Sri Rajangam Iyer (1903 - 1948) was one of the first native Indian engineering managers of the

South Indian Railway Company The South Indian Railway Company operated a number of gauge lines in South India from 1874 to 1951. History The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Carnatic Railway Company was ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Sri Rajangam was the deputy

Chief mechanical engineer Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

of South Indian Railways (SIR). He was the first native Indian to become the works manager of

Golden Rock Railway Workshop The Golden Rock Railway Workshop (officially the Central Workshop, Golden Rock, abbreviated GOC), in Ponmalai (Golden Rock), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, is one of three railway workshops serving Indian Railways' Southern Railway zone. The w ...

, situated in Ponmalai (Golden Rock),

Tiruchirapalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

, Tamil Nadu. Even his immediate successor in 1946 was a British man. He is also credited as one of the engineering co-inventors of the water-saving

Jaison Water Tap The Jaison Water Tap or Jayson Water Tap (also known as Waste Not Water Tap) is a self-closing water-saving tap invented in the early 20th century

Major contributions and legacy

Engineering innovations

Together with friends such as the innovator-entrepreneur J.P. Subramonya Iyer of

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and engineer S.L. Narayanan, he developed a water-saving tap named

Jaison Water Tap The Jaison Water Tap or Jayson Water Tap (also known as Waste Not Water Tap) is a self-closing water-saving tap invented in the early 20th century Innovators and patent holders
Achuthsankar S. Nair,

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

, Thiruvananthapuram, 13 January 2017

Railway operations

* He had prepared detailed manuals on operation and crisis management in South Indian Railways. These included a paper titled ''Some factors contributing to derailments of railway rolling stock'' (Paper No. 370) published by the '' Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers'' in 1937. Some of these are still being referred to by the engineering staff of Southern Railway zone of

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

. * During

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, he had shown exemplary administrative skills to ensure fast repairs of locomotives and enable efficient goods transport. * During the 1928 South Indian railway strike, he had ensured efficient operation of his department irrespective of several workers joining the month-long

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...

Early Years and Education

Sri Rajangam was born as the second son of Mada Theru Manaankutty Iyer. He had six siblings, including three elder sisters, an elder brother and two younger sisters. Rajangam studied at Ambasamudram and Maharaja's College, Trivandrum (today University College Thiruvananthapuram) and later obtained his bachelor's degree in engineering and mechanical engineering diplomas from

College of Engineering, Guindy The College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) is a public engineering college in Chennai, India and is Asia's oldest technical institution, founded in 1794. It is also the oldest technical institution to be established outside Europe. History Due ...

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

city, thereby becoming the first graduate of his family.

Professional career

After completing his education as a mechanical engineer, Sri Rajangam first worked for 4 years at

Negapatam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieval ...

(Nagapattinam) at the shops (central workshop before it was moved to Trichy in 1928) there. In 1929, he was appointed an assistant mechanical engineer. Until 1936, he served as assistant to works manager, assistant mechanical engineers in two locomotive districts and as personal assistant to the CME at Golden Rock Railway Workshop. In 1936, he was elected as associate member of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers (ILE) and served as the honorary secretary of the South India branch for many years. Circa 1945-1946, he was offered to head the

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) is an electric locomotive manufacturer based in India. The works are located at Chittaranjan in the Asansol Sadar subdivision of West Bengal, with an ancillary unit in Dankuni. The main unit is 32 km f ...

. However, he could not take up the position as he developed cancer. Since 30 March 1947, he was on sick leave (at first for a month, subsequently for another month, and so on) and remained so on medical certificate, until his death on 13 February 1948. In their official obituary, the ILE described him as "one of the most progressive Locomotive men in India" and acknowledged his many ideas and suggestions that were incorporated in the workshops of the SIR.

Family

In 1922, he married Lakshmi Rajangam (1910–2009), a famous Carnatic classical music composer, vocalist and violinist and litterateur, who was the daughter of T.S. Sankara Aiyar, Financial Commissioner, Railway Board. Lakshmi was only 12 years old at the time of their wedding, as it was common practice then. The couple had two daughters (Saroja Krishnamurthy and Seetha Subramanian) and two sons (R.R.Sankarasubramanian aka Ramani and R.R.Balakrishnan aka Bala). On 13 February 1948, at the age of 45, Sri Rajangam died due to cancer. After his early death, his wife Lakshmi brought up their remaining 3 young children while she worked at

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Trichy Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

as a Carnatic musician as well as a writer of published essays and one-act plays.

References

{{authority control 20th-century Indian engineers Indian mechanical engineers Rail transport in Tamil Nadu