Sir Visveswaraya’s name is emblazoned in the History of Mysore, as its most dedicated pathfinder and creative innovator. He joined the Mysore service in 1909, Chief Engineer and rose to be Dewan. Industry in Mysore got a tremendous boost under his dynamic guidance.
Sir Mirza Ismail continued the good work started by Visveswaray. A nature lover, he esthetically devoted himself to town planning and laying out gardens and parks. This was the creative conception of the Brindavan Gardens.
In the early 20 th century, nationalist fervor swept the country and several Congress Committees were formed in Mysore too. Mysoreans took an active part in Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930. When India became independent in 1947, the Mysore Congress launched a Mysore Chalo Movement to persuade Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar to agree to the accession of Mysore to the India Union. Students, planters, laborers, even sections of the police force, congregated in front of the Palace. So strong was the protest that the Maharaja agreed to accede to the Indian Union and KC Reddy became Chief Minister of the new government.
The new state was called New Mysore State and the king was appointed its `Rajapramukh’ (governor). When the Indian states were reconstituted on a linguistic basis by the States Reorganization act of 1956, Mysore state was enlarged to include the Kanarese-speaking areas of Coorg, portions of the old Hyderabad state and bits of the old Bombay and Madras Presidencies.
On November 1, 1973, 17 years after unification, new Mysore State was renamed Karnataka, with its capital at Bangalore today, it is Indian’s sixth largest state.