Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya
Monarch Krishna
Raja Wadiyar IV
Preceded by T. Ananda Rao
Succeeded by M. Kantaraj Urs
“To give real service, you
must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money.”
“The way to build a nation
is to build a good citizen. The majority of the citizens should be efficient,
of good character and possess a reasonable high sense of duty”
“Hard work performed in a
disciplined manner wills in most cases keep the worker fit and also prolong his
life.”
“Remember, your
work may be only to sweep a railway crossing, but it is your duty to keep
it so clean that no other crossing in the world is as clean as yours.”
The Institute was about to start work.
The Government wanted to name it after Visvesvaraya. But he said, “Name it
after the Maharaja of Mysore.” This is the Sri Jayachamaraja Polytechnic
Institute of Bangalore.
How many such
selfless patriots’ do we have?
Free India
honors great servants of the country every year by awarding titles. The highest
of this award is ‘Bharata Ratna’. In 1955 Visvesvaraya was made a ‘Bharata
Ratna’, the Gem of India. He was a gem of mankind itself.
Sir MV was a fearless patriot. Those
were days when the Englishman was the lord of India and wanted to be treated
like a god. The Maharaja of Mysore used to hold a Durbar during the Dasara. On
the day of the European Durbar, the Europeans were given comfortable chairs but
Indians were required to sit on the floor. MV went to the Durbar for the first
time in 1910. The arrangements pained him. The next year he did not attend the
Durbar. When the officers of the palace made enquiries he f rankly gave the
reason. Next year all – Europeans and Indians -were given chairs. A British
officer wrote a letter to MV. He said that in the Maharaja’s Durbar, he wanted
a cushion to rest his feet because the chair was too high. MV got the legs of
the chair shortened and wrote to him that the height had been reduced. In 1944,
an association arranged* a conference. Visvesvaraya was the Chairman of the
association. The Governor of Berar, an Englishman, was to open the conference.
(In those days
the Governors were very powerful.) The conference was to discuss a resolution
that India should have a national government. The Governor said that the
resolution should not be discussed. “Otherwise,” he said, “I will not come.”
Sir MV said to his friends, “All right. Why wait for him? Let us go on with the
conference.
MV gave
thousands of families food, he gave thousands and thousands of students
education. Tens of thousands of houses are bright with electricity because
of him. And he led the country to the path of progress.
The Bhadravati
Steel Factory, Mysore University, Krishna raja sagara, the Bank of Mysore – every
one of his creations was mighty and magnificent. But far mightier and far more
magnificent was the Bharata Ratna, who was at once a matchless Dreamer and
Doer.
MV was the Maker of Modern Mysore. He
wanted education to spread ‘ He wanted people to give up blind beliefs. He
wanted the fullest use of science and technology. But he also knew that being
modern did not mean giving up everything that was old and forgetting our
culture.
Somebody once
said to him, “You have done great service to the country. You are like
Bhishmacharya.” MV said, “You make me remember what a small man I am. What am I
before Bhishmacharya?” He was so modest. Even at the age of 95, he rose to
receive a visitor; he got up again when the visitor was leaving. But he also
knew modesty did not mean pocketing insults. In the old Bombay Province the
rules did not permit an Indian to become the Chief Engineer. Only an Englishman
could sit in the Chief Engineer’s chair. So MV gave up his post in Bombay. The
Dewan was the highest officer in Mysore State. He himself gave up that very
high office. He had self-respect without arrogance.
1. He was born to Srinivasa Sastry and Venkachamma
at Muddenahalli village, Kanivenarayanapura hobli, Chikkaballapur District of
Karnataka. At that time it was part of princely state of Mysore.
2. He did his B.A. from the Madras University in
1881 and then studied civil engineering at the College of Science (College of
Engineering), Pune.
3. After completing his engineering, he got a job
in the Public Works Department (PWD) of Bombay. Later he joined the Indian
Irrigation Commission where he implemented an extremely intricate system of
irrigation in the Deccan area.
4. He became the first engineer to attain status
when he designed a flood protection system to protect the city of Hyderabad
from floods.
5. He is known as the “Father of modern Mysore
state” as he played the key role in the foundation of the Mysore Soap Factory,
the Parasitoide laboratory, the Mysore Iron & Steel Works (now known as
Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) in Bhadravathi, the Sri Jayachamarajendra
Polytechnic Institute, the Bangalore Agricultural University, the State Bank of
Mysore, The Century Club, Mysore Chambers of Commerce and numerous other
industrial ventures.
6. He also supervised the construction of the KRS
dam across the Cauvery River. At that time, this dam was the biggest reservoir
in Asia.
7. He is a recipient of the Indian Republic’s
highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955.
8. He was knighted as a Commander of the Indian
Empire by King George V for his contribution in the field of engineering.
9. He was also awarded honorary Membership of
London Institution of Civil Engineers for an unbroken period of 50 years.
10. In honor of Sir Visvesvarayya, a number of
educational institutions are currently running in country. Some of them are:
Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, University Visvesvaraya College
of Engineering, Bangalore, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology
(V.N.I.T.), Nagpur.
