Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1861–1962) was arguably the most famous Indian engineer of the twentieth century. But he was also much more. His legacies as public administrator, constitutional analyst, and development thinker continue to shape life in India. They include innovations in irrigation, multipurpose dams, and piped water supply systems, technical institutions, industrial enterprises, and transformed cityscapes.
In his new book, Engineering a Nation, Aparajith Ramnath provides a vivid portrait of Visvesvaraya’s eight-decade-long public career, based on in-depth archival research, field visits, and interviews. To explore Visvesvaraya’s life, he argues, is to explore afresh the emergence of the Indian nation itself.
For THT's monthly talk titled Sir M Visvesvaraya: The Quest to Engneer a Nation, Aparajith Ramnath will be in conversation with R Gopu and Ashwin Prabhu where they will examine issues like: How do we assess Visveswaraya's technical achievements against those of his professional contemporaries? What were the intellectual and professional influences that shaped him? In what ways did his background as an engineer mould his conception of economic development?
The online Talk in English is at 5.30 pm IST on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
About the Speakers:
Aparajith Ramnath is a historian of science, technology and business. He is the author of two books—Engineering a Nation: The life and career of M. Visvesvaraya (1861–1962) (Penguin/Viking, 2024) and The Birth of an Indian Profession: Engineers, Industry, and the State, 1900-47 (Oxford University Press, 2017). He is an associate professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University.
Aparajith was educated at BITS Pilani, Oxford University, and Imperial College London. He has been an International Scholar of the Society for the History of Technology, a Liverpool India Fellow, a Sangam House Writing Fellow, and a recipient of the Young Historian of Science Award (2018) from the Indian National Science Academy. In addition to his scholarly work, he has written articles on history for various news outlets.
R. Gopu was conferred the Vedavalli Heritage Award for his contributions to culture. He speaks, writes and blogs about history, temple architecture, science, technology and much more. He is a co-founder of the Varahamihira Science Forum. He conducts classes on topics such as Indian Astronomy and Mathematics and Pallava Grantha script.
Ashwin Prabhu’s meanderings have taken him to the worlds of banking, teaching, heritage education, writing and development sector work. His first book, “Classroom With A View - Notes from the Krishnamurti schools”, came out in 2022. He enjoys working with teachers and children in thematic areas where philosophy, history, art and literature happily intersect.
