Engineers' Day

It was the 15^th of September. Just an ordinary day for me, or I did not know it was a special day rather. My cell phone rung in the morning indicating the arrival of some message. But I did not bother to see what it was for a pretty long time. When at last I did, I found that it had been from one of my friends and he was wishing me on ‘the engineers’ day’. So, September 15 is the Engineers’ Day. Poor me, I did not know. Being an engineer myself, I ought to have known. Really I knew there was a day observed as Engineers’ Day in our country, but about the date I was quite oblivious. I knew also that it was the birth day of a great engineer of India namely, Sir M. Visweswarayya. Apart from this, I did not know anything about this great engineer and statesman of India. So, I decided to gather more information on this. And a suumary of what I could found out is given below in the hope of benefitting a majority of the engineer fraternity (and others of course) who are not sure who Sir M. Visweswarayya was.

Sir Mokshagundam Visweswarayya was an eminent engineer and stateman of India. He was awarded Indian Republic’s highest honour the Bharat Ratna in 1955. He was also knighted by the British. 15^th September is observed every year in India as Engineers’ Day to commemorate this great engineer. This year it is his 150^th birth anniversary.

He was born to a humble family in 1860 in Muddenahalli which was part of the then Princely state of Mysore. His family name Mokshagundam is actually the name of a village in Andhra Pradesh where from his ancestors migrated to Mysore. He studied in schools at Chikballapura and Bangalore, earned a B.A. degree from Central College, Bangalore in 1881 and then studied Civil engineering at the College of Science, Pune. After having graduated in 1883, Visweswarayya started his career as an Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department, Government of Bombay. He continued there for 25 years putting in his valuable service for the public. Then there was a short period when he worked for the Nizam of Hyderabad. There he was successful in designing and implementing a flood control system to protect the city of Hyderabad from the floods. It fetched him much acclaim and he became a veritable celebrity.

He became the Chief Engineer of Mysore in 1909. Three years later he was inducted as the Devan ( or first minister) of the Princely State of Mysore. He initiated the industrialization of Mysore (now, the State of Karnataka). His famous slogan was industrialize or perish. Of the many, the Bhadravati Iron Works and the Krishnarajasagar Dam across the Cauvery river were two of Visweswarayyas major achievements.

Memories of of my working life, Reconstructing India, Planned economy of India are some of the books written by him. When he was the Dewan of Mysore he was knighted by the British and he was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1955.