Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya 61st Death Anniversary: Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, also known as MV or M Visvesvaraya, was the first Indian civil engineer, 19th Diwan of Mysore, and a statesman. He was born on 15 September 1861 and passed away on 14 April 1962. He began his formal education in Bangalore, earned a BSc from the University of Madras, and then earned a Diploma in Civil Engineering (DCE) from the University of Bombay via the College of Engineering, Pune, the third-oldest engineering college in Asia.
In 1955, he was conferred India’s highest honor, the Bharat Ratna. King George V knighted him as a Knight Commander of the British Indian Empire in recognition of his contributions to society. In his honor, the 15th of September is celebrated as Engineers’ Day in India, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.
Let us examine some lesser-known facts about India’s first civil engineer on the anniversary of his demise.
Interesting facts about Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya:
- M Visvesvaraya was born into a Tamil Brahmin household in the Karnataka village of Muddenahalli, Mysore. His appellation, Mokshagundam, is derived from the Andhra Pradesh village of the same name, where his ancestors lived.
- As an employee of the Indian Irrigation Commission, he designed and implemented an advanced irrigation system. He also invented and patented the automatic floodgate technology known as the Block system.
- He served as both the chief architect and engineer at the Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) Dam on the Kaveri River in Mandya, Karnataka. The dam was named after the sovereign of Mysore, Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.
- Visvesvaraya believed that in order for India to prosper economically, it required large-scale businesses, factories, and steel mills. He disagreed with Mahatma Gandhi’s assertion that India could achieve self-sufficiency solely through rural or domestic industries.
- Visvesvaraya agreed that modern education was essential for the development of a nation, and to that end, he helped establish Mysore University in 1916.
- He devoted much of his life to developing the infrastructure for Mahboob Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, and then Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, the sovereign of Mysore.
- After the 1908 Musi River flood, which claimed thousands of lives, Visvesvaraya assisted in the construction of a drainage and sanitation system that made Hyderabad flood-free in the future.
- He was a rationalist who was punctual and dedicated to his task and had a distinct vision for the future of India and was an ardent patriot.
- He was also known as the Father of the Modern State of Mysore.
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Career
- Assistant Engineer in Bombay, Nasik, Khandesh (primarily in Dhule), and Pune in 1885.
- 1894: Services lent to the Municipality of Sukkur, Sind, designed and constructed municipal waterworks.
- 1896: Employed in Surat as an Executive Engineer.
- 1897-1899: Assistant Supervising Engineer in Pune; travelled to China and Japan in 1898; Executive Engineer for Irrigation in Pune in 1899.
- The Sanitary Engineer of Bombay and a member of the Sanitary Board testified before the Indian Irrigation Commission in 1901.
- 1903–1905: Designed and constructed automatic gates patented by him at Lake Fife Storage Reservoir, introduced a new system of irrigation known as the “Block System” in 1903, and was on special duty in 1905.
- In 1907 and 1908, he served as Supervising Engineer and travelled to Egypt, Canada, the United States, and Russia.
- In 1909, he served as the Consulting Engineer for Hyderabad/Nizam State, supervising and executing engineering projects on the Musi River and in the same year, he retired from British service and became Chief Engineer and Secretary to the Mysore government.
- He held the positions of Diwan of Mysore, Public Works Department, and Railway in 1913.
- He served on the Board of Directors of Tata Steel from 1927 to 1955.
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Awards
- Visvesvaraya was made Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1911. (CIE).
- Visvesvaraya was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire during his time as Diwan of Mysore in 1915. (KCIE).
- 1955: Bharat Ratna, honorary membership of the London Institution of Civil Engineers, fellowship from the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore), and several honorary degrees from eight universities in India, including DSc, LLD, and Dlitt.
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya Recognition
- Belagavi’s Visvesvaraya Technological University (to which most engineering colleges in Karnataka are affiliated)
- Bangalore’s University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering
- Bangalore’s Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology
- Nagpur’s Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology
- Visvesvaraya Hostel, IIT BHU (Varanasi)
- His alma mater, College of Engineering, Pune, erected a statue in his honour Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, Bengaluru.
- Two Metro stations in India, one on the Purple Line in Bengaluru (Sir M Visveshwaraya Station, Central College) and the other on the Pink Line in Delhi. (Sir Vishweshwaraiah Moti Bagh)
Inspiring quotations by Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya:
- Caste disputes and village factions are a waste of mental energy.
- Work performed with greater knowledge, skill, capacity, or ambition is typically rewarded proportionally.
- It is preferable to exercise than to rust.
- “To create a nation, one must first build a good citizen. The majority of citizens should be efficient, of decent character, and have a moderately strong sense of duty.”
- In most cases, hard work conducted with discipline will keep the worker healthy and prolong his life.
- “Remember, even if your job is simply to sweep a railway crossing, it is your responsibility to keep it so clean that no other crossing in the world is cleaner than yours.”
- “No individual can influence the destiny of another. Your success and contentment are dependent upon you. Think independently and formulate a life strategy.”
- “To provide genuine service, you must all possess something that cannot be bought or measured in monetary terms.”
