• The Wadiyar Kings of Mysore, post 1799, made significant contributions in education, industry, aerospace, women empowerment, science, culture, hospitals, primary education and setting up of HAL/IISc. In a way, they laid the foundation for Bengaluru becoming an IT hub.

Mysore is the best administered state in the world: John Sankey, the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.

It appears that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s is totally ignorant of royal families’ contributions to uplift their people despite British rule. 

A classic example is of the Wadiyar kings of Mysore especially after 1799 (death of Tipu Sultan), rulers in Mysore began to take an active role in the general administration and the influence of British got limited to just office, while rulers share in the daily administration of their state expanded. They also executed many people friendly welfare schemes.

The contributions of Wadiyar kings are so significant that Karnataka (especially Old Mysore region comprising of nine districts including Bengaluru) has been challenging other regions like Mumbai (Bombay Presidency, governed by British) and Delhi (direct British rule since 1803) in terms of jobs, industrial growth, average salaries disbursed/employee benefits, tax revenues.

Wadiyar kings, after the kingdom was restored in 1799, gave top priority to food security hence focused on irrigation, education and facilitated private sector to set up industries. Now these are the bedrock on which Karnataka-Bengaluru has achieved or is achieving global recognition.

Many in the country are curious as to how Information Technology (IT) revolution started in India, that too in Bengaluru. For an answer, one needs to go back in time. 

It all happened when Wadiyar kings facilitated growth in science education, encouraged aerospace, setting up of manufacturing industries, especially machine tool sector. This encouragement encouraged congregation or accumulation of scientific manpower into the then Mysore state, leading to mushrooming of educational institutions which led to a natural progression for industries to find home in Karnataka. This is how IT revolution started in Karnataka, India.

The development in Karnataka or Mysore state is not an overnight phenomenon. It started in 1799. The statement by John Sankey, the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain is testimony.

“Mysore is the best administered state in the world,” John Sankey, the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and a human rights activist, is said to have declared during the first Round Table Conference in London in 1930, one of three peace conferences called by the British Crown to discuss constitutional reforms in India. While Sankey’s claim might sound like hyperbole, Mysore did indeed make exceptional progress from 1881 to 1950, the year monarchy was abolished, thus laying the foundation for the emergence of Karnataka as an industrial, and more recently, an IT and startup hub.

Here are details of contributions of Wadiyar kings post restoration of their kingdom in 1799.  

1. Maharaja Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar

Post 1799, esp. after a series of wars Anglo-Mysore wars, there was food scarcity and a health crisis. Maharaja Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar focused on irrigation so as to bring more area under cultivation. He built lakes, ponds and check dams across rivers and created huge land banks.

It was he who popularised the concept of Koduge (donated land) and Halli (village) concept where hardcore agriculturists/horticulturists were identified to grow food grains to cater to the public. This saw tremendous success and the Mysore state achieved food security.

Next was the cultural development. The then king encouraged literary and cultural pursuits. Mysore style of classical music, painting saw the light of the day.

Maharaja Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar took up Kannada literature, as he was scholar in Kannada and encouraged scholars to settle down in his kingdom.

Besides art and culture, education received impetus and the Raja’s Free School established by Maharaja Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar in 1833 went on to evolve into the present Maharaja’s College. It was amongst the earliest English schools established in a princely state in British India. 

2. Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar X

Chamarajendra Wadiyar X is famously associated Swami Vivekananda. The maharaja and his wife had a private audience with Swami Vivekananda which led to the setting up educational institutions and also taking up women education and empowerment.

It is said the interaction gave birth to setting up of the Mysore Representative Assembly in 1881, the first elected body in the country. This was the first modern, democratic legislative institution of its kind in princely India.

The royal couple (Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar X and Maharani Kempananjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana) is credited, amongst others with funding Swami Vivekananda’s journey to Chicago in 1893.  

3. Maharani Kempananjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana

Following the death of Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar X, his wife Maharani Kempananjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana took over as the Regent, as her son was a minor. She ruled for around eight years, and is credited to giving shape to Mysore state’s education, irrigation, healthcare and economic activities in all the nine districts ruled by them. She pledged family jewels to fund many people friendly projects like Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) and VaniVilasa Sagar dam.

The state saw mushrooming of higher education institutions dedicated to women and girls. She was the main cause for the rise of number of primary, middle, high schools and Colleges for girls.

Land for IISc, funds for capital expenditure & an annual grant was provided by Maharani Vani Vilasa. 

It was during Maharani Kempananjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana rule that educating people was considered indispensable for modernisation. She set up several higher education institutions across the state. The most significant project the rulers got involved with was with Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata to set up Indian Institute of Science (IISc), which has emerged as a world class research institute. Here Maharani Kempananjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana played a key role by offering land and financial assistance.

Vani Vilasa Dam. 

She was instrumental in taking up construction of Vani Vilasa Sagar dam in the Chitradurga district, under the Marikanive irrigation project, which now provides irrigation facilities to around one lakh acres. The Maharani also encouraged setting up Asia’s first hydroelectric project at Shivanasamundram and also took up drinking water supply to Bangalore city from the Hesaraghatta Reservoir.

4. Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV

Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV is famously called a philosopher-king, who was seen by Paul Brunton as living the ideal expressed in Plato's Republic. Maharaja has been compared to Emperor Ashoka by the English Statesman, Lord Samuel. Mahatma Gandhi called him Rajarshi, or "saintly king", and his kingdom was described by his followers as Rama Rajya, an ideal kingdom akin to the rule of Lord Rama. 

He supported Yoga by setting up the Palace Yogashala with T Krishnamacharya as its head.

Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV was an accomplished musician, and like his predecessors, patronised fine arts. For these reasons, his reign is often described as the 'Golden age of Mysore'.

Maharaja contributed immensely to the setting up of the Banaras Hindu University and was the its first chancellor. He also built the University of Mysore, which is attributed to be the first university chartered by an Indian State.

The Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore, which was initiated during his mother's tenure as regent, was functionally started during his reign, with the gift, in 1911, of 371 acres (1.5 square km) of land and a donation of funds. In 1934, the Government of Mysore gifted 10-acre land in Bangalore to Nobel laureate Sir C. V. Raman for the creation of a research institute, the Raman Research Institute (RRI).

During the reign of Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, Mysore state (comprising Bangalore, Chitradurga, Hassan, Kadur, Kolar, Mysore, Mandya, Shimoga, and Tumkur) saw an all-round industrial development.

Following are the contributions made by Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV in his forty-year rule: 

1. Minto Eye Hospital Bangalore, established in 1903, is among the world's oldest specialised ophthalmology hospitals. 

2. Bangalore was the first city in India to get electric street lights in 1905.

3. State Bank of Mysore established in 1913.

4. Mysore Agricultural Residential School, Bangalore, established in 1913.

5. University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore was initially established in 1899 by Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV's mother Maharani Vani Vilas Sannidhana,  with an initial grant of 30 acres as an experimental agricultural station.

6. Kannada Sahitya Parishat, Bangalore, was established in 1915.

7. Formation of Mysore Social Progress Association in 1915 to empower weaker sections of society.

8. Appointment of Sir Lesley Miller in 1918 to look into problems of backward classes and recommended reservation of 25% of jobs in the Government to non-Brahmins.

9. School of Engineering, Bangalore, later UVCE, established in 1917.

10. Mysore State Railway (MSR) between 1916 and 1918, opened 232 miles of railway to traffic. By 1938 MSR had 740 miles of railway track.

11. The Mysore Chamber of Commerce established in 1916.

12. Government Sandalwood Oil Factory, Bangalore, established in 1917.

13. Wood Distillation Factory, Bhadravathi in 1918.

14. Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISL), Bhadravathi was started as Mysore Iron Works in 1923.

15. Mysore Paper Mills, Bhadravati, established in 1936.

First Indian state to enfranchise women (1923) - Long before women in America and other parts of the world were allowed to vote, they were given the right to do so in Mysore. He criminalized untouchability, banned child marriage for girls under the age of 8 years m gave special importance to girl’s education, scholarship for widowed girls and donated Rs 60 lakhs each year for spastic children.

Compulsory primary education - Primary education was made compulsory for everyone and in 1915, public schools were directed to begin admitting Dalit children in an effort to give up caste discrimination.

Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam, established in 1924

KR Circle, Mysuru lit up during Dussehra.  

Mysore Medical College was established in 1924. In 1925 more than 100 acres of land was donated to the establishment of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). Established in 1927 Krishna Rajendra Hospital Mysore is attached to Mysore Medical College. Vanivilas Women and Children Hospital, Bangalore was established in 1934.

The kingdom’s total expenditure on education increased from Rs.6,99,000 in 1902 to Rs.46,80,000 in 1927. A total of 8,000 schools were running in Mysore at that time with 515,000 pupils.

5. Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar

With India becoming Independent on August 15 1947, monarchy ended in Mysore too. Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar voluntarily surrendered his kingdom which became a part of the Independent India. A few days prior to the declaration of Independence, the Maharaja executed an Instrument of Accession on August 9, 1947, whereby the State acceded to the Dominion of India.

For his seven year rule, Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, is often referred to as the Philosopher King, who focussed on preserving heritage while fostering progress of Mysore State.

In the first two years of his reign the Maharaja toured the districts of the State, acquainting himself with the local needs and tried to meet them. He announced a special grant of Rs. two lakhs for the improvement of the malanad area (districts of Shimoga and Chikmagaluru, as also the construction of a new general hospital and of a regulated market at Davangere, and a water-supply scheme for Chitradurga.

During his tenure, one field that witnessed phenomenal development was in education and setting up of modern industries. In education, he established an Occupational Institute or Polytechnic and an Institute of Indian Medicine in Bangalore. It was not a normal time, and a considerable portion of the State’s attention and energy were commissioned by the suzerain power for material aid in World War2.

He was instrumental in setting up modern industries to cater to the WorldWar2. About 26 industrial concerns from Mysore were engaged in the manufacture of war requirements. The training of 2,500 war technicians was arranged. Land, buildings, and timber required from the state were placed at the disposal of the army. In 1942 the National War Front was introduced in the State to disseminate war information and maintain public morale. In June 1943 the Maharaja opened a War Services Exhibition in Bangalore which attracted 5 lakhs of visitors in eight days.

Mysore Palace attracts large number of tourists  

Birth of HAL

Among his many contributions to Mysore and India was the birth of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Dr Deepti Navaratna, a classical dancer and neuroscientist who has written the book The Maverick Maharaja, explains the story behind HAL’s creation. 

The author describes the need for a fierce nationalist and visionary leader to bring together multiple interests for the benefit of their country. In this case, William Douglas Pawley, a notable businessman and US ambassador, was part of the Chinese Air Force’s First American Volunteer Group during World War II. After aiding in the creation and assembly of aircraft for combat and defeating the Japanese occupation of China, Pawley was searching for a home base in India. Simultaneously, entrepreneur Walchand Hirachand was looking to expand his company’s offerings. 

At this time, a 21-year-old Wadiyar was crowned King of Mysore and recognized the opportunity to establish an enterprise that would lead aerospace research and manufacturing in India.

Thus, Hindustan Aircraft (HAL) was established in 1940, reportedly conceived mid-air during a flight back from America. According to this TOI report, “The King gave 700 acres of land free for the HAL factory with an investment by the state of Rs 25 lakhs in shares.”

Today, HAL is a leading aerospace company in India, providing design, development, and manufacturing services for aircraft, helicopters, engines, avionics, and accessories.

The residents of Mysore State were protected during the war by large scale air raid precaution arrangements and formation of Civic Guards. Their economic interests were looked after by measures to prevent inflation, grant of dearness allowance to official and industrial labour, and securing food supplies.

The phenomenal growth of Education under Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar’s short rule may be seen by the growth of the Government’s Educational grant from Rs 54 lakhs in 1940 to Rs 2.75 crore in 1948. The number of Primary Schools rose from 6,400 to 9,800 and pupils from 2.31 lakhs to 4.80 lakhs.

On the irrigation front, 36 major works, costing Rs 95 lakhs and bringing an additional 52,000 acres under irrigation, were taken up, and in order to expedite these works a separate Chief Engineer for irrigation was appointed. The works of other departments, like medical, health, police, judicial, agricultural, industrial and rural welfare also saw great strides under his rule.

Author is a Bengaluru based journalist. eSamskriti.com is grateful to him for sharing.

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