Calcutta-based Meghnad Saha (1893-1955) set out his theory to explain stellar spectra in a number of papers published in British journals during 1920-1921. The work was immediately recognized as laying the foundation of quantitative astrophysics.
History chooses the hour; and the hour produces the hero. The only surprise was that the hour was seized not by any established research centre in the West but by a far-off Calcutta which was nowhere on the world research map.
Though Saha and SN Bose (of Bose-Einstein statistics) were part of the British Empire, professionally they were children of Germany.