The Rearview Podcast | Forgotten Heroes PART 1: How two Indian mathematicians were denied credit for inventing fingerprinting

Hem Chandra Bose and Aziz Ul-Haque were the experts who played a pivotal role in developing the Henry Classification System for cataloging finger prints. This was during the early 20th century, when both were police inspectors, part of the colonial Bengal Police Service. This was a unique system that enabled the identification of any person, by employing 10 identifying characteristics of their fingerprints such as whorls, ridges and the like. Routine as this sounds today, this was the first time that such a system was conceived to create a criminal database that could then be used to track repeat offenders.

Much like Aadhar-based fingerprinting systems strengthen Digital Stack systems like the UPI, this approach was revolutionary and was adopted by Scotland Yard and eventually part of plot points in the Sherlock Holmes- stories. However nearly all credit for developing this was usurped by Edward Henry, Inspector General, Bengal Police under whom Haque and Bose worked.