[Assam] Happy Engineers’ Day

Sat Sep 15 05:29:08 CDT 2007

Wishing all of a very Happy Engineers’ Day.

  EDITORIAL 

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    Remembering M Visvesvaraya
— R M Das
  India has produced many persons of eminence in the fields of religion, philosophy, politics and poetry but the number is limited in the field of science and industry. In fact persons of eminence in these fields can be counted on one’s fingers. Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya belongs to the small band of eminent Indians of our times whose ideas and achievements have been among the truly creative and formative forces in modern India.

Mokshagundam is a village of Kamool district in Andhra Pradesh from where the ancestors of Visvesvaraya immigrated to Mysore more than three centuries ago. Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1861, in Muddenhalli village in the Kolar district of Mysore Mokshagundam Srinivasa Shastry., father of Visvesvaraya, was a Brahmin, well-versed in ancient scriptures and lore. He also practiced Ayurveda. His wife was Venkatalaxmamma or Venkachamma, as she was popularly known.

Visvesvaraya lost his father when he was just fifteen. The stern yet kindly Ramaiah, his maternal uncle, took him to Bangalore in 1875 and got him admitted to the Wesleyan Mission High school. Later, he joined the Central College, where Charles Waters was the Principal. It was this association, which, in course of time, gave shape and direction to the scientific and mathematical studies of Visvesvaraya. He took the BA degree of the Madras University in 1880 with distinction. Waters, in his letter of introduction, referred to Visvesvaraya as a “capital mathematician and a very good English scholar”.

Visvesvaraya joined the College of Science in Poona to study engineering in 1881. In 1883 he topped the list of candidates in engineering of the Bombay University in and 1884 was appointed as an assistant engineer in the Bombay Public Works Department. Thus began a life of devotion and service to the country.

With a start of supervisory and administrative duties of general nature involving irrigation, channels, repair of anicuts and distributaries, he was entrusted with the direct execution of a pipe system across a channel, which carried water from the Panjra River, 35 miles west of Dhulia in Khandesh district. The result was the design of a water supply scheme in Dhulia, and later in Poona. He was later transferred from irrigation and water supply to building and roads. In February 1894, he was called upon to undertake the execution of the water supply and drainage of Sukkur in Sind. Visvesvaraya introduced an extremely intricate system of irrigation in Deccan, area, which had been completely systematised and perfected.

Visvesvaraya designed and patented a system of automatic waste weir floodgates. These were installed for the first time in 1903 on the Khadakvasla reservoir at Poona. The object of these gates was to raise the flood level of the storage in the reservoir to the highest, level likely to be attained by the flood, without causing any danger to the dam. The success of these gates was so remarkable that the same pattern was subsequently adopted in the Tigra Dam surplus weir of Gwalior and the Krishnarajasagar Dam of Mysore.

Government servants get their promotions and increase in their salaries as per rules. Promotions normally depend on seniority and not entirely on merit, honesty, integrity and other such qualities. Even the undeserving sometimes get promoted because they have put in many years of service. However, for his exceptional qualities Visvesvaraya found early recognition and was promoted so fast that he became the object of envy for those whom he superseded. At one time he superseded 18 seniors including many Europeans. Even though Visvesvaraya got up the ladder faster than others there was little chance of his being appointed as the Chief Engineer of Bombay, the only position he had to get as that was the sole preserve of the White man. Consequently he decided to resign.

The work, which gave Visvesvaraya all-India prominence, was the appalling flood in the city of Hyderabad of river Musi that flew through the capital. It was at this time that Visvesvaraya had to cut short his well-earned rest on a tour in Europe. At the invitation on behalf of the Nizam to protect the city from future ravages of menacing floods. Visvesvaraya gave his consent to act as Special Consulting Engineer from April 15, 1909. After investigating the engineering aspects of the problems, he started working on his scheme for the reconstruction of the city, and a flood protection programme to assure immunity to the city from floods, as well as a modern sewerage system.

Visvesvaraya was then appointed Chief Engineer of Mysore on the condition that his advice on matters of economic improvement and initiation of new works and progressive development would be acceded to. He held this office till November 1912, when he was appointed the Dewan of Mysore.

During his three-year office as the Chief Engineer of Mysore, Visvesvaraya also was the Secretary to the Government for Railways. The works that he did during this short period earned him eternal fame. His entry into the services of the state marked the beginning of a new era in the annals of Mysore. He worked for the benefit of the people of Mysore.

A special feature of Visvesvaraya educational programme was the donation of a sum of Rs 2 lakh and an annual recurring grant of Rs 12,000 to the Bananas Hindu University of which the Maharaja of Mysore was the Chancellor. The greatest achievement of Visvesvaraya in the field of education, however, was the inauguration of the University of Mysore in 1916. By this action Mysore earned the unique distinction of being the first Indian State to establish a University of its own.

Perhaps no man in modern India has done so much to raise the status of untouchables and socially backward classes in India as Mahatma Gandhi. Long before Gandhi became the Mahatma there was one little frail engineer, Visvesvaraya, who in his own silent way tried to remove these inequalities by persuading the state to give equal opportunities in education and other important fields.

There are very few persons in India who have not heard of Krishnarajasagar Dam and the Mysore Iron and Steel Works at Bhadravati in Mysore. These are monumental creations of Visvesvaraya. While visiting the Brindavan Gardens, the Krishnarajasagar Dam with myriads of colourful fountains, brilliantly lit during nights, with innumerable colourful lights, one always remembers Visvesvaraya. 

Visvesvaraya was the director of the Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd., from 1927 to 1955. The Indian Institute of Science, built by the Tatas, was developed under the care and guidance of Visvesvaraya. It was the only Institution of its kind in India before independence. 

Honours came to him in succession. He received the title of CIE at the Delhi Durbar in 1911, KCIE in 1915, and Bharat Ratna in 1955, along with Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. Eight Indian universities conferred Honoris Causa degree on him.

Visvesvaraya was a man of cultivated manners. He was abstemious in eating, but fastidious in tastes. He was a strict vegetarian and a teetotoler. Visvesvaraya, an outstanding engineer, a celebrated planner, a statesman and above all, an apostle of honesty and integrity breathed his last on April 14, 1962.

(Published on the occasion of Engineers’ Day)

  The Assam Tribune,15.09.2007

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