Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya
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A biographical tribute
Prof M R Doreswamy, Respedit Bangalore, Sep 15, 2021: The Times of India
Every year, September 15 is celebrated as Engineer’s Day in India (Sri Lanka and Tanzania too), in honour of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, fondly known as Sir MV, whose contributions to public good have left an indelible mark in the history of India’s development, especially Karnataka. His administrative acumen, attention to detail, vision for all round development, unwavering dedication and above all transparency in public life, have made his life a folklore to not only his engineering profession but also to all sections of society. Here, I venture to record my impressions of how this proud son of Karnataka refused to be constrained by the shackles of poverty of preindependence India, to become an icon of public administration, shaping the country’s development. His journey from a civil engineer to recipient of India’s highest honour, Bharat Ratna, has a message for all.
PROVING HIS METTLE
After a successful tenure in PWD of Bombay Government, Sir MV was invited to join the Indian Irrigation Commission where he proved his mettle by devising innovative floodgates to raise the level of water storage in reservoirs (first in Pune). The same system was installed later in KRS dam, Mysore. Another feat in his early career was to implement a system to prevent sea erosion of Vishakapatnam port. It was the then King of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, another visionary, who invited Sir MV to lead the development of the then Mysore Kingdom as Diwan. He accepted Sir MV’s philosophy ‘Without Industries India cannot Grow’. Results were spectacular as Sir MV established many institutions for development such as Mysore Soap Factory, Mysore Iron & Steel Works (now named after Visvesvaraya), Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic, State Bank of Mysore, Century Club, Mysore Chamber of Commerce (now FKCCI), University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE, Bangalore) and many other industries. KRS dam in Mysore stands testimony to his engineering skills, vision for development and above all an illustrious example for all professions as to how one can contribute to public good and national development.
TRUE PATRIOT
In this regard, Sir MV stands out as a true patriot and no less a nationalist than those who chose to serve India through struggle for independence. He chose to serve the country as a professional engineer to free India from poverty and take the initial but firm steps to self-reliance. Addressing the Association of Engineers of Mysore (1910) he said in the West, expenditure on education is considered a national investment and promptly followed it up with the establishment of University of Mysore, University of Agriculture, Bangalore, and a Polytechnic in Bangalore. Sir MV also espoused the cause of charity with the purpose of empowerment towards self-reliance rather than supporting individuals, as both the individual and nation grow together productively. Seeds of charity were sown by him early which modern governments have reinvented in the form of PPP. Apart from these widely known facts, Sir MV was an icon of public values. It is known that before accepting the position of Diwan of Mysore, he first obtained the concurrence of his family members not to seek any official favours from him. Many inspirational values he has left for future generations are eternally relevant: transparency, life-long learning, value of time, payback to society, value of planning before execution to prevent wastage and equality. Sir MV’s birthday should not be limited to engineering profession alone. His life and values in public life and vision to contribute to national development beyond one’s professional field are eternally relevant to all professions. They are the basic ingredients of growth even in the 21st century and beyond, where challenges of the fourth industrial revolution based on knowledge activities hold the key to individual and national success. The government should integrate Sir MV’s messages in curricula to inspire the youth and convince them about the huge opportunities to contribute to nation-building in whatever profession they choose.
Details
Sep 15, 2023: The Indian Express
September 15 is marked as the birthday of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1861-1962), credited for his role as a civil engineer and administrator in colonial India.
Born on September 15, 1861, in the Muddenahalli village of Karnataka, Visvesvaraya completed his school education in his hometown and later on went to study Bachelor of Arts at the University of Madras. He then pursued a diploma in civil engineering at the College of Science in Pune. Having played a role in major public works projects across the nation, he later served as the 19th Dewan of Mysore and wrote two books on the Indian economy. Here is a look at his life and his legacy.
Early life
After completing his engineering from the Poona College of Science, Visvesvaraya accepted an offer to work as an Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Government of Bombay. He was 22 at the time and one of his first projects was to construct a pipe syphon across one of Panjra river’s channels. On November 15, 1909, he joined the Mysore service as Chief Engineer, ultimately assuming the position of the 19th Dewan of Mysore.
However, he took voluntary retirement in 1918 because he did not agree with the proposal to set aside state jobs for the “non-brahmin” community. After his retirement, he presided as chairman or became a member of various committees including the Bombay Technical and Industrial Education Committee, Bombay University Committee for Promoting Chemical Industries and the Cauvery Canal Committee.
M Visvesvaraya’s significant works
Some of his significant works include the introduction of the block system of irrigation in the Deccan canals in 1899, solving the problem of the “muddy and discoloured” water in the city of Sukkur located on the banks of the Indus river and inventing automatic gates meant to regulate the flow of water in reservoirs, which is patented.
According to Vigyan Prasar, “The objective of the Block System of Irrigation was ‘to distribute the benefits of an irrigation work over a large number of villages and to concentrate the irrigation in each village within blocks of specified limits and in selected soils and situations'”. The Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in Karnataka was the first to install these gates in the 1920s.
He also travelled abroad a few times and sought to understand aspects of other countries’ systems. In Italy, he studied for two months the soil erosion problem and their irrigation and drainage works. While there, he also took a trip to the sewers of Milan, accompanied by the Chief Engineer responsible for the Milan Drainage Works and asked him some particularly “large questions” which the officer was confused about, since he thought that British officers would be responsible for all such “higher work”. To this, Visvesvaraya responded that Indians’ services were appreciated and utilised if they had the necessary qualifications and worked hard.
In a speech delivered on March 16, 1912, at Central College Bangalore, Visvesvaraya said: “As compared with Europe, our climate and traditions all pre-dispose us to a life of inaction and ease. We are influenced either by religious sentiment, class patriotism or belief in kismet, whereas the activities of Western nations rest on an economic basis. While they think and act in conformity with economic necessities, we expect to prosper without acquiring the scientific precision, the inventive faculty, the thoroughness, the discipline and restraints of modern civilisation.”
On another occasion, he said: “Progress on modern lines is a necessity. We cannot afford to ignore scientific discoveries which have almost vivified material nature. Past ideals were for past times. We must adopt ourselves to the everlasting conditions of existence or be content to be left behind in the race for material prosperity.”
Visvesvaraya pleaded for a “self-examination not moral or spiritual, but secular – that is, a survey and analysis of local conditions in India and a comparative study of the same” with those in other parts of the globe. His books, “Reconstructing India” and “Planned Economy of India” were published in 1920 and 1934, respectively.
On Education
During his three-month visit to Japan in 1898, Visvesvaraya realised that education largely determines the health of an economy. In his, “Memoirs of Working Life”, which was published in 1951, he noted that while in Japan there were some 1.5 million girls in school, there were only over 400,000 of them in Indian schools, “notwithstanding the vastly greater population in our country”.
Visvesvaraya was instrumental in the setting up of the University of Mysore in July 1916, as he was the Dewan of Mysore at the time. He believed that the aim of an educational institution should be in line with the “state of the country’s civilisation and of its material prosperity”, and that the conditions inside a university should not be very different from the ones a student has to encounter in real life.
After taking a voluntary retirement from state service in 1918, he continued work including on the Mysore Iron and Steel Works and established the Sir Jayachamarajendra Occupational Institute in Bangalore in 1943, which was later renamed Sir Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic. This institute was meant to impart special training to technicians keeping in mind the impending industrial development of India.
