Jnanendra Chandra Das Gupta (German form: Inanendra) (1888 – ?) was an Indian-born chemist who developed a thermosetting plastic called Indolack while working in the Swedish company Perstorp. This led to the development of the first plastic called "isolit" used in Sweden. Das Gupta was born in India. He studied pharmaceutical chemistry under Fritz Ullmann (1875-1939) at the Technische Universität Berlin and received a doctorate for his thesis titled "''Studien über 2-Chloranthrachinon-3-carbonsäure''". His study in Germany was sponsored in 1911 by the National Council of Education Bengal and the Indian Association (through donations from

Taraknath Palit Sir Taraknath Palit (1831–1914) was an Indian lawyer from West Bengal and a philanthropist. He was associated with the Swadeshi Movement during the Partition of Bengal and was one of the key figures behind the establishment of Ballygunge S ...

) for the Cultivation of Science. He worked for a while as a chemist at

Hoffmann La Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...

in Basel and in 1914, he was among the earliest members of the German Friends of India or

Berlin Committee The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee (german: Indisches Unabhängigkeitskomitee) after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in ...

, a revolutionary group begun by Virendranath "Chatto" Chattopadhyaya and supported by the German Foreign Office where Das Gupta had a friend in the Sinologist Herbert Mueller (1885-1966) (who allegedly later worked for

ComIntern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

). Gupta later worked for the

Indian National Army The Indian National Army (INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a collaborationist armed force formed by Indian collaborators and Imperial Japan on 1 September 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. Its aim was to secure In ...

. Sometime later he moved from Switzerland and began to work in Sweden at Skånska Ättikfabriken AB (which later became Perstorp AB) founded by Wilhelm Wendt in Skåne 1881. In 1918 he developed Indolack based on the formula for bakelite, which he knew about, using formalin and cresol which led to the development of the first thermosetting plastic "Isolit" in Sweden. Indolack was a substitute for shellac and Isolit for solid thermoset plastic products. Das Gupta left Sweden in 1919, having been denied citizenship in the country.

References

External links

History of plastics in Sweden
{{DEFAULTSORT:Das Gupta, Jnanendra Indian chemists Bengali Hindus 1888 births Indian revolutionaries Date of death unknown Expatriates from British India in Germany