MOKSHAGUNDAM VISVESVARAYA
By K. SAMPATHGIRI RAO
“Always
performing works here, one should wish to live a hundred years. If you live
thus as a man, works will not cling to you–there is no other way.”
–Isha Upanishad, verse 2
Thus
lived and worked Visvesvaraya, fulfilling the injunction of the Upanishadic seer to the very letter, and dropping like a
ripe fruit from the branch of Life on 14th April 1962. He had completed his one
hundred years in September 1961. An expert engineer with a flair for bold and
original ideas, a great dreamer and withal a thoroughly practical man with an
eye to every minute detail, a tireless worker who had trained, himself with
rare self-discipline to work with clock-like regularity, a patriot of the
highest order who longed that his country should take an honoured
place alongside of advanced Western nations, and that quickly, he had to his
credit concrete achievements, in a measure unequalled by any in modern India.
Like
many great men he was far ahead of his generation, and was ill-served by many in his own; and yet he never lost his enthusiasms, nor ever
felt frustrated. To the end of his days he communicated, to those who came into
touch with him, some of his own enthusiasm and high purposefulness, to work
unceasingly for the rapid all-round development of
Visvesvaraya
was born in Muddenahalli, a village at the foot of
the Nandi Hills, the famous hill-station 40 miles to
the north of
By
dint of intelligence, industry and earnestness, he secured rapid promotions and
was earning Rs. 500, less than two years after entering service. He worked on
various assignments as Irrigation Engineer, designing water works and drainage
schemes for various towns in the then Bombay Presidency. He devised what is
known as the Block System of irrigation, to give water by rotation to minimize
wastage of water and yield better results to cultivators–a system commended by
the Irrigation Commission set up by the Government of India in 1901-3. ‘The
object is to distribute the benefits of irrigation works over a larger number
of villages and to concentrate the irrigation in each village within blocks of
specified units and in selected soils and situations.’ This system was successfully
worked in the
He devised a system of automatic gates at
He
was on leave preparatory to retirement and had planned to stay in Europe and
He
had, no doubt, by now formally retired from Government service, but it can be
truly said that his most active and fruitful career was just beginning, as
proved by subsequent events. His life in the service of the Bombay Government,
of which he spent nearly 14 years in
Visvesvaraya’s
second foreign tour, referred to above, was interrupted by an urgent call from
Another
interesting instance of how he jealously safeguarded the self-respect and
status of Indians may be given here. It was when he was Dewan
of Mysore. During the Dasara celebrations, one day
was set apart for a European Durbar in the Palace. The European guests were
provided with chairs, while the Indian officers and other guests had to squat
on the floor on the other side of the hall. Visvesvaraya resented this
arrangement, and a custom, which had prevailed for many years, was changed at
his instance, and chairs were thereafter provided to all invitees, European or
Indian.
It
is needless to add that Visvesvaraya completed the job assigned to him by the
Hyderabad Government to everybody’s satisfaction, and took further steps which
contributed to transform
About
this time (April 1909) a call came to him from V. P. Madhava
Rao, Dewan of Mysore, to join as Chief Engineer of
Almost
the first step he took was to insist on encouraging merit in making new
appointments: without being influenced by extraneous considerations. Committees
were appointed, at his instance, to make a plan for technical education, and,
again, at his instance, the Economic Conference was established in June 1911.
It functioned actively for many years, and worked in three sections:
Agriculture, Industries and Commerce, and Education. Public-spirited
non-officials were associated in the work of numerous committees. Visvesvaraya
had a passion for statistics and insisted on targets being clearly set in
respect of various development activities and speedy efforts being made to
reach them. He thus made the officers and people plan-minded. This was, indeed,
the beginning of planned efforts, ever made in India on any considerable scale,
and well may Visvesvaraya be hailed as the Father of Planned Economy.
He
was instrumental in taking over for the Mysore Government the administration of
the railway lines from the Madras and Southern Mahratta
Railway, opening new lines between Mysore and Arsikere,
Shimoga and Talguppa, and
constructing the light railway between Bangalore and Bangarapet,
looping the Kolar District. He planned the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam near
Mysore–the largest reservoir ever built in India up to that time. These
measures and his solicitude for the welfare of the people soon won for him the
unbounded confidence of the Maharaja and the love and respect of all citizens.
Today we are talking in terms of hundreds of crores,
but those were days when even a 2½ crore hydel
project like the Krishnaraja Sagar
(which was the original estimate) gave rise to misgivings; and it was only by
his persistent efforts that the scheme was put through.
Before
completing the work on the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam he had many hurdles to get over. The Madras
Government raised difficulties as they felt that the interests of cultivators
in the Cauvery basin in the Madras Presidency would
be adversely affected. Visvesvaraya had to take up the matter with the Viceroy
for arbitration and produce the relevant facts and figures. The award was in
his favour. He was a past master in carrying on such
negotiations. He was patient, ever courteous; he was sure of his facts and
figures and the justice of his cause; and so he generally won through.
His
Highness the Maharaja called upon him to take up the Dewanship,
in succession to T. Ananda Rao in November 1912–a
greatly coveted honour, as Mysore had already won a
reputation far and wide for its rich resources and its wise and benevolent
ruler. But with characteristic self-abnegation he suggested to His Highness
that “it would be sufficient” if he were appointed a Member of the Council in
charge of the Development Departments. He was not eager for power or status.
But as His Highness was insistent, he took over the Dewanship.
He referred to this in a speech, delivered soon after, in the following terms:
“It
will, I hope, not be regarded as an affectation of modesty on my part if I say
that all I have wanted is opportunity for work, and that thoughts of personal
advancement have not influenced my action in recent years.”
The
period of his Dewanship, which extended over six
years, may be truly called the golden age of the (then) Mysore State, a period
of unprecedented all-round development. Visvesvaraya insisted on high standards
of smartness and regularity on the part of officers in the discharge of their
duties, and sternly discountenanced slackness or shoddiness wherever he noticed
it. Officers had to be at their places when the offices opened, and, by making
surprise visits himself, he ensured that the age-old habits of irregularity
yielded to new ways of efficiency. Heads of Departments had also to make
themselves available at fixed hours to visitors. He saw to it, in addition,
that officers were smartly dressed, in Western style preferably, except for the
Mysore turban; and there are stories still current, of the ludicrous instances
of old-world officials, innocent of modern fashions, painfully adapting
themselves to these sartorial stipulations. Visvesvaraya always set the example
himself by his own immaculate dress, in which he was always to be seen by
visitors, whether in his office or at home.
His
inspections and tours were thoroughly businesslike, devoid of any pomp and
circumstance. He was a good listener, and was invariably courteous to all ranks
of people, official or non-official.
Visvesvaraya
was a hard taskmaster but claimed to be a democrat, in that he was always
anxious to secure public co-operation in respect of the development programmes
that he initiated. The State pulsated with a new life, and the stirrings of it
were noticeable in the remotest corners of the State.
Replying
to addresses presented by various organizations in Bangalore soon after he
assumed Dewanship, he said:
“In
all the addresses you have been pleased to read to me, you state what in your
opinion His Highness’s Government should do, or what I should do. But there is
not a word said of what you yourselves are going to do, not even one word of
co-operation on your part….I attach great importance to the co-operation of the
leaders of the public each in his Legitimate sphere of activity.”
That
villages should develop the spirit of self-help was a favourite
theme with him. During his regime he was able to get villagers to give their
personal labour, shram-dan,
in the repair of minor tanks, construction of village roads, putting up
school buildings, etc.
He promoted conferences and
committee meetings at all levels–State, District and Taluk;
and whenever he had occasion to speak he was never tired of placing before his
listeners relevant statistics, providing comparisons between India and advanced
countries like England, U. S. A., Canada, etc. One noticeable characteristic of
his speeches, however, was that they were entirely devoid of reference to the
past glories of India or to her great heritage–of “historics”,
as it has been mischievously termed!–the usual stock-in-trade of patriotic
speakers. He was concerned with the present and the future, and he was
impatient with the apathy and lethargy of our people, and would like to hustle
them along so that they might live fuller lives as intelligent citizens of the
modern world.
A
brief resume of what he achieved during the period of his Dewanship
may be set down here:
In
respect of education, which claimed top priority in his plans, he introduced
legislation for compulsory education by stages, took steps for
expansion of girls’ education, provided liberal grants for the institution of
scholarships for backward-class students; opened an agricultural school
providing practical courses; opened a mechanical engineering and a commercial
school: established the Chamarajendra Technical
Institute at Mysore, District Industrial Schools, and the College of
Engineering at Bangalore; and provided foreign scholarships for students to
study abroad. It was due to his persistent efforts that the Mysore university,
the first ever in an Indian State, was founded in 1916.
In
respect of industries, he was instrumental in initiating the following:
Sericulture Development; Sandalwood Oil Manufacture; the Soap Factory; the
Metal Factory; the Chrome Tanning Factory; The Central Industrial Workshop, and
District Workshops; Subsidies for Small and Cottage Industries; Hotels and
Guest Houses including those on the Nandi Hills;
Printing Presses; Loans for starting private Workshops; The Mysore Iron and
Wood Distillation Works; Railways Extension; and the growth of Hydro-electric
Power.
He
started investigations for the establishment of a port at Bhatkal.
He initiated measures to de-officialize local board
administration, and attended to town planning and to the provision of better
water supply and underground drainage for several towns. He introduced village
improvement schemes, and the Malnad Improvement
scheme, in particular. The following are other institutions he helped to
establish: The Bank of Mysore; The Mysbre Chamber of
Commerce; The Karnataka Sahitya Parishat; The Civil
and Social Progress Association; Public Libraries in Bangalore and Mysore; The
Century Club and a Ladies’ Club at Bangalore; and The Cosmopolitan Club of
Mysore.
He
revived the Competitive Examination for the Mysore Civil Service, which had
been in abeyance for some years, and confined it to Mysoreans
and those domiciled in Mysore for five years. He was also instrumental in
getting a new treaty signed, defining the relations between Mysore and the
British Government, superseding the old Instrument of Transfer, which raised
the status of Mysore. He also introduced reforms in the working of the
Representative Assembly, providing for a second session to consider the budget;
gave its members the privilege of putting interpellations, and electing four
(instead of two) members to the Legislative Council. The Legislative Council
was enlarged, so that it had a non-official majority. He initiated measures to
separate the Judicial and Executive powers –a matter that had been pressed for
decades by Indian leaders; activized the work of the
Economic Conference, and introduced activized the
work of the Economic Conference, and introduced ‘efficiency audit’ with a view
to preservation of discipline and efficiency in Government Departments.
Even
a bare recital of these measures gives one an idea of the stupendous magnitude
of his achievements and their many-sided character–a truly astonishing record
for any administrator of a State here or elsewhere. And it is also to be
remembered that the First World War was on, for over four years out of the six,
during which he was Dewan. He was obliged to carry on
under the cramping conditions–particularly in respect of industrial
development–of the exigencies of the war, for the prosecution of which, Mysore,
like other Indian States, made considerable contribution in men, money and
materials.
Efficiency, precision and public spirit were his watchwords and he attempted to infuse these virtues into the officials and non-officials with whom he came into contact. A letter issuing from his office, for instance, was often retyped over and over again, so that there was not the slightest flaw in it. He spared neither himself nor others and, in spite of a frail and even puny body, gave evidence of extraordinary alertness and physical energy. His regular diet habits and his daily walks kept him thoroughly fit and active. He was punctual to the minute in keeping his engagements. He set a high standard of moral rectitude which had a chastening effect on the administration, so that one rarely heard of corruption. He abhorred nepotism and jobbery of any kind in making appointments or bestowing other Government favours, and was so scrupulous that for private work he would not touch Government stationery or use Government conveyance, making a distinction between public duties and private work with a meticulousness that was almost fanatical. All this might sound fantastic to the pampered officials of the modern day, provided by a generous Government with vans and jeeps, and unaccustomed to the drawing of su.ch nice distinctions.
Visvesvaraya laid down
his office by the end of 1918. His Highness the Maharaja appointed a committee
headed by Sir Leslie Miller, the Chief Judge, to consider the question of
adopting in Mysore measures similar to those advocated by non-brahmin leaders in Maddras. “My
idea was”, writes Visvesvaraya in his Memoirs, “that by spreading
education rapidly and adopting precision methods in production and industry,
the State and its entire population would progress faster. There was never any
complaint that I favoured any particular community in
making appointments….I felt opposed to the establishment of the Miller
Committee…..After prolonged discussion and exchange of views for a considerable
time, I obtained His Highness’s consent to retire from service. Some time was
required to arrange and place all the new schemes in operation and other
contemplated developments in a safe condition before I actually laid down
office. So it was agreed some eight months beforehand that I should retire at a
convenient date at the end of the year. This arrangement was kept a closely
guarded secret.”
Thus
ended the career of Visvesvaraya’s services to the
country as a Government official in his 58th year. For over forty years
thereafter he continued to serve the country as a public-spirited citizen of
India in various capacities, but chiefly as an adviser on matters of industry
and engineering.
Though
he severed his official connection with Mysore, he continued to take active
interest in its development. His relations with the Maharaja continued to be
most cordial, and he was invited to be the chairman of the Board of Management
of the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works, and he served
in that capacity from 1923 to 1929. He did not draw the honorarium due to him
during this period amounting to about 2 lakhs. He
made over this amount for the founding of the Jayachamarajendra
Occupational Institute, politely turning down even the suggestion that his own
name should be given to it. The Institute has come to fill a great need in the
scheme of technical education and has become a model for polytechnics
subsequently started in all parts of the country. He also served as chairman of
the Cauvery Canal Committee to align and construct
the high level canal system from Krishnaraja Sagar; and as chairman of the committee for the new water
supply scheme to Bangalore. He attempted to start an Automobile industry in the
State, but without success. He was more successful, however, in getting the
Hindustan Aircraft factory started at Bangalore in 1940. In 1949–when he was
nearing ninety–he actively pushed forward a scheme for Rural Industrialization,
with arrangements to finance it through a Financial Corporation. This good
work, however, has not been followed up, the National Extension Services and
Block Development schemes having meanwhile come on the scene. It must be said
in this connection that Visvesvaraya’s scheme,
carefully thought out and complete in every detail, deserves to be given a
trial not only in Mysore State but all over the country. It may be calculated
to solve the problem of unemployment to a considerable extent, more effectively
perhaps than the present sporadic and unco-ordinated
efforts made in the field of rural industrialization under the aegis of the
Community Development projects, the Khadi Gramodyog Board and other similar bodies set up by the
Government.
Outside
Mysore he participated in, or presided over, the following committees after his
retirement as Dewan of Mysore: Bombay Technical and
Industrial Committee (1921-’22): New Capital (New Delhi) Enquiry Committee,
(1922); Indian Economic Enquiry Committee (1925); Backbay
Inquiry Committee (1926); Bangalore Political Disturbances Enquiry Committee
(1929), in the report of which he made an unanswerable plea for the setting up
of Responsible Government in Mysore; the Sukkur
Barrage Works Committee (1929 ); Bombay University Committee for promoting
Chemical Industries (1930); Irrigation Inquiry Committee, Bombay ( 1938); and
Flood Control Measures in Orissa (at the request of Gandhiji) (1939).
He
was also elected as chairman of the committee of the Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, in 1938 and thereafter successively for seven years till he
voluntarily relinquished that office. Ever since its inception in 1941 he was
the President of the All-India Manufacturers’ Organization till 1954.
He
also presided over the All-Parties Conference in 1922 convened in Bombay, to
suggest a way out of the situation created by the non-co-operation movement led
by Gandhiji, and to explore the possibilities of convening a Round Table
Conference. He was the President of the South Indian States’ Peoples’
Conference at Trivandrum in 1929 and gave an
important lead in the matter of assigning a proper status to the citizens and
the rulers of the Indian States in the contemplated Federal Constitution of
India. Though he could not agree to the methods of direct action and mass
political agitation launched by Gandhiji, he was by no means a reactionary and
was well in advance of the then ‘moderate’ opinion in the country.
In
1919 he went on a study tour round the world in company with several
industrialists and merchants. He stayed in London for a year to supervise the
publication of Reconstrncting India, which
came out in 1920. While in London he was offered a seat on the Council of the
Secretary of State for India by Mr. Montagu, but he
politely declined the offer.
He
again toured in foreign countries in 1935 to study the automobile industry and
in 1946 (when he was 85) as a leader of the delegation of the All-India
Manufacturers’ Organization, visiting numerous factories. A report, of nearly
300 pages, of this tour, was published, containing numerous suggestions of
practical value for the rapid development of Indian industries.
By
this time Visvesvaraya had popularized the slogan ‘Industrialize or Perish’.
Besides
numerous pamphlets and brochures or reports of which he was the author,
Visvesvaraya wrote and published three substantial books: Reconstructing
India (already mentioned), Planned Economy for India (1934) and Memoris of My Working Life (1951). The first
two books are packed with facts and figures and set down his views on the
reconstruction of India as an economically prosperous and industrially
developed nation. The third book is a plain and unvarnished account of his
public career as a Government official in Bombay and, later in Mysore, and of
his varied activities subsequently. The book is characteristic of him. It opens
with his 24th year, with not a word in it about his private life and its joys
and sorrows by way of introduction or even incidentally. Nor does it contain
any sidelights on the men and events that influenced him in the course of his
public life. It is, true, there is mention of great personalities like, Ranade, Gokhale, Tilak, Sri Krishnaraja
Wadiyar and others; but we are not, permitted even a
glimpse into his relationships with these great men. The narrative is severely
objective and factual. He has obviously said much less than he felt about any
person or any event. This reticence, and the style of strictly objective
expression, seemed to have become his second nature, the result of prolonged
self-discipline. In the course of his long public life he did come into contact
with all kinds of people–people who must have greatly hurt him or sorely tried
his patience. But his Memoirs contain not a word of comment or
condemnation of any person. No doubt, occasionally, it contains quotations from
appreciative and flattering references to himself from numerous high officials,
but these seem to be set down not out of vanity but to serve as an
example to his fellow countrymen so that they might profit by his experience.
In 1960–in his 100th year–he published A Brief Memoir of My Complete Working
Life. It is not priced and seems to have been intended for private
circulation. It sets down categorically the events of his long career, the
dates on which he delivered University Convocation Addresses in four Indian
Universities, the dates of his six foreign travels and their purpose, the dates
on which titles and honours, degrees (honoris causa) from
eight Indian Universities, were conferred on him; and the list of his
publications. It is a kind of logbook rendering an account of his life and
prepared in his characteristically methodical way.
As
evidence of his mental alertness at that advanced age, a short paragraph
containing a pointed observation may be quoted from, the book. After tracing
the history of the Bank of Mysore and how it helped the businessmen of Mysore,
he writes:
“The
Bank has similarly been of great help to the Krishnarajendra
Mills in Mysore and the important coffee industry of the Malnad.
It is a matter for extreme regret that there should now be a proposal to
destroy its identity and make it a subsidiary of the State Bank of India. It is
likely to prove a great disservice to Mysoreans.”
Visvesvaraya
had the habit of maintaining scrapbooks in which newspaper cuttings, and
extracts from books or magazines he read, were systematically compiled. Some of
the scrapbooks contained compilations relating to public questions and some to
general and literary matters. The latter he published in 1957 in book form
giving it the title Sayings–Wise and Witty. The extracts bear evidence
of the range of his literary taste and his sense of humour–a
trait not usually attributed to him.
Visvesvaraya’s
Herculean efforts to modernize Mysore during the nine years he was associated
with its administration as Chief Engineer and Dewan
have been already referred to. It is true that he succeeded in a large measure
in creating a new life, or its outward signs, during his regime. But it must
not be forgotten that he had his severe critics who condemned his ‘wasteful
expenditure’ and ambitious plans. He was even charged with doing things for
show though in sober truth he husbanded the resources of the State most
carefully and was ever watchful to effect the utmost economy in the expenditure
on Public Works. Showiness was utterly foreign to his nature. No Dewan was so unassuming and mild as he was. Again, there
were the irreverent scoffers even among the officials of the State who looked
upon his schemes as a huge joke, and his plans as so many fads. There were,
again, others among them who knew the things that would please him and tried to
make an impression on him by external habiliments or the reeling off of
statistics cooked up for the occasion in reply to his invariable queries.
Visvesvaraya, in spite of his supreme intelligence, was not always a shrewd
judge of men and was easily taken in; and when he discovered that he had been
imposed upon, very likely he must have felt sorrow rather than anger. People
who moved closely with him have testified that they have never seen him lose
his temper–an extraordinary thing to say about any human being! What would
cause indignation in others simply found expression, in his case, in some drily humorous remark, which often quenched his hearers.
His
impersonal, passionless and intensely intellectual attitude was both his strength
and his weakness. One felt awed in his presence, but not drawn to get into
closer communion with him, unless, of course, one belonged to his intimate
circle. Yet he was extremely considerate, and gave frequent evidence of a
tender heart that felt for others. Of his many deeds of charity, of monthly
pensions to dependents, poor relations and needy students, the world could know
little; he gave and helped so quietly. His reticence and intellectual vigour and moral elevation left him on a lonely eminence.
He could not evoke widespread and deep emotional response from the masses: he
was not made to be a mass leader. But the people admired and adored him; and
his portraits could be seen on the walls of village homes in the Mysore State
long before the portraits of other national leaders which became popular in
later years.
Gandhi
and Visvesvaraya had many things in common: purposefulness in life; unfailing
courtesy; personal austerity; a passionate regard for tidiness and punctuality;
a capacity for untiring work. But the differences in their outlook on life, and
approach to national problems, presented a striking contrast. Gandhi
personified in an unmistakable way the people of India and particularly the
poor; Visvesvaraya appeared to be outlandish. Gandhi was not enamoured of machinery and the complex industrial
organization of the West and bent all his energies to the revival of the Charkha and cottage industries; Visvesvaraya, though he was
aware of the importance of village industries, was an ardent admirer of the
technological advances made in Western countries and was never tired of holding
up their example for our emulation. Gandhiji’ spoke of Ramarajya, of the Gita and of God; Visvesvaraya did
not refer to the past but was fully engrossed with the present and the future,
and his approach was thoroughly secular. Gandhi always harped on Satya and
Ahimsa; Visvesvaraya was always speaking of precision and efficiency.
Each
was unique in his own way: both of them achieved mighty things in their
lifetime. Both of them were impatient to lift the masses of India out of the
poverty and degradation into which they had sunk, and make them strong and
self-reliant. The seeming antithesis between them (and, indeed, Gandhiji seemed
to be the antithesis of almost every other Indian leader, in a way, being in a
class by himself) was due to the difference of emphasis on factors that each
sincerely believed would help build up the manhood of India and a fuller life
for the Indian people. Both of them dedicated all their life to the great task
of national regeneration, each in his own sphere, and according to his own
aptitude and light.
India
had need of both of them during her period of emergence as a free nation, and
will profit by their inspiring message and shining example for a long long time to come.