Dignitaries on and off the dais.
Sir MV was a legend in his life time and the legacy continues. So, I should better skip his biographical details here and focus on his greatness as a human being. We have here with us today many distinguished personalities who in most certainty know more about the great Sir MV than I. But for the young people gathered here today, the student fraternity, who are probably yet to read about his great achievements I wish to share just a few important facts about the legend. It is rather difficult to talk about his greatness given the constraint of time. And once started it is more difficult to stop. He has painted a broad canvas with the lovely colours of values, vision, discipline, diligence and ethics in which one loses the sense of time altogether.
Early years and graduation:
Sir Mokshagundam Vishveshwaraiah was born in 1861 in Muddenahalli, Chikkaballapur Taluk, Kolar District in the then Mysore state, to Srinivas Shastry and Venkatalakshmamma. His ancestors hailed from Mokshagundam, which is an Agrahaara, an abode to Brahman families, in Siddanur village, Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh. Engineers day is celebrated as an honor and respect to Sir MV and it is a reminder to us engineers to follow even a few of his principals.
Srinivas Sastry was a Sanskrit scholar and an authority on the Hindu Scriptures. While on a pilgrimage in Andhra Pradesh he breathed his last leaving a 15 year old Vishveshwaraih and his mother behind. Vishweshvaraiah completed his lower secondary education in Chikkaballapur. The helpless widow had no means to bring up her intelligent son. It was then that her brother H. Ramaih, who was in Bangalore, took Vishveshwaraiah under his care. Vishveshwaraih completed his high school in Wesleyan Mission High School in 1875.
He went to Central College and to see himself through college he tutored the sons of Muddaih who was one of the ministers to the Maharaja of Mysore. He completed his BA in 1881. He later completed his Engineering in the College of Engineering in Poona in 1883 and stood first. He was then 22 years of age.
The greatness of a man can be seen in the small things he does, the way he treats his subordinates and those with fewer privileges. Only a great soul can completely understand another great soul. So, let us try to understand his greatness through his simplicity, in the everyday little things he did. So, I have collected here anecdotes which tell of the small things he did with profound intent and greatness.
Ingenuity and ethics:
Throughout his life many incidents have been recorded which tell us about his ingenuity and his strong code of ethics. One of these incidents was when he was posted in Poona. The river Moosa provided drinking water to a military station at Karkee and to Poona. During summers this river would dry up and during the rains it would overflow. Karkee would get filtered water and Poona unfiltered water. The water was insufficient for the growing city of Poona. Lake Fife stored water from the river Moosa. One way to meet the need of drinking water was to increase the height of waste water weir. But the weight and pressure of the water this wall could not withstand. It was Sir Vishveshwaraiah’s invention that was installed as an automatic gate which would open and allow surplus water above 8 feet to flow through and close when the level of water fell below 8 feet. He obtained a patent for his invention but he refused any royalties as he thought it was unfair as he was in the service of the government.
Simplicity and self respect:
His food habits were simple too. He loved the famous Nanjangud banana and ate them at lunch. He displayed discipline right from the way he partook his meals to the way he handled his job. He never ate a spoon less or a spoon more and his routine was like clockwork.
However, he dressed immaculately. There used to be a joke which went around in those days. C. Rajagoplachari, the independence activist and the last Governor-General of India, used to tell Sir MV that he had a doubt whether the clothes Vishveshwaraiah wore were pressed before he wore them or after he put them on.
When he was the Dewan of Mysore it was the custom that the Indian officials will be seated on mattresses on the floor and the Englishmen would be seated on chairs in the durbar during Dussera. Sir MV was a little peeved by this and he walked out of the gathering. The next year, during the same durbar, the Maharaja of Mysore saw to it that chairs were provided for the Indian officials as well.
Constant drive for excellence:
Sir MV noticed “waste” in different spheres of social life. Interpreting society through the lens of productivity, he made an unusual observation: “Mental energy is wasted in caste disputes and village factions.” For him, caste inequality was wrong as it did not allow for the optimal use of individual energies toward building a society. A popular anecdote has it that he exclaimed, “What a waste!” when he beheld the Jog Falls in Shimoga district. Hydro-electric power could be harnessed at the site of the water falls. Aesthetics had to be subordinated to considerations of utility.
He never used the office for personal gains. As old folklore goes, he used two lamps to read after nightfall; one which was provided by the state he used for his official work, after which he would put off, and the other lamp was his own which he used to do his personal work. In this context I’d like to tell you that the Mysore Palace was the first building to be electrified in India.
Swadeshi and Technology:
Gandhiji initiated the Swadeshi movement to discourage all use of goods made by the British. But Sir MV liked using those articles manufactured by the British, partly because he admired technology and partly because it improved quality of life. His stand was that a country like India with a huge population could not sustain itself on cottage industries alone. While Gandhiji said “Industrialize and perish”, Sir MV iterated “Industrialize or perish”. We see two great men with different perspectives, nonetheless paragons in walking their talk.
His resignation:
When he was appointed the Dewan of Mysore by the Maharaja of Mysore, he invited all his relatives to dinner one day and told them never to come to him for favours from the state through him. He disliked nepotism and favouritism.
As Dewan of Mysore all affairs were running smoothly and just when times were shiny and bright, dark storm clouds gathered. There was a slight disagreement between the Maharaja of Mysore and Sir MV over the appointment of six probationary commissioners. The list sent by Sir MV was not honoured by the Maharaja and it became a caste issue later on. This led to a rift between them and eventually Sir MV’s resignation. This, for Sir MV, was one of the saddest events in his life. Not because he would lose his office but that he would no longer be able to serve his country through his acumen. But he was not a man to mope over the past. He applied himself to the sphere of education to set right the imbalance between the communities divided by education.
He insisted on following the Japanese secret of education which applied “the cultivation of the moral character, the development of the spirit of loyalty and patriotism and the acquisition of knowledge necessary for practical occupations”, which is close to the purushartha concept in India; dharma, artha, kama and moksha.
Industries and Banks:
Today we have the State Bank of Mysore, Mysore Sandal Oil Factory, Mysore Soap Factory, Mysore University and the great Krishnaraja Sagar Dam in Mandya District because of him, just to mention a few milestones because of time constraint. Behind every institution and organization that he initiated there lies the saga of his effort and tremendous motivation, again which cannot be delved into because of the time constraint.
Here I’d like to mention that if one has seen the great KRS reservoir we can say that his scientific mind was not devoid of aesthetics which is displayed in the beauty of the Brindavan Gardens there.
IIT Muddenahalli:
And with great happiness I discovered that there is an Indian Institute of Technology being constructed at Muddenahalli, the very birth place of Sir MV. It may be completed in 2012.
Passing:
He could climb the Nandi Hills in 45 minutes at the age of 73 and read without spectacles even till he was 100.
Serving his country diligently he had become as fragile as sandalwood. He passed away not from any ailment, but, out of sheer weariness of body and spirit at the age of 102 years in 1962.
Can we emulate the greatness of this great son of India? As engineers if we do, he will continue to live among us.
I thank our beloved Principal for giving me this opportunity to talk about Sir MV. It has been an immense pleasure. Thank you, Sir.
