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Bharat Rathna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya
(1860-1962)
"Education is the sovereign remedy for all economic
ills; higher the standard of education and science
applied to industrial calling, greater the wealth
produced. We must develop the life and capacity of our
people by encouraging in them self-help, power of
initiative, courage to change and courage to create new
things, a spirit of co-operation and a capacity of
organization"
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (popularly known as Sir
M.V.) (September 15, 1860-April 12, 1962) was an eminent
Indian engineer and statesman. He is a recipient of the
Indian Republic’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in
1955. He was also knighted by the British for his myriad
contributions to the public good. Every year 15th
September is celebrated as the Engineer’s Day.
Early years -
Sir M.V. was born to Srinivasa Sastry and Venkachamma at
Muddenahalli village in the Kolar District of
present-day Karnataka, in what was then the princely
state of Mysore. His father Srinivasa Sastry was a
Sanskrit scholar and an authority on the Hindu
scriptures, besides being as Ayurvedic practitioner. The
family was a pious Telugu-speaking smartha Brahmin
family belonging to the vaidiki Mulukanadu sub-caste.
Sir M.V.’s ancestors actually hailed from the village of
Mokshagundam near Giddalur in the Prakasam District of
present-day Andhra Pradesh; they had migrated to Mysore
state perhaps three centuries ago. The family name,
“Mokashagundam”, preserves the memory of this distant
association.
The young Visvesvarayya lost his father at the age of
15. The family was resident at Kurnool when this
calamity befell them; they moved back to Muddenahalli
immediately thereafter. Sir M.V. attended primary school
at Chikballapur and high school at Bangalore. He earned
his B.A. from Madras University in 1881 and later
studied civil engineering at the College of Science,
Pune, now known as the College of Engineering, Pune
(COEP).
Career as Engineer -
Upon graduating as an engineer, Visvesvarayya took up a
job with the Public Works Department (PWD) of Bombay,
and was later invited to join the Indian Irrigation
Commission. He implemented an extremely intricate system
of irrigation in the Deccan area. He also designed and
patented a system of automatic weir water floodgates,
which were first installed in 1930, at the Khadakwasla
reservoir near Pune. These gates were employed to raise
the flood supply level of storage in the reservoir to
the highest level likely to be attained by its flood,
without causing any damage to the dam. Based on the
success of these gates, the same system was installed at
the Tigra dam in Gwalior and the Krishana Raja Sagara
(KRS) dam in Mysore.
Visvesvarayya achieved celebrity status when he designed
a flood protection system to protect the city of
Hyderabad from floods. He was also instrumental in
developing a system to protect Vishakhapatnam port from
sea erosion.
Sir MV supervised the construction of the KRS dam across
the Kaveri River from conception to inauguration. This
dam created the biggest reservoir in Asia at the time it
was built. Sir MV was rightly called the “father of
modern Mysore state” (now Karnataka): he was responsible
for the building of the very first electricity
generation plant in Asia, built at Shivanasamudram near
Mysore in 1894. During his period of service with the
government of Mysore state, he was responsible for
founding, under the aegis of that government, of the
Mysore soap factory, the Parasitoid laboratory, the
Bhadravati steel factory, the SJP Polytechnic, the
Bangalore Agricultural University, the State Bank of
Mysore, The Mysore Sugar mills and numerous other
industrial ventures. He also encouraged private
investment in industry during his tenure as Diwan of
Mysore. He was known for sincerity, time management and
dedication to the cause. He was also instrumental in
charting out the plan for road construction between
Thirumala and Tirupati. He reportedly went around in
helicopter for doing this job.
As the Diwan of Mysore -
After taking voluntary retirement in 1908, Visvesvarayya
was appointed Diwan, or First Minister, of the kingdom
of Mysore, one of the largest and most important
princely states in India. With the support of
Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, Maharaja of Mysore,
Visvesvarayya made an arguably unprecedented
contribution as Diwan to the all-round development of
the state. Not only the Krishna Raja Sagara dam and
reservoir, but also the hydroelectric projects at
Shivanasamudram, the steel mills at Bhadravathi, the Sri
Jayachamarajendra polytechnic (SJP) at Bangalore, the
University of Mysore and many other industries and
public works owe their inception or active nurture to
him. He was instrumental in the founding, in 1917, of
the “Government Engineering College” at Bangalore, one
of the first engineering institutes in India. This
institute was later named the “University Viswesvarayya
Collage of Engineering” (UVCE) after its founder; it
remains one of the most reputed institutes of
engineering in Karanataka.
Sir M.V. was honoured with honorary membership of London
Institution of Civil Engineers C.I.E. (Companion of
Indian Empire); was made a Knight Commander of the Order
of the Indian Empire etc. He was awarded several
honorary doctoral degrees like D.Sc, LLD, D.Litt., from
various Universities in India and fellowship of the
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
There is an interesting true story about how Sir M.V.’s
mother discovered a stone that had and image carved into
it. One day, when she was returning home by bullock
cart, she noticed a stone lying in a field at the edge
of the road. A few days later, she found the stone still
there. After several trips past the stone, she stopped
the bullock cart one day and asked the villagers who the
stone belonged to. The villagers did not know who the
stone belonged to or how it had got there. The stone was
taken to her house and she had a temple constructed
which exists to this day.
Sir M.V. had a lanky personality. Even as a child he
looked frail and weak. Once, his teacher told him that
he was so unhealthy that he would not live long. Sir
M.V. went on to cross century of his life and left us
with a heritage at the age of 101.
Institutions in his honour
- The Visvesvaraya Regional College of
Engineering, Nagpur, Maharashtra (now known as
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology);
- The Visweswaraiah Technological University,
Belgaum, to which all engineering colleges in
Karnataka are now affiliated;
- The Visvesvaraya Industrial and
Technological Museum, Bangalore, set up as part
of his birth centenary celebrations;
- Vishweshwaraya Iron and Steel Limited, a
public sector undertaking, in the founding of
which he was instrumental
- His Alma Mater, the college of Engineering,
Pune (COEP) has erected a statue in his memory
and honour on their campus in central Pune,
immediately outside the historic COEO
administration building.
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