Mysuru was democratic even before Indepenence: scholar

James Manor, professor emeritus, University of London has said that Mysore state, which was the second largest princely state in British India, was well-known for its leanings towards democracy and development even at a time when there were many autocratic rulers in the princely states of India, and even before Independence.

He was delivering the second Devaraj Urs Memorial Lecture on ‘Devaraj Urs: Pioneer of Progressive Politics’ at MYRA School of Business. The lecture was held under the aegis of Devaraj Urs Centre for Development Studies (DCDS) here recently to mark the 102nd birth anniversary of the late chief minister.

Tracing the progressive policies of the Mysore state, starting from the times of then Maharaja Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, he said, the state always had a more equitable land distribution and social justice.

“However, the progress the state has shown today is largely due to one individual — D Devaraj Urs, who had a vision, the right ideas and political acumen to empower the downtrodden communities, to strengthen the institutions and to tower over the caste-based political adversaries. Urs, who belonged to the same caste as the maharaja, joined the Congress party and opposed his own maharaja. He supported Indira Gandhi after the split of the Congress in 1970. With ‘Gharibi Hatao’ as the focus, Indira Gandhi’s Congress won a whopping majority, garnering 70% of the votes in Karnataka under the stewardship of Urs,” he recalled.

“Known as a social reformer, Urs introduced reservation for backward classes and became a champion of the poor and downtrodden. He even included poor Vokkaligas under the backward classes. His aim was to provide a progressive redistributive pro-poor policy. He made several key changes that brought not only relief, but also restored a sense of dignity among the people, cutting across religions, caste and other social demographics. He implemented abolition of bonded labour, land reforms and the Kali irrigation project. He pioneered private participation in engineering and medical education, which later led to the IT boom in Bengaluru. He created caste-based groups for progress and became a master in political chess game,” said Manor.

“As the only chief minister of modern Karnataka who assumed office for two consecutive terms, Urs had a massive mandate in spite of the defeats of his party (Congress party headed by Indira Gandhi) across many other states and in the Centre, due to his progressive policies and implementation,” he said.

Manor confided that a larger-than-life picture of Urs adorns his office at London. Urs’ grandson Suraj Hegde, grand daughter Anupama Urs, MYRA School of Business chairperson Shalini Urs and dean-students affairs Sudhendar H Rao were present.