UNIT-I Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, a notable engineer, scholar,
statesman, was born on 15th
September 1861 in Muddenahalli in the Chikkaballapur Taluk of Kolar
District of (then) Mysore state, to Srinivasa Shastry and Venkatalakshmamma,
who were good and pious couple and led a very simple and spiritual life. Though
his parents were not well off, both of them decided to educate Visvesvaraya.
Visvesvaraya’s early education was at their tiny taluk
“Chikkaballapur”, where he learnt deep respect for the culture and traditions
of the land. Visvesvaraya was a good and deligent student and was keenly
interested in studies. With his parents consent and blessings this spiritual
boy has joined the Central College at Bangalore for higher education when he
was fifteen years old. But unfortunately his pocket was empty and he had no
roof over his head. But, this disciplined boy
did not bog down for his helpless state and became a tutor and happily
earned for his higher education. Visvesvaraya was not satisfied though he stood
high in B.A. Examination and joined the Science College at Poona to study
Engineering and ranked the first in his course.
As soon as the results were out, Visvesvaraya was appointed as an
Assistant Engineer at Nasik, by the government of Bombay, where he worked with
utmost commitment and excelled in his post. A very difficult task was assigned
to Visvesvaraya when he was 32 years old i.e., “to find a way to supplying
water from the river Sindhu to a town called Sukkur” for which Visvesvaraya
prepared an ingenious plan which amazed the other famous Engineers where he
developed a new system called the “Block System” where he devised steel doors,
that could stop the wasteful water in dams, seeing that even the British
officers of those days were surprised for his skill in performing tasks and
praised him a lot for his invention.
The government has recognised and appreciated Visvesvaraya’s genius
and sincerity and he was promoted to higher positions. Visvesvaraya was
promoted as a Chief Engineer at Hyderabad where he showed an extraordinary
performance that was simply impossible at that time.
When the river Musi was in floods, Visvesvaraya surveyed the entire
area and went through the official records of the previous floods and studied
the figures of heavy rainfall in different parts of the world including the
River Musi. With this study, he proposed the construction of dams across the
River Musi and its tributary River Esi along with this, he suggested that,
”lovely parks should be laid out on the banks of the river. He also constructed
Himayathsagar and Osmansagar dams which provide water for the twin cities of
Hyderabad and Secunderabad, besides these, he was also instrumental for all the
privilages which Hyderabad has got such as improved drained system, plenty of
water sources and electricity even today.
Visvesvaraya was knighted as a commander of the British Indian
Empire by King George V for his countless contributions to the public and he
became the Dewan of Mysore in 1913 and his tenure was upto 1918. The
resourcefulness of Visvesvaraya earned him the position of the Chief Engineer
in the Mysore state. Besides all these Visvesvaraya was not just interested in
buildings, roads and bridges but recognised the Indians’ miserable condition,
most of them are just farmers, who just purely depended on rains for their
food. He wanted to bring some remarkable change in them noticing poverty,
ignorance and sickness.
Visvesvaraya constructed Krishnarajasagara Dam which is nearby the
renowned Brindavan Gardens has not only been constructed for the purpose of
irrigation but also to provide electricity to the Kolar Gold fields, that was
completed by July 1915.
Visvesvaraya once said that “the curse of our nation is laziness.“
and he realized that the industry is the backbone of accounts and he started
agricultural and horticultural shows to motivate the people towards them and took
up the rehabilitation of handloom industry. With the initiation of Visvesvaraya, State Bank of Mysore came
forward in 1913 for financing various
projects such as the Mysore Soap Factory, the Parasitoid laboratory, the Mysore
Iron and Steel Works in Bhadravathi , besides these many rice mills, oil mills,
sugarcane crushing mills and power looms sprang up everywhere and the
Industrialization picked up momentum. It
was Visvesvaraya who gave the Clarion call -Industrialize
or Perish.
Visvesvaraya was not only a neatly dressed and ready to work man but
also known for his discipline and tidiness, besides all these he was a straight
forward man. Visvesvaraya believed in the value of education and increased 6500
schools in Mysore state during his tenure
and also he is responsible for the establishment of Visvesvaraya College
of Engineering and the Bangalore Agricultural University. He achieved so much
in his six years of tenure as Dewan
where others could not have accomplished even in sixty years, for which people
have praised him as a “Magician” for the fast progress being done by him and
also compared him with “Bhishmacharya” for which Visvesvaraya replied “what a small man I am
before Bhishmacharya”?
Visvesvaraya is a fearless patriot, the arrangements at Durbar
pained him when he went there for the first time in 1910 during Dussera
festivities and revolted against the Europeans for their behaviour.
Visvesvaraya is a selfless man. In 1918, at the age of 57, he took voluntary
retirement and later he worked as a chairman giving advice for the restoration
of Bhadravathi iron and steel factory when it was in trouble. For his advice,
he earned more than hundred thousand rupees, but the whole amount he donated
for the establishment of “Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic Institute of
Bangalore. He also established the Maharani’s College in Mysore where the first
hostel for girls was opened. He also made arrangements for the government to
give scholarships to the intelligent students, to go to foreign countries for
studies.
Visvesvaraya is a man of commitment, he did not care the person even
if one is powerful who hindered the growth. Visvesvaraya argued that when they
must discuss a resolution upon that India should have a national government,
for which Englishmen objected. Visvesvaraya is a simple man, when the
government had arranged to have him carried in a chair where he could not go by
car when he went to Fatna, where he was called to study a plan for a bridge
across the River Ganga.
In 1955, when he was 94 years of age Visvesvaraya was honored with
“Bharath Ratna” or the “Gem of India”
by the government of India. Visvesvaraya’s memory remained “pristine” even when he was
almost a hundred years old. He could easily pick up the files related to the
River Musi about 50 years after it was tamed. Visvesvaraya passed away on 14
April 1962, when his age was 101 years old.
“Success in life depends on
action, that is on what you do, and not what you feel or think and the price of
success is hardwork. This was in fact exemplified by Visvesvaraya during his lifetime.”
He was by birth poor, by tradition a gentleman, by occupation an
engineer, by circumstances he is a Dewan, by ideology a scientist and by
efforts an industrialist. He had the conviction and strength of mind to act
accordingly. He had been a combination of endeavor, adventure, courage
intellect, capacity and strength. He led the country to the path of progress
and his each and every creation was considered mighty and magnificent. But, far
mightier and far more magnificent was the matchless Dreamer, Achiever and
Leader who paved the way to modern India.
