07-24-2008, 06:40 AM
Just so i dont come across as uniformly anti Britsh (which i am not) i would like to mention Arthur Cotton
General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (15 May 1803 Oxford â 25 July 1899 Dorking) was a British general and irrigation engineer.
Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals through the Empire of India, which was only partially realised. He entered the Madras Engineers in 1819, and fought in the First Burmese War. Cotton was knighted in 1861.
Sir Cotton was hated by his administrative superiorsâthanks to his loving attitudes towards the people of India[2]. At one point impeachment proceedings were initiated by his superiors for his dismissal[3]
Going through the famine and cyclone-ravaged districts of Godavari, Cotton was distressed by the sight of famished people of the Godavari districts[4]. It was then that he put in process his ambitious plans to harness the waters of the mighty Godavari for the betterment of the humanity.
John Henry Morris in Godavari [5] writes about the work of Sir Cotton thus: "The Godavari anicut is, perhaps, the noblest feat of engineering skill which has yet been accomplished in British India. It is a gigantic barrier thrown across the river from island to island, in order to arrest the unprofitable progress of its waters to the sea, and to spread them over the surface of the country on either side, thus irrigating copiously land which has hitherto been dependent on tanks or on the fitful supply of water from the river. Large tracts of land, which had hitherto been left arid and desolate and waste, were thus reached and fertilized by innumerable streams and channels."
[SIZE=7]In 1878, Cotton had to appear before a House of Commons Committee to justify his proposal to build an anicut across the Godavari[6]. A further hearing in the House of Commons followed by his letter to the then Secretary of State for India shows about his ambitiousness to built the anicut across the Godavari. His final sentence in that letter reads like this: My Lord, one day's flow in the Godavari river during high floods is equal to one whole years' flow in the Thames River of London[7]. Cotton was almost despaired by the British Government's procrastination in taking along this project.
That Government of India's plans to interlink rivers was long envisioned by Cotton is a fact[8].
He was regarded so highly by the peasantry that ballads were sung about Cotton Dora Garu
He complained that the policy of the British government when it came to public works was 'do nothing and obstruct all proposals to do something',
Known as âApara Bhageerathaâ, he had sacrificed his life for providing irrigation water to thousands of farmers in the two districts, which are now called the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh. Sir Arthur Cotton had done much for the nation, particularly for the farmers of delta areas.
Storage reservoir
During the construction of the barrage across the Godavari, Sir Arthur Cotton struck upon the idea of constructing a storage reservoir at Purushottamapatnam in the 1850s. This is where the State government plans to construct the Polavaram project.
âWe have records in the Cotton Museum underlining the need for a storage tank for the Dhawaleswaram Barrage that could be constructed near Purushottamapatnam, which is at the mouth of Sripada Sagar,â said M. Venkateswara Rao, Chief Engineer of the Indira Sagar project.
There are some 3,000 statues of Sir Arthur Cotton in the two districts, which reflect the popularity he enjoys among farmers.
âNow, we see much water going waste into the sea. But for the engineering prowess of Sir Arthur Cotton, this region would have been in the grip of drought,â said Bhaskar Reddy of Dulla village in Kadiam constituency. Mr. Reddy performs âabhishekamâ with milk to the bronze statue of Sir Arthur Cotton he put up in front of his house.
Irrigation offices in this delta area remember Sir Cotton by putting a photograph and a poem dedicated to the great engineer under it.
âThe magnitude of work, the quickness of execution and the productivity of engineers working in the 1850s can best be realised when juxtaposed with similar works executed after technological advances, mechanisation, modern management practices and improved communication facilities,â wrote A. Krishnaswamy, IAS Special Administrator, Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage, in his foreword to the 1987 reprint of the monograph âThe engineering works of the Godavari Deltaâ by George T. Walch, a retired chief engineer for irrigation, Madras, published in 1896.
Sir Arthur Cotton , truly a man for all seasons
<img src='http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dav4is/images/CottonAT.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
General Sir Arthur Thomas Cotton (15 May 1803 Oxford â 25 July 1899 Dorking) was a British general and irrigation engineer.
Cotton devoted his life to the construction of irrigation and navigation canals through the Empire of India, which was only partially realised. He entered the Madras Engineers in 1819, and fought in the First Burmese War. Cotton was knighted in 1861.
Sir Cotton was hated by his administrative superiorsâthanks to his loving attitudes towards the people of India[2]. At one point impeachment proceedings were initiated by his superiors for his dismissal[3]
Going through the famine and cyclone-ravaged districts of Godavari, Cotton was distressed by the sight of famished people of the Godavari districts[4]. It was then that he put in process his ambitious plans to harness the waters of the mighty Godavari for the betterment of the humanity.
John Henry Morris in Godavari [5] writes about the work of Sir Cotton thus: "The Godavari anicut is, perhaps, the noblest feat of engineering skill which has yet been accomplished in British India. It is a gigantic barrier thrown across the river from island to island, in order to arrest the unprofitable progress of its waters to the sea, and to spread them over the surface of the country on either side, thus irrigating copiously land which has hitherto been dependent on tanks or on the fitful supply of water from the river. Large tracts of land, which had hitherto been left arid and desolate and waste, were thus reached and fertilized by innumerable streams and channels."
[SIZE=7]In 1878, Cotton had to appear before a House of Commons Committee to justify his proposal to build an anicut across the Godavari[6]. A further hearing in the House of Commons followed by his letter to the then Secretary of State for India shows about his ambitiousness to built the anicut across the Godavari. His final sentence in that letter reads like this: My Lord, one day's flow in the Godavari river during high floods is equal to one whole years' flow in the Thames River of London[7]. Cotton was almost despaired by the British Government's procrastination in taking along this project.
That Government of India's plans to interlink rivers was long envisioned by Cotton is a fact[8].
He was regarded so highly by the peasantry that ballads were sung about Cotton Dora Garu
He complained that the policy of the British government when it came to public works was 'do nothing and obstruct all proposals to do something',
Known as âApara Bhageerathaâ, he had sacrificed his life for providing irrigation water to thousands of farmers in the two districts, which are now called the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh. Sir Arthur Cotton had done much for the nation, particularly for the farmers of delta areas.
Storage reservoir
During the construction of the barrage across the Godavari, Sir Arthur Cotton struck upon the idea of constructing a storage reservoir at Purushottamapatnam in the 1850s. This is where the State government plans to construct the Polavaram project.
âWe have records in the Cotton Museum underlining the need for a storage tank for the Dhawaleswaram Barrage that could be constructed near Purushottamapatnam, which is at the mouth of Sripada Sagar,â said M. Venkateswara Rao, Chief Engineer of the Indira Sagar project.
There are some 3,000 statues of Sir Arthur Cotton in the two districts, which reflect the popularity he enjoys among farmers.
âNow, we see much water going waste into the sea. But for the engineering prowess of Sir Arthur Cotton, this region would have been in the grip of drought,â said Bhaskar Reddy of Dulla village in Kadiam constituency. Mr. Reddy performs âabhishekamâ with milk to the bronze statue of Sir Arthur Cotton he put up in front of his house.
Irrigation offices in this delta area remember Sir Cotton by putting a photograph and a poem dedicated to the great engineer under it.
âThe magnitude of work, the quickness of execution and the productivity of engineers working in the 1850s can best be realised when juxtaposed with similar works executed after technological advances, mechanisation, modern management practices and improved communication facilities,â wrote A. Krishnaswamy, IAS Special Administrator, Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage, in his foreword to the 1987 reprint of the monograph âThe engineering works of the Godavari Deltaâ by George T. Walch, a retired chief engineer for irrigation, Madras, published in 1896.
Sir Arthur Cotton , truly a man for all seasons
<img src='http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dav4is/images/CottonAT.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />