Arthur Cotton

Tombstone of Sir Arthur Cotton

Arthur Cotton was born on 15 May 1803 at Combermere, the tenth son of Henry Calvely Cotton, uncle of the noted Field Marshal Lord Combermere,[2] and one of eleven brothers. In 1818, aged 15, he became a cadet at the East India Company's military seminary at Addiscombe, Surrey. He passed out in December 1819 and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Madras Engineer Group.

He started his career with the Ordnance Survey at Bangor, North Wales, in January 1820, where he was praised for his reports. In 1821 he was appointed for service in India, where he was initially attached to the Chief Engineer to Madras. He was later appointed as an Assistant Engineer to Superintending Engineer of the Tank Department.

Cotton conducted a marine survey of the Pamban passage between India and Ceylon. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1828, and was put in charge of investigation for the Cauveri Scheme. He started working to remove the soil settling in Kallanai Dam and with the model of the dam he built the Upper Dam in Kaveri in Mukkombu, near Tiruchirapalli. He constructed the Lower Anaicut Dam in Anaikarai. The success of these projects paved the way for further important projects on the Godavari and Krishna Rivers.

Cotton recalled how, from analysing the Kallanai Dam and its foundations, his group learned how to construct foundations in a sandbed. In 1844, Cotton recommended the construction of an "anicut" (a dam made in a stream for maintaining and regulating irrigation)[3] and prepared plans for Visakhapatnam port. In 1847, the work on the Godavari anicut was started.

In 1848 he proceeded to Australia due to ill health and handed over the charge to Captain Orr. In 1850 he returned to India and was promoted to the rank of colonel. He succeeded in completing the magnificent project on the Godavari river at Rajahmundry in 1852. After completing the Godavari anicut Cotton shifted his attention to the construction of the aqueduct on Krishna River. The project was sanctioned in 1851 and completed by 1855. After completing the Krishna and Godavari anicuts, Cotton envisaged the storage of the Krishna and Godavari river waters.

In 1858, Cotton came up with even more ambitious proposals such as connecting all major rivers of India, and interlinking of canals and rivers. He suggested drought-relief measures for Odisha. Arthur Cotton retired from service in 1860 and left India. He was knighted in 1861. He visited India in 1862 and 1863 and offered advice on some river valley projects.

His work in India was much appreciated and he was honoured with KCSI (Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India) in 1877. He became a much-revered figure in the state of Andhra Pradesh for his contribution in irrigating the area of land also known as Konaseema.

Cotton died on 24 July 1899.

Aged 94

Statue of Cotton at Hyderabad

Cotton was hated by his administrative superiors—thanks to his empathy for the people of India.[4] At one point, impeachment proceedings were initiated by his superiors for his dismissal.[5]

Going through the famine and cyclone-ravaged districts of Godavari, Cotton was distressed by the sight of famished people of the Godavari districts.[6] It was then that he put in process his ambitious plans to harness the waters of the Godavari river for the betterment of the community.

John Henry Morris in Godavari[7] writes about the work of Cotton:

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 fertilised by innumerable streams and channels.

In 1878, Cotton had to appear before a House of Commons Committee to justify his proposal to build an anicut across the Godavari.[8] A further hearing in the House of Commons followed by his letter to the then Secretary of State for India reveals his ambition to build the anicut across the Godavari. His letter concluded: "My Lord, one day's flow in the Godavari river during high floods is equal to one whole year's flow in the Thames of London".[9] Cotton almost despaired at the British Government's procrastination in taking along this project.

According to Gautam Pingle, an Indian policymaker, the idea of interlinking of rivers in India to form a national water grid, an idea which had gained much attention from the Indian government and policy-makers at the turn of the 21st century, was in fact an idea that is more than 120 years old as it was first envisioned by Arthur Cotton.[10]

Oldest Cotton Dam constructed by Sir Arthur Cotton on Godavari river to control floods.

Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage in Rajamahendravaram on River Godavari

• The Godavari Canal System
• The Ganges Canal
• Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage

• List of dams and reservoirs in India
• Charles Phillip Brown, another westerner who is respected by Telugu people, an administrator and patron of Telugu
• Sir Sydney John Cotton (1792–1874), elder brother
• Rev. Richard Lynch Cotton (1794–1880), elder brother
• Dr. K.L. Rao
• Dr. K. Sriramakrishnaiah

• Hope, Elizabeth, Lady (1900). General Sir Arthur Cotton: his life and work. London: Hodder & Stoughton.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Ch. Prashant Reddy in the Business Line (16 July 2003). "National water grid: A hundred-year-old plan" (Business Line). Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 28 November 2006. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); |author= has generic name (help)
• S. Gurumurthi in the Business Line (14 October 2002). "Godavari: Still a sleeping beauty" (Business Line). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); |author= has generic name (help)
• Avilash Roul (14 March 2006). "India's water future: are interbasin water transfers a solution?". Eco-World. Archived from the original on 19 October 2006.
• Gautam R. Desiraju (10 August 2003). "Sir Arthur Cotton - Correspondence with Current Science" (PDF). 85 (3). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Hots, Susan. (2008). "Cotton, General Sir Arthur Thomas." in Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland. Volume 2: 1830–1890. pp. 195–199.ISBN 9780727735041.
• Vibart, H.M. (1894). Addiscombe: its heroes and men of note. Westminster: Archibald Constable. pp. 343–51.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Cotton.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Cotton (family)".

• Works by or about Arthur Cotton at Internet Archive
• Works by Arthur Cotton at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• RootsWeb page on Sir Arthur Cotton
• Marble bust of Sir Arthur Cotton
• General Sir Arthur Cotton R.E. K.C.S.I. – His Life and Work by his daughter (Lady Hope)
• The Study of Living Languages by Sir Arthur Cotton
• Public Works in India by Sir Arthur Cotton
• Arabic Primer by Sir Arthur Cotton
• Arabic Primer (audiobook) by Sir Arthur Cotton at LibriVox