By R. Raja Chandra

It is heartening to know that the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, will be visiting Mysuru today to attend the Diamond Jubilee (60th anniversary) celebrations of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH).

AIISH, located in the lush green campus adjacent to the University of Mysore in Manasagangothri, is a unique institute in the Asian sub-continent. It was established in 1966 as an autonomous institute fully funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

This was possible due to the personal initiative and large heartedness of the last Maharaja of Mysore,   H.H. Sri. Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar.

Maharaja’s US visit

During his sojourn to the United States on a lecture tour, Maharaja visited the Institute of Logopedics at Wichita, Kansas, on 1-4-1959. The Maharaja was obviously impressed by this new field pioneered by Dr. Martin Franklin Palmer.

Dr. Martin Franklin Palmer founded the Department of Speech Sciences in 1934 in a single classroom on the fourth floor of Jardine Hall on the campus of Wichita State University.

At the time of his death in 1965, the Institute of Logopedics was the largest institute of speech and hearing rehabilitation in the world. He helped spread knowledge of treatment for children with special needs around the globe.

Dr. Palmer guided the organisation, played a major role in its growth and success and was rewarded with worldwide recognition. He created the term ‘logopedics’ to describe study and treatment of speech disorders.

The Maharaja had a personal discussion with Dr. Palmer and he was so impressed by the facilities for the study and treatment of speech defects in children, involving habilitation of speech, that he spent a long time intermingling with the children, prompting the staff to say that there are no strangers, only friends we have not met! See pictures of the Maharaja’s discussion with Dr. Palmer and his intermingling with the children.

Conference at Lalitha Mahal

Immediately after returning from the US, the Maharaja was instrumental in organising a conference, held jointly by the International Institute of Philosophy, Paris and the Indian Philosophical Congress, under the auspices of the Mysore University, at the Lalitha Mahal Palace in Mysore from Aug 28 to Sept 01, 1959.

Among the philosophers present from all over the world was the Indian luminary and the then Vice-President of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.

The Maharaja used the occasion to brief Dr. S. Radhakrishnan about his visit to the Institute of Logopedics and this resulted in further discussion with the Ministry of Health, Government of India, about establishing a similar Institute in Mysore.

On the invitation of the Government of India, Dr. Martin F. Palmer, Director, Institute of Logopedics, Wichita, Kansas, USA, visited India in 1963 and recommended setting up an Institute of Logopedics in India at Mysore.

A generous grant

When the formal approval from the Government of India came in 1965, the Maharaja graciously offered his daughter, Maharajakumari Indrakshi Devi’s palatial heritage building on JLB Road called ‘Rama Mandira’ for the institute to start functioning. (It was once the residence of University of Mysore’s first Vice-Chancellor, H.V. Nanjundaiah).

On August 9, 1965, “All India Institute of Logopedics” started functioning at ‘Rama Mandira’ with Lt. Gen. B.M. Rao, a former Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (India), as the first Director.

Gift deed

The Maharaja gifted 22 acres of land to the President of India on August 25, 1965, in Sy. No. 4, Kurubarahalli, Mysore, to enable the Government to establish a permanent campus. The relevant portion of the gift deed states:

“And whereas the donee desires to start a Logopedics Institute in Mysore; whereas in the interest of public service and benefit, the donor has decided to make a Gift of the properties mentioned in the schedule hereto to the Donee absolutely.”

On 25th July 1966, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the then President of India, laid the foundation stone of the Institute building and on 10th October 1966, the Institute was registered as an autonomous Institute under the Society Registration Act with the name “All India              Institute of Speech and Hearing.”

K.L. Shrimali, the then Vice-Chancellor of the  University of Mysore, offered the land in the post-graduate campus of ‘Manasagangothri’ instead. Thus, this unique Institute called ‘All India Institute of Speech and Hearing’ (AIISH) came to be established in Mysore in 1966.

Later on 30th November 1970, the Ministry of Health, Government of India, leased the property gifted by Maharaja to the University of Mysore for 99 years.

Land grab attempts

Unfortunately, unscrupulous land grabbers tried to usurp this land by fraudulent documents. (SOM 25-1-2012) and a protracted litigation by the undeterred University of Mysore, despite setbacks in the Tribunal, City Courts and Karnataka High Court, came to a happy ending in the Supreme Court when Justice Abdul Nazir castigated the State for initial non-cooperation and restored the land to the University of Mysore on March 23, 2018.

On the eve of the birth centenary of the Maharaja on July 18, 2019, the Royal Family requested the Prime Minister to name AIISH after the Maharaja through the good offices of the then MLA S.A. Ramdas and Union Cabinet Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar. Unfortunately, due to the untimely death of Ananth Kumar, this effort did not fructify.

When the then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, visited Mysore on 10th October 2019 in connection with the Birth Centenary celebrations of the Maharaja, the President unveiled a plaque of the University of Mysore establishing Sri Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar Centre for Higher Learning on this 22 acres of land.

COSMOS project

Now a world’s first independent 8K resolution LED dome planetarium and a research training centre under the Cosmology Education and Research Training Centre (COSMOS) project is being developed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics at an estimated cost of Rs. 90 crore in part of this land.

The project is being supported under the MPLADS funds of the Union Finance Minister and the Department of Science and Technology, Department of   Atomic Energy and other organisations.

A fitting tribute

Thus, what started as a pioneering initiative by the Maharaja to start an Institute of Logopedics has culminated in Mysore luckily getting two world-class                           Institutions as a bonus.

It would be a fitting tribute to the Maharaja if the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, would recommend the Union Government to rename AIISH as “Maharaja Jaya Chamaraja Wadiyar Institute of Speech and Hearing.”

Sadly, the website of AIISH does not even mention the name of the Maharaja! Hope they will make suitable amends after reading this article.