SPECIAL FEATURE: KLE SOCIETY

A pioneer all the way

The Karnataka Lingayat Education Society has played a significant role in the development of education in Karnataka, especially in the backward and rural regions.

RAVI SHARMA

THE erstwhile princely state of Mysore had the reputation of being one of the most progressive regions in pre-independent India. It was a pioneer in establishing modern systems of education and one such was established in Mysore city as early as 1833. This was followed by the opening of English schools in Bangalore, Tumkur, Hassan and Shimoga. The first school for girls was started in Bangalore city by the London Mission in 1840. A government girls school was set up in 1881 with support from the Maharaja of Mysore. In 1916, Mysore University was established. Before Independence, when only 16.6 per cent of the country's population was literate, 20.3 per cent of the people of old Mysore were literate.

But unlike the old Mysore region, the neighbouring region of the then Bombay Presidency (part of today's north Karnataka) languished far behind, for historical reasons. There was no governmental support for education. In the early 1900s, educational opportunities in northern Karnataka were limited to urban centres such as Bombay and Poona.

RAVI SHARMA
The B.V. Bhoomraddi College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli.

A group of seven men, all in their twenties, from Belgaum and its surroundings, who had graduated from colleges in Poona, decided to do something about this situation. In 1916, they decided to put their plan into action. Renouncing their government jobs, they set out to spread education in northern Karnataka. (Even today almost 85 per cent of all collegiate education in north Karnataka is through private institutions.)

Inspired by the ideals of patriots like Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the founders of the Deccan Education Society, Pune, who had done much work in the field of education, these seven 'Founder Life Members' - S.S. Basavanal, H.F. Kattimani, M.R. Sakhre, B.S. Hanchinal, B.B. Mamadapur, P.R. Chikodi and Sardar V.V. Patil (who are today called the 'Saptarishis', or the 'Seven Saints') - approached Sardar V.G. Naik Bahadur Desai of Chachadi, Rao Bahadur R.C. Artal and V.A. Anigol, three leading citizens of the Veerashaiva or Lingayat community and sought their blessings. The latter three came to be known as the 'Founders'.

Thus, on November 13, 1916 the Anglo-Vernacular School (later called the Gilaginchi Artal High School) came into being in a rented building in the Fort area of Belgaum. It was not only the birth of a school but also the beginning of an initiative by the Karnataka Lingayat Education Society (KLES). Today the Society runs over 110 institutions ranging from kindergarten schools, undergraduate colleges and teacher training institutes to institutions offering post-doctoral studies in arts, science, commerce as well as professional training in the faculties of law, engineering, fashion technology, hotel management, agriculture, business administration and medicine.

Today the KLES has assets in excess of Rs.5 billion and an annual turnover of over Rs.1 billion. It employs over 6,000 people and caters to the educational needs of over 60,000 students. Over the years, it has done yeoman service in the cause of education not only for people living in the present-day Karnataka districts of Belgaum, Dharwad, Bijapur, Gadag and Haveri, but also for those in southwestern Maharashtra.

The efforts of the Founder Life members and Founders in those early days did not go unnoticed and soon contributions both in cash and kind poured in from the general public of Belgaum and the neighbouring regions. Enthused by the support, the Founders made a bid to widen their sphere of activities and approached over a period of time three rich philanthropists who came to be known as KLES' 'Donors' - Srimant Sardar Lingapa Jayappa Sardesai, Raja Lakhamagouda Sardesai and B.V. Bhoomraddi.

RAVI SHARMA
The KLES-run R.L. Science Institute, Belgaum, started in 1958.

With the princely donations from Raja Lakhamagouda, another Anglo-Vernacular School was established in 1922 at Dharwad. It was named after its chief benefactor. After starting a couple of schools in Belgaum district and neighbouring Maharashtra, the Society decided to enter the field of collegiate education. In June 1933, the Lingaraj College came into existence. In a short while, science courses were started there. The year 1944 saw the inauguration of the full-fledged Lingaraj Arts and Science College by the Nobel Laureate Dr.C.V. Raman. In 1947 a liberal donation from Bhoomraddi helped start the B.V. Bhoomraddi College of Engineering and Technology at Hubli.

By 1945 the Society had 10 educational institutions. Soon the need was felt to draft a new constitution. The new constitution paved the way for an elected board of management that took over the administration of the Society from the Founder Life Members. The administration was streamlined and more than a dozen institutions were established in the next few years in various places.

The KLES also addressed another major deficiency of the region - poor medical facilities. The Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, set up in 1963, was the forerunner to the Society's many initiatives in medical education. The KLES constitution was later expanded to enable it to "establish, run, manage, acquire, promote, take on lease hospitals, clinics, specialised medical centres, health clubs, diagnostic centres and other activities related to health care and medical colleges".

It was also envisaged that the Society would "undertake, promote and assist in all spheres of research and development work in life sciences, medicine and applied biological sciences and to cultivate and evaluate the therapeutic effects of various drugs and herbal medicines"; and also "provide consultancy services to hospitals (and other) institutions for professional work in any branch of medicine and research". This change enabled the KLES, especially under the chairmanship of Prabhakar Kore, to broaden its base by adopting institutions run by other managements into its fold. This led to the Society pursuing a policy of "take over and merge".

For the Society, providing education for the masses, especially those in the rural areas, has been the watchword. Of its 110 institutions located in towns in north Karnataka, south Maharashtra and Bangalore, as many as 54 are unaided institutions.

Explained Dr. F.V. Manvi, Principal, KLES College of Pharmacy and the Society's secretary: "The importance that the Society gives to education can be gauged from the fact that the Society's bylaws give pride of place to the 15-member Board of Life Members, which is made up of academicians. Teachers are given importance in formulating policies. The Board of Life Members is an advisory body and all academic and financial matters are first discussed by it before they are taken up by the Board of Management.''

In a bid to offer quality education, the KLES has made sure that all its campuses are self-owned, clean and have adequate infrastructure.

According to Manvi, though the Society has started a number of institutions in urban areas like Bangalore, Hubli and Belgaum it has not sidelined education for the rural masses. Manvi pointed out that offering quality education, especially in the rural areas, places a huge financial burden on the Society. ''Even in some of our aided institutions we have appointed teachers at our expense. And anyway, what the government gives by way of grants to our aided institutions, can only cover the teachers' salaries," he said.

Local philanthropists continue to extend help. Like Dr. L. Sheshadri, a retired medical practioneer, who gave Rs.10,000 so that a meritorious but economically backward student could do the Pharmacy course.

According to K.G. Malali, Principal of the KLES Business Administration College, the vision of the founders of the Society to make education available to the masses has been fulfilled. "When the Society was formed in 1916, the region was backward and the population consisted laregely of traders. Today there is a large middle-class population, much of which is employed in the services sector. Another indicator of the vision being fulfilled is the fact that while earlier most, if not all, of the staff members were from outside, today most of our faculty members are people from this very region," he says.

Although the Society now focusses principally on medical education, it has not ignored the traditional arts, commerce or science courses. It has also paid attention to technological studies. The B.V. Bhoomraddi College of Engineering and Technology at Hubli was a forerunner to the Society's forays into technological education.

Given the demand for courses in information technology, the Society launched the Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) course at its institutions in Hubli, Gadag, Belgaum and Bangalore in 1999. It also runs MCA courses at Hubli, Belgaum and Bangalore.

The Society's School of Agricultural Training and Research at Belgaum, arguably the only one of its kind in India, was also started in 1999.

The Society also runs law colleges at Hubli, Gadag, Belgaum, Bangalore and Chikodi. In the past few years, it set up colleges of business administration and management at Hubli, Bangalore and Belgaum; colleges of management studies and research at Hubli; and tourism administration, hotel management and catering technology at Bangalore.