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he worked tirelessly since the 1960s to expand the Vokkaligara Sangha in Bangalore
and start its pioneer educational institutions such as the V.V. Puram College of Arts,
Science, and Commerce; V.V. Puram College of Law; Bangalore Institute of Technology;
and Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, and make the Vokkaligara Sangha the
education powerhouse it is today.

Young boys from the villages who came to work as domestic help at Mr. Parthasarathy’s
house in Bangalore, were supported by him to continue their H.S. education and then
go on to evening college. Many of them attained college degrees and went on to lead
successful lives.

Highly respected for his legal expertise, hard work, and honesty,
Mr. Parthasarathy served the Vokkaligara Sangha in various
capacities. As a successful lawyer, he worked tirelessly on behalf of
the Sangha, providing free legal counsel, winning case after case,
and saving the Sangha huge monies, at a time when it was low on
funds. From 1972 to 1984, he served as Professor and Principal of
the Visveswarapura College of Law.
As Principal, he accepted a nominal salary of Rs.100, which went
up to Rs. 200 at the time he retired in 1984, after 12 years of service.
When questioned about his meager salary, he would always tell his
family that the Sangha’s educational institutions were still in their fledgling stages, and
if he and other Sangha educators started drawing fat salaries, there would be no money
left to improve the infrastructure, and start new educational programs.

Sri. Parthasarathy’s wife, Smt. Sumithra, herself a social worker, supported him whole
heartedly in his service to the Vokkaligara Sangha. It must be noted that in 1984, when
he retired as Principal of V.V. Puram College of Law, Mr. Parthasarathy made sure that the
incoming Principal was paid the ongoing salary for law college principals in Bangalore at
the time – Rs.16,500 !

Mr. Parthasarathy wanted the Vokkaligara Sangha to be a trail blazer in starting new
educational curriculums relating to cutting-edge technology. In the 1980s, he led the
Sangha in establishing the Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT) and the Kempegowda
Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). He used to tell us (his family) of how during a
Sangha Committee meeting he introduced the subject of starting a Computer Science
degree program at BIT, many members were very skeptical and argued asking how could
they start the program when there was no computer science syllabus in Bangalore; to
which my Father, Mr. Parthasarathy retorted that if others were sleeping, we shouldn’t
be sleeping too! He convinced the committee that he could get the computer science
syllabus from MIT, through his son-in-law who was a computer science engineer in USA.
The Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT) named after the famous MIT in Massachusetts,
became the first educational institution in Bangalore to offer a computer science degree
program to students.

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