Robertsonpet is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Kolar Gold Fields Kolar Gold Fields (K.G.F.) is a mining region in K.G.F. taluk (township), Kolar district, Karnataka, India. It is headquartered in Robertsonpet, where employees of Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML) and BEML Limited (formerly Bharat Earth Mov ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The township was planned and built to accommodate the increasing population of the city of Kolar Gold Fields. The town hall popularly known as King George Hall was built in

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

style with a lawn and garden in front of it. Robertsonpet was established in 1902 and named after Sir Donald Robertson the

British Resident A resident minister, or resident for short, is a government official required to take up permanent residence in another country. A representative of his government, he officially has diplomatic functions which are often seen as a form of in ...

of the Princely state of

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

. It is considered to be one of the first planned townships in modern-day India.

History

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the mining industry expanded under the John Taylor and Sons Company. In its peak period, it employed 4500 employees, and the waste rocky terrain was developed into a township. The township was first established in 1901 as New Town, to house the population working in the KGF Mines. On 15 August 1903, the township was renamed as Robertsonpet. The town got its name at the insistence of the

Maharaja of Mysore The maharaja of Mysore was the king and principal ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore and briefly of Mysore State in the Indian Dominion roughly between the mid- to late-1300s and 1950. The maharaja's consort was called the maharani of Mysore. In ...

, who named it after Sir Donald Robertson the

. As the township grew, tradesmen such as bakers, confectioners, jewellers, pawn brokers, barbers, timber merchants, tailors, etc. migrated and set up shop in Robertsonpet. A town hall (similar to town halls in Australia) was built in Victorian architectural style with arches, canopies and large gardens, and was named as the King George Hall. The KGF Club in Oorgaum and the King George Hall Cosmopolitan Club were established providing faculties for badminton, tennis, cards, carom, snooker, etc.

Demographics

There is also a substantial

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority group, minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Angl ...

population at KGF, descendants of the English mine supervisors. Robertsonpet is a melting pot of cultures with people of different communities:

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Anglo Indian Anglo-Indian people are a distinct minority community of mixed-race British and Indian ancestry. During the colonial period, their ancestry was defined as British paternal and Indian maternal heritage; post-independence, "Anglo-Indian" has a ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

Marwari Marwari may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the Marwar region of Rajasthan, India, largely in the Thar Desert ** Marwari people, an Indian ethnic group originating in the Marwar region ** Marwari language, the language of the Marwari ...

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, etc., living in the township.

Sir Donald Robertson

Sir Donald Robertson is credited with starting the hydro-electric plant at

Shivanasamudra Shivanasamudra Falls is a cluster of waterfalls on the borders of Malavalli, Mandya and Kollegala, Chamarajanagara, in Karnataka, India, situated along the river Kaveri. The falls form the contour between the districts of Chamarajanagara and Ma ...

, which supplied electricity to the KGF Mines. Robertson served as the British Resident of the Mysore Darbar in the 1900s, and during his tenure drafted the Constitution of the princely state of

. He worked towards providing amenities to the population of KGF, even to those who were not employed by the mines, and is largely credited for establishing the KGF mining towns. In recognition of his services, His Highness the

Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV (4 June 1884 – 3 August 1940) was the twenty-fourth Maharaja of Mysore, reigning from 1902 until his death in 1940. Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV is popularly deemed a '' rajarshi'', or 'saintly king', a moniker with which Mah ...

renamed New Town as Robertsonpet. After retirement from government services, Robertson joined the mining enterprise John Taylor and Sons Company. He died on 13 October 1930.(p. 291)

External links

Official City Government Website

References

{{reflist Cities and towns in Kolar district Cities in Karnataka