National Mathematics Day is celebrated every year on 22 December to mark the birth anniversary of legendary Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Since ancient times various scholars had made significant contributions to mathematics including Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Mahavira, Bhaskara II, Srinivasa Ramanujan, etc. At a very young age, Srinivasa Ramanujan showed the signs of an unfolding genius, and his contributions regarding fractions, infinite series, number theory, mathematical analysis, etc. set an example in mathematics.

In 2012, the former Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, paid tribute to Srinivasa Ramanujan at a function organized on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the great mathematician Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan in Chennai. 22 December was declared as National Mathematics Day. Thus, on 22 December 2012, National Mathematics Day was celebrated across the country for the first time.

The main objective behind the celebration is to raise awareness among people about the importance of mathematics for the development of humanity. We can’t ignore that several initiatives are taken to motivate, enthuse, and inculcate a positive attitude towards learning mathematics among the younger generation of the country. On this day, training is also provided to the mathematics teachers and students through camps and highlights the development, production, and dissemination of teaching-learning materials (TLM) for Mathematics and research in related areas.

How is National Mathematics Day celebrated?

National Mathematics Day is celebrated in various schools, colleges, universities, and educational institutions in India. Even the International Society UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and India had agreed to work together to spread mathematics learning and understanding. Along with this, various steps were taken to educate the students in mathematics and spread knowledge to the students and learners all over the world.

Society for Promotion of Science & Technology in India (SPSTI) has collaborations with many agencies to conduct activities to celebrate the day. The Society partnered with Chandigarh Chapter of national Academy of Science India (NASI), Haryana State Council for Science, Innovation and Technology, Government of Haryana, Department of Science and Technology, Chandigarh Administration.

The Society conducts invited talks by eminent mathematicians, workshops, quiz competitions, poster competitions and declamations.

About Srinivasa Ramanujan and his contributions in Mathematics

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December, 1887, Erode, India, and died on 26 April, 1920 at Kumbakonam. His family was of the Brahmin caste and lived in poverty. At the age of 12, he had gained knowledge in Trignometry and without anyone’s help, he had developed his own theorems and ideas. Do you know that at the age of 15 only he obtained a copy of George Shoobridge Carr’s Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics?

He had spent his childhood days in great difficulty in poverty. He used to borrow books and read books from friends in school. When he was young, he took up the job of a clerk to meet the economic needs of the house, and when he gets time he used to solve mathematics questions and worked on various types of theorems. Once, an Englishman saw those pages, he was impressed and took a personal interest. He sends Srinivasa Ramanujan to Hardy, the Professor of Oxford University. He then recognized the talent hidden in him and thereafter he got fame worldwide.

His papers were published in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society in 1911. He had compiled about 3900 results mainly identities and equations that too on his own without anyone’s assistance. Several results out of them are original and novel like the Ramanujan prime, The Ramanujan theta function, partition formulae, and mock theta functions. These results further inspired several other research and opened new fields of work. He discovered his theory of divergent series, worked out the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, hypergeometric series, and the functional equations of the zeta function. Let us tell you that the number 1729 is known as the Hardy-Ramanujan number.

So now we come to know that National Mathematics Day is celebrated on 22 December every year to spread awareness about the importance of mathematics and the contributions made by the scholar of mathematics Srinivasa Ramanujan. The government of India decided in 2012 to celebrate National Mathematics Day on 22 December on the birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan. Since then it was celebrated on 22 December every year.