Nittoor Srinivasa Rau
Encyclopedia
Nittoor Srinivasa Rao or Nittur Srinivasa Rao (24 August 1903 – 12 August 2004) was a Gandhian
who participated in the Indian independence movement
. He was the Chief Justice
of the High Court
of Mysore State
(now Karnataka) and also the first chief of the Central Vigilance Commission
of India
. He was also chosen as the acting Governor
of the Mysore state and was the first person to translate Mahatma Gandhi
's autobiography to the Kannada language
.
. His mother was Seethamma, and his father Nittoor Shamanna was a school teacher and the head master of a school in Chitradurga
. Nittoor is a village in the Gubbi
Taluk of the Tumkur district
of Karnataka, and its name got attached to Srinivasa Rau's name since his grandfather was a native of that village. He was also the nephew of M. N. Krishna Rao, the Diwan of Mysore kingdom
. He did his initial schooling in schools at Hosadurga
, Challakere
and Shimoga before completing his graduation in the Bachelor of Science
at Central College, Bangalore. He joined the National High School as a teacher of Science
and Mathematics
and later went back to studies and joined the Madras Law College
from where he completed the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1927. He later married Padmamma and had two sons, Senior Advocate & Littérateur N S Chandrasekhara and technocrat N S Subbanna, and two daughters, Dr. Jayaseetha Premanand and Dr. Lalitha Sudarshan.
of the Mysore state by the Chief Minister, Kengal Hanumanthaiah
in 1953. After the formation of the state of Karnataka
, he was appointed as the Chief Justice
of the Karnataka High Court
in the year 1961. When the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru
, started the Central Vigilance Commission
of India in February 1964 to check corruption, he chose Nittoor Srinivasa Rau as the first Central Vigilance Commissioner of India.
. In the 1930s and 1940s, he participated in the Indian independence movement
. He worked for the Mysore state unit of the Congress and actively participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement. In 1932, he also ran the Congress state unit office in Dharwad
. During the Quit India Movement
of 1942, he provided shelter to Congress leaders such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
, R. R. Diwakar, and U. S. Mallya.
, and when Gandhi visited Bangalore in 1927, Nittoor Srinivasa Rao took permission from him to translate his autobiography to Kannada. He and his wife assumed the title Ibbaru Kannadigaru and started translating the autobiography, which was then published in the form of a serial in the Kannada newspapers, Vishwa Karnataka and Lokmata. He named the translation as Satyashodhana (In pursuit of truth). In order to promote the Gandhian
principles, he became the president of Karnataka Gandhi Smaaraka Nidhi (Karnataka Gandhi Memorial Trust) and Gandhi Peace Foundation. He also started a khadi
unit to promote the use of khadi.
in 1922. When he realised the need of a publication to publish Kannada books, he started his own publishing house called Satyashodhana Prakatana Mandira (Satyashodhana Publication House) and an associated book store called Satyashodhana Pustaka Mandira. One of the important books published by him was Bala Prapancha, a collection of stories for children written by the renowned Shivaram Karanth. He also published the works of C. K. Venkataramaiya, Kuvempu
, Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar
and G. P. Rajarathnam. Srinivasa Rau was also influenced by the Kannada writer, D. V. Gundappa
and joined his social institute, The Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs
. In 1975, he became an honorary secretary of the institute. He also worked towards introducing Kannada as a medium of instruction in schools to educate a large population of students who may not know English.
honoured him by naming one of the prominent roads in Bangalore after his name. In 2002, he was also felicitated by the Government for his contribution in the field of literature and promotion of human values. He joined the Senior Citizen's Club in Bangalore, which was a forum started to look at the welfare of senior citizens. He was also interested in music, and was the President of the Percussive Arts Centre in Bangalore which was an organisation started to promote percussive arts. He passed 100 years in the year 2003, and died on 12 August 2004, 12 days short of his 101st birthday .
Gandhism
Gandhism is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement....
who participated in the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
. He was the Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of the High Court
Karnataka High Court
The Karnataka High Court is the High Court of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka. The High Court functions out of a red brick building known as Attara Kacheri...
of Mysore State
Mysore State
The Kingdom of Mysore was one of the three largest princely states within the erstwhile British Empire of India. Upon India gaining its independence in 1947, the Maharaja of Mysore merged his realm with the Union of India...
(now Karnataka) and also the first chief of the Central Vigilance Commission
Central Vigilance Commission
Central Vigilance Commission is an apex Indian governmental body created in 1964 to address governmental corruption. It has the status of an autonomous body, free of control from any executive authority, charged with monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government of India, and...
of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He was also chosen as the acting Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of the Mysore state and was the first person to translate Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
's autobiography to the Kannada language
Kannada language
Kannada or , is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas and number roughly 50 million, is one of the 30 most spoken languages in the world...
.
Early life
Nittoor Srinivasa Rau was born in BangaloreBangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
. His mother was Seethamma, and his father Nittoor Shamanna was a school teacher and the head master of a school in Chitradurga
Chitradurga
Chitradurga is a town in the southern part of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is also the headquarters of Chitradurga district. Chitradurga was also known by the names Chitradurg, Chitrakaladurga, Chittaldurg. Chittaldrug was the name officially used by the British Govt.-Geography:Chitradurga is...
. Nittoor is a village in the Gubbi
Gubbi
Gubbi is a panchayat town in Tumkur district in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located 75 km from Muddenahalli, Kanivenarayanapura, and Chikballapur....
Taluk of the Tumkur district
Tumkur district
Tumkur district is an administrative district in the state of Karnataka in India. The district headquarters are located at Tumkur. The district occupies an area of 10,598 km² and had a population of 2,584,711, of which 19.62% were urban as of 2001...
of Karnataka, and its name got attached to Srinivasa Rau's name since his grandfather was a native of that village. He was also the nephew of M. N. Krishna Rao, the Diwan of Mysore kingdom
Kingdom of Mysore
The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of Mysore. The kingdom, which was ruled by the Wodeyar family, initially served as a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire...
. He did his initial schooling in schools at Hosadurga
Hosadurga
Hosdurga is a panchayat town in Chitradurga district in the Indian state of Karnataka.-Geography:Hosdurga is located at . It has an average elevation of 739 metres .-Demographics:...
, Challakere
Challakere
-Geography:Challakere is located at . It has an average elevation of 585 metres .-Demographics: India census, Challakere had a population of 49,065. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Challakere has an average literacy rate of 69%, higher than the national average of...
and Shimoga before completing his graduation in the Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
at Central College, Bangalore. He joined the National High School as a teacher of Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and later went back to studies and joined the Madras Law College
Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai
Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, Chennai is a law college in Chennai, India that was established in 1891. It was formerly known as Madras Law College and later renamed after Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, an Indian freedom fighter and fighter for rights of untouchables and Dalits.The college was in...
from where he completed the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1927. He later married Padmamma and had two sons, Senior Advocate & Littérateur N S Chandrasekhara and technocrat N S Subbanna, and two daughters, Dr. Jayaseetha Premanand and Dr. Lalitha Sudarshan.
Law
After completing his degree in law, Nittoor Srinivasa Rau returned to Bangalore and started his career as a lawyer. In 1952, he was chosen as the first chairman of the Mysore state Bar council. He was appointed as the Advocate GeneralAdvocate General
An Advocate General is a senior law officer of a country or other jurisdiction, usually charged with advising the courts or Government on legal matters.-India:In India, an Advocate General is a legal adviser to a state government...
of the Mysore state by the Chief Minister, Kengal Hanumanthaiah
Kengal Hanumanthaiah
Kengal Hanumanthaiah was the chief minister of the old Mysore State in India from 30 March 1952 to 19 August 1956...
in 1953. After the formation of the state of Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
, he was appointed as the Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of the Karnataka High Court
Karnataka High Court
The Karnataka High Court is the High Court of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka. The High Court functions out of a red brick building known as Attara Kacheri...
in the year 1961. When the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
, started the Central Vigilance Commission
Central Vigilance Commission
Central Vigilance Commission is an apex Indian governmental body created in 1964 to address governmental corruption. It has the status of an autonomous body, free of control from any executive authority, charged with monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government of India, and...
of India in February 1964 to check corruption, he chose Nittoor Srinivasa Rau as the first Central Vigilance Commissioner of India.
Freedom Movement
When he turned 18, Nittoor Srinivasa Rau joined the Indian National CongressIndian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
. In the 1930s and 1940s, he participated in the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
. He worked for the Mysore state unit of the Congress and actively participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement. In 1932, he also ran the Congress state unit office in Dharwad
Dharwad
Dharwad, also known as Dharwar, is a city and a DISTRICT PLACE in India's Karnataka state.Dharwad is the administrative seat of the Dharwad District. The municipality of Hubli-Dharwad covers an area of 200.23 km²...
. During the Quit India Movement
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...
of 1942, he provided shelter to Congress leaders such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was an Indian social reformer, freedom fighter, and most remembered for her contribution to Indian independence movement, for being the driving force behind the renaissance of Indian handicrafts, handlooms, and theatre in post-Independence India, and for upliftment of the...
, R. R. Diwakar, and U. S. Mallya.
Influence of Gandhi
In the early 1920s, he was influenced by the principles of Mahatma GandhiMahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, and when Gandhi visited Bangalore in 1927, Nittoor Srinivasa Rao took permission from him to translate his autobiography to Kannada. He and his wife assumed the title Ibbaru Kannadigaru and started translating the autobiography, which was then published in the form of a serial in the Kannada newspapers, Vishwa Karnataka and Lokmata. He named the translation as Satyashodhana (In pursuit of truth). In order to promote the Gandhian
Gandhism
Gandhism is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement....
principles, he became the president of Karnataka Gandhi Smaaraka Nidhi (Karnataka Gandhi Memorial Trust) and Gandhi Peace Foundation. He also started a khadi
Khadi
The term khādī or khaddar means cotton. khādī is Indian handspun and hand-woven cloth. The raw materials may be cotton, silk, or wool, which are spun into threads on a spinning wheel called a charkha. It is a versatile fabric, cool in the summer and warm in the winter...
unit to promote the use of khadi.
Literature
Nittoor Srinivasa Rau became a member of the Kannada Sahitya ParishatKannada Sahitya Parishat
Kannada Saahithya Parishath is an Indian non-profit organisation that promotes the Kannada language. Its headquarters are in the city of Bangalore, in the state of Karnataka, India. It strives to promote Kannada through publishing books, organising literary seminars and promoting research projects...
in 1922. When he realised the need of a publication to publish Kannada books, he started his own publishing house called Satyashodhana Prakatana Mandira (Satyashodhana Publication House) and an associated book store called Satyashodhana Pustaka Mandira. One of the important books published by him was Bala Prapancha, a collection of stories for children written by the renowned Shivaram Karanth. He also published the works of C. K. Venkataramaiya, Kuvempu
Kuvempu
Kuppali Venkatappagowda Puttappa was a Kannada writer and poet, widely regarded as the greatest poet of 20th century Kannada literature. He is the first among eight recipients of Jnanpith Award for Kannada. Puttappa wrote all his literary works using the pen name Kuvempu...
, Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar
Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar
Goruru Ramaswamy Iyengar Kannada:ಗೊರೂರು ರಾಮಸ್ವಾಮಿ ಐಯ್ಯಂಗಾರ , popularly known as Goruru, was a Kannada writer; well known for his humour and satire.-Early life:...
and G. P. Rajarathnam. Srinivasa Rau was also influenced by the Kannada writer, D. V. Gundappa
D. V. Gundappa
Devanahalli Venkataramanaiah Gundappa , popularly known as DVG, was a prominent Kannada writer and a philosopher. He is renowned for Manku Thimmana Kagga, a collection of verses.-Early life:...
and joined his social institute, The Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs
The Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs
The Gokhale Institute of Public Affairs was founded by D. V. Gundappa. He was inspired by Gopal Krishna Gokhale's idea of public spirituality and established this institute to further public spiritual health...
. In 1975, he became an honorary secretary of the institute. He also worked towards introducing Kannada as a medium of instruction in schools to educate a large population of students who may not know English.
Later years
Even in his later years, Nittoor Srinivasa Rau continued to take interests in the activities of the Gokhale institute. The Government of KarnatakaGovernment of Karnataka
The Government of Karnataka is a democratically elected body with the Governor as the constitutional head. The Governor who is appointed for a period of five years appoints the Chief Minister and his council of ministers...
honoured him by naming one of the prominent roads in Bangalore after his name. In 2002, he was also felicitated by the Government for his contribution in the field of literature and promotion of human values. He joined the Senior Citizen's Club in Bangalore, which was a forum started to look at the welfare of senior citizens. He was also interested in music, and was the President of the Percussive Arts Centre in Bangalore which was an organisation started to promote percussive arts. He passed 100 years in the year 2003, and died on 12 August 2004, 12 days short of his 101st birthday .