Nurturing institutions

Two institutions based in Mysuru, one for the noble service of imparting knowledge, the other for enlarging upon available knowledge concerning food through research, have been making news headlines in dailies for both good and bad reasons, going by media reports on the happenings in the institutions. To make  things clear, we are talking of the University of Mysore, established in 1916 during the rule of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and Central Food Technological Research Institute, taking birth in 1949, just two years after monarchy ended with the last ruler Jayachamaraja Wadiyar. Both institutions have been nurtured with love, vision, commitment and foresight by people with societal recognition and respect until a few years ago. The teaching institution has become the playground for politicians with clout, particularly in the choice of its executive head. The research institution has been targeted by a city-based voluntary outfit taking upon itself the arduous responsibility of saving the seven-decade-old establishment for reasons that readers of dailies in Mysuru are already familiar with.

Old-timers in Mysuru may recall with unalloyed pride achievements of alumni of the University and pioneering research by the founder-scientists of the research institution. They are sure to feel sad that factors other than academic excellence in the choice of staff of the University and professional competence in the case of staff of the research institution are gripping the powers-that-be.

Luminaries, such as Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, in whose memory September 5th is celebrated as National Teachers Day every year, have taught at the University, to drive home the point that its portals were wide open to people of eminence disregarding their identity as a non-Kannadiga or belonging to any particular caste, creed or faith. Similarly, the research institution, also owing its birth to persons with unquestionable credentials in their chosen field of food science and technology, has earned global attention and high peer rating in the country. The glory accorded by both academic leading lights and society at large to the two institutions should not slide into pages of their history for posterity to read about.

Birth, rise and disappearance of countless dynasties and cultures may sound inevitable, but institutions featured in this column deserve to be nurtured for growing from strength to strength. Society has its own duty to facilitate the two professions of teaching and research to be vested in human resources irrespective of their caste, region and tongue.