montreal
(1959), and Edinburgh
(1964). In 1968, he was elected as the President of the Palaeobotanical Society, India. In 1975, he was appointed as the first Vice Chancellor of the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, India.
Kaul's 1929 work on the medicinal plant, artemisia brevifolia, in the Kashmir
Valley caused yields of Santonin
, an anthelminthic, from the plant to increase six times. This made the production of Santonin economically viable in India.
In 1947, Professor Kaul discovered fresh water aquifers in the princely state of Jodhpur
in the Thar Desert
, India, mainly by studying the spatial patterns of vegetation and depths of wells in the region. A small aircraft owned by Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur was used by him to conduct aerial surveys for this purpose. He then prepared a Desert Reclamation Scheme to solve the enigma of Jodhpur's water shortage. In 1949-50, he organised the 'Underground Water Board for Rajasthan', Jaipur.
In 1969, Professor Kaul, a native of the Jhelum
Valley in Kashmir
, was appointed the Director, Gardens, Parks and Floriculture in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir
. He worked for several years on the conservation and management of floral biodiversity
and the rejuvenation of the Mogul
-era gardens in the state, as the advisor
to the Chief Minister
on the subject.
Professor Kaul was responsible for the reclamation
of several thousand acres of alkaline land in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
. His work has been named The Banthra Formula after Banthra, the place where it was initiated in 1953. The project involved organic
amendments and biological methods, including the cultivation of alkali
-tolerant herbaceous
, shrub
and tree
species. It had a decentralized community-based development approach, and benefited subsistence and small-scale commercial farmers, through intensification and diversification of biomass
production for purposes such as food, fuel, fodder, fertilizer, medicare, timber, animal husbandry
, aquaculture
, soil amelioration, and bioaesthetics.
As the architect of the Vigyan Mandir (School of Science) Scheme (1948), which was later adopted by the Government of India, Kaul encouraged science education and research in the country. He also worked for the promotion of traditional sculpture, painting, and applied arts, and was elected as the President of the Lalit Kala Akademi
of Uttar Pradesh
in 1965.
to assist Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
in organising rural uplift work in the Kohat
, Bannu
and Peshawar
districts. He also worked in villages adjoining Delhi
under the guidance of Asaf Ali
during the Civil Disobedience Movement. In 1931, Kaul was arrested and charged with planting the flag of Independence and was sentenced to six months in jail. While in jail, he ran a school for 'C Class' prisoners. His thesis on alkaline (usar) soils was confiscated by the British Government for his active participation in the Indian Freedom Movement. Kaul also worked against untouchability
and gave free education to Dalit
children in Lucknow. His mother, Rajpati Kaul, and his sister, Kamala Nehru
were among the first few women to have participated in the Indian freedom movement.
family. Rajpati and Jawahar Mull Atal-Kaul were his parents and Kamala Nehru
, Chand Bahadur Kaul, and Swaroop Kathju were his siblings. He was married to Sheila Kaul
, an educationist, social worker, and politician. Gautam Kaul, Deepa Kaul
, and Vikram Kaul are their children.
Kaul's paternal grandfather, Kishan Lal Atal (originally Thullal in Kashmiri
), was the prime minister of the princely state of Jaipur
, his brother-in-law, Jawaharlal Nehru
('Jawahar Bhai'), was the first prime minister of independent India, and his niece, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi ('Indu'), was the third prime minister of India. Indira was deeply influenced by his love for nature and spent much time with him in the Himalayas
.
Among Kaul's natural scientist friends were Frank Hawking, a British biologist and physician and Stephen Hawking
's father; Sir Edward James Salisbury
, a British botanist and ecologist; Ronald Melville
, a British botanist; Arthur John Cronquist, an American botanist; Birbal Sahni
, an Indian palaeobotanist; G.C. Mitra, an Indian botanist; Alexandr Innokentevich Tolmatchew
, a Soviet botanist; Kiril Bratanov
, a Bulgarian biologist; Ronald Pearson Tripp
, a British palaeontologist; and René Dumont
, a French agronomist. His other friends included Todor Zhivkov
, former President of Bulgaria; Alfred Jules Ayer, a British philosopher, Herbert V. Günther
, a German philosopher and linguist, and Margaret Mee
, a British botanical artist.
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
, Nepali
Nepali language
Nepali or Nepalese is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is the official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...
, Kashmiri
Kashmiri language
Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...
: कैलाश नाथ कौल, Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Kashmiri
Kashmiri language
Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...
: کیلاش ناتھ کول, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Кайлаш Натх Кауль), FLS (1905–1983) was an Indian botanist, agronomist
Agronomist
An agronomist is a scientist who specializes in agronomy, which is the science of utilizing plants for food, fuel, feed, and fiber. An agronomist is an expert in agricultural and allied sciences, with the exception veterinary sciences.Agronomists deal with interactions between plants, soils, and...
, agricultural scientist, horticulturist, herbalist
Herbalist
An herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
, and naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
, and a world authority on Arecaceae
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
in the 1950s. He has been recognized for his interest in phytomorphology, phytophysiology, phytogeography
Phytogeography
Phytogeography , also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species...
, phycology
Phycology
Phycology is the scientific study of algae. Phycology is a branch of life science and often is regarded as a subdiscipline of botany....
, lichenology
Lichenology
Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga with a filamentous fungus....
, bryology
Bryology
Bryology is the branch of botany concerned with the scientific study of bryophytes . Bryophytes were first studied in detail in the 18th century...
, palynology
Palynology
Palynology is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs, including pollen, spores, orbicules, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter and kerogen found in sedimentary rocks and sediments...
, pharmaceutical botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, ethnobotany
Ethnobotany
Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants....
, herpetology
Herpetology
Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...
, palaeobotany, palaeoecology, palaeovulcanology, hydrogeology
Hydrogeology
Hydrogeology is the area of geology that deals with the distribution and movement of groundwater in the soil and rocks of the Earth's crust, . The term geohydrology is often used interchangeably...
, limnology
Limnology
Limnology , also called freshwater science, is the study of inland waters. It is often regarded as a division of ecology or environmental science. It covers the biological, chemical, physical, geological, and other attributes of all inland waters...
, anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, epistemology, and aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
.
Kaulinia
Kaulinia
Kaulinia is a genus of Polypodiaceae, a family of ferns. It has been named after Professor Kailas Nath Kaul, an Indian botanist and agricultural scientist. In a morphological study of the sporophytes and gametophytes of several species of Microsorum, it became apparent that at least two...
, a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of polypodiaceae
Polypodiaceae
Polypodiaceae is a family of polypod ferns, which includes more than 60 genera divided into several tribes and containing around 1,000 species. Nearly all are epiphytes, but some are terrestrial.-Description:...
, has been named after him.
Notable achievements
Professor K.N. Kaul established the National Botanical Gardens, now the National Botanical Research InstituteNational Botanical Research Institute
National Botanical Research Institute is a research institute of CSIR in Lucknow. It is engaged in the field of taxonomy and modern biology.-History:...
at Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, in 1948, after working in the Herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Kew
Kew is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. Kew is best known for being the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace...
, at the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
, formerly the British Museum (Natural History), London, and lecturing at several universities in the United Kingdom, including the University of Cambridge, in the period 1939-1944. He remained Director of the National Botanical Gardens till 1965. In this period, the National Botanical Gardens, Lucknow (India), became one of the world's five best botanical gardens, along with the botanical gardens at Kew
Kew
Kew is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. Kew is best known for being the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace...
(England), Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
(Indonesia), Paris (France) and New York (USA). From 1953 to 1965, Professor Kaul surveyed botanically the whole of India, from the Karakoram
Karakoram
The Karakoram, or Karakorum , is a large mountain range spanning the borders between Pakistan, India and China, located in the regions of Gilgit-Baltistan , Ladakh , and Xinjiang region,...
Mountains in the north to Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari is a town in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is also sometimes referred to as Cape Comorin. Located at the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, it is the geographical end of the Indian mainland. The district in Tamil Nadu where the town is located is called Kanyakumari...
at the southern tip of the country, and from the North East Frontier Agency and Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
in the east to the Rann of Kutch
Rann of Kutch
The Great Rann of Kutch, also called Greater Rann of Kutch or just Rann of Kutch , is a seasonal salt marsh located in the Thar Desert in the Kutch District of Gujarat, India and the Sindh province of Pakistan....
in the west. During the same period, he contributed to the development of the botanical gardens at Peradeniya
Peradeniya
Peradeniya is a town of about 50,000 inhabitants on the outskirts of Kandy in Sri Lanka. It is situated on the A1 main road connecting Kandy and Colombo, just a few kilometres west of Kandy....
(Sri Lanka), Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Bogor
Bogor
Bogor is a city on the island of Java in the West Java province of Indonesia. The city is located in the center of the Bogor Regency , 60 kilometers south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta...
(Indonesia), Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
(Thailand), Hong Kong, Tokyo (Japan), and Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
(Philippines). He represented India at the International Botanical Congress
International Botanical Congress
International Botanical Congress is a large-scale meeting of botanists in all scientific fields, from all over the world. Authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies , congresses are held every six years with the venue circulating around the world. The XVIII...
es in Paris (1954), Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
(1959), and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
(1964). In 1968, he was elected as the President of the Palaeobotanical Society, India. In 1975, he was appointed as the first Vice Chancellor of the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur, India.
Kaul's 1929 work on the medicinal plant, artemisia brevifolia, in the Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
Valley caused yields of Santonin
Santonin
Santonin is a drug which was widely used in the past as an anthelminthic, a drug that expels parasitic worms from the body, by either killing or stunning them. Santonin was formerly listed in U.S...
, an anthelminthic, from the plant to increase six times. This made the production of Santonin economically viable in India.
In 1947, Professor Kaul discovered fresh water aquifers in the princely state of Jodhpur
Jodhpur
Jodhpur , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located west from the state capital, Jaipur and from the city of Ajmer. It was formerly the seat of a princely state of the same name, the capital of the kingdom known as Marwar...
in the Thar Desert
Thar Desert
The Thar Desert |Punjab]] province. The Cholistan Desert adjoins the Thar desert spreading into Pakistani Punjab province.-Location and description:...
, India, mainly by studying the spatial patterns of vegetation and depths of wells in the region. A small aircraft owned by Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur was used by him to conduct aerial surveys for this purpose. He then prepared a Desert Reclamation Scheme to solve the enigma of Jodhpur's water shortage. In 1949-50, he organised the 'Underground Water Board for Rajasthan', Jaipur.
In 1969, Professor Kaul, a native of the Jhelum
Jhelum
Jhelum or Jehlum may refer to:* Jhelum, a city in Pakistan on the banks of the Jhelum River* Jhelum District, an administrative division in Punjab, Pakistan surrounding the city of Jhelum...
Valley in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, was appointed the Director, Gardens, Parks and Floriculture in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
. He worked for several years on the conservation and management of floral biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
and the rejuvenation of the Mogul
Mogul
-Person:*Magnate**Business magnate, a prominent person in a particular industry**Media mogul, a person who controls, either through personal ownership or a dominant position, any media enterprise-Technology:...
-era gardens in the state, as the advisor
Advisor
An advisor is normally a person with more and deeper knowledge in a specific area i.e. a specialist and may refer to:-Finances:*Commodity trading advisor, any person who engages in the business of advising others...
to the Chief Minister
Chief Minister
A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...
on the subject.
Professor Kaul was responsible for the reclamation
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
of several thousand acres of alkaline land in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
. His work has been named The Banthra Formula after Banthra, the place where it was initiated in 1953. The project involved organic
Organic farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...
amendments and biological methods, including the cultivation of alkali
Alkali
In chemistry, an alkali is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal element. Some authors also define an alkali as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7. The adjective alkaline is commonly used in English as a synonym for base,...
-tolerant herbaceous
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
, shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
and tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
species. It had a decentralized community-based development approach, and benefited subsistence and small-scale commercial farmers, through intensification and diversification of biomass
Biomass
Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....
production for purposes such as food, fuel, fodder, fertilizer, medicare, timber, animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
, aquaculture
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...
, soil amelioration, and bioaesthetics.
As the architect of the Vigyan Mandir (School of Science) Scheme (1948), which was later adopted by the Government of India, Kaul encouraged science education and research in the country. He also worked for the promotion of traditional sculpture, painting, and applied arts, and was elected as the President of the Lalit Kala Akademi
Lalit Kala Akademi
The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of Art is India's National Academy of Arts. It was an autonomous organization, established at New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, both within and outside the country...
of Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
in 1965.
Contribution to the Indian Freedom Movement
Kaul joined the Indian Freedom Movement led by Gandhi in 1930, when he was sent by the All India Congress CommitteeAll India Congress Committee
The All India Congress Committee is the Presidium or central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress Party. It is composed of members elected from State-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousand members...
to assist Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was an Afghan, Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India...
in organising rural uplift work in the Kohat
Kohat
Kohat is a medium sized town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is located at 33°35'13N 71°26'29E with an altitude of 489 metres and is the capital of Kohat District. The town centres around a British-era fort, various bazaars, and a military cantonment. A British-built narrow gauge...
, Bannu
Bannu
Bannu is the principal city of the Bannu District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. It is an important road junction and market city. Bannu is a very old city, founded in ancient times; however, the present location of the downtown Bannu was founded by Sir Herbert Edwardes in 1848,...
and Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
districts. He also worked in villages adjoining Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
under the guidance of Asaf Ali
Asaf Ali
Asaf Ali was an Indian independence fighter and noted Indian lawyer. He was the first ambassador from India to the United States. He also worked as the governor of Orissa....
during the Civil Disobedience Movement. In 1931, Kaul was arrested and charged with planting the flag of Independence and was sentenced to six months in jail. While in jail, he ran a school for 'C Class' prisoners. His thesis on alkaline (usar) soils was confiscated by the British Government for his active participation in the Indian Freedom Movement. Kaul also worked against untouchability
Untouchability
Untouchability is the social practice of ostracizing a minority group by segregating them from the mainstream by social custom or legal mandate. The excluded group could be one that did not accept the norms of the excluding group and historically included foreigners, nomadic tribes, law-breakers...
and gave free education to Dalit
Dalit
Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as Untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous castes from all over South Asia; they speak a variety of languages and practice a multitude of religions...
children in Lucknow. His mother, Rajpati Kaul, and his sister, Kamala Nehru
Kamala Nehru
Kamala Kaul Nehru was the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru - leader of the Indian National Congress and first Prime Minister of India. Kamala married Nehru on 7 February 1916.-Contribution to the Indian Freedom Movement:...
were among the first few women to have participated in the Indian freedom movement.
Family and Friends
Kaul belonged to a Kashmiri PanditKashmiri Pandit
The Kashmiri Pandits are a Hindu Brahmin community originating from Kashmir, a mountainous region in South Asia.-Background:The Hindu caste system of the region was influenced by the influx of Buddhism from the time of Asoka, around the third century BCE, and a consequence of this was that the...
family. Rajpati and Jawahar Mull Atal-Kaul were his parents and Kamala Nehru
Kamala Nehru
Kamala Kaul Nehru was the wife of Jawaharlal Nehru - leader of the Indian National Congress and first Prime Minister of India. Kamala married Nehru on 7 February 1916.-Contribution to the Indian Freedom Movement:...
, Chand Bahadur Kaul, and Swaroop Kathju were his siblings. He was married to Sheila Kaul
Sheila Kaul
Sheila Kaul is a social democratic leader of the Indian National Congress and a former union cabinet minister and provincial Governor in India. She was also an educationist, social worker, and social reformer in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and an independence activist in British India...
, an educationist, social worker, and politician. Gautam Kaul, Deepa Kaul
Deepa Kaul
Deepa Kaul is a social democratic leader of the Indian National Congress and has headed ministries, including social welfare, culture, and tourism, as a member of the legislature of Uttar Pradesh. A political scientist by training, she is also a social worker and reformer...
, and Vikram Kaul are their children.
Kaul's paternal grandfather, Kishan Lal Atal (originally Thullal in Kashmiri
Kashmiri language
Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...
), was the prime minister of the princely state of Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
, his brother-in-law, Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
('Jawahar Bhai'), was the first prime minister of independent India, and his niece, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi ('Indu'), was the third prime minister of India. Indira was deeply influenced by his love for nature and spent much time with him in the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
.
Among Kaul's natural scientist friends were Frank Hawking, a British biologist and physician and Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
's father; Sir Edward James Salisbury
Edward James Salisbury
Sir Edward James Salisbury FRS was an English botanist and ecologist. He was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire and graduated in botany from University College London in 1905. In 1913, he obtained a D.Sc. with a thesis on fossil seeds and was appointed a senior lecturer at East London College...
, a British botanist and ecologist; Ronald Melville
Ronald Melville
Ronald Melville was an English botanist, based at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. He is chiefly remembered for his wartime research into rosehips as a source of vitamin C, prompted by the epidemic of scurvy amongst children owing to the reduced importation of fresh fruit...
, a British botanist; Arthur John Cronquist, an American botanist; Birbal Sahni
Birbal Sahni
Birbal Sahni FRS was an Indian paleobotanist who studied the fossils of the Indian subcontinent, was also a geologist who took an interest in archaeology...
, an Indian palaeobotanist; G.C. Mitra, an Indian botanist; Alexandr Innokentevich Tolmatchew
Alexandr Innokentevich Tolmatchew
Alexandr Innokentevich Tolmatchew was a twentieth century Russian and Soviet botanist and phytogeographer who was a leading expert in the flora of Russia's Arctic. He is the editor of an important multi-volume set, Flora Of The Russian Arctic - A Critical Review Of The Vascular Plants Occurring...
, a Soviet botanist; Kiril Bratanov
Kiril Bratanov
Kiril Tsochev Bratanov was a prominent Bulgarian biologist and pioneer in the area of immunology of reproduction.He was born on March 5, 1911, in the town of Lukovit, Bulgaria, and studied veterinary medicine at the University of Sofia. After receiving his doctoral degree in 1935, he spent two...
, a Bulgarian biologist; Ronald Pearson Tripp
Ronald Pearson Tripp
Ronald Pearson Tripp was a British paleontologist specializing in trilobites. Born in England in 1914, Tripp was self-taught in paleontology, but became an authority in the taxonomy of the trilobite families Encrinuridae, Lichidae, and Lichakephalidae – the latter of which he named...
, a British palaeontologist; and René Dumont
René Dumont
René Dumont was a French engineer in agronomy, a sociologist, and an environmental politician.He was born in Cambrai, Nord, in the north of France. His father was a professor in agriculture and his grandfather was a farmer. He graduated from the INA P-G, as an engineer in agronomy...
, a French agronomist. His other friends included Todor Zhivkov
Todor Zhivkov
Todor Khristov Zhivkov was a communist politician and leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from March 4, 1954 until November 10, 1989....
, former President of Bulgaria; Alfred Jules Ayer, a British philosopher, Herbert V. Günther
Herbert V. Günther
Herbert V. Güenther [Herbert Vighnāntaka Guenther, Ph.D., D.Litt.] was a German Buddhist philosopher and Professor and Head of the Department of Far Eastern Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. He held this position from the time he left India in 1964.-Early life:He was...
, a German philosopher and linguist, and Margaret Mee
Margaret Mee
Margaret Ursula Mee, MBE was a British botanical artist who specialized in plants from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. She was also one of the first environmentalists to draw attention to the impact of large-scale mining and deforestation on the Amazon Basin.-Early life:Margaret Ursula Brown was...
, a British botanical artist.
Plant species named after Kaul
- KauliniaKauliniaKaulinia is a genus of Polypodiaceae, a family of ferns. It has been named after Professor Kailas Nath Kaul, an Indian botanist and agricultural scientist. In a morphological study of the sporophytes and gametophytes of several species of Microsorum, it became apparent that at least two...
hancockii (PolypodiaceaePolypodiaceaePolypodiaceae is a family of polypod ferns, which includes more than 60 genera divided into several tribes and containing around 1,000 species. Nearly all are epiphytes, but some are terrestrial.-Description:...
) - KauliniaKauliniaKaulinia is a genus of Polypodiaceae, a family of ferns. It has been named after Professor Kailas Nath Kaul, an Indian botanist and agricultural scientist. In a morphological study of the sporophytes and gametophytes of several species of Microsorum, it became apparent that at least two...
dilatata (PolypodiaceaePolypodiaceaePolypodiaceae is a family of polypod ferns, which includes more than 60 genera divided into several tribes and containing around 1,000 species. Nearly all are epiphytes, but some are terrestrial.-Description:...
) - KauliniaKauliniaKaulinia is a genus of Polypodiaceae, a family of ferns. It has been named after Professor Kailas Nath Kaul, an Indian botanist and agricultural scientist. In a morphological study of the sporophytes and gametophytes of several species of Microsorum, it became apparent that at least two...
zosteriformis (PolypodiaceaePolypodiaceaePolypodiaceae is a family of polypod ferns, which includes more than 60 genera divided into several tribes and containing around 1,000 species. Nearly all are epiphytes, but some are terrestrial.-Description:...
) - KauliniaKauliniaKaulinia is a genus of Polypodiaceae, a family of ferns. It has been named after Professor Kailas Nath Kaul, an Indian botanist and agricultural scientist. In a morphological study of the sporophytes and gametophytes of several species of Microsorum, it became apparent that at least two...
pteropus (PolypodiaceaePolypodiaceaePolypodiaceae is a family of polypod ferns, which includes more than 60 genera divided into several tribes and containing around 1,000 species. Nearly all are epiphytes, but some are terrestrial.-Description:...
) - WithaniaWithaniaWithania is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae.-Etymology:Withania Pauquy, Diss. Bellad. 14 Withania is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae.-Etymology:Withania Pauquy, Diss. Bellad. 14 (1825) Withania is a genus of flowering plants in the...
ashwagandhaAshwagandhaWithania somnifera, also known as Ashwagandha, Indian ginseng, Winter cherry, Ajagandha, Kanaje Hindi, Amukkara , Samm Al Ferakh, is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family....
Kaul (SolanaceaeSolanaceaeSolanaceae are a family of flowering plants that include a number of important agricultural crops as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
) - subspecies
Academic Institutions named after Kaul
- K.N. Kaul Institute of Life SciencesLife sciencesThe life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
, Kanpur - K.N. Kaul Block, National Botanical Research Institute, LucknowLucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
External links
- http://en.scientificcommons.org/53336542
- http://en.scientificcommons.org/50257340
- http://www.jstor.org/pss/4111570
- http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:KWfqpDXlV9YJ:www.scientificvalues.org/Sept09%2520Final.pdf+kn+kaul+vice+chancellor+kanpur&hl=en&gl=in&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShx7HVWrj5O1ApMvRhTadAD5ySj9DMqao7bVw1goXTK0tjcsrn5fFgmebObrlrginLHYDIK4PNARtVcvjRrvFsy4hEFTgioKvJxEo1A9O7ZMHSRz4d5tcx4VgtU-dOM5AOQWSaz&sig=AHIEtbTChLYm6edDFFC37I_JiWa1ts4b1w
- http://www.dawn.com/2006/10/09/fea.htm
- http://www.archive.org/stream/jahresberichtde00nrgoog/jahresberichtde00nrgoog_djvu.txt
- http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/savifadok/volltexte/2009/254/pdf/K_.pdf
- http://www.herbalnet.org/SHRUBS/withania_somni.asp
- http://www.jstor.org/pss/4252277
- http://www.newcrops.uq.edu.au/listing/species_pages_L/Luffa_aegyptiaca.htm