S V Ramamurthy ICS: The Civil Servant Behind the Establishment of Bapatla Agricultural College

Late Sonti Venkata Ramamurthy was born on 1st August 1888 in Visakhapatnam.    He had his early education from the London Mission High School, Visakhapatnam. He was influenced by the Head Master, Daniel Lazarus, who taught him to pay meticulous attention to concrete details of whatever he was attending to. No wonder if it was said that, “as a boy, he was so punctual, that neighbours could set their watches when he left for school.” His father had instilled in him interest for mathematics. He stood first in the Matriculation examination of Madras in 1903.

After finishing his college education from Madras University, he went to Cambridge in 1909 on government scholarship. He did his Masters at the Trinity College, Cambridge. He passed the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination in 1911. He wanted to appear for the Smith’s Prize in mathematics at Cambridge but as the then Secretary of State could not spare his services, he joined the Indian Civil Service in Madras at the end of 1912. 

Right from the day one of his civil service he evinced active interest in developmental activities. After two years as Development Secretary, he took over the Directorship of Agriculture. He said that it was  the most enjoyable job he held in his entire career. For, agriculture, to him, is a creative activity and believed that man can also take part in its creation. 

As Director of Agriculture of Composite Madras State, he took active interest in agricultural sciences, for he found that it is essential for the development of Indian resources. He was forthright in his observation that British administration took “interest in agricultural research pertaining to only crops such as cotton, jute, groundnut and perhaps sugarcane, which were of high economic value for it”, while neglecting food crops that matter most for Indians. Driven by this belief he focused his attention on the development of agricultural research that catered to local needs. 

As a member of the Advisory Board of the ICAR, he could get sanctioned several research schemes dealing with paddy, cotton, sugarcane, groundnut and millets. He, with ICAR grants to a tune of about Rs 30 lakhs, claimed to have opened several new Research Stations in Madras for conducting research in paddy, cotton, fruit trees, oil seeds and dry farming. How true he was when he said, “selection of a site for a research farm was like selecting a bride or bridegroom”. 

With an eye to find an alternative to Batavia oranges that were popular in coastal Andhra but were found deteriorating and to identify mango varieties that yield two crops in a year, he established a Fruit Station at Kodur in Cuddapah District under the charge of Naik, whom he picked up from Lyallpur Research Station, Punjab. The research farm could evolve improved orange varieties but failed to fulfil Ramamurthy’s wish for a mango variety that could yield regularly two crops a year. It is interesting to note what Ramamurthy said in this regard: “My membership of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research helped me to do this [research on crops that mattered most to the locals] to an extent which the State Government would not have enabled me to do.” 

Thinking that it would be economically valuable if one could get bottle gourds as long as snake gourds, he asked a research farm to carry out an experiment of crossing the bottle gourd which is short with the snake gourd that is long. The first such cross appeared to have resulted in a snake gourd that was as short as a bottle gourd. Although he encouraged the research officer to pursue the experiment, on his transfer from the post of Director of Agriculture, the experiment “as usual” was discontinued. Similarly, he encouraged research officers to cross varieties of potato, tomato, tobacco and chillies to get a plant with potato as roots, tobacco as leaves, and curried tomatoes as fruit. Such was his enthusiasm for agricultural research. 

According to him, the rise in sugarcane cultivation and sugar production in India was facilitated by the evolution of thin canes at Coimbatore by Sri T.S. Venkataraman. Noticing that these varieties which require much less water have become popular in U.P. and Bihar, he, as Director of Agriculture, asked the Deputy Director of Agriculture in charge of the Anakapalli research farm to send some seed material for being grown in the Krishna district that had large irrigation facilities. But the DDA wrote him a long letter protesting against the premature spread of such canes. He then wired to him: “Obey first, protest next”. Thus, he could get the material and personally had it planted in two places in Krishna district of 10 cents each in 1930 and the results are there for everyone to see: in the next 30 years the use of Coimbatore canes in the Madras State had spread wide becoming the basis for the large expansion of the sugar industry. Such was his enthusiasm and commitment for agricultural research and its transfer to farmers’ fields. 

In 1943, as the adviser for development to the government of Composite Madras State, he delivered Convocation address at the Andhra University, in which the Governor too was present as its Chancellor. Taking advantage of his presence, he, asserting that the development in Andhra had been comparatively neglected in the administration of Madras, hoped that it would be remedied. And having got the nod of the governor, he then got the hydro-electric project scheme on the Muchkund river prepared and got it sanctioned during his tenure. He also got prepared a pilot land utilization scheme at the Araku valley. The other two big projects that he pursued vigorously for improving irrigation facilities and thereby bettering agriculture in Andhra were: construction of a reservoir called SriRamapadasagar on the Godavary at Polavarm, which incidentally he took dear to his heart but failed to get approval and two, Tungabhadra hydro-electric project. 

In his memoirs this civil servant offers a sagely advice that merits our attention: “Whenever an administrator gets trapped in a conflicting zone while making a decision, he should follow the dictates of his mind.” For, that ensures good results, though initially one might encounter some opposition. We come across some such real-life situations of him in his narration, which at times makes us wonder: How forthright he was in airing personal beliefs…! Here is one such interesting incident:“When the Andhra Province was in the offing, I opposed a proposal to have the Province without the capital being at Madras city, jointly with the Madras Province. I did not want the Province anyhow but only in a good form. I had an interview with the Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru and explained my view to him. After hearing me, he asked what Sri Prakasam’s view was. I replied that Sri Prakasam was a politician who could not refuse a Province offered anyhow. I said I was not a politician. We asked for bread. If he could give us bread, he might do so. But if he could not, I asked him not to give us a stone” (page -151).What a courage! And it is of course a different matter that Nehru gave what Ramamurthy precisely asked him not to give. 

He also said: “During the 50 years of my administrative life, food production, land

utilization and development of irrigation and hydro-electric power were my central interests.” With such a foresight and immense enthusiasm for agricultural research and with an irrepressible zeal for developmental needs of common man duly backed by honesty and candour, no wonder if he had played an active role in establishing Agricultural College at Bapatla of coastal Andhra in 1945. 

This Civil servant of yore with an extraordinary interest in mathematics and philosophy and a much-cherished longing for developmental activities, wished for the integration “of science in respect of matter and mind with all their dualities” with that of the “unity of spirit”. He went on saying, “If our faith in God is real and solid, these dualities should be reconciled and integrated. Purna yoga in Indian tradition is not stagnant. There is scope and need to develop its fullness of contents and its dynamism. Purna Yogi is integrated man.” Equating Tielhard’s Omega point with the Indian view to a sphere of spirit, he wished for the development of “an integrated science”, for he believed that the “human prospect” lies in it. 

The befitting tribute that this august institute can pay to one of its proponents, Sir S V Ramamurthy – the first native Governor of Bombay under the British rule, who died on January 19,1964 – and his vision is, striving towards development of such an ‘integrated science’ the transmission of which to its discipulus makes them Purna Yogi[s] whereby they can effectively address the cause of farmers. 

References: 

Ven Bagamudre (2017), Extended Families: A memoir of India, Coteau Books, Canada. 

SV Ramamurthy (1964) Memoirs, Popular Prakashan, Bombay.