The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan

Ramanujan was born in 1887 in India, which at the time was still under British colonial rule. As he entered college, much of the Indian system was influenced by the English university system. In fact, his first college, Kumbakonam’s Government College, was nicknamed “the Cambridge of South India” (45). Ramanujan left India to pursue mathematical study at Cambridge in 1914, remaining in England for five years. His residence in England spanned the duration of WWI. He worked alongside G. H. Hardy at Cambridge as the university was adapted into a military hospital to treat the many wounded who returned from the trenches at the front on the European continent. As a response to the threat posed by German submarines, Ramanujan’s stay in England was lengthened, as passenger ships were operating on a truncated schedule, if at all. During the war, economic recession resulted in a reduced food supply and caused general malnutrition, which fostered a ripe climate for disease. Among these was a resurgence of tuberculosis after it had been tamped down from its peak in the late 1800s. Ramanujan contracted the disease during his residence in England, and when he finally returned to India in 1919, he lived only one more year before succumbing to its effects.