N. Madhava Rao

Nyapathi Madhava Rau Companion of the Indian Empire (CIE) (b. June 8, 1887 - d. August 28, 1972) was an Indian Civil Servant and Administrator who served as the Diwan of Mysore State from 1941 to 1945.

Early life and education

Madhava Rau was born in Masulipatnam to Nyapathi Venkatakrishna Rao on June 8, 1887. His ancestors were originally Deshastha Brahmins from Maharashtra who had settled in the Telugu country and adopted Telugu as their mother tongue.

Madhava Rau had his early education at Nobel College, Masulipatnam and graduated in arts from Pachaiyappa's College, Madras. He also studied law at Madras Law College and obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree.

Mysore civil service

Madhava Rau took the Mysore Civil Service examinations and graduated in first rank winning the Carmichael Medal. He joined the Mysore Civil Service as an Assistant Commissioner in the Gubbi taluk of Tumkur district. Later, he was appointed member of a commission to investigate a revolt in the Kollegal taluk of the then Coimbatore District. He served as Secretary of the Bhadravathi Steel Works from 1921 to 1924. He was the Trade Commissioner for Mysore State in London, England, following this and was subsequently appointed Chief Secretary to the Government of Mysore. He then went on to become a Member of Council until his appointment as the Diwan of Mysore.

Diwan of Mysore

He succeeded Sir Mirza Ismail on his retirement as the Diwan of Mysore, a post he held between 1-6-1941 and 6-8-1946. During this period the State of Mysore was gripped by severe food shortages during the Second World War. Madhava Rau is credited with having managed the situation quite well and organised a successful recovery. Madhava Rau also successfully dealt with the damage caused to the Sivasamudram Electric Power Station by a lightning strike in 1944.

During Madhava Rau's tenure as Diwan, the Mysore Legislative Council and the Mysore Representative Assembly were combined to form a new Legislative Council. The first elections to the newly reorganized Council were held in February 1941.

Later life

After his retirement, Madhava Rau was a member of the Drafting Committee of the Indian Constitution headed by Dr.B. R. Ambedkar and of the first Constituent Assembly of India.

Madhava Rau died on August 28, 1972 at the age of 85.

Opposition to Hindi

Madhava Rau was strongly opposed to the imposition of Hindi language as the lingua franca for India and favoured the continuation of English as the official language of the Indian Union.

Family

Madhava Rau married Narasamma at the age of seventeen. The couple had three daughters and three sons. Two of the sons were high ranking Civil Servants and the third retired as Brigadier-Major from the Indian Army. His first born grandchild was from his eldest daughter and son-in-law who retired as the Chief of the Health Division of the Planning Commission of India. He was named after the grandfather as Sabnavis Madhava Rau and is a Paediatrician living in Canada. The second grandson was the eldest child of his third daughter, was an Engineer and died in his sixties. The only grandson of his sons is Krishna Nyapati whose son was named in Rau's memory as Madhav Nyapathi and currently resides in the USA working as a chemical engineer. His other great-grandchildren are scattered around the world and include Dr. Rahul Sarpeshkar at the MIT.

Honours

Madhava Rau was made a |Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1943, a title that he relinquished in 1947. He was also awarded the titles of 'Rajamantra Pravina” and 'Pradhana Shiromani' by the Maharaja of Mysore.

References

• Grandson- Dr. Sabnavis Madhava Rau, Paediatrician, Canada
• World biography, Part 2. Institute for Research in Biography. 1948. p. 160. 
• "Hirienniah and Madhava Rao". 
• "Ambedkar: The architect of Indian constitution Rao".