The community vision of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar

The Living Stream

The making of the cultural ethos of modern Karnataka owes a debt to the efforts of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar (1884-1940). As the Maharaja of Mysore for nearly four decades, between 1902 and 1940, he cultivated a humanistic vision of community co-existence that shaped old Mysore culture in important ways.

At the formal ceremony of assuming the rulership of Mysore, on August 8, 1902, the 18-year-old Krishnaraja Wadiyar declared that he, like his parents before him, would “continue to promote the welfare of all classes and creeds among my subjects.” This commitment to social care without discrimination appeared over the years to be more than a token gesture.

Krishnaraja Wadiyar’s education, which made him proficient in three languages -- English, Kannada and Urdu -- let him relate richly to the world. He gave fluent public speeches in each of these languages. He also acquired an acquaintance with Vedanta, Islamic, Christian, Jaina and Buddhist theologies as well as general Western philosophy.

Identifying himself as Hindu, and on occasion, as Ursu, the caste community he hailed from, Krishnaraja Wadiyar was fully secure in relating to the other religions around him. He was proud that his ancestors built a new Jumma Masjid in Mysore city, which had taken over from Srirangapatna as the new capital of the state in 1799. While laying the foundation stone for the first Young Men of Christian Association in Bangalore in 1912, he expressed confidence that “its influence, religious, moral and educational, will be all for the good, not only of its Christian members but also of the young men belonging to other religions who will pass their leisure hours within its walls.”

While Krishnaraja Wadiyar recognised the significance of religion in the lives of Indians, the country, in his view, was above all religions in political matters. In his Chancellor's address at the first convocation ceremony of Banaras Hindu University, in 1919, he expressed an “earnest hope” that the new university would “attract by the quality of its secular education, the young of all religious persuasions in India. The institution should be Indian first and Hindu afterwards.”

The idea that the country, and not any of the social communities living inside, offered the basis for a political community stayed firm in Krishnaraja Wadiyar. At the inaugural ceremony of a newly built mosque in Mysore in 1922, he noted: “I look upon you all, whether Hindus, Mahomedans or others, as equally dear to me. I hope that you will bear in mind the fact that you are Mysoreans first and all the rest next, owing a duty to the State...” His concerns though did not remain within a narrow frame. He believed, for example, in “the promotion of inter-racial and international fellowship.”

An ethic of reconciliation and mutual support anchored his vision of achieving justice among communities. Expressing his “earnest desire to see all classes of my subjects represented in just proportion in public service,” at a meeting of non-Brahmin leaders in mid-1918, Krishnaraja Wadiyar hoped that the measure of reserving posts in the government would not result in “a cleavage” among the people. He exhorted the non-Brahmin leaders to ensure that their work “did not in any manner mar the unity and harmonious relations which have hitherto existed to a great extent among the different classes of my subjects” which were “an essential condition of all real progress.” He continued: “I appeal to the Brahmin community also to behave likewise in a conciliatory and tolerant spirit towards the other classes” and felt certain that the “Brahmin officers” would “cooperate with my government in advancing the interests of the other classes also in the State and show practical sympathy with them in their natural aspirations.” In asking the upper and lower castes to realign themselves to the new demands of social justice, he had placed his faith in their moral capacity to act selflessly.

On numerous occasions, Krishnaraja Wadiyar asked the better off communities to actively aid the not-so better off ones. He passionately held that it was “the sacred duty of the more advanced communities…to extend a helping hand to less fortunate communities.” The absence of a historical account of the dozens of schools and hostels built for Dalit children across Mysore during his political tenure is indeed unfortunate.

Taking all religions to be quests for “the same eternal truths,” Krishnaraja Wadiyar expressed “sorrow” to see the clashes “over the externals of religion” in various parts of India and “rejoiced” that such a “spirit” of “following the shadow rather than the substance” was not found in Mysore.