Sir M Visvesvaraya, one of many architects of contemporary Karnataka, had a remarkably fashionable perspective, together with his opinions on social points such because the therapy of widows and the caste system, based on historian Aparajith Ramnath.
Ramnath was talking throughout a dialogue on his e book Engineering a Nation: The Life and Profession of M. Visvesvaraya at Bangalore Worldwide Centre in Indiranagar on Monday. The 740-page e book printed by Penguin Books got here out in September. It seeks to discover the less-known aspects of the lifetime of Sir Visvesvaraya, a civil engineer and administrator who served because the nineteenth dewan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918.
In a dialog moderated by Dr Jahnavi Phalkey, director of the Science Gallery Bengaluru, Ramnath highlighted influences in Visvesvaraya’s outlook, together with his journey to Japan, in addition to shut associations with organisations such because the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha and the Deccan Sabha. He had additionally been concerned within the creation of the Deccan Membership, which had each Englishmen and Indians as its members.
Within the context of the varied figures that Visvesvaraya related to at one time, Ramnath famous, “It was fairly uncommon for an Indian colonial bureaucrat to be snug speaking to individuals who may very well be seen as critics, nevertheless average.”
Ramnath additionally famous that the sector of engineering had reached a zenith by the Twenties and Nineteen Thirties worldwide, with Indian engineers going as distant as Uganda. A number of heads of state world wide had been themselves engineers, he stated.
On Visvesvaraya’s tenure as dewan, he stated, ” The apparent issues are very well-known, such because the Krishna Raja Sagara dam and Bhadravathi ironworks. Different issues which are much less emphasised embody his actual deal with main schooling. His pal and mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhale had tried to desk a main schooling invoice within the Imperial Legislative Council, however it was not accepted.”
Ramnath additionally stated Visvesvaraya had even written a draft Structure for India beneath dominion rule (much like the techniques of Canada and Australia on the time), though his identify was by no means placed on it.
