ORISSA REVIEW

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VOL. LXVII NO. 9 APRIL - 2011

SURENDRA NATH TRIPATHI, I.A.S.Principal Secretary

BAISHNAB PRASAD MOHANTYDirector-cum-Joint Secretary

LENIN MOHANTYEditor

Editorial AssistanceBibhu Chandra Mishra

Bikram Maharana

Production AssistanceDebasis PattnaikSadhana Mishra

Manas R. NayakCover Design & Illustration

Hemanta Kumar SahooManoj Kumar Patro

D.T.P. & Design

Raju SinghManas Ranjan Mohanty

Photo

The Orissa Review aims at disseminating knowledge and information concerning Orissa’ssocio-economic development, art and culture. Views, records, statistics and information publishedin the Orissa Review are not necessarily those of the Government of Orissa.

Published by Information & Public Relations Department, Government of Orissa,Bhubaneswar - 751001 and Printed at Orissa Government Press, Cuttack - 753010.For subscription and trade inquiry, please contact : Manager, Publications, Information &Public Relations Department, Loksampark Bhawan, Bhubaneswar - 751001.

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CONTENTS

Lord Jagannath : Lord of the Universe ... 1

Good Governance ... 3

Bande Utkal Janani Kantakabi LaxmikantMohapatra ... 7

Utkal Santan Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das ... 8

The Makers of Modern Orissa ... 9

Chronological Accounts of Orissan History ... 18

The Unfinished Task of Orissa Formation Dr. Anil Mohapatra ... 30

Journey from Tribal to Modern Orissa Dr. Dina Krishna JoshiDr. Mihir Prasad MishraSasmita Mund ... 34

Language : The Foundation of a Race Harish Chandra Bakshipatra ... 38

Rama Devi, the Mother of the Masses Balabhadra Ghadai ... 41

Promotion of Odia Culture in Chhatisgarh Dillip Dashsharma ... 44

Nayagarh and Prajamandal Andolan Arun Kumar Sahoo ... 46

The Role of Krishnachandra Gajapati Dev in Formationof Separate State of Orissa Dillip Kumar Behura ... 49

Biju Patnaik and National Politics Prof. Surya Narayan Mishra ... 55

Hon'ble Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil - First WomanPresident of India Rekha Mohanty ... 58

Lingaraj Worship in Ekamra Kshetra Dr. Saroj Kumar Panda ... 61

Jaga Culture of Puri and Tourism Abhimanyu Dash ... 63

Economic Empowerment and Women of Orissa Dr. Bandana Pathak ... 65

The Port of Paradip : Mangrove Forest to a Major Port Prabhat Kumar Nanda ... 68

Seventy-Five Years of Co-operative Movement in Orissa(1903-78) - A Review Sarat Parida ... 79

Law is not an Ass Bimal Kumar Chatterjee ... 82

I extend my warm greetings and good wishes to the people of Orissa on the anniversary of theformation of the State of Orissa.

2. After trials and tribulations, and great efforts of patriots like Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das,Utkalmani Pandit Gopabandhu Das, Parala Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Dev, VyasaKabi Fakir Mohan Senapati, Swabhaba Kabi Gangadhar Meher, Pandit Godavarish Mishra, andmany others, the long cherished dream of uniting the major Oriya-speaking tracts became a reality onthis day. It is a matter of great pride that the people of Orissa have all along significantly contributed tothe efforts of nation-building and have earned for themselves a pride of place in the Indian NationalMovement. I offer my tributes to the sacred memory of these distinguished leaders and the innumerableOriya people who struggled for the formation of a separate State of Orissa.

3. Orissa, which has abundant natural resources is a land of many splendours with a rich culturalheritage and glorious history. The State of Orissa had its territory spread over from the river Ganga toGodavari. Orissa’s maritime relations with South-East Asia in the past has been inscribed in goldenletters in history. Our poets, painters, sculptors and craftsmen have enchanted the world with theirexcellence.

4. Today the State of Orissa has emerged as a pioneering State in implementing various welfareschemes of its own. It is heartening to note that the people of Orissa and the State Government areworking with determination to script a new chapter of progress and prosperity. There has beenunprecedented development in Orissa during the last 10 years.

5. Government of Orissa is consistently implementing policies and programmes to achieve sustainableand inclusive higher economic growth, accelerated overall development and a faster rate of povertyreduction. Agriculture continues to be the backbone of the State’s economy, so in the last decade, theState Government has set in motion appropriate strategic initiatives for increased agricultural productionthrough a proper mix of irrigation and infrastructural development.

Message ofShri Murlidhar Chandrakant BhandareHis Excellency the Governor of OrissaOn the Occasion of Orissa Day - 2011

6. Welfare Schemes for the people are accorded top priority by the State Government. Provisionslike Gopabandhu Grameen Yojana, Madhubabu Pension Yojana, Annapurna Scheme, Mo Kudia Yojana,rice at Rs.2/- per Kg. scheme, Biju Gram Yoti Yojana, Biju Saharanchala Bidyutikaran Yojana,construction of check dams and bore wells in water deficit areas etc. have facilitated in providing reliefto the poor and weaker section of the Society. The MGNREG Scheme ensuring wage employment tothe poor is also being implemented with full vigour. The State Government has launched a new schemecalled Biju Kandhamal and Gajapati Yojana in the line of Biju KBK Yojana. The Scheme focuses onBijli, Sadak, Pani, Livelihood Support and Social Safety net programmes. Similarly the State Governmenthas taken all possible measures to formulate and implement Schemes to ensure adequate health andnutrition care to the people of the State. To promote education in the State, Government has notifiedthe Orissa Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010 for effective implementationof the Act in the State. Similarly, Orissa has instituted a School Student’s Helpline with Toll FreeTelephone number for redressal of problems of school students. Besides, to reduce the dropout rate ofST Girls and Boys from Schools, 1328 hostels will be operationalised in the academic year 2011-12and this would provide about 132800 ST Girls and Boys with an opportunity to pursue and completeschool education.

7. Government has accorded high priority to help women by enabling them to have employmentand income by formation of SHGs through Mission Shakti Scheme.

8. The Industrial Policy of the State envisages rapid industrial growth. As a result so far 89 companiesin different sectors have signed MoUs with an investment of Rs.4,61,236 Crore. Some of them startedproduction thereby generating direct and indirect employment for the unemployed.

9. With the initiative of the State Government and active involvement of people, development ofthe State and welfare of the people can be substantially accelerated. To maintain this process ofdevelopment your cooperation is needed.

10. On this auspicious day, let us resolve to work sincerely to take Orissa forward and revive itspast glory.

Vande Utkal Janani.

On the auspicious occasion of Orissa Day, I extend my good wishes and greetings to the sisters andbrothers of our State.

1st of April is the most memorable day in the history of Orissa. On this day, Orissa emerged asa separate province. The Oriyas will never forget the valuable contribution of the illustrious sons likeUtkalagourav Madhusudan Das, Utkalamani Pandit Gopabandhu Das, Parala Maharaja KrushnaChandra Gajapati Narayan Dev, Vyasakabi Fakir Mohan Senapati, Swabhab Kabi Gangadhar Meher,Pandit Godabarish Mishra and the king of Khallikote Rajasaheb Ramachandra Mardaraj Deo in theformation of separate Orissa province.

I also pay my respect to the sincere efforts of those who enriched Oriya language, literature,dance, music and art.

Orissa has a glorious past. Emperors Kharavela and Kapilendra Dev enhanced the glory ofOriya race by dint of their courage and valour. The Oriya navigators sailed to Bali, Java, Sumatra andother countries and enriched Orissa through their trade relations. Till today the vestiges of our cultureare noticed in those countries. The indomitable courage of the Oriya Paikas is unparalleled. Orissa'scontribution was also important in the freedom struggle.

The history and tradition of Orissa bear much significance. This has always encouraged us tomove forward. Orissa is endowed with abundant natural resources. Our efforts continue to transformthe State into a prosperous one by harnessing these natural resources. Orissa has vast possibilities fordevelopment in various sectors from Agriculture to Industries. For this, a number of innovative schemeshave been undertaken.

The economy of the State was not in good shape when my government took the rein ofadministration in 2000. The Super Cyclone had shattered the State's economy. At this critical juncturewe started implementing various programmes with the dream to build up Orissa anew. Orissa has

Message ofShri Naveen Patnaik

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Orissaon the occasion of Orissa Day - 2011

witnessed remarkable progress in its economy during last 11 years. Our growth rate has increased. Ourplan outlay has also been enhanced. New schemes have been launched for the welfare of the poorpeople as well as the development of the State. There is reduction in poverty. The per capita incomehas increased. Facilities like concrete roads, electrification, drinking water in villages have opened up anew vista of development.

Several programmes have been taken up for the development of agriculture and welfare of thefarmers. Efforts are on to make the State self-reliant in the agriculture sector. Horticulture Sector hasalso been expanded. More land has been brought under irrigation facility. The women of our State haveexhibited their dexterity through Mission Shakti. More emphasis has been laid on development ofbackward regions to bring the tribals into the mainstream of development. Innovative schemes havebeen launched for the welfare of S.T & S.C people. Special programme has been initiated for thespread of education among the women. The dropout rate has come down in the State. Infant andmaternal mortality rates are on the decrease. At present Orissa has occupied a distinct place in theindustrial sector. Investment in different sectors in the State has also increased. Industrial productionhas gone up. Opportunities have been created for new employment. Special attention is being accordedfor the development of small scale industries facilitating employment. Agriculture and agro-based industrieslinking the development of villages are being encouraged. Orissa has become an advanced State in thedevelopment of infrastructure like roads, ports etc. Self-employment opportunity is being created throughEmployment Mission. In the field of Higher Education, Orissa has achieved tangible progress. Plenty ofopportunity has been generated in professional education like Engineering, Medical, Management.Orissa is going to be the Knowledge Centre of eastern India.

We have still a long way to reach our destination. Our objective is to provide roads, drinkingwater, electricity, education and health services to all the villages of the State. Our motto is to be self-dependent in the agricultural sector. Our aim is to make Orissa a leading State in industrial sector.'Education for all' and 'work for all' are our motto. Our aim is to form an ideal society by utilising thetalents and potential of our youth force in the spheres of agriculture and industries.

Now the confidence of the Oriyas has gone up. We have realised on potentiality and areprepared to march ahead. Through strong will - power and hard labour, we can achieve our goal. As aresult, we can safeguard the dignity of the Oriya people and build a prosperous and beautiful Orissa forour future generation.

Let us join hands together to fulfil the objectives of development with full confidence.

Vande Utkal Janani.

I extend my heartiest greetings and good wishes to my sisters and brothers of Orissa on the 75th

Anniversary of formation of Orissa as a separate State. On 1st of April, 1936, after many trials and

tribulations, and incessant efforts of the great sons of our soil, the long cherished dream of unifying the

major Oriya-speaking tracts was transformed into a reality. Thus, this is the day of great significance to

us, and, today we pay tributes to those virtuous sons and daughters of Orissa whose dedicated struggle

and endeavour made us realize this long cherished dream.

Orissa is a land of a glorious tradition, culture, art, literature, architecture and history which is

considered unique both in our country and abroad. With its territory spread over from the Ganga to the

Godavari, its maritime relationship with South-East Asia in the past has been inscribed in golden letters

in history. Our State has got plenty of resources and opportunities for achieving excellence in all spheres.

Our State is spearheading a revolution in all fields especially in Industry, I.T., e-governance, Agriculture,

Health Services, Education & Tourism. On this day, let us take a pledge to continue our efforts to

strengthen our solidarity, rejuvenate our economy and enhance the quality of life of our rural and tribal

brothers and sisters living in the remote areas. On this memorable day, let us rededicate ourselves to

build a prosperous and vibrant Orissa.

Vande Utkal Janani.

Message of

Shri Prafulla SamalMinister, Panchayati Raj,

Information & Public Relations,Women & Child Development

on the occasion of Orissa Day - 2011

MAKERS OF MODERN ORISSA

Utkala Gourav Madhusudan Das Utkalamani Pandit Gopabandhu Das Maharaja K.C.Gajapati Dev

Maharaja S .C .Bhanj Deo Vyasakabi Fakir Mohan Senapati Kabibara Radhanath Ray

Dr. Harekrushna MahtabPandit Neelakantha DasSwabhavakabi Gangadhar Meher

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Lord Jagannath : The Lord of the Universe

The Indians, particularly the people of Orissa,owe a lot to Lord Jagannath. He is the Lord ofthe Universe, about whom the Vedas are silent.Sometimes people are puzzled about the mysterythat surrounds the Lord. He is a great 0. You add0, with 0,the result is 0. You deduct 0 from 0, theresult is 0. You multiply 0with 0, the result is also 0.Zero is nothingness. It isalso the fullness; itrepresents the completion ofa process. The Lord isomnipotent, omnipresentand omniscient. He is allpervading and is the Lordof the Universe. The HolyTrinity, Lord Jagannatha,Lord Balabhadra andGoddess Subhadrarepresent three races;black, white and yellowbeing the colour of theraces. They are of threequalities (Gunas) : Sattwa, Tamas and Raja.Jagannath Cult transcends all barriers of caste,community and religion. It preaches the cult ofequality, fraternity and brotherhood. Therefore,the annual Car Festival of Lord Jagannath isgaining popularity in the country and abroad.

People of almost all religious faiths find theirown ideas and concepts in the Jagannatha Cult.Lord Jagannatha has drawn devotees from allfaiths and creeds. Saints and prophets have bowedto Lord Jagannatha. Nanaka, AdiguruSankaracharya and Shri Chaitanya have visited

Puri to get the mercy of LordJagannatha. Puri has also beenvisited by Ganapati Bhatta ofMaharashtra, a devotee of LordGanesha, who wanted to seeGanesha in Lord Jagannatha.The Lord fulfilled the desire ofthe saint, and on DevasnanaPurnima every year, he appearsin ‘Ganapati Vesha’. The greatsaint Kabir had seen LordKrishna in Lord Jagannatha andhad addressed to LordJagannatha in the followingwords : Kabse chhodiMathurapuri ab hogayaJharkhandka basi :

Since when have you left Mathura and havebecome the dweller of Jharkhanda (Orissa wasdescribed as Jharakhanda) ?

Lord Jagannatha is the Lord of the Universe.Salabega, a Mohmmedan, was very dear to theLord and has written a number of bhajanas and

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jananas expressing his deep devotion to LordJagannatha. Dasia Bauri was born to a lowlyfamily. The Lord had extended his great arm,‘Baliar Bhuja’ to take a coconut offered by a low-born man. Hadi Dasa, a blacksmith was a greatbeliever. It is heard that the Lord would go toChhatiabata (In Badachana Police-Station ofJajpur district) to dwell there for a few days as hewas highly pleased with the devotion of Hadi Dasa.

There are many such stories. It is believedthat Lord Jagannatha goes to Badrika (Jammuand Kashmir) early in the morning to take his bath.He then proceeds to Dwaraka (Gujarat) for hisearly vesha or morning adornment ; at noon heproceeds to Puri for his lunch and in the night,after witnessing Devadasi dance and hearing GitaGovinda, which is dearest to him, goes to sleepat Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu). Saints anddevotees of all faiths including Nanak Panthis,Ramananda Panthis, Shri Rama Krushna Missionand a host of others have established theirAshramas at Puri. Adiguru Sankaracharya hasestablished four dhamas in different parts of thecountry. One at Badrika (Jammu and Kashmir)another at Dwaraka (Gujarat) a third at Sringeri(Kerala) and of course one at Puri. During theCar Festival, the Gajapati Raja does ChheraPahnra, (Cleaning the chariots with the broomwith a golden handle). Except him,Shankaracharya of Puri alone is permitted to visitthe holy Trinity in their respective chariots.

What about Lord Jagannatha, who is amysterious God ? Why is he black ? Some people

believe that Lord Jagannatha is a great void. Intheir opinion, as the colour of the sky is blackand as Lord Jagannatha is a great void, he dwellsin ‘Mahasunya’. Therefore the colour of LordJagannatha is black. Another question comes tothe mind that why Lord Jagannatha is immovable(Madala) ? The answer is that the Jiva performskarmas but Param Brahma does not. As LordJagannatha is Param Brahma, he has no handsnor legs and he does not perform any karma.Therefore he is static. Why are the eyes of LordJagannatha round shaped ? As he isMahasunyabasi and looks to the entire worldthrough this ‘O’, his eyes are round shaped.

What has he not done to keep the prestigeof the Oriyas during the Kanchi war ? The twobrothers, Lord Balabhadra and Lord Jagannatha,had to perform the role of ordinary soldiers. Theyhad to mortgage a gold ring with Manika Gauduni,from whom they had to drink curd on their wayto Kanchi. At last Gajapati Purusottama Devawon the battle.

It is said :

Dolescha Dolagovinda ChapeschaMadhusudana, Rathetu Bamanam DrustwaPunarjanmam Na Bidyate.

If you behold Lord (Dolagovinda) in thewooden palanquin during Dola festival, in boat inthe Narendra pond during Chandana Yatra(Madhusudana) and Lord Jagannatha (Bamanam)in the chariot, there will be no rebirth and you willbe free from the cycle of birth and death.

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ACTIVITIES OF WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENTDEPARTMENT

The Women & Child Development Department is implementing various Schemes under ICDS, MDMProgramme, Emergency Feeding Programme, Women Welfare, Welfare of Children, Welfare of theDisabled and Welfare of the Older Persons.

ICDS SCHEME

As on date, 60,918 Anganwadi Centres arefunctioning in our State. The Scheme is intended (i) toimprove the nutritional and health status of children of0 to 6 years of age, pregnant women and lactatingmothers, (ii) to lay the foundation for the properpsychological, physical and social development of thechild, (iii) to reduce the incidence of mortality,morbidity, mal-nutrition and school drop-outs,(iv) to ensure effective coordination of policy andimplementation among various departments to promotechild development, (v) to enhance the capability ofthe mother to look after the normal health and nutritionalneeds of the child through proper health and nutrition education.

The Scheme provides a package of six services to children below six years and pregnantwomen & nursing mothers. These are Supplementary Nutrition, Immunization, Health Check up, ReferralServices, Non-formal Pre-school Education and Nutrition & Health Education.

This year we have opened 19,221 new Addl. Anganwadi Centres. Besides, Collectors of theDistricts have been instructed to identify inaccessible pockets and send proposal for opening of newCentres on “Need Based” Scheme.

CONSTRUCTION OF ANGANWADI CENTRE BUILDINGS

Out of total 60,918 sanctioned Anganwadi Centres 16,649 have their own buildings. We arearranging funds from different sources like BRGF, RLTAP, State Plan, 13th Finance Commission etc.Collectors of the Districts have been requested to identify land for construction of a model AnganwadiCentre in each G.P. at the cost of Rs.6-7 lakh. Construction of rest of the buildings will be taken up inphases. A sum of Rs.400 crore has been earmarked for this Department out of 13th Finance CommissionFund.

SUPPLEMENTARY NUTRITION PROGRAMME

With a view to improving health & nutritional status of the children in the age group of 6 monthsto 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers, Supplementary Nutrition Programme has beentaken up under ICDS Scheme. Under this Scheme, the Centre provides 50% and the State bears rest

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50%. The total beneficiaries under this Scheme are 49lakhs. (All P & L mothers and children from 0-6 yearsare covered).

MID-DAY MEAL PROGRAMME

Under this Scheme, a cooked noon meal isprovided to the children of Primary and Upper PrimarySchools (From Class-I to VIII). The Scheme is intendedto increase the enrolment, reduce the number of Schooldrop-outs and improve the Nutritional status of thechildren. At present, the beneficiaries under this Schemeare 40 lakhs in Primary Schools and 17 lakhs in UpperPrimary Schools. Women Self-Help Groups are engaged in the MDM Programme. In addition, Akshaya

Patra Foundation and Nandi Foundationare also involved in providing MDM in someBlocks of Puri, Nayagarh and GanjamDistricts. It is pertinent to mention that outof 66,773 Schools of the State under MDMScheme, management of MDM in 39,571Schools has been handed over to WomenSelf-Help Groups. For construction of48,145 nos. of Kitchen-cum-Stores,necessary funds have been provided to theDistricts.

EMERGENCY FEEDING PROGRAMME

Under Emergency Feeding Programme, old,infirm and indigent persons are provided food eachday throughout the year. At present, the beneficiariesunder this Scheme is 2 lakhs in K.B.K. Districts.

SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAMME

Government of India is providing pension tothe old, disabled and widows in a restricted manneronly to the B.P.L. Card Holders. GOI is providingpension to the older persons of 65 years of age,widows above 40 years and the multiple disabledpersons. But, our State Government is providing pension to the older persons of 60 years & above andthere is no age bar for widows under Madhu Babu Pension Yojana. The target of beneficiaries underNational and State Schemes are as follows:

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1. Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension 11,93,176

2. Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension 3,06,923

3. Indira Gandhi National Disabled Pension 1,25,634

4. Pension under Madhu Babu Pension Yojana

(a) Old Age Pension.

(b) Widow Pension. 14,08,400

(c) Disabled Pension.

We have requested the Government of India to release Rs.30 crores under National FamilyBenefit Schemes. In the last Conference of State Ministers held on 29th October 2010 at New Delhi,the following issues have been raised :-

(i) Government of India to consider sanction of pension to the widows irrespective of age limit.

(ii) To consider 60 years instead of 65 years while sanctioning pension under IGNOAP.

(iii) To sanction Disabled Pension to all persons having 40% and above disability instead of multipledisability.

(iv) To enhance financial assistance under NFBS from Rs.10,000/ to Rs.20,000/-.

WOMEN WELFARE PROGRAMME

To empower the women, MissionShakti was launched in 2001 with a target toorganize 2 lakh Self-Help Groups. But, ason date, we have been able to form 4,15,203SHGs involving 49,82,436 Members in ourState. With a view to construct a Society ofself-reliant, conscious socio-economic issues,spirit of cooperation and train the SHGs tocarry out their activities as per their choice.They are also involved in various activities ofthe State such as MDM, PDS, managementof tanks etc. MVSN is coordinating variousactivities. To protect the women fromdomestic violence, Programme Officers ofthe Districts have been declared as Protection Officers. Mahila & Sishu Desk is functioning in eachPolice Station in collaboration with the Home Department to prevent women atrocities. Short StayHome and Family Counseling Centres are also functioning in the State to rescue & protect the interestof women. Orissa State Social Welfare Board and Orissa State Commission for Women are lookingfor the welfare of the women. We are providing bi-cycles to the SC / ST girl students at the level ofHigh School & +2 stages.

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PROGRAMME FOR CHILDREN

The Orissa State Council for Child Welfareis functioning as a Nodal Agency in the State whichplays an important role in the matter of adoption ofchildren. Various Programmes are being taken byOSCCW to promote the inherent talent and efficiencyof children like Bravery Award, Painting Competitionetc. There are six Balashrams and nine AnganwadiTraining Centres in the State which are functioningunder Orissa State Council. There are also 97Orphanages which are managed by the VoluntaryOrganizations and Grant-in-Aids are provided tothem. The quantum of financial assistance to theinmates of the Orphanages has been raised fromRs.500/- to Rs.750/-. The Juvenile Justice Board andChild Welfare Council have been formed in differentDistricts to protect the interest of children. Under Integrated Child Protection Scheme, a Child RightCommission has been constituted in our State.

WELFARE OF THE PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED

In our State, there are 10.21 lakh differently abled persons according to 2001 Census. We areproviding pension to 2,07,368 such beneficiaries under MBPY. 51 Special Schools are receiving Grant-in-Aid from the Government and more than 80 non-aided Schools which are functioning in differentparts of the State are imparting education to the physically challenged. Maintenance Grants for thechildren of Special Schools has been enhanced from Rs.500/- to Rs.750/- per month. Under BanishreeScheme, State Government is providing scholarship to the physically challenged students. At present,8918 beneficiaries are covered under Banishree Scheme. Samarthya Sibir is organized to distributeaids and appliances to the beneficiaries free of cost whose income is less than Rs.6,000/- per month.Under Self-Employment Scheme, 966 Mobile Kiosks have been sanctioned to the disabled. The StateGovernment has reserved 3% of the posts for the Persons with Disabilities in different groups of servicesin Government establishment. A total of 603 posts have been identified consisting of 12 posts in Group-A, 54 posts in Group-B, 422 posts in Group-C and 115 posts in Group-D.

The State Government has decided to make the Capital City of Bhubaneswar as differentlyabled friendly at first instance.

In 1st and 2nd phase, almost 34 public buildings / places have been made barrier free, includingState Secretariat, Rabindra Mandap, Capital Hospital, State Library etc.

An independent State Commission for Persons with Disabilities has been created and startedfunctioning.

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Bande Utkala Janani

Kantakabi Laxmikanta Mohapatra

BANDE UTKALA JANANICHARU HASAMAYI CHARU BHASAMAYI

JANANI ... JANANI ... JANANI !

PUTA-PAYODHI-BIDHAUTA-SHARIRATALA-TAMALA-SUSOBHITA-TIRA

SHUBHRA TATINI KULA-SHIKARA-SHAMIRAJANANI ... JANANI ... JANANI !

GHANA BANA BHUMI RAJITA ANGENILA BHUDHARAMALA SAJE TARANGE

KALAKALA MUKHARITA CHARU BIHANGEJANANI ... JANANI ... JANANI !

SUNDARASHALI-SUSOBHITA-KSHETRAGYANA BIGYANA-PRADARSHITA-NETRA

JOGI RUSHIGANA-UTAJA-PABITRAJANANI ... JANANI ... JANANI !

SUNDARA MANDIRA MANDITA-DESHACHARU KALABALI-SHOBHITA-BESHA

PUNYA TIRTHACHAYA-PURNA PRADESHAJANANI ... JANANI ... JANANI !

UTKALA SURABARA-DARPITA-GEHAARIKULA-SHONITA-CHARCHITA-DEHA

BISWA BHUMANDANA-KRUTABAR-SNEHAJANANI ... JANANI ... JANANI !

KABIKULAMOULI SUNANDANA-BANDYABHUBANA BIGHOSHITA-KIRTI ANINDYA

DHANYE, PUNYE, CHIRA SHARANYEJANANI ... JANANI ... JANANI !

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Tu para bolau Utkal Santan ?Tebe kimpa tuhi bhiru !

Tohar Janani Rodan karileKahibaku kimpa daru ?

To' purbapurushe Bira paniareLabhithile kete khyati

Hakima nikate Dukha kahibakuKimpa thare tora chhati ?

To purbapurushe Jaya karithileGanga tharu Godavari,

Tankari aurase Janma hoi tuhiKeun gune tanku sari ?

Tu mane bhabuchhu toshamada kariBadhaibu Jatimana

Toshamadiara Kukura prakrutiAintha patare dhyan.

Jatira unnati hebakire bhaiSwarthaku Jagat mani ?

Godar godare maunsa lagileDeharaki subha gani ?

Jatira unnati se kahun karibaSwarthe jar byasta mana

Shaguna bilua Chikitschak heleShaba ki paiba prana ?

Utkal SantanUtkal Gourav Madhusudan Das

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The Makers of Modern Orissa

FAKIR MOHAN SENAPATI

Born onJanuary 14, 1843, atMallikashpur inBalasore. Father,Laxman CharanSenapati and motherTulsi Devi. He played aleading role inestablishing the distinctidentity of Oriyalanguage and literature.Fakirmohan Senapati is regarded as the father ofOriya nationalism and the modern Oriya literature.He dedicated his life for the progress of Oriyalanguage in the later 19th and early 20th century.The story of Fakirmohan is indeed the story ofthe “Renaissance” of Oriya literature. Besides hewas a social reformer and educator who used hispen to criticize and correct the aberrationsprevalent in the society. He is called the father ofOriya fiction.

He is aptly called as Thomas Hardy ofOrissa. The four novels of Fakirmohan, writtenbetween 1897 and 1915, reflect the socio-cultural conditions of Orissa during the eighteenthand the nineteenth centuries. While the threenovels, Chhamana Atha Guntha, Mamun and

Prayaschita explore the realities of social life inits multiple dimensions. Lachhma is a historicalromance dealing with the anarchical conditionsof Orissa in the wake of Maratha invasions duringthe eighteenth century. He has written quite a fewmemorable short stories, such as ‘Rebati’,‘Patent Medicine’ and ‘Randipua Ananta’.Fakir Mohan is also the writer of the firstautobiography in Oriya, ‘Atma Jeevan Charita’.

Fakir Mohan’s first original poem ‘UtkalaBhramanam’ (Tours of Orissa) appeared in 1892.It is not really a travel book but rather an unusualand humorous survey of the contemporarypersonalities prominent in the then public life ofOrissa. His other original poems published arePuspamala (The Garland), Upahar (Gift), PujaPhula (Flowers of Worship), Prarthana(Prayer) and Dhuli (Dust-grains). Fakir MohanSenapati translated single handed the whole ofthe ‘ Ramayana’ and the ‘Mahabharat’. For havingtranslated both the ‘Ramayan’ and the‘Mahabharat’ single-handed and his wideversatility in the word of letters, he is popularlyknown as ‘Vyasakabi’ in Orissa. He was alsoconferred the title ‘ Saraswati’ by the king ofBamra, the then feudal state. A great lover and acreator of new era in Oriya literature he was the

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founder of an organization called ‘ Utkala BhasaUnnati Bidhani Sabha’, which was started in 1867to create a new awareness among the people ofOrissa and to propagate Oriya language. Diedon June 14, 1918.

UTKAL GOURAB MADHUSUDAN DAS

Born on 1848, April 28 atSatyabhamapur of Cuttack District. FatherChoudhuri RaghunathDas, Mother–ParvatiDevi. Madhusudan Daswas the first Oriya tofetch the degree ofM.A.B.L., fromCalcutta University. Hewas popularly known asMadhu Barrister,respectfully regardedand addressed as “Utkal Gourav”. He was deeplymoved and shocked to see the discrimination,made against the Oriyas by administrativeauthority. He was convinced that the miserableplight of the Oriyas was only due to the apatheticand indifferent attitude of authorities towards theinterest of the Oriya people. The Oriyas couldnot stand united only because of their vivisectionand annexation with three different provinces. So,he took a solid stand for the unification of thescattered Oriyas by organising and mobilisingstrong public opinion among the Oriyas andpressurised the British rulers for the unification ofthe scattered Oriya-speaking tracts for the socio-economic and cultural growth of the Oriyas atlarge.

Madhusudan organised Utkal UnionConference to form the channel for discussionand negotiations with the authorities to solve theproblems and open avenues for a new era ofunification and integration and played a pilotingrole in engineering the plans and programmes,

pioneering the aims and objectives andchampioning the cause of the Oriya movement.“Utkal Sammilani” came into existence in the year1903 with the extinction of “Utkal Sabha”, itspearheaded the movement of the unification ofOriya-speaking units under one administrationwith right earnestness, disciplined plans andprogrammes.

Due to the ability and inspiration of Mr. Das,people of all categories and sectionsconglomerated under one political banner. Itinspired people with a surging up feeling ofoneness of culture, tradition and language and arare sense of nationality. This impact thunderedthe sky of Orissa. It went up to such an extentthat “freedom movement” and the Oriyamovement got inter-linked under the stableleadership of Mr. Das and UtkalmaniGopabandhu Das. Sometimes the twomovements were lacking harmony on the issue ofpriority. This situation impelled people to join handswith Mr. Das in the forum of Oriya movement,then the Congress. Utkal Sammilani or the UtkalUnion Conference maintained its separate identityfrom the Congress.

As a legislator, Madhusudan Das acclaimeda commendable height of wide appreciation andposition. It was mostly due to his sharp wit andinspiring speech of effective magnitude. He wasselected as the Minister of local self-Governmentof Bihar-Orissa.

He was a leader of versatile performanceand could arrest appreciation and love of thepeople and the Government during the tenure ofhis ministry. Inspite of his popularity, he resignedin 1923 on a matter of principle. It speaks of hisintegrity.

His journalistic approach was reflected inhis weekly paper ‘The Oriya’ started in 1917. It

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was his intense desire to highlight the interest ofOriyas, criticising the Government’s policy throughthis channel of weekly paper. He was verygenuine and emphatic in his voice and action.

He was a national pioneer and a staunchpatron of Orissan development. He breathed hislast on the 4th February 1934. He was a bonafidebenefactor, a nationalist in true sense, acquiringthe first Master Degree and first B.L. Degree asthe first Oriya. He was the first Oriya to be themember of Legislative Council, the first Oriya tosail abroad, to visit England twice and to havethe membership of Central Legislative Assemblyas the first Oriya and the first Indian Minister.

GANGADHAR MEHER

Born on August 9, 1862 on the day ofSravana Purnima atBarapalli, Sambalpur ina weaver family.Educated up to 5thclass. Dr. MayadharMansingh has highesteem for GangadharMeher and in his Historyof Oriya literature he hasopined “All told,Gangadhar Meher is one of the rarest personalitiesand poets in the whole range of Oriya Literature’’.His poetic creation includes ‘ PRANAYA-BALLARI’, ‘KICHAKA BADHA’, ‘INDUMATI,’ UTKAL LAXMI’, AYODHYADRUSYA’, ‘ KABITA KALLOLA’, ‘ARGHYATHALI’, ‘ AHALYA STABA’, MAHIMA’BHARATI BHABANA’, ‘ KUMARAJANMOTSAV’, BHAKTI UPAHAR,‘PADMINI’, KABITA MALA & KRUSHAKASANGITA’. His prose creation include ATMAJEEVANI’, SHRI NRUPARAJ SINGH’, ‘PURANA KABI FAKIR MOHAN’,

SWARGIYA KASHINATH PANDA’, ‘EHAKIPRUTHIBIRA SABDA?, SIKSHIT’,ASIKHSIT & SIKSHYA BHIMANINI.

The popularity of his literary creation isdue to narration of the beauty of the nature justlike Kabibara Radhanath Ray. It is unique.Gangadhar is widely known as poet of nature,can be compared with poet Shelly, Byron andKeats. He was the messenger of UpendraBhanja’s style and ideals. His popularity is notaccidental. There are many reasons behind this.Just like Kabi Samrat Upendra Bhanja, hispoetries are replete with high ornamental words,unique composition style, using in befitting cases,simile and metaphor and appropriate words. Hispoetries are sonorous of rhythm of words andlanguages. He is rated as a great poet in IndianLiterature. Died on April 4, 1924. His poetriescan be divided into lyrics, devotional, patriotic,reformative, ethical, agricultural, elegy, andnarration of nature.

SRIRAM CHANDRA BHANJA DEO

Born on 17th December 1870 in a royalfamily of princely state ofMayurbhanj, Sri RamChandra ascended thethrone on 15th August1892. He worked for theall-round developmentof Mayurbhanj state andimplemented variousbenevolent measures forthe welfare of the people.Pandit UtkalmaniGopabandhu became the friend, philosopher andguide of this ruler. Sri Ram Chandra brought aboutsignificant changes in the spheres of language,health and administration. A narrow gauge railway

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was commissioned between Rupsa - Baripadaduring his reign. He constructed two majorreservoirs at Haldiha and Haladia with anexpenditure of Rs.6 lakh from royal treasury.Similarly in the educational sector he raised thenumber of primary schools from 44 to 400 in hisroyal jurisdiction.

Although he was the king of Mayurbhanj,he had great love for the entire Orissa. Under theable leadership of Madhusudan he gavemomentum to the cause of making Orissa aseparate Province. In 1903 Sri Ram Chandrapresided over the 1st session of Utkal Sammilani.Afterwards owing to the concerted efforts of thisSammilani the dream of Orissa for becoming aseparate State came to reality on 1st April 1936.This illustrious son of Orissa passed away on 12thFebruary 1912.

UTKALAMANI PANDIT GOPABANDHUDAS

Born–9th October 1877

The then PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi,has aptly written, “Thesecond half of the 19thcentury gave birth tooutstanding men andwomen in various partsof the country. Thebrilliance, social reforms,education, law andliterature are astonishing.Shri Gopabandhu Das was one such nationbuilder”.

The age long hopes, yearning and prayersof the people of Orissa were fulfilled with theadvent of Utkalamani Gopabandhu. He was the

builder of modern Orissa and was the source ofinspiration and ideals for her people. He dedicatedhimself completely for the country to that extentthat he had to lose his only son in his bid to redressthe suffering of others. He wanted a society freefrom poverty and ignorance where man could livewith self-respect and would be able to develophis own consciousness. He vowed and workedthroughout his life to achieve the objective.

Recognising the noble standings ofGopabandu, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray on28.6.1924, the veteran scientist and patriot ofBengal assigned the title of Utkalamani, (Jewel ofUtkal) to his name. In 1909 he had startedSatyavadi (M.E. National) school with PanditNilakantha Das and others in which PanditGodavarish and Acharya Harihar also joined littlelater. The school soon became popular, for itsqualitative and character building values. Alongwith Madhusudan Das he continued his struggleto arouse the people of Orissa to press theirdemands for the separate Orissa province throughUtkal Union Conference. He gave it a new imageby his practical works to keep up the cultural,literary and linguistic affinity and independentidentity of Oriyas then living in Bihar, Bengal andother Provinces. At Bahadaguda of Dhalbhum healso started an Oriya M.E. School. Then in orderto spread the Oriya language and literature hestarted weekly ‘ Samaja’ on the 4th October1919.

His immortal words still inspire theyounger generation.“Let my body mingle with the dust of this Land,

And let my countrymen walk along my back.Let all the holes in the road of freedom be filled

with my blood and bone,

And let my life be sacrificed when my peopleawake into freedom."

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He was a poet par excellence. The ideaof nationalism and love for Lord Jagannath andPuri has been emotionally described in his poem.

“ The Indian-lotus blooms in the world- pondAnd the Holy Nilachal is like pollens in one lotus,

And whenever I am in IndiaI am always in my room,

In my eyes the Indian stone is a holy stone,And every place is as beloved as my Puri,

And all water is as holy asthe water of fine holy rivers,

And every holy place is my Nilachal.”

Bandira Atmakatha & Abakasha Chinta arehis unique creations. He was versatile, genius, afreedom fighter, maker of modern Orissa, saviourof Oriya language, a social worker, and idealteacher, philanthrophist, journalist, poet,philosopher and a preacher of Jagannath cult.Died on 17th June 1928.

PANDIT NILAKANTHA DAS

In the early part of the twentieth century,those highly qualified youths who wanted to bringrenaissance in the field ofeducation and culture onOrissan soil, PanditNilakantha Das is one ofthem. The others werePandit UtkalamaniGopabandhu Das,Acharya Harihar Das,Pandit GodabarishaMishra and PanditKrupasindhu Mishra.These five comrades are popularly known as“PANCHA SAKHA OF SATYABADI ERA”.At the prime of their youth these five comradeshad taken a vow not to enter into Government

Service and serve the country and ensure itsprosperity.

This illustrious son of Orissa was bornon 5th August, 1884 in the family of Ananda Dasat Sri Ramachandrapur village in the district ofPuri. He had his early education at the villageschool. In 1899 he was admitted to Puri ZillaSchool. In 1909 he passed his B.A. and had beento Calcutta to continue his M.A. and B.L. studies.In 1911 after returning from Calcutta PanditNilakantha joined as a teacher in SatyabadiSchool. He then continued as a Headmaster ofthe school for a large period. Later he joined as aProfessor in Oriya and Philosophy butrelinquished his service in order to join non-co-operation movement.He was elected as a workingmember of Utkala Pradesh Congress Committeeand also a member to All India CongressCommittee. He edited a newspaper titled ‘Seba'from Sambalpur. After staying nine months atSambalpur he returned to SriRamachandrapur.He was arrested in 1922 for anti-British activitiesand put to Hajaribag Jail for six months. Inconsultation with Pandit Gopabandhu Das hedecided to contest for General Assembly. In 1923he was elected as a member of Central Assembly.He participated in Simla Conference in 1926. In1928, after the death of Pandit Gopabandhu hetook up the leadership of Congress in Orissa. Asper Lahore Congress decision he resigned fromCentral Assembly and joined ‘Salt-Satyagraha’movement and was imprisoned for 6 months. Hestarted untouchable movement and served for thedepressed class. For the second time he was alsoelected as a member to Central Assembly. In1933 he edited a monthly Oriya Journal titled‘Naba Bharat’. In 1934 after the death ofMadhusudan the entire burden fell on his headand the first phase of Mahatma Gandhi’s tour toOrissa was arranged by him.

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In 1936, Orissa became a separateprovince, Pandit Nilakantha joined as thePresident, P.C.C. For his able leadership, out of60 seats, the congress got 36 seats.

Under his chairmanship for the spread ofhigher education in Orissa, he decided to establishan university for which a committee wasconstituted and later on as per recommendationof the committee, Utkal University wasestablished. In 1951 he was elected to OrissaLegislative Assembly from ‘Swadhin Jana Sangha’a new party. In 1955 as per request of PanditJawaharlal Nehru he joined Congress. In the saidyear he was appointed as Pro-Chancellor ofUtkal University. He was re-elected in 1957. Heremained as Speaker of Orissa LegislativeAssembly from 1957 May to 1961 July.

Death laid its icy finger on him on 6thNovember 1967. With his death, Orissa lost apatriot, freedom fighter, able legislator, reformerand a poet and one of the architects of modernOrissa.

MAHARAJA SHRI KRUSHNACHANDRA GAJAPATI NARAYAN DEO

Maharaja Shri Krushna Chandra GajapatiNarayan Deo of Paralakhemundi, the son of LateGoura Chandra Gajapati Narayan Deo was bornon 26th April 1892, educated in Madras, assumedrulership in 1913, an enlightened and benevolentruler; a patron of education and culture organisedthe annual session of theUtkal Union Conference atParalakhemundi in 1914.In 1916, he was nominatedby the Government to holdthe post of HonoraryCommissioner of theLand-Force of theDefence of India, laid a

light railway through his Estate connecting Naupadawith Paralakhemundi; set up a big library in hispalace for research scholars, an important memberof the justice party of Madras, member of the RoyalAgricultural Commission in 1927, member of theMadras Legislative Council, represented the caseof Orissa at the Round Table Conference, London,1930-31, deposed before the joint ParliamentaryCommittee for the union of Paralakhemundi withOrissa in 1934, placed the printed Memorandumbefore the authorities and strongly advocated forinclusion of the Oriya portions of Paralakhemundiin Orissa and Orissa for a separate province;formed the non-Congress Ministry in Orissa in1937, the Government conferred on him the titleof Maharaja in 1936 in recognition of his honourand merit. In 1941 November the Maharaja wasinvited to form the Ministry and assumed the ChiefMinistership. Member of the Constituent Assemblyof India 1947-50, life member of the Royal Societyof Arts and Royal Asiatic Society, London; LifeMember of Utkal University, Utkal Universityconferred on him the degree of LL. D. This worthyillustrious son of Orissa passed on 25th May 1974.

DR. HAREKRUSHNA MAHATAB

Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab was the son ofKrushna Charan Das and Tohapha Debi. He wasborn on 21st November 1899 at Agarpada inundivided Balasore district. After matriculationfrom Bhadrak High School, he joined RavenshawCollege, Cuttack for his higher studies, which wereleft incomplete as he was irresistibly drawn to theNational Liberation Movement in 1921.Thereafter his life was a saga of struggle anddedication to the cause of country’s freedom. Hestarted weekly Prajatantra in 1923 at Balasore.First imprisonment on charge of sedition in theyear 1922. He was the member of Bihar andOrissa Council in 1924. He joined Salt Movementand imprisoned in 1930. He participated in

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Harijan Movement in1934 and opened hisancestral temple toHarijans for the firsttime in Orissa. He wasthe President of StatePeople’s EnquiryCommittee in 1938 andr e c o m m e n d e dcancellation of Sanandaof Rulers and merger of

Ex-State with Orissa Province. He participatedin Non-Co-operation Movement and courtedimprisonment in 1941 and “Quit India Movement”in 1942. Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab was the ChiefMinister of Orissa from 1946 to 1950, UnionMinister of Commerce and Industry from 1950–52, Secretary General, Congress Party inParliament 1952, Governor of Bombay from1955-56, resigned from Governorship in 1956and again became the Chief Minister of Orissafrom 1956 to 1960. Dr. Mahatab has been rightlyrecognised as the architect of modern Orissa forhis pivotal role in the merger and integration offormer princely States, founding the State’sCapital at Bhubaneswar and the sanction andconstruction of the multi-purpose Hirakud DamProject.

He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1962. Hewas also elected to Orissa Legislative Assemblyin 1967, 1971 and 1974.

He was the founder of the PrajatantraPrachar Samiti which till today publishes Daily‘Prajatantra’ and ‘Jhankar’ a monthly journal. Hewas Chief Editor of the publications sinceinception. He was the President of Orissa SahityaAcademy and Sangit Natak Academy for acouple of terms. Permanent member of the UtkalUniversity Senate. He was a distinguishedhistorian and writer in English and Oriya. He was

conferred Honorary Degree of Doctor by AndhraUniversity, Degree of Doctor of Literature byUtkal University and Doctor of Laws by SagarUniversity.

True to his multifaceted personality,Dr. Mahatab earned distinction as anaccomplished writer “History of Orissa”,“Beginning of the End”. Apart from this, he hadauthored several novels, plays and poems whichare acclaimed for their literary value. Thecompilation of his popular column “Gaon Mazlis”published in Daily Prajatantra received the CentralSahitya Academy Award in 1983.

Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab was a politicalleader par excellence. He towered over the timeand events to lead the people of the State throughyears of transition during independence andthereafter. This illustrious son of this soil passedaway on 2nd January, 1987.

RAJA BAHADUR RAMACHANDRAMARDARAJ DEO

The significant contribution of many a greatleaders during 1920s and 30s resulted in theformation of a separate Orissa Province. RajaBahadur Ramachandra Mardaraj Deo ofKhallikote was one of them. He was born to RajaHarihar Mardaraj and Rani Kanak Manjari Devion 13th January 1900.In the days to come, hewas destined to shapethe future of Orissa.

As a child, hewas nicknamed Eric. Hewas brought up underthe guidance ofGoverness Mrs. F.Harvey Dunn. He losthis father Raja Harihar Mardaraj Deo on 20th

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July 1909. Then he was sent to Madras forschooling at NewIngton. He studied at ChristianCollege upto the age of his eligibility to takecharge of his own estate. He came to the throneof Khallikote on 14th January 1921.

As first step in his pioneering effortstowards the formation of Orissa Province, heimpressed upon the Philip-Duff Committee set upin 1924 in favour of this cause. Mr. C.L. Philipand Mr. A.C. Duff came to Rambha, stayed inthe palace of Raja Sahib as his guests from 17thto 21st December 1924. A well attended publicmeeting was organised at Khallikotegarh and theimpressed Committee gave a report in favour ofthe amalgamation.

However, the O'donnel Commissionwhich was constituted later on gave a verydiscouraging report. But, Ramachandra Mardarajdebated against it in Madras Legislative Council.Inaugurating a special meeting of Utkal UnionConference on 21st August 1932, he emphasisedon the merger of Oriya tracts as per Philip-DuffCommittee recommendations.

Raja Sahib attended the 3rd Round TableConference in London where he forcefully madearguments for the cause. To augment hisapproach, he hosted the famous 'Orissa Banquet'on 12th January 1933 and there he impressedupon Sri Samuel Hoare, the Secretary of Statefor India and finally managed to get the approvalof Sir Samuel in favour of a separate OrissaProvince.

As per the deliberations of 3rd RoundTable Conference, a Joint ParliamentaryCommittee was constituted to look into this matter.Finally, the Government of India Act, 1935 wasadopted and the clause 289 of this Act providedfor the formation of a Separate Orissa Province.

Raja Ramachandra Mardaraj Deo wasa dynamic leader with full creative energy. Hiswide administrative and political experience andcompetence was a source of strength andinspiration for people who worked with him. Hededicated his life completely for the people ofOrissa and worked for their welfare. The greatRaja Sahib breathed his last on 23rd January1963.

BIJAYANANDA PATNAIK

B i j a y a n a n d aPatnaik popularlyknown as Biju Patnaik–Born on 5th March,1916–Son of LateL a x m i n a r a y a nPatnaik–Education : B.Sc.standard; Married :Shrimati Gyan Patnaik,two sons and onedaughter; Prioroccupation : Business;Hobbies : Aeronautics and Industry; TravelAbroad : U.K., U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Paris,Indonesia and several other countries; Politicalactivities. Since boyhood fond of adventurous life;During student life set out on cycle from Cuttackto Peshawar; joined Indian National Airways andbecame its ace pilot, During “Quit India”Movement collaborated with undergroundleaders; Imprisoned for thirty months ; At the riskof his life he brought the Indonesian Premier Mr.Sultan Siharir to New Delhi by plane at the timeof Indonesian Freedom Struggle. First Indianplane was landed by him in Kashmir in 1947, whenPakistan attacked India ; on returning to Orissatook interest in Industries and established many;President, U.P.C.C. for one term; Member,A.I.C.C., In 1961 Mid-term election under hisleadership brought unprecedented absolute

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majority for Congress Party; Became ChiefMinister 1961–63 and resigned under “Kamraj”Plan; Kalinga Airways is one of his creations.Donor of 1,000 pound prize to UNESCO asScience Award; Elected to the Orissa LegislativeAssembly 1952, 1957, 1961 fromJagannathprasad, Surada (Ganjam) andChoudwar (Cuttack) respectively; again electedin 1971 and 1974 from Rajnagar (Cuttack);Chairman, Planning Board, Government of Orissafrom 1971 to 1972 June. Took active part andrendered valuable service to the people ofRajnagar area in particular who suffered from thehavoc caused by the cyclone in October, 1971.Elected to Parliament in 1977 and CabinetMinister of the Central Ministry 1977 to 1979.Elected to Lok Sabha from KendraparaConstituency in 1980. Again Shri Patnaik waselected to Lok Sabha from KendraparaParliamentary Constituency in 1984 Lok Sabhaelection. He was also elected from BhubaneswarAssembly Constituency to Orissa LegislativeAssembly in 1985 General Election. He resigned

from Kendrapara Parliamentary Constituency andbecame the Opposition Leader in OrissaLegislative Assembly. Again he was elected toOrissa Legislative Assembly in 10th OrissaLegislative Assembly Election from BhubaneswarAssembly Constituency. In 1990 under hisdynamic leadership the Janata Dal secured morethan three fourth majority of the Orissa LegislativeAssembly which is quite unprecedented. He wasunanimously elected as the Leader of the JanataDal in Orissa Legislative Assembly and on his birthday he was sworn in as the Chief Minister ofOrissa on 5th March, 1990. Again he was electedfrom Bhubaneswar Assembly Constituency inMarch, 1995 and became Leader of Opposition.Later he contested for Lok Sabha Election heldin June, 1996 from Aska and CuttackConstituency. He was elected from both theConstituencies. He resigned from O. L. A. andjoined as Parliament Member from Aska LokSabha Constituency. This veteran leader passedaway on 17th April, 1997 at Escort Hospital,New Delhi.

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261 B.C. - The Great Kalinga War took place

177 B.C. - Coronation of King Kharavela

600 A.D. - Sasanka, King of Gauda Desa conquered Utkal

639 - Hiuen-Tsang visited Kalinga, Kangoda, Kosala and Odra

736 - Kshemankara Deva established the kingdom of Tosali in Udra country withcapital at Guhesvara Pataka (Jajpur)

885 - Mahabhavagupta Janmejaya-I established the Somavamsi rule in WesternOrissa with the capital at Suvarnapura (Sonepur)

1078 - Choda Ganga Dev, the Founder of Ganga Dynasty in Kalinga, became theking of Utkala by defeating the last Somavamsi king Karnadeva.

1115 - Construction of Sri Jagannath Temple began at Puri

1147-1156 - Kamarnava VII ruled Kalinga

1156 – 1170 - Raghav Dev ruled Kalinga

1170 – 1194 - Raj Raj Dev-II ruled Kalinga

1190 – 1198 - Ananga Bhima Dev-II ruled Kalinga

1198 – 1211 - Raj Raj Dev-III ruled Kalinga

1211-1238 - Ananga Bhima Dev-III ruled Kalinga

1234 – 1245 - Langula Narasingh Dev built Sun Temple at Konark

1264 – 1278 - Bhanu Dev-I ruled Kalinga

1278 - Chandrika Devi, daughter of Ananga Bhima Dev-III built

Ananta Basudev Temple at Bhubaneswar.

1278 – 1305 - Narasingh Dev-II ruled Kalinga

Chronological Accounts of Orissan History

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1306 – 1328 - Bhanu Dev-II ruled Kalinga

1328 – 1352 - Narasingh Dev-III ruled Kalinga

1352 – 1378 - Bhanu Dev-III ruled Kalinga

1378 – 1414 - Narasingh Dev-IV ruled Kalinga

1414 – 1434 - Bhanu Dev-IV ruled Kalinga

1435 – 1467 - Kapilendra Dev, Founder of Orissan Empire

- The era “Kapilabda” started from the day of his coronation

- Founder of Suryavamsi Dynasty

- Sarala Das wrote Oriya Mahabharat during this period

1464 - Kapilendra Dev conquered from Ganges in North to Trichinapalli in Southand hold the title Gajapati Gaudeshwar Nabakoti KarnatKalabargeshwar.

1467 – 1497 - Purushottam Dev ruled Kalinga

1497 – 1540 - Prataprudra Dev ruled Kalinga

- Sri Chaitanya Dev came to Kalinga

1542 – 1549 - Govinda Bidyadhar ruled Kalinga

- Founded the Bhoi Dynasty in Kalinga

1560 – 1568 - Mukunda Dev established Chalukya dynasty

- Kalapahad, the terror destroyed temples of Kalinga

1568 - Suleiman Karrani conquered Orissa

- End of Independence of Orissa

1590 - Mughals started conquering Orissa

1592 - First battle between Mughals and Afghans near Subarnarekha

- Fall of Sarangagarh Fort

1593 - King of Khurda surrendered before Mansingh

1611 – 1617 - Raja Todarmal divided Orissa as Moghulbandi and Garhjat

1617 - Subedar Mukarram Khan invaded Khurda

1625 - Dutch founded their first settlement at Pipli of Balasore District

1633 - East India Company established their first factory at Haripur in

Bay of Bengal Coast.

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1660 – 1667 - Khan-i-Dauran took over Subahdarship of Orissa

1671 - East India Company granted free trade in Orissa during

the reign of Aurangzeb.

1751 - Maratha Rule began in Orissa

1766 - East India Company occupied Ganjam

1803 - Barabati Fort occupied by East India Company from Marathas

- Northern Orissa conquered by East India Company

1817 - Paika rebellion in Khurda

1835 - Ghumusar rebellion

1862 - Surendra Sai surrendered before Major Imphey

1866 - Orissa famine called ‘Naonka Durvikshya’ occurred and took away majorlives

1882 - Utkal Sabha formed as Gourishankar Ray its Secretary

1895 - Meeting held at Cuttack under Chairmanship of Madhubabu and

resolution passed for amalgamation of Oriya speaking tracts.

1898 - Madhubabu elected to Bengal Legislative Assembly

1903 - Union Conference began

1907 - Representation made to Royal Commission for a Union of Oriya speakingtracks.

1909 - Satyabadi Bana Bidyalaya established (12th August)

1911 - Bihar-Orissa separated from Bengal province

1912 - Sitting of Jatiya Sammelan was held at Balasore for discussion about

creation of a separate province.

1913 - Orissa Tenancy Act passed

1914 - Monthly magazine Satyabadi was published from Satyabadi, Sakhigopalbeing edited by Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, and printed in Asha Press,Berhampur.

1915 - Bagha Jatin died

1916 - Bamanda Suratarangini Saraswata Samiti conferred “Saraswati” title onFakir Mohan Senapati on 7th February.

1917 - Newspaper “The Oriya” started under editorship of Madhubabu forunification of Oriya speaking tracts.

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1918 - Satyabadi Press established at Sakhigopal.

1919 - Weekly Samaj appeared from Satyabadi, Sakhigopal on 4th October.

1920 - Baripada-Bangiriposi railway line covering 37.20 kms was opened to traffic.

1921 - (24th March) Mahatma Gandhi came to Orissa.

1922 - H.K. Mahatab was sentenced to one year Rigorous Imprisonment on18th July on the charges of instigating the Kanika Rebellion.

1923 - Madhubabu resigned from the Ministership of Bihar Orissa Governmenton 9th March.

1924 - Oriya Women’s Association was formed at Berhampur along with theFirst All Orissa Women’s Conference at Cuttack.

1925 - (9th August) Gandhi came to Orissa.

1926 - Gopabandhu Das opened an Widow’s Home called Jagannath Widow’sHome at Puri to provided education to the helpless widows and train themto earn their livelihood. Acharya Harihar Das remained in charge of theAshram.

1927 - Gandhi came to Orissa.

- Devastated flood in Balasore District.

1927 - Kalicharan Patnaik was conferred with “Kavichandra” title by GajapatiRamachandra Dev, IV, Raja of Puri.

1928 - Gandhi came to Sambalpur.

- Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das passed away.

1929 - Meeting of Utkal Provincial Congress Committee held at Cuttack.

1930 - Volunteers prepared salt in connection with Salt Satyagraha at Inchudi inBalasore district.

- (20th June) Meeting of Utkal Provincial Congress Committee held atBalasore.

1931 - Krushna Chandra Narayan Gajapati attended the First Round TableConference in London on 16th January and demanded for the formationof a separate province of Orissa.

1932 - In the Second Round Table Conference on 7th September it wasdecided that Orissa would be a separate province.

1933 - The first English Daily “New Orissa” was published by Sashibhusan Rathfrom Asha Press, Berhampur by the help of Lingaraj Panigrahi.

1934 - (5th May) Gandhi came to Orissa.

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1935 - The Sikh Gurudwara at Kaliaboda in Cuttack town was constructed by theactive interest of Sardar Kartar Singh, a Professor in Chemistry, RevenshawCollege. It is believed the Guru Nanak halted here while on his way toPuri.

1936 - (1st April) Orissa became a separate province

1937 - First Orissan Ministry formed

1938 - (25th March) Gandhi came to Orissa

- Gandhi attended Gandhi Sevasangh Annual Session at Berboi, Delangin Puri district.

- Baji Rout died in police firing

1939 - (5th August) Subash Chandra Bose visited Cuttack

- Jaiprakash Narayan visited Cuttack

- (4th November) Congress Ministry in Orissa resigned

- Major General Bezelgate attacked and killed at Ranpur of the then Puridistrict

- Netaji visited Orissa

- Endowment Commission started functioning

- Rabindranath Tagore visited Puri

1940 - Orissa Theatre founded by Kali Charan Patnaik at Cuttack

- Madala Panji edited by Prof. Artaballav Mohanty

1941 - Raghu Dibakar hanged in connection with Bezelgate murder

1942 - Lunia killing, nine people died in police firing

- 29 people died at Eram in police firing

1943 - Oriya songs transmitted for the first time from Calcutta Radio Station

- Eminent Communist leader Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi died

- Utkal University started functioning at Cuttack

1944 - K.C.Narayan Gajapati, the Prime Minister of Orissa resigned on 30th June.

1945 - 50 British Air Force aeroplanes bombed over village Mayagaon nearRengoon on 12th February on a Azad Hind Fauz Camp, killing Oriya soldiers,mostly hailing from Ganjam area.

- From July new colleges at Balasore, Sambalpur and Puri were started.Rajendra College, Bolangir was started by R.N. Singhdeo, the Maharajaof Bolangir with Intermediate Arts Classes.

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1946 - (29th January) Gandhi came to Orissa

- Foundation stone of Hirakud Dam laid by Sir Hawthrone Lewis, Governorof Orissa.

- Central Rice Research Institute established at Cuttack

1947 - Biju Patnaik made a daring flight to Indonesia to bring Indonesian Leaders

- Princely States merged with Orissa

1948 - Foundation stone for New Capital of Orissa laid at Bhubaneswar

- All India Radio, Cuttack founded

- High Court at Cuttack founded

1949 - Capital of Orissa shifted from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar

- Bolangir district formed

1950 - Orissa Territorial map with 13 districts published

1951 - Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India reached Jharsuguda on 13th

December on visit to Orissa.

1952 - Biju Patnaik donated an amount of 1,000 pound to UNESCO to institutethe Kalinga Prize.

- Both Oriya and English language introduced in Orissa Governmenttransactions

1953 - Rourkela Steel Plant founded

1954 - Agriculture College established at Bhubaneswar

- Official Language Act passed in Orissa Assembly to introduce Oriya inofficial work.

1955 - Bhoodan lands distributed among the landless people of Orissa

1956 - Burla Engineering College established

- Prajamandal leader Sarangadhar Das died

- Construction of Rourkela Steel Plant began

1957 - Hirakud Dam inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru

- Orissa Sahitya Academy established

- Similipal Forest declared as National Park

- President of India Dr. Rajendra Prasad laid the foundation stone ofMuseum building at Bhubaneswar.

1958 - Mihir Sen of Cuttack crossed the English Channel

- Dandakaranya Development Project constituted

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1959 - Orissa State Government established Lalitkala Academy

- Veer Surendra Sai Medical College at Burla started

1960 - Orissa State Archieves established at Bhubaneswar

- Nandankanan Zoological Park established

- Blind school established at Bhubaneswar

- First volume of Gyanamandal under the editorialship of Shri BinodKanungo published.

1961 - Orissa State Legislative Assembly building inaugurated

- Rourkela Engineering College started

1962 - Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of Paradeep Port

- Sainik School at Bhubaneswar established

- Construction of Express Highway connecting from Daitari to Paradeepbegan

- Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology established

1963 - Russian Cosmonauts Valentina Terescova visited Orissa

- Utkal University building inaugurated

1964 - Jawaharlal Nehru laid foundation stone of Thermal Power Station atTalcher

1965 - Village Chaukidari System abolished.

1966 - Biswanath Das became President of Bharat Loksevak Mandal after thedeath of Lal Bahadur Sastry, the Prime Minister of India.

1967 - Berhampur & Sambalpur University established

- Pandit Nilakantha Das died

1968 - Sambalpur University was inaugurated by the President of India on 5t h

January. Freedom Fighter and Litereteur Radhanath Rath was honouredwith the Padmabhusan title.

1969 - V.V.Giri became President of India on 24th August.

1970 - A regional party named Utkal Congress was formed by Biju Patnaik.

1971 - Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University established at Puri

- Acharya Harihar Das passed away

- Lance Naik Albert Ekka posthumously awarded highest Gallantry AwardParam Veer Chakra for his heroic deeds in Bangaladesh War.

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1972 - Severe cyclonic storm hit Orissa Coast

1973 - Cuttack-Paradeep Railway line opened for Traffic

- Foundation stone laid for Naval Training Centre at Chilika

1974 - Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati Narayan Dev passed away

1975 - Dr. J. V. Bolton felicitated by Orissa Sahitya Academy for his thesis on‘Vyas Kabi Fakir Mohan Senapati’.

- Salt Water Crocodile Research Centre established at Dangamal ofBhitarkanika

1976 - The State Government made an Act called “The Bonded Labour (Abolition)Act-1976" to free bonded labourers.

1977 - Foundation stone laid for Fishery Research Centre at Kausalyaganga

1978 - Terrible Tornado hit Bandhagoda village of Keonjhar district

- Foundation stone laid for Upper Indravati Project

1979 - Sarala Puraskar founded by IMFA Public Charitable Trust

1980 - Prince Charles of England visited Orissa

- Biju Patnaik conferred as ‘Bhoomi Putra’ title by Indonesian Government

1981 - NALCO established at Angul

1982 - Annual Conference of the Indian Road Congress was held at Bhubaneswaron 23rd December.

1983 - Dr. H.K.Mahatab received the Kendriya Sahitya Academy Award for hisessay collection “Gaan Mazjlis”.

1984 - Foundation stone laid by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for OrdnanceFactory at Saintala in Balangir district.

- OREDA set up at Bhubaneswar

- Ex-Chief Minister of Orissa Shri Nabakrushna Choudhury died

- Ex-Chief Minister of Orissa Shri Biswanath Das died

- Foundation stone laid for Talcher-Sambalpur Railway line

- Ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi addressed her last public meeting atBhubaneswar.

- Orissa Science Academy established

1985 - Eminent Sarvodaya leader & Bhoodan leader Rama Devi passed away

- First State level Lok Adalat held at Cuttack

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1986 - Noted Editor of ‘Gyanamandal’ Vinod Kanungo received PadmashreeAward

- Foundation stone laid for Pathani Samant Planetarium at Bhubaneswar

1987 - Ex-Chief Minister of Orissa Dr. Harekrushna Mahatab passed away

- Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium at Cuttack inaugurated

1987 - Harekrushna Mahatab State Library at Bhubaneswar inaugurated

- Sachidananda Routray received Gyanapitha Award

1988 - His Holiness Dalailama visited Orissa

- Cuttack Door Darshan Kendra started newscast in Oriya

1989 - Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange started functioning

- Foundation stone laid for IB-Thermal Electrical Project

- Millennium Ceremony of Cuttack City inaugurated

- Rabi Ray elected as Speaker of Lok Sabha

- First test of Ballistic Missile Agni test-fired from Chandipur

1990 - Justice Ranganath Mishra sworn in as Chief Justice of Supreme Court ofIndia

1991 - Eminent litterateur Kalindi Charan Panigrahi passed away

- Mahila Vikas Samabaya Nigam constituted by Government of Orissa

1992 - Freedom Fighter Rajkrishna Bose passed away

1993 - Eminent Singer Balkrishna Das passed away

- Thirteen districts of Orissa re-organised and number increased to thirty

1994 - Similipal Reserve Forest declared Biosphere by Government of India

- Justice G.T. Nanavati sworn in as Chief Justice of Orissa High Court

1995 - Indonesia awarded their highest National title “BINTANG JASUTTAM”to Biju Patnaik.

1996 - Navakalevara Festival of Lord Jagannath was celebrated at Puri.

1997 - Ex-Chief Minister Biju Patnaik passed away

- Eminent Archaeologist Dr. Satya Narayan Rajguru died

- Eminent Oddissi Dancer Sanjukta Panigrahi died

1998 - Radhanath Rath, Editor of ‘Samaj’ passed away

- Social worker Malati Choudhury passed away

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- Kalinga Stadium at Bhubaneswar inaugurated

- Talcher-Sambalpur Railway opened for Traffic

- 3rd SAARC Jamboree held at Khurda

1999 - Ballistic Missile Agni-II test-fired from Chandipur

- Fakir Mohan University at Balasore and Uttar Orissa University at Baripadastarted functioning.

- Severe super cyclone devastated the Orissa Coast in the month of October

- Kujanga Gandhi Narayan Birabar Samanta died

- M. M. Rajendran sworn in as Governor of Orissa

2000 - Naveen Patnaik sworn in as the Chief Minister of Orissa on 5th March

- Utkal University of Culture inaugurated

- Freedom Fighter Chintamani Panigrahi passed away

- Foundation stone laid for Oil Refinery at Paradeep

- Government of Orissa introduced Professional Tax

- Second World Oriya Conference held at Rourkela

- Severe drought in Orissa

2001 - Severe flood in Orissa

2002 - Severe drought in Orissa

2003 - Justice Sujit Burman Roy became the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court

- Severe flood in Orissa.

- Renowned poet Binod Nayak passed away on 15.11.2003

2004 - Padmashree award to Indian hockey defender Dilip Tirkey, Nrutya GuruMaguni Charan Das & Dramatist Manoranjan Das.

- Dr. Prafulla Mohanty nominated for Kendra Sahitya Academy Award.

- Doyen of Odissi Dance Kelucharan Mahapatra passed away on 7.4.2004.

- Rupa Mishra an Oriya lady became the I.A.S. topper on 7.5.2004.

- Naveen Patnaik sworn in as the Chief Minister of Orissa for the secondterm on 16.5.2004.

- Pioneer of Modern Oriya literature Padmashree Sachi Routray passedaway on 21.8.2004.

- Poet Guru Prasad Mohanty passed away on 26.8.2004.

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- Eminent poet Purnananda Dani passed away.

- Short-story writer, novelist and essayist Kishori Charan Das passed away.

- Dr. Subas Pani joined as Chief Secretary of Orissa on 1.9.2004.

- Ex-Chief Minister of Orissa Sri Nilamani Routray passed away on4.10.2004.

- Shri Rameshwar Thakur sworn in as the new Governor of Orissa on17.11.2004.

2005 - BJD, MLA & Dy. Chief Whip Shri Sankarsan Naik passed away in a roadaccident.

- Mining Cess Policy introduced.

- Renowned litterateur, essayist and critic of Oriya literature ChintamaniBehera passed away on 7.3.2005.

- Retired Judge and well cultured personality Justice Naba Kumar Daspassed away on 11.3.2005.

- Financial Accountability bill passed by Orissa Legislative Assembly.

- Introduction of VAT.

- Right to Information Act implemented in the State alongwith constitution ofState Information Commission on 20.10.2005

- Edu-Sat project inaugurated.

- Hon'ble President of India's two day visit to Orissa (26th & 27th December).

2006 - Government of Orissa enters into an MOU with Creative Ports Pvt. Ltd. forsetting up a port at Kirtania in Balasore district

- Vedanta Foundation signs agreement to set up Vedanta University in Puridistrict.

- Foundation stone of Sports Academy laid by Chief Minister

- Portrait of legendary leader Biju Patnaik unveiled in the Central Hall ofParliament.

- President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam lays foundation stone of InternationalInstitute of Information Technology at Gothapatna near Bhubaneswar.

- Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana inaugurated.

- Biju KBK Yojana initiated

- Former Chief Minister Smt. Nandini Satpathy passed away.

- Three-tier Panchayt Elections held.

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- Mittal-Arcelor signs MOU to set up a steel plant in Orissa.

2007 - The Orissa Tableau exhibited at the Republic Day - 2007 at New Delhiadjudged as the best in the whole country.

- Ashok Ganguly became Hon'ble Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.

- Prabodh Trikey selected as the Captain of Indian Hockey Team.

- Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare sworn in as Governor of Orissa.

- Commemoration of 150th year anniversary of 1st war of IndianIndependence at Sardar Ballabh Bhai Patel Hall, Old Assembly.

2008 - Police Commissionerate in twin city of Bhubaneswar and Cuttackcommenced.

- Kalpana Das brought glory to the State by climbing Everest mountain.

- Saheed Pramod Satapathy posthumously conferred with country'sprestigious gallantry award 'Ashok Chakra'

- New Agriculture Policy - 2008 introduced in the State.

2009 - Shri Naveen Patnaik took over charge as Chief Minister of Orissa for the3rd consecutive term.

- Ms. Padmini Rout (Chess Player) selected for Ekalavya Award.

- Eminent Historian Dr. M.N. Das passed away.

- Janaki Ballav Pattnaik received 'Atibadi Jagannath' award.

- Ignace Tirkey conferred with prestigious Arjun award.

- 'Prince Dance Group' from Ganjam adjudged best in India's Got Talent.

2010 - 15th National Youth Festival organised at Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar.

- Eminent Singer Dr. Raghunath Panigrahi, Hockey Player Ignace Tirkey, GuruMayadhar Raut selected for Padmashree Award. Renowned Heart SurgeonDr. Ramakanta Panda conferred with Padma Bhusan Award.

- K. Ravi Kumar won the Gold Medal in the Weightlifting Event at theCommonwealth Games.

- Noted devotional Singer Bhikari Bal, popularly known as "Bhajan Samrat"passed away.

- Bill passed in Lok Sabha changing the name Orissa to Odisha and Oriya toOdia.

- Orissa Rowers Pratima Puhana and Pramila Prava Minz made the Stateproud by bagging the Bronze Medal in ASIAD GAMES.

- Chief Minister confers Biju Patnaik Award to eminent Scientists Dr. KulamaniParida and Dr. Rajanikant Chowdhury.

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“Why should we accept a spelling that gives awrong pronunciation of the name of our State?”– it might be the sole justification behind theproposal of the Government of Orissa submittedto the Central Government in 2008 to change thename of the State from Orissa to Odisha and ofthe official language of the State from Oriya toOdia. Since the cause was genuine involving thedeeper emotions of the people of Orissa, theresolution passed by the Orissa State LegislativeAssembly got an easy nod from the Lower Houseof Indian Parliament on 9th November 2010 inthe shape of passing of the Orissa (Alteration ofName) Bill, 2010 and the Constitution (OneHundred Thirteenth Amendment) Bill, 2010, byit. And such a formality of changing of names is inthe process of being completed in the near future.However, this event reminds us how we had oncefought successfully for a separate province for theOriya-speaking people uniting Oriya-speakingtracts as situated initially in Bengal, Central andMadras provinces and from Bihar-ChhotaNagpur-Orissa province afterwards. The Statewas finally crafted on April 1, 1936 and it isacclaimed as “the success of the first linguisticmovement in India”1 for Statehood. It was aperiod during the British Rule but we camevictorious in face of the vehement opposition fromBengalis who once said “ Oriya was not a

The Unfinished Task of Orissa Formation

Dr. Anil Mohapatra

separate language”. We did not stop there. Wemade all possible attempts to bring into our foldall the regions in our vicinity which was home to alarge chunk of Oriyas. Like all such movementselsewhere, we could not secure the integration ofall such areas. Some areas were naturally leftbehind and the concerns for the leftovers still hauntus till today as an unfinished task of our Stateformation.

We know that the creation of the newprovince of Orissa unifying the Oriya-speakingpeople living in different nearby provinces wasan arduous task. From the formation of the UtkalSabha in 1877, Orissa Association in 1882 tillthe launching of the Utkal Sammilani in 1903 wereimportant steps in that direction. Thoseorganizations had played a crucial role inmobilizing people in that regard. The MontegueChemsford reforms in 1919 gave a proposal forgranting of Constitutional and Provincial autonomyto the Oriya speaking tracts. The Sinha Resolutionon 20th Feb.1920, proposed to the Governor-General in Council to appoint a committee toformulate a scheme for the amalgamation of theOriya- speaking tracts that were controlled bythe Governments of Madras, Bengal and theCentral Provinces with existing Orissa Divisionof the Province of Bihar and Orissa. Accordingly

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a committee consisting of C.H Phillip and A.C.Duff was formed in 1924. The Commission visitedthe places like Vizagpattam, Paralakhemundi,Manjusa, Icchapuram, Chikiti, Sorada, Khalikote,Berhampur, Rambha in order to ascertain thedesire and opinion of the people on gettingamalgamated to Orissa Proper. On therecommendations of that committee theGovernment of India announced in September1931, the formation of a Boundary Commissionunder the chairmanship of Samuel O’ Donnell toexamine and report on administrative, financialand other consequences of setting up a separateadministration and demarcate the boundaries ofthe proposed Orissa province. The othermembers were ‘T.R. Phockun, H.M. Mehetta,Raja of Paralakhemundi, Sachidananda Sinha andRay Bahadur C.V.S. Narasingha Rajaguru’2. TheCommission visited respective places such asJamsedpur, Chaibasa, Sambalpur, Raipur,Midnapur, Gopalpur, Waltair, Kakinada, andCuttack and met and interviewed differentpersons. While determining the boundary of theproposed province factors like, language, race,geographical position and the economic interestswere taken into consideration. The Orissaprovince that thus came up was to include OrissaDivision, Angul, Padmapur, Khariar, Vizagpattamagency tracts. That proposal was furtherrecommended by the Joint Select Committeeunder the leadership of Lord Linithgow. As perthis Committee Berhampur town, Jeypore eStateReport, about 30% of Paralakhemendi Stateincluding Paralakhimendi town, Jalantara wereincluded in the proposed Orissa province.However, the Samuel O’ Donnell committee‘excluded Midnapore and Bankura in Bengal,Singhbhum, Manbhum and Ranchi from Bihar andKhariar, Phuljhar and Padmapur in CentralProvinces and Ichhapur, Manjusa, Budarsingi,Jalanter, Tekkali and Tarala from Orissa’3. Taking

all recommendations into account the newprovince of Orissa was created along with Sindhvide the Section 289 of the Government of IndiaAct, 1935. ‘On 26th January 1936 the Order wasissued to the Indian Orders Committee’4 andaccordingly on 1st April 1936, the new provinceof Orissa came into existence on linguistic basicduring the British rule in India. Cuttack was itscapital and it became ‘one of the elevenGovernor’s Provinces in India’5. Thus came theculmination of a long cherished dream of Oriyapeople who were separated over centuries.However, that was the ‘first phase of the OriyaMovement’6 since the territorial amalgamation ofthe Oriya-speaking areas were not complete as26 Orissa Garhjats (feudatory States/ princelyStates) still remained free and thereby remainedoutside the administrative jurisdiction of Orissa.After the independence of India, these princelyStates were amalgamated with Orissa to giveOrissa the present form. The Maharaja ofMayurbhanja signed the instrument of merger on1st January 1949 and he was the last of theprincely States that joined Orissa. However, theexception was of Seraikela and Kharsawan(now,one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand Statein eastern India) which did not join Orissa. ‘Thusthe final merger of the Orissa Feudatory States in1949 marked the close of the second phase ofthe Oriya Movement.’7 And ‘nobody everimagined that the end of the princely India wouldcome so soon and that too the integration ofStates will begin in Orissa and gradually spreadover the whole of India.’8

What could be the unfinished task then?Here, an eminent historian Prof. Atul ChandraPradhan’s observation is quite relevant. He Statesthat ‘Orissa in its present shape came intoexistence on 1st January 1949 after the integrationof princely States but linguistically and culturally,

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Orissa covers a wider area than its presentterritorial boundary. Oriya language and culturecan be traced in the Midnapore district of WestBengal, Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh,Raipur district of Madhya Pradesh (now inChhatisgarh) and Chakradharpur and Singhbhumdistricts of Bihar(now in Jharkhand)’.9 ProfessorS.C. Patra, another historian too has given a vividdescription regarding the Oriya –speaking peoplestaying outside the purview of Orissa in his bookthe “Formation of the province of Orissa”. Hewrites how “there remained still some Oriya-speaking pockets inside the neighbouringprovinces. They were, Danton, Narayangarh,Contai, Mohanpur, Kesiari, Jhargram,Gopiballabhapur, and Nayagram in the district ofMidnapore in Bengal; Singhbhum, Saraikella andKharaswan in Bihar; and Phuljhar, Bindra-Nawagarh, Chandrapur and Deobhang in theCentral Provinces; (i) Ichhapore including 60villages of Udyankhand, Budarsingh, Jalantar,Manjusa, Tarla,Tekkali, and those portions of theZamindaris of Chikiti and Parlakhemundi EStates,(ii) Sujankota Mutha, Madgole, Padwa, Arku andParvatipur, Salur and Palkonda Agencies of theex-Vizagapatam Agency, and (iii) Viravali andSrungavarapukut Agency areas in AndhraPradesh.”10 The data and observations of Prof.Pradhan and Prof. S.C. Patra remind me of twoincidents how Oriyas in a large number are foundbeyond the territory of Orissa and their concerningproblems. This author was traveling one day in atrain from Bhubaneswar to Vizianagaram (inAndhra Pradesh). After Ichhapuram fewpassengers got into the train and to my surprisethey were speaking in fluent Oriya. That capturedmy attention. I was curious about knowing theirplace of domicile. From them I came to knowthat they were the inhabitants of some villages inthe Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. I askedwhether they had Oriya medium schools or not in

their locality. Their answers dismayed me. Theysaid that such schools could not be run as noappointment of Oriya Teachers was made overdecades. Telugu language has been imposed onthem and they and their children were graduallylosing touch with the Oriya script. When askedregarding their affinity to Oriya and Orissa theireyes were filled with tears. What they said andexpressed may not be true cent percent but it wasa fact that they were members of an Oriya-speaking and loving community in AndhraPradesh. Similar experience once came to me ina cricket match played in the bordering villagenearer to Lakshman Nath Road. The players werefrom West Bengal but they were speaking in Oriyadialect. They too had shared and expressed similarproblems. Besides we know the issue of Seraikelaand Kharsawan where a large chunk of peoplespeak Oriya. They too have similar problems.

The purpose of this essay is not either toinstigate them to mobilize politically to demandfor the inclusion of those areas in Orissa State orto find fault with our Government. On both thecounts it would be just like opening the ‘Pandora’sBox’. This author is aware of the fact that it is anage of multiculturalism. And, we too have a sizableTelugu, Chhatisgarhi and Bengali-speakingcommunity in Orissa. However, our Constitutionprovides for ‘Cultural and Educational Rights’11

to the minorities as fundamental rights. UnderArticle 29, it protects the interests of minoritiesthat any section of the citizens residing in theterritory of India or any part thereof having adistinct language, script or culture of its own shallhave the right to conserve the same. And underArticle 30 it provides that all minorities, whetherbased on religion or language, shall have the rightto establish and administer educational institutionsof their choice.

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Here comes the role of our State as apromoter and facilitator for the cause of its ownpeople who have been distanced on politicalconsiderations. They are its own people as theyare still socially and culturally linked with thepeople of the mainland. Therefore, it would havebeen appreciable if our Government takes anyinitiative to facilitate the promotion of Oriyalanguage in those areas outside the State whereOriya-speaking people in a good number arestaying. However, it is a matter of policy decision.Their must be an inter-State understanding overthe issue. Our Government could supply Oriyabooks free of cost while offering to bear theexpenses for appointing teachers to teach Oriyalanguage over there and vice versa. That wouldfetch mutual benefits to both the States. The policyshould be on mutual give and take basis. As wehave inter-State bus services between AndhraPradesh and Orissa the origin of which could befound in the concern of each State for its owncitizens; so also we can have an understandingon educational and cultural promotion too.

In this context it is heartening to note thatour Government is encouraging and patronizingInter-State Cultural Exchange Programmes. Thishas been an initiative taken by the Informationand Public Relations Department, Government ofOrissa. Under this initiative, Malayalam films havebeen screened with a cultural festival atBhubaneswar followed by Oriya films and culturalprogrammes at Thiruvantpuram in Kerala. TheDepartment too has organised Oriya film andcultural festival at Mumbai under Inter-StateCultural Exchange Programme. This is anencouraging step in this direction. In the same veinwe could also include and encourage the sharingof books in native languages, exchange of students,opening of language centres and the appointmentof the language teachers in each others territory

for the interest of respective people stayingbeyond ones own border. One loves his mother-tongue very much and it is through his mother-tongue one understands and expresses better. Inthe end, this author remains optimistic that nobodywould be deprived of his culture and mothertongue. The State should take the responsibilityof becoming a facilitator and collaborator in thedevelopment of individuals from his culture pointof view.

References :

1. Patra, S.C.(1979), “Formation of the province ofOrissa : The success of the first linguisticmovement in India," Calcutta : Punthi Pustak.

2. Pattanayak, A.K.(1988), ‘ The formation of theprovince of Orissa’ in Jena, B.B. and J.K. Baral(ed), Government and Politics in Orissa ,Lucknow: Print House(India), p.15.

3. Ibid, p.16.

4. Ibid, p.17.

5. Ibid.

6. Patra, S.C., Op cit, p.228.

7. Ibid, p.236.

8. Mahatab, Harekrushna(1960), “The History ofOrissa, Vol-II ," Cuttack: Prajatantra PracharSamiti,p.473.

9. Pradhan, A.C.(1984), “A Study of History ofOrissa“, Bhubaneswar: Panchashila Publishersand Book Sellers, p.8.

10. Patra, S.C., Op cit, p.236.

11. Bakshi, P.M.(2005), “The Constitution of India,"New Delhi: Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt.Ltd.,Pp.66-67.

Dr. Anil Mohapatra is the Assistant Professor in P.G.Department of Political Science, Utkal University,Bhubaneswar.

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In ancient times most of the geographical unitshave been named after the stock of tribes thatinhabited the land or the ruler that ruled the state.According to the Bhagavata Purana1 the sixrulers named as Anga, Vanga, Kalinga, Pundra,Sumha and Odra ruled different provinces in theeastern India. The modern territory of Odishaportion was ruled by the ruler Odra which wasnamed as ‘Odra’ or ‘Udra’ after their ruler. Theinhabitants of the land were dominated by full ofthe tribes and were also called as Odras as pertheir territory name. Medhatithi2 the commentatorof Manu has described that Odras were a tribewho flourished in various parts of contemporaryOdisha. Some authors opined that these tribeswere agriculturists. According to them this racerepresents the original tribe of Odisha after whomthe province has been named. The Greeks calledthe province as Oretes that means Odia.

Evidence from Natural History:-

The ‘Natural History’ of Pliny mentionsthat Oretes as a race inhabited a country wheremount Meleus is located. The Greek word Oretesis rendered in Sanskrit as Odras. The mountMeleus has been identified with Malayagiri nearPallahada, now situated in the district of Angul.Further, mount Meleus is associated with peoplecalled Monedes and Sharis in the Natural History.

Journey from Tribal to Modern Odisha

Dr. Dina Krishna JoshiDr. Mihir Prasad Mishra

Sasmita Mund

The Munda and Savara tribes have beenidentified with the Greek Monedes and Sharis bymany scholars. This identification seems plausiblebecause this region of Odisha is even nowinhabited by the Mundas and the Savaras.

Evidence from writings of traveller HiuenTsang:-

Hiuen Tsang3 who visited Odra countryin 636 A.D. has given a graphical account of Odra.Cunningham has located the country of Odradesaduring the period of 700-1100 A.D. which wasmore or less bounded by the river Mahanadi inthe north, Tosali (Dakhina Tosali) in the east,Kosala (Dakhina Kosala) in the west andextended to the south west in irregular lines as faras the modern Paralakhemundi region.

Participation of general public for separatestate:-

Odia's quest for a separate provincestarted from the last phase of the 19th century.This period witnessed a remarkable awakeningamong the Odias who constructed and articulatedtheir identity by a plurality of ways. The printmedia became very active during this phase as amarker of Odia resurgence. The social, culturaland economic spheres in Odisha during this phasegot an extra-ordinary projection. Several forces

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and factors made determined efforts for theamalgamation of the Odia-speaking areas lyingscattered under four different provinces - Bengal,Bihar, Central Province and Madras, which ledto the formation of the province of Odisha. Thisamalgamation was a prolonged process and itpassed through many crucial phases. Manyfighters sacrificed their lives for constructingseparate state.

Poetic encouragement:-

A saint poet of Odisha BhaktakabiMadhusudan Rao has said - Mother, Motherlandand Mother tongue are superior to heaven andbestow four results like Dharma, Artha, Kama(Desire) and Mokshya (salvation). Serve themwith utter devotion uninterruptedly and acquirethose four heavenly things. This encouragesconscious inhabitants and even general public ofthose times for a separate motherland having Odiaas their mother tongue.

Resistance of freedom fighters:-

Odisha which was considered in the pastas a super martial nation, its independent sun wasset when in 1568 AD Afghans conquered Odisha.Again Mughals and Marahattas ruled Odishasuccessively. In the year 1803 the Britishers wereable to occupy Odisha. Although stiff resistancewas shown by contemporary freedom fighter likeJai Rajguru in between 1803, but later on hewas captured and hanged in 1805. Later on Paikahero Buxi Jagabandhu Vidyadhara entered in afierce battle in 1817. After that Veer SurendraSai of Sambalpur region waged a valiant waragainst Britishers. He continued his struggle till1883 but at last captured and sent to AsurgarhJail of Central Province where he was died ingreat agony.

For about a century, from 1803 to 1903,many illustrious and labourious sons of Odishahave made untiring efforts for the rise of Odianation. To make Odisha a separate province andto give status to Odia language they had foughtincessantly. Among those illustrious sons theforefront leaders were Utkala GourabaMadhusudan Das, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das,Vyasakabi Fakir Mohan Senapati, SwavabakabiGangadhar Meher, Kabibar Radhanath Roy,Shashi Bhusan Rath, Biswanath Kar, GopalaChandra Praharaj, Krushna Chandra GajapatiDev of Parala, Ramachandra Bhanja Deo, PanditGodabarish Mishra and GodabarishMohapatra.

Vyasakabi Fakir Mohan Senapati(1840- 1918) exhausted his pen by writing fournovels in Odia language like ChhamanaAthaguntha, Mamun, Prayaschita, Lachhman andwas a famous Oriya writer. Karmaveera GouriShankar Roy was editing Utkala Dipika fromCuttack and Shashibhusan Rath was editing Ashadaily from Berhampur which had impact on Odiareaders remaining separated. Utkalmani PanditGopabandhu Das was editing daily Samaja fromSatyabadi. He had extensively toured,Chakradharpur, Chainbasa and Ranchi to uniteOdias remaining in Bihar province. He demandedto open more Odia Schools and introducing Odialanguage in the curriculum. He opened nightschools in Chakradharpur and Chainbasa to teachOdia language to the dwellers of these areas whowere deprived of education in Odia language.

Historical events:-

It is evident from the foregoing discussionthat by 15th century A.D. the word Uddisa orUdisa has already evolved. For this, Sarala Dasmade Odrasrastra synonymous with Udisa orOdisa. His Odrarastra Odisa found mention as

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Odisarajya in the royal proclamations of Gajapatiking Kapilendradeva (1435-1467 A.D.). In theJagannath Temple Inscription of Kapilendradevadated 1443 A.D. we find conspicuous mentionof Odisarajya. The Tarikh-i-Akbari ofNizammuddin exclusively mentions Odisha as ageographical entity. From this time onwards thegeographical term Odisa stood for the entire Odiaspeaking tract. Through ages the word has beenused by various authors in ethnic, linguistic andgeographical paradigms. Phonetic evolution of theterm from Greek Oretes i.e. Odra, throughOdravisaya-Oddavisaya-Odivisa and Udisa, theterm Odisha seems to have been finallyculminated. Similarly through phoneticmetamorphosis Odra became Odriya and finallyOdia with the present anglicised form, Odia.

Role of Utkala Sammilani:-

To sum up Pandit Nilakantha Das wasgreatly inspired by Utkal Gaurav MadhusudanDas and the goal and objectives of the UtkalSammilani. He showed an exemplary sense ofdedication to the cause of amalgamation of Odiaspeaking tracts lying scattered under differentprovinces and worked uninterruptedly for theformation of Odisha as a separate province. Hedemanded for the first time a separate provincefor Odisha on the floor of the Central Assemblyon February 8, 1927. In a way, this move of PanditNilakantha facilitated the formation of a separateOriya province. Under its impact, the struggle fora separate province for Odisha assumed greaterintensity and vigour. He was uncompromising inhis opposition to make economic viability acondition precedent for formation of Odisha as aseparate province and crossed words with MotilalNehru. He tried to move the Congress in favourof his demand at the Calcutta session of IndianNational Congress in 1928. He succeeded andlater the Congress agreed that Odisha would be

the first province, to be formed on linguistic basis.He was a proud Oriya with a self-confidentpersonality. It is his strong personality andcharacter which foiled the British design tohoodwink Odias by giving the narrow idea of asub-province. His dream and sustained efforts tobring under Odisha, Odia speaking tracts likeMidnapore and Singhbhoom remained unfulfilleddue to a multiplicity of factors and constraintsbeyond his control. But he tried well and did hisbest. Madhu Babu chose him as his heir in Odisha.But he was not there in life to see the formation ofa separate province on 1st April 1936 nor wasGopabandhu there having been dead since long.Pandit Nilakantha honoured the other prominentmaker of Odisha Sri Krushna Chandra Gajapati,the Maharaja of Parala by installing him as ChiefMinister of Odisha and Pandit Godabarish asEducation Minister in 1943. Along with those greatand patriotic leaders, Pandit Nilakantha Das willbe ever remembered and respected by the Odiapeople as one of the makers of Odisha.

Contemporary Political Events:-

In the year 1930, Bihar-OdishaGovernment nominated Parala Maharaja KrushnaChandra Gajapati Dev to represent on behalf ofOdias in the first Round Table Conference.Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati firmlypresented the justified and genuine demands ofOdias and uttered thought-provoking statements.As a result, the proposal to make Odisha aseparate and special province was approved inthe Second Round Table Conference in 1931.In order to determine the boundaries of Odishathe Government had constituted O'DonnelCommittee. The Committee opined about theannexation of the areas of Cuttack, Sambalpur,Angul, Khariar, Ganjam and Visakhapatanam andfavoured for formation of Odisha province. Butfrom the white paper publication, it was seen that

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the Zamindaris of Jeypore and Paralakhemundiwere excluded from the proposed, separate andspecial province. But, by the incessant andsincere efforts of Krushna Chandra Gajapati Dev,the Home Minister of Britain Samuel Hore realisedthe justification of Odia movement, constitutedJoint Parliamentary Committee to reconsider theproposed formation of Odisha province. The JointCommittee opined that the separate Odishaprovince can be formed by annexing JeyporeZamindari, the hilly areas of Paralakhemundi andJalantara Zamindari. As a result the formation ofseparate Odisha province took the real shape.On January 21, 1936 by the orders ofGovernment of India (for formation of OdishaProvince) was presented before the BritishParliament and was approved in both the Housesof Parliament. After its approval on 7th March1936 it was presented before the emperor ofBritain for its final approval. After the approval oforder by Emperor this order was executed on1st April 1936 and the separate Odisha provincewas formed. Separate Odisha State was carvedout with the merger of Odia speaking tracts ofMadras, Central Province and Bihar. The districtswhich were merged are Cuttack, Puri, Balasore,Sambalpur, Ganjam and Koraput to makeOdisha the first State formed on linguistic basis4.

Final shaping:-

Thus almost after three decades ofincessant trials and agitations of the great leaderslike Madhusudan Das, Nilakantha Das,Bhubanananda Das, Krishna Chandra GajapatiDev and others for the unification of the Odiaspeaking tracts, the new Odisha Province came

into being in 1st April 1936. As stated by DibakarPattnaik, her dismembered condition was heldprimarily responsible not only for the loss of heridentity as a distinctly separate race among theraces of the country, but also for the loss of herancient glory in trade, commerce, industries, artand sculpture, so magnificently recorded in thehistory of the country (Nabeen, 1st April, 1936).The indomitable will, the spirit of self sacrifice,enormous zeal and unflinching devotion that theleaders had evinced from the begining to the endof this long struggle make it an interesting chapterin the history of pre-Independent Odisha.

References :

1. Bhagavat Purana - IX, XXIII-5, GaudiyamathEdition.

2. N.K. Sahu-Utkal University History ofOrissa,Vol.I, p.75.

3. N.K. Sahu-Utkal University History ofOrissa,Vol.I, p.193

4. Lila Ray, Pandit Nilakantha Das, PanditNilakantha Smruti Samiti, Bhubaneswar, 1985,pp.195-196.

Dr. Dina Krishna Joshi lives at Gayatrinagar, New BusStand, Junagarh, Kalahandi.

Dr. Mihir Prasad Mishra is the Reader, GM(Autonomous) College, Sambalpur.

Smt. Sasmita Mund is the Lecturer, CD Women’s College,Junagarh, Kalahandi.

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The super-ordinate goal underlying the movementfor an Independent Odiya State was administrativeand geographic integration of Odiya speakingregions. It intended simultaneous preservation andpropagation of Odiya language and the region’sremarkable culture. Multitude of sacrifice towardsthis end in vain as 60 years after the IndependentOdisha, Odiyas still lack access to essentiallanguage education in schools. Seminars,conferences, government and non-governmentorganizations, trade and transactions haveforsaken the usage of Odiya.

Periodically a handful of Odiya books getpublished and these too do not find desiredcirculation. Worldwide, every region hasvoluminous publications in their own languageacross different disciplines such as religion,medicine, legal and professional education. It is ashame that in Odisha dearth of sincerecommitments are observed in this direction. OdiyaReadership is abysmally low. The sales figures ofOdiya magazines and supplements are negligible.It is critical to take note of the fact that thesepublications more often than not do not fall in thespan the Odiya elites and intellectuals. Suchpublications even do not find any favour amongthe rural segment. The ubiquitous tradition ofprinting the family invitations in English Languagefor ceremonies is quite typical in Odisha and is

seldom found anywhere else in the country. Thereis a proliferation of English medium public schoolsacross the State especially in the cities. Thegeneration- Y is increasingly alienated from theirown culture and language. Odiya traditions,culture, history or literature do not mean anythingto the young Odiyas and the future in this directionappears bleak.

The traditional theatres are on the vergeof extinction. Alongwith it are gone the timehonored songs and folklores. Thecontemporaneous entertainment and mainstreammusic mocking propriety is suffusing mass psycheand leading to anti-culturisation. Massiveplagiarism and the pervasive influence of Hindiare increasingly discernible. This however, hasmanaged to escape the attention of policymakersand influencers in the society. More crucially thisis a prime indicator that our general consciousnessas a race is fractured. The relentless battle of ourfounding fathers, their perseverance and sacrificesfor nation building and the subsequent pride ofachievement all seem to have been trivialized ona daily basis. To make matter worse; apathy ofthe policy makers and regional separatist factionsdemanding cessation from the state has led toweakening of the cause and has compounded theproblem manifold.

Language : The Foundation of a Race

Harish Chandra Bakshipatra

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At one point of time for ease ofgovernance the state was broadly demarcated intothe central, western and southern administrativezones and Corresponding universities, Agricultureuniversities were established. This was done witha geographic and demographic perspective. Eachzone had its share of underdeveloped districts.Much delayed implementation of programmesrelated to basic amenities, provision of basiceducation coupled with other regional factorshave resulted in stunted growth andunderdevelopment in western-southern regionsand other princely areas. The terrains and aridzones in the plains have suffered due to sinkingagricultural productivity. Varying growthparadigms among regions have led to furtherdissensions. Especially in the sector ofemployment and livelihood opportunities thesouthern-western regions have been the victim ofprolonged gross negligence. Years afterIndependence and statehood status this problemis still being relegated to the backburners. Throughnumerous government and non-governmentprogrammes funds are pumped in the tribal areasand underdeveloped zones in the state. Theoutcomes remain disillusive.

A simple pointer to reflect thisreprehensible fact would be to conduct a quicksurvey of Odisha’s premier administrative building,the Secretariat. The glaring disparity in regionalrepresentation is easily discerned here.Contemporaneously this brewing dissatisfactionin southern-western regions is manifesting itself inmilitancy and naxalism. Little is being done by thestate to address the root cause of the problem.Instead the entire effort is being channelizedtowards militarization to suppress these voices ofdissent. Such volatility is a big blow to the longstanding camaraderie and unity of Odiyas. Fewseparatists’ forces have been consistently

demanding separate states like Dandakaranya andKoshala for some time now. Certain elitistcorridors have fuelled these ideas mostly due totheir own selfish intentions.

The unification movement of Odishaoriginated with language at its core. Odisha statewas incorporated on the basis of language. Thestruggle continues to integrate regions likeSareikala and Kharasuan that remain outside theState. Language and Culture have been theunifying thread for this race. Iconic Jagannathconsciousness and culture are the symbol ofOdiyas. The Sambalpuri Bandha, PuriPattachitras, Bhanja literature are equallysynonymous with Odisha’s scintillating tradition.Poems of Gangadhar Meher, Sudhal Deb, SaralaDas and Fakirmohan Senapati’s pen have beencritical in binding this emergent race.

Odiya as a language has many variationsowing to the regional differences. In some placesthe confluence with neighbouring state’s languageis distinct. The source of Odiya language however,remains distinct and the language encompasses atypical style.

In 1895, British administrationpromulgated Hindi as the official language forSambalpur, Sonepur, Bamanda and Rairakholregions. This incident sowed the seeds of thestruggle for Odisha’s identity and State status.When struggle for Odisha’s unification wasgathering momentum in Ganjam in 1870, demandswere raised to include Odiya as language ofinstructions in schools and local courts.Interestingly, people from West Bengal were ofthe opinion that Odiya is not a distinct languageand is a mere variation of Bengali.

Utkal Sammelani’s first ever session wasconvened with participation of 30 representatives

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from Sambalpur and over hundreds from Ganjam.The session was chaired by MaharajaRamchandra Bhanjadev, who representedMayurbhanj. Eminent litterateurs such asChandrasekhar Behera, Rajnarayan Mishra,Gangadhar Meher, Braja mohan Pattnaik, ShripatiMishra from Sambalpur; Harihar Panda, DanielMohanty from Ganjam; Bikramdev Verma fromJaipore alongwith rulers of Khalikot,Badakhemundi, Manjusha, Dharakot,Paralakhemundi, Bamanda, Sonepur, Gangpur,Boudh, Rairakhol, Pallahada participated in thishistoric session to pledge support. This event wasindeed a harbinger of an era of consciousness onthe pride of Odisha, its language and culture. Inthis context, Utkal Sammelani’s origin assumessingular significance. The mandate of this first everUtkal Sammelani session and its learned

leadership was that of ‘One Odisha, OneLanguage’.

The collective consciousness and interestof this vast state cannot be traded off with pettyelectoral politics and factionalism. Thetranscendental call of Shri Madhusudan Das, ourfounding father for a strong and prosperousOdisha, still reverberates in the Odiya psyche.The movement continues to bring about equitablegrowth and equal rights to the teeming millions inOdisha by obliterating disparities among regionsand simultaneously strives towards a stronger,more resilient nation state.

This article was originally penned in 1998 by the thenPresident of Utkal Sammelani Shri Harish ChandraBakshipatra.

Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik  inaugurating Specialised Neo-Natal Care Unit at SCBMedical College, Cuttack on 27.2.2011. Shri Prasanna Acharya, Minister for Health & Family

Welfare, Public Grievances and Pension Administration is also present.

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When the epoch-making call of Swaraj under thecharismatic leadership of Gandhiji rented the airof India, thousands of women-educated anduneducated, urban and rural came out of theirseclusion to shape the destiny of the nation.Ramadevi Choudhury emerged as a pioneeramong the women freedomfighters and social reformerswho dominated the socio-political firmament of Orissafor more than half a century.

Rama Devi was bornto Gopal Ballav Das andBasanta Kumari Devi on 3rdDecember 1899 atSatyabhamapur of Cuttackdistrict. During her childhood,she was profoundly inspiredby her uncle’s (MadhusudanDas) spirit of nationalism andSri Aurobindo’s philosophy.She married GopobandhuChoudhury, a DeputyMagistrate, the office which he resigned in 1921to join the freedom movement.

It was on 23 March 1921 that Rama Devihad the privilege to attend a meeting of fortywomen which was held inside the Binod Vihari

Rama Devi, the Mother of the Masses

Balabhadra Ghadai

Temple at Cuttack. Mahatma Gandhi addressedit. His non-violent programmes brought about adramatic change in the static life of Oriya women,marking the beginning of political awakening andunrest among them. It is to be recorded here thatfor the first time Oriya women attended a public

meeting and it was also thefirst occasion when a greatpolitical leader of Gandhi’sstature addressed them in aseparate meeting. Rama Devitook note of appreciativelook in Gandhi’s eye when shepresented a bundle of hand-spun thread while otherwomen were presenting goldornaments and money. Afterthis meeting her life took anew turn as she decided tofollow the foot-steps ofGandhiji and his ideals andinfact later, she made it themotto of her life.

Rama Devi attended the Gaya session ofIndian National Congress in 1922 along withladies of similar faculty like Hiramani Devi, SaralaDevi & Padmabati Devi and remained directly intouch with the activities of the Congress. She alsoattended the Calcutta session of I.N.C. held in

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December, 1928 alongwith Sarala Devi, SarojiniChoudhury, Janhavi Devi, Kokila Devi andRasamani Devi.

The historic Salt Satyagraha of MahatmaGandhi involved hundreds of women activists whocame out from the seclusion of their houses tojoin the Congress demonstrations for themanufacture of salt. A few weeks after the DandiMarch began, Gandhiji said “ The impatience ofsome sisters to join the good fight is to me a healthysign. In this non-violent warfare, their contributionshould be much greater than men’s. To callwomen, the weaker sex is a libel. If by strength ismeant moral power, then woman is immeasurablyman’s superior. The effect was ‘miraculous’. Theawakening of women redoubled the energy andactivities of the Satyagrahis. As soon as theSatyagraha started at Inchudi, Rama Deviaccompanied by Malati Devi, Annapurna Devi,Kiran Bala Sen reached the Satyagraha camp atBalasore and violated the salt law. Spontaneousparticipation of women in great numbers in theSalt Satyagraha was a significant phenomenon. Itinfused a new life and luster to the mass upsurge.To involve women in large number and ensuretheir active participation, the women leaders wentfrom house to house inspiring them to break thesalt laws. They went Srijang and persuaded thewomen of Srijang on this issue on 21st April 1930,thirty women prepared salt in Kuarpur.

The involvement of Rani BhagyabatiPattamahadei of Kujang in the Salt Satyagrahadrew special attention. Thwarting vigilance ofMagistrate and the police party, the Rani, RamaDevi and many other volunteers crossed toKaliapata in a boat during the dark hours of thenight. Hundreds of women following the ideal oftheir patriotic Rani came forward to prepare salt.But the Kujang Satyagraha received a setbackon account of the arrest of prominent male

leaders. The women Congress leaders like RamaDevi and Malati Devi kept up the organizationalwork as well as the movement of the CongressParty. They worked “more strenuously and boregreater hardship than many of the men leaderscould have done.” In the first phase of the CivilDisobedience Movement six ladies includingRama Devi were jailed. By the end of 1930 dueto mass arrest of Congress leaders, adverseeffects of agricultural depression on the peasants,and various repressive measures of theGovernment, the movement began to lose itsspontaneity and potency of radicalism and showedinstead signs of exhaustion. As a result of theGandhi – Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931 a generalamnesty was granted. The leaders including RamaDevi came out from various jails.

Gandhiji had declared ‘fast unto death’in protest against communal award of August1932. He formed ‘All India Harijan SevakSangha’ for the removal of untouchability. Abranch of Harijan Sevak Sangha was organizedat Cuttack under the chairmanship of BalukeswarAcharya, a renowned Kaviraj of Cuttack andSmt. Rama Devi along with Laxminarayan Mishraand Satyanarayan Sengupta were chosen asSecretaries. About fifteen ladies took active partin the anti – touchability work under herleadership. While carrying on the untouchabilitywork, Rama Devi became convinced that asmothers women had great roles to play in thesociety and that the awakening of the country wasimpossible without the awakening of its maternalforce. About twelve ladies participated inGandhiji’s Harijan Padayatra begun at Puri on 9May 1934. Gandhiji appreciated their activitiesduring the Padayatra in the following words.

“I have marvelled at the manner in whichSmt. Rama Devi and her girls have dischargedthemselves during the tour which however

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pleasant and easy it was had undoubtedly its trials.But these ladies have not known what fatigue is.There was a naturalness about all they did whichwent to show that they had been trained to bearhardship and live simply. As soon as the partyreached its destination, these ladies allowedthemselves no rest. They immediately went outamong the Harijan’s fearlessly and with thegreatest freedom. I have had the privilege ofmixing with tens and thousands of India’s women.I have seen them at work. But no where have Iseen anything quite like what Smt. Rama Deviand her little band have been found to do sogracefully and so naturally. They have neverneeded or claimed any special privilege.”

On Gandhiji’s instruction Rama Devialong with her husband left for Bari and built athatched house there named ‘Sebaghar’. Theworkers of Sebaghar devoted themselves tosocial and economic uplift of the villagers by theconstructive programmes like promotion of Khadi,anti-touchability campaign, national language,women’s awakening, prohibition, basic education,adult education, dairy, agriculture, tanning anddistribution of medicine.

During the Quit India Movement 24 ladiesincluding Rama Devi were arrested in Orissa and

the Ashram was declared illegal by the BritishGovernment. She had to undergo nearly twoyears of imprisonment in Cuttack jail. After herrelease from the jail in July 1944, sheconcentrated her attention on Khadi, basiceducation and training to women workers.

After independence Rama Devi alongwithher husband Gopabandhu Choudhury resignedfrom four anna membership of the Indian NationalCongress. She remained aloof from power politicsand joined the Sarvodaya Movement started byVinoba Bhave. She had won the PrestigiousJamunalal Bajaj Award for her sincere service towomen and children.

Rama Devi breathed her last on 22nd July1985. Her contributions are indeed valuable.Though she is no more with us her daring spiritand incomparable dedication are still leading uson path of a better tomorrow.

Balabhadra Ghadai is the Principal, M.K. College,Khiching, Mayurbhanj.

His Excellency the Governor of Orissa andChancellor of Universities Shri Murlidhar

Chandrakant Bhandare presenting the GoldMedals to students in the 24th Convocation of

Sambalpur University on 24.02.2011.

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Preservation of Odia language and culture in theOdia speaking tracts of neighbouring states ofAndhra Pradesh,Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand andWest Bengal has been of great concern for all ofus. Utkal Sammilani for more than a century, hasbeen the frontal organisation and spearheadingthe movement of outlying Odias to give them thesemblance of identity despite the onslaught of thegovernments of the day in the aforesaid status towipe out the Odia language and culture in theperipheral tracts bordering Odisha.

In this backdrop office bearers of UtkalSammilani, thanks to the courtesy andbenevolence of Odisha government have oftenbeen visiting Odia speaking tracts of neighbouringstatus to infuse a sense of belonging to Odialanguage and culture which is slowly but surelydying out. This is happening despite the fact thatmother tongue, which the baby learns from theparents, would seldom die. It would be interestingto narrate some of my experiences while visitingthree districts of Chhatisgarh and the role playedby the girls who have been given away in marriageto Odia families in the entire region. Their zealand steadfastness in teaching Odia script whichmost of the family members are now unfamiliarwith all though they speak in Sambalapuri dialectand read and write in Hindi is to be seen andbelieved.

Promotion of Odia Culture in Chhatisgarh

Dillip Dashsharma

During our sojourn of five days to Raighar,Mahasamund and Jhanjagiri districts I could findthat each and every village has a Lord JagannathTemple, a Bhagabat Tungi and Bhajan Mandalias is prevalent in villages of Odisha. The peopleare able to preserve the Odia language and culturethrough this age-old practice-typical to Odias,though they are unable to read and write in Odia.No Hindi Bhajan or Janana is ever sung at suchassemblages. Gurubara Osha, Manabasha,Sudasa Brata or Trinatha Mela and typical trivialsbear own stamp of uniqueness are observed withall solemnity and piousness by the ladies. LaxmiPurana, Trinath mela and other holy books are allprinted in Odia script but unfortunately they arenot able to read them because the children aretaught all in Hindi from the childhood. Before UtkalSammilani schools, there was a system of LipiSikhya in very small manner- known as‘Guhalpadha’.It is well said that one should betaught in his/her mother tongue for both learningand understanding but in absence of freedom tolearn in ones’ own mother tongue has led to massdrop out in schools at either primary or secondarylevels. This pitiable condition of outlying Odiaspained us to the core.

When Chhatishgarh was separated fromMadhya Pradesh Odias constituted about 40 percent of the population. Therefore, it is

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understandable that there are many Odia Samajand organisations to protect and perpetuate therights of Odias. One such organisation is ‘KulthaSamaj’ and it maintains its own identity and cultureand work according to the rules and bye-laws ofthe organisation. The bye-law stipulates that eachchild be taught in Odia in such a manner that he/she will be able to read and write like an Odia.This is a commendable command of the ‘KulthaSamaj’ for its own community. The office bearersof Kultha Samaj were candid enough to comeforward to take up the issue of teaching of Odiain its own script and further stated that they arenot helping us rather we are being helped by UtkalSammilani for upkeep and preservation oflanguage and culture of all outlying Odias.Eagerness to speak, read and write in Odia wasexamplifed when we started moving to villages ina hired vehicle . The driver said I shall remainwith you for five days and during this time I willlisten to you speaking in Odia so that I shall beable to fully speak in Odia afterwards. We couldmarvel his determination and our mission toachieve the goal peaked one hundred per centwhen we reached in Pusoru village. We wereamazed at the kind of reception and welcome givento us on arrival at the village. So is the spirit ofpeople speaking one language who believe inJagannath culture. It was a feeling of homecoming.

Finally,for accomplishment of the missionof Utkal Sammilani we have distributed primeryOdia books, writing materials, black board and

chalk pencils etc. and appointed 122 Odiateachers in the districts of Raigarh, Mahasamundand Janjagiri to teach Odia Scripts at 122 centresfor at least 20 students at each centre. Theteachers are being duly remunerated. However,to find out 122 Odia teachers was a herculeantask because of shortage of Odia knowingteachers. But God desired that we must succeed.To our amazment, housewives from Odisha tookup the responsibility with pride and dischargedthe function whole-heartedly. One would besurprised to find that Odisha girls, given inmarriage in Chhatishgarh formed the bulk ofteaching force. This is just a beginning of ouractivity and Utkal Sammilani intends to coverwhole of the Odia speaking tracts by openingmore schools for script writing and the missionwill spread with opening of more school for OdiaStandards, in phased manner. The main aim is tointroduce Odia Language as the 2nd officiallanguage in Chhatishgarh and Jharkhand. UtkalSammilani solicits cooperation from theGovernment of Odisha and concerned states andpeople take pride to be an Odia.

Vande Utkal Janani

Dillip Dashsharma is the President, Utkal Sammilani,Mancheswar Industrial Estate Branch, Bhubaneswarand lives at A/E-192, VSS Nagar, Bhubaneswar-751007. 

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Orissa could not stay isolated for long from theimpact of non-cooperation movement. Just as themovement reverberated throughout India, itsechoes were felt in Orissa too. A hitherto unknownexcitement entered into the innermost feelings ofthe people of Orissa. The programme chalkedout at the national level, was implemented andfollowed in Orissa too. Leaders like GopabandhuChoudhury, Gopabandhu Das, HarekrishnaMahatab and other Prajamandal leaders madevaliant efforts to make the movement successfulin Orissa with the co-operation of all, themovement assumed great dynamics in Orissa. ThePrajamandal movement was one of the mostimportant milestones in India’s freedom struggle.It created an overwhelming consciousness amongthe people of Orissa. In the field of prohibitionand manufacturing of Swadeshi goods and theirdistribution, the Prajamandal movement wassuccessful to a very large extent. The visit ofGandhiji to Orissa at this opportune momenthelped Orissa in merging with the nationalmainstream.

In the closing part of 19 th century,uprisings (meli) were organized in various states-Ratan Meli of 1863 and Dharani Meli of 1893 inKeonjhar, Kondh Meli of 1882 in Kalahandi,disturbances in Bamanghati (Mayurbhanj) in1866 and Nayagarh Meli of 1893 etc.The firstthree decades of 20th century also witnessedfrequent uprisings- 5 in Bamra, 3 in Talcher, 1 inMayurbhanj, 1 in Dhenkanal, 1 in Nilgiri and 1dangerous Kondh uprising in Daspalla. All those

Nayagarh and Prajamandal Andolan

Arun Kumar Sahoo

uprisings were suppressed brutally by the Statesbeing supported by the paramount British power.

In course of time, the sporadic uprisingstook the shape of popular democratic movementswith the formation of” All India States People”conference in December 1927. It had theobjective of initiating “the necessary reforms” inthe states with the collective opinion of the people.In 1929, Lahore Congress adopted a resolution,urging the princess to grant responsiblegovernment to people. In 1931, the Orissa StatesPeople’s conference organized its first session atCuttack under presidentship of BhubananandaDas. The conference enquired about people’sgrievances and asked the Ruling Chiefs to considerthe demand of representative governments.However, the chief resorted to repressivemeasures and suppressed the movement. Thesuppression and anti-people measures in turn,paved the path for more organized popularmovements. The two years i.e. 1938 and 1939witnessed culmination of the movement.

After the formation of the congressministry, the Congress leaders encouraged thepeople of the Feudatory States and Prajamandalsor People’s Associations were formed in a numberof Feudatory States of Orissa. But the Rajas werenot prepared to recognize such organisations andhave out- rightly rejected the demands of thepeople. As a result, wide-spread unrest tookplace in several states. The leaders of the PrajaMandals presented their charter of demands to

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the ruling chiefs and claimed the abolition of forcedlabour, forced contributions and the collection ofdifferent abwabs (illegal taxes) from the poorpeople. They also demanded some civil libertieslike the right to association, right to organizemeetings, right to publish newspapers, right to useforest products and the right over their agriculturalholdings.

The Prajamandal in Nayagarh wasconstituted on 6th June 1938 under thepresidentship of Narayan Nanda. Actually inNayagad, the fire of freedom movement was firststarted from village Odagaon and graduallyspread to Bahadajhola village, which became thecentre of all activities when the Ruling Chief ofNayagad introduced the monopoly of betel bygiving permission to a trader to start betel businessin Nayagad. As a protest, the people startedquitting consuming betel. 99% of the wholepopulation left this habit. They promised not toconsume it until the chief withdrew the monopolyof betel trade. The leaders including NarayanNanda were arrested arbitrarily and put in jail.This “Pana Barjana” Andolana gave a tremendousboost to the freedom struggle. Undoubtedly itmade the ruling Chief think about their futurecourse of action. The Ruler freed NarayanaNanda.

A meeting was held at Dangibandha villageof Ganjam District, under the Congress worker,Sri Suryanarayan Pattanaik. The historic decisionof formation of Prajamandal was undertaken hereonly. The Prajamandal in Nayagarh wasconstituted on 6th June 1938 under thePresidentship of Narayan Nanda. It submittedcharter of demands to the Durbar securing politicaland civil liberties for the people and theirinvolvement in responsible Government. On 27December 1938, the Prajamandal convened ameeting in the headquarters of the State andresolved to agitate until the fulfillment of theirdemands. Thereupon, the Raja arrested the

Prajamandal workers, which resulted in the gatherof thousands of people in front of the palace on30 December demanding the release of theirleaders. The Raja immediately released them andpromised to fulfil their demands. But the insurgentswere not satisfied with the promise and threatenedto launch Satyagraha unless a proclamationconceding their demands was immediately made.Apprehending great tension, the Raja sought theassistance of the Political Agent, MajorBazelgette. Major Bazelgette immediatelyresponded to the request of the Raja and reachNayagarh to observe the situation. While he wasdealing with the situation of Nayagarh, the rulerof Ranpur sought his help on 5 January 1939.Since the situation in Ranpur was more explosivethan that of Nayagarh, Bazelgette had to makethe fateful journey to Ranpur where he succumbedto the fury of the violent crowd in the sameevening.

The murder of the Political Agent inRanpur and the subsequent terrorization in theState, shocked and unnerved the Prajamandalworkers of Nayagarh so much so that theyvoluntarily suspended their Satyagraha withoutawaiting the directives from the Orissa StatesPeoples’ Conference. Sarangadhar Das, in hispress statement reported that after the departureof the Military Intelligence Bureau the Durbarresorted to victimization of Prajamandal workerson false charges and the accused were either sentto prison or made to pay fines. The Raja alsoissued a circular prohibiting subscriptions to thePrajamandal. The Prajamandal protested againstthe circular but did not launch any movement. Themembers merely boycotted the Advisory Councilset up by the Raja and devoted themselves to theconstructive programmes of the NationalCongress like cotton planting, spinning andweaving.

Even this ghastly murder was condemnedby top Congress leaders like Subhash Chandra

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Bose, the Congress President, Pandit JawaharlalNehru and Biswanath Das, the premier of Orissa.Gandhiji expressed his deep concern on theincident and desired for a thorough enquiry aboutthe matter. The Congress Working Committeepassed a resolution condemning the killing of theBritish Political Agent. However, the WorkingCommittee welcomed the awakening among thepeople of the States.

On the other hand, the British authoritiesadopted very strong repressive measures againstthe people of Ranpur. Military force almost seizedthe State. Armed forces were brought from distantparts of India to suppress the movement forfreedom. Many people were arrested in Ranpur.Raghu Nath Mohanty and Dibakar Parida, tworing leaders were hanged. The ruler of the Statewas deposed and the Political Department tookover the administration. Such widespreadmovements and violent occurrences in theFeudatory States of Orissa roused the Congressleaders in the province to greater responsibilities.All Orissa Garjat Day was observed on 29t h

October, 1938. Some Congress leaders led byNaba Krishna Choudhury were arrested inDhenkanal. Due to some legal restrictions theCongress workers could not help the movementin the states openly but extended only moralsupport to them.

It was not possible on the part of theCongress Government of Orissa to close its eyescompletely to the atrocities committed by theprincely rulers. The Premier Biswanath Dashissued an appeal to the rulers on 12 November,1938 and urged upon them to accept the justdemands of the people to restore peace andtranquility in the states. In reply to the appeal theRaja of Sarraikala, the President of theAssociation of the Ruling Chiefs of the EasternStates Agency alleged the Government of Orissafor such happenings.

The widespread agitation launched by thePraja Mandal created law and order situation.The Princess Protection Act conferredextraordinary powers on the police to arrest anyone within the province of Orissa without awarrant. Besides this extraordinary powers, therulers demanded for the extradition of PrajaMandal leaders who had taken shelter for theirsafety in the province so that they might be givenexemplary punishment for their revolutionaryactivities. The British authorities supported thismove but the Congress party could approve ofit. Subsequently the Government of Orissareleased a few prisoners of the States who werein the Provincial jail at Cuttack unconditionallyand rejected the extradition warrants issuedagainst them.

Thus Prajamandal Movement in Orissahad become virulent. The uniqueness of themovement in Orissa was that it not only exposedthe mistake of the ruling chiefs but also at the sametime exposed the British Rule in India and inspiredthe people to merge with the national mainstreamto teach the British a lesson. The movementundoubtedly was yet another milestone in India’sfreedom struggle. It brought about a rejuvenationand determination among the people of Orissawhich made them leap into the forefront of thestruggle. It became apparent that glorious sun ofthe British Empire was indeed about to set in India.The welcome notes for the declining fortunes ofGreat Britain were truly sung by these moments.

References:1. Nayagad Prajamandal Itihas by Sridhar Das

2. Agrarian and Political Movements by SriSadasiv Pradhan

3. History of Orissa by Sri P. C. Dash

4. Concise History of Orissa by Sri D. B. Mishra

Arun Kumar Sahoo is the Government Deputy ChiefWhip, Orissa Legislative Assembly and lives atQrs.No.5R/15, Unit-1, Bhubaneswar.

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Every year we are celebrating 1st April, as thefoundation day of the morden state Odisha, withgreat pomp and pleasure. We know seventyfiveyears ago, on this auspicious day in 1936, thelong cherished dream of Odia speaking peoplecame to reality with formation of Odisha as aseparate state, a first one formed on the basis oflanguage.

The territorial dismemberment of Odishahad begun even before the fall of the Hindukingdom. The Bhoi’s of Khurda, the Bhanjas ofGhumusar and Mayurbhanja and the Chouhansof Sambalpur gradually assumed politicalprominence. The sway of either the Mughals orthe Marathas failed to restore the political unityof Odisha. To remedy the evils arising out of sucha dismembered condition the Oriyas have all alongbeen expressing their desire to remain united. Thisdesire may be dated back to the Maratha invasionand the British advent into Orissa in the 18thcentury and the subsequent years, since when thenational solidarity has been broken and it remainsas it is, scattered and merged inside differentprovinces of India, absolutely lost sight of amongthe other more predominating populouscommunities. To give vent to their most deplorablecondition in society and insufficient representationin Government service whereever they are, thefirst Utkala Union Conference of the Oriyas washeld in the year 1902 under the presidency of the

late Raja of Khallikote which officially started toapproach the Government with resolutions for aseparate province for the Oriyas.

This state of the dismembered conditionof Orissa has been brought about by merelyhistorical accidents, and particularly thecircumstances attending the growth of Britishpower in Orissa. This unnatural bifurcation,vivisection and fragmentation of the country hasbrought untold miseries on the people; it has notonly broken their national solidarity by regularprocess of denationalisation in the borders ofGanjam and Vizagapatam in Madras, andMidnapur in Bengal, but also has succeeded inruining their ancient civilization and literature. Inthe year 1868, Sir Stafford Northeote, the thenSecretary of State for India, saw the defects ofadministering a tract of country divided anddissected into unnatural boundaries in times ofemergency, and in the year 1895 theCommissioner of Orissa writing the AdministrativeReport of the Orissa Division advocated stronglyfor bringing the Oriya-speaking tracts under oneadministration. He says-in his report; "Among thereasons for this change are, as I have said, theuniting in a single division and placing under thesame laws and rules the whole local Oriyapopulation instead of having a portion of it formingan insignificant item of the Central Provinces andanother portion forming an equally insignificant

The Role of Krishnachandra Gajapati Dev inFormation of Separate State of Orissa

Dillip Kumar Behura

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item of the Madras Presidency. He then goes onciting political, ethnological and philologicalgrounds in support of his proposal. Let us seewhat another prominent Government official hassaid on this matter. H.H. Risley, Secretary to theGovernment of India, in his letter No.3678 dated3rd December 1903 to the Chief Secretary tothe Government of Bengal says; "The difficultiesarising from the Oriya problem thus created havebeen for years a source of anxiety and trouble tothe different provinces concerned - TheGovernment of Madras have repeatedlycomplained of the anxieties imposed upon theadministration by the great diversity of language(Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Canarese) withwhich Madras civilians are called upon to copeand which render the transfer of officers from onepart of the Presidency to another, a matter, in anycase, of great difficulty and often of positivedetriment to the public interest. Thesedisadvantages exercise an injurious effect not onlyupon the administration, but also more upon thepeople. The population speaking a distinctlanguage and the area over which it is spoken aretoo small to consitute a substantial portion of aprovince. Under ordinary conditions theGovernment is unable to retain in it a superiorstaff who have become acquainted with the locallanguage and with the local customs whichinvariably accompany it. Hence in dealing with aquestion of this kind, it may be that the truecriterion of territorial redistribution should besought not in race but in language. "The Oriyaspeaking group" in any case, emerges a distinctand unmistakable factor with an identity andinterests of its own". In 1917 on the momentousvisit of Mr. Montagu to India, the Oriyas againsubmitted a memorial under the leadership ofM.D.Das and the Raja of Kanika and many otherinfluential men for the administrative union of theOriya tracts as a Preliminary to the reforms; but

except for the, recognition of the principle to formprovinces on the linguistic basis giving prominenceof course to the problem of Orissa, nothingtangible has been done for the Oriyas. Asanticipated in the memorial, the position of theOriyas in every province under the reformschanged for the worse, as in every provinciallegislature the Oriya representatives foundthemselves in a hopeless minority without beingable to influence any decision in their favouragainst contending forces. The Maharaja of Paralaexpressed his great concern according to him.

My experience as a member of MadrasLegislative Council is that the position of theOriyas is unenviable and far from satisfactory,though, in the pre-Reform days they had muchless to complain of, receiving usually officialsupport and sympathy as a backward community.I have reason to believe that wherever the Oriyasexist now their condition is exactly the same andworse in Bengal with all the disadvantagespertaining to a minority among a bigger and moreadvanced population. The desire of the-Oriyasto be united finds its counterpart in the case ofseveral other Indian communities also.

Let me repeat again that nothing sort of aseparate province will satisfy the Oriyas. Theywill not remain content with any half measures asa part of a major provinces with any amount ofstatutory guarantees and declarations. Thedemand for a separate province was embodiedin a resolution of the Utkala Union Conference in1919 which runs as follow “Believing as it doesin the sympathetic recognition of the special claimsof Oriyas for a separate administration, asevidenced by the illustrious authors of the schemein their proposal for constituting a sub-provincefor Orissa, this Conference desires to place onrecord its conviction that unless a separateprovince under a Governor-in-council and

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Legislative Assembly with an elected non-officialmajority be given to the United Oriya-speakingtracts, the proper solution of the question cannotbe satisfactorily reached and the legitimateaspirations of the people concerned cannot befulfilled.”

In the following year Satchidananda Sinhaof Bihar moved in the old Imperial LegislativeCouncil for a mixed committee of officials andnon-officials to formulate a scheme foramalgamation of Oriya-speaking tracts. Most ofthe speakers in the debate welcomed thisresolution but Sir B.N. Sharma advocated aseparate province for the Oriyas to which thewhole house agreed. Sir William Vincent, the thenHome Minister of the Government of Indiaspeaking on behalf of the Government recognisedthat there was a very great feeling among theOriyas for amalgamation and that the Governmentwas in one sense opposed to an examination ofthis question. The Philip and Duff Commission in1924 also have recorded the same feeling amongthe Oriyas.

The position of Orissa as at present hasdrawn the attention of the Simon Commission andthey regard it as a glaring example of the artificialconnection of areas not naturally related. TheGovernment of Madras in its memorandum to theSimon Commission was in favour of a separateprovince for the Oriyas. The Government of Biharand Orissa though points out the financialinsufficiency of the future province is also in favourof a separate Oriya province. The Governmentof India in its despatch on proposals forconstitutional reforms, admit the claim of Oriyasfor a separate province of their own, suggesting aBoundary Commission to go into this question.The amalgamation of Oriya-speaking tracts hasbecome so urgent and acute that it is feared insome quarters that another commission might

delay matters and postponed the great day.Considering from a practical point of view, Orissawill be a province of 88112 thousand square mileswith men possessing everything in common-language, religion, customs and manners.

One of the formidable objections, incidenton the proposal of a separate province is thecomplaint of financial insufficiency. The difficultyof finance might be a real one and I do not doubtit for a moment but at the same time I do notthink it an impossibility if only the question istackled with sympathy and fairness by theauthorities concerned and its mineral wealth fullydeveloped.

Orissa is a great agricultural country withvast natural resources and fertility. It is mainly arice-producing country with vast tracts of rich soilcapable of great agricultural development. If onlyits rivers are controlled to avoid devastations offlood, it will be a land of wealth instead of poverty.Again Orissa abounds in forest materials whichprovide beautiful building materials and with hercoal, iron, copper, mica, manganese ores manymore industries can be developed to yield a largerevenue to meet the needs of administrative cost.Space does not permit me to say all that I have inmind regarding this question. The little details Ihave mentioned are done only in the interests ofthe case. This thought provoking address in theRound Table Conference by the Maharaja ofParlakhemundi is an unmistakable indication ofhis love and admiration for a united andprogressive Orissa. He had well articulated thecultural prosperity and economic potency of theOriyas in this memorandum.

The announcement of Orissa BoundaryCommittee was the sequel to the deliberations ofthe First Round Table Conference as far as thecase of Orissa is concerned. The OrissaBoundary Committee consisted of three members

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- Sir Samuel O' Donnell, H.M. Mehta and T.R.Phookun. The associate members wereKrishnachandra Gajapati, Satchidananda Sinhaand C.V.S. Narasimha Raju. The Commissionfinalised its report in April 1932. The Committeeafter considering all aspects of the problemrecommended that the new province of Orissashould include the Orissa Division, Angul, theKhariar Zamindary of the Raipur district and thegreater part of the Ganjam district and theVizagapatam Agency tracts. The exclusion ofcertain Oriya-Speaking tracts from the jurisdictionof the new province evoked strong reaction. Aspecial session of the Utkala Union Conferenceon 21st August 1932 at Berhampur urged uponthe Government to constitute the separateprovince at an early date and protested forexclusion of the Oriya-speaking areas from thenew province. It was then decided to send adeputation under the leadership of the Raja ofParlakhemundi to the Viceroy to acquaint him withthe problem in its proper prospective. (Patra andDevi 1983 : 264) On the 16th of October 1932Independent Utkala Day was celebrated all overthe Oriya- speaking areas and in Puri a largecongregation gathered on this occasion which waspresided over by Gajapati Krishnachandra.(Mohanty 1982 : 116) The Oriya nationalists calleda conference (Netru Sammilani) which suggestedthat the new boundary of Orissa must embraceall the Oriya-speaking tracts. The leaders of theConference constituted a separate OrissaProvince Committee. Maharaja Krishnachandrawas a member of this committee. In 1933 theWhite Paper was released embodying thedeliberations about the constitutional reforms inthe three Round Table Conferences. It includedthe announcement constituting Orissa into aseparate province and also indicated theboundaries of the said province. (Mohanty : 117)The publication of the White Paper perpetuated

the controversy and disappointment among theOriyas as the proposed province excludedVizagapatam Agency and Parlakhemundi.Krishnachandra felt very much disappointed atthe publication of the White Paper as it excludedmany estates for the integration of which he hadfought relentlessly. It gave him moredisappointment because his own estate wasexcluded from the proposed Orissa Province. The23rd Utkala Union Conference held at Berhampurunder his presidentship strongly demanded theintegration of his estate and Jeypure and passeda proposal to the effect that the creation of theOrissa state would be an exercise in futility withoutthese estates. (Mahapatra 1976 : 223) In April1933 a Joint Select Committee of the Houses ofParliament with Lord Linlithgow as president wasappointed and it invited memoranda from severalorganisations and a number of importantindividuals. At the Conference presided over byBhubanananda Das, Krishnachandra- Gajapati inresponse to Madhusudan Das's appeal decidedto go to England to plead for the inclusion ofParlakhemundi and Jeypur in Orissa. (Patro : 139)Krishnachandra prepared an exhaustivememorandum outlying the grounds on the basisof which he wanted this integration with OrissaProvince. He circulated printed copies of thememorandum on Parlakhemundi among them. Inthe memorandum he had made it clear that amistake had been made in the White Paper inexcluding Oriya Estates, Parlakhemundi andJeypur among other estates, from the New OrissaProvince. The Orissa Committee of 1932appointed to recommend the boundaries ofOrissa favoured the inclusion of Parlakhemundiand Jeypur Estate and its majority recommendedthe inclusion of Parlakhemundi in Orissa, Hecontinued that by excluding these and other Oriyaestates of Madras from Orissa the White Papernot only denies them their legitimate claim to be

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under the administration of a province having otherOriya estates within its fold, but also brings abouta break in the age long solidarity of the OriyaZamindars of Madras, one that has been intacttill now. He stated that by excluding these estatesthe Orissa Province of 33000 square milesrecommeded by the Orissa Committee will bereduced by 11000 square miles of rich and fertilecountry full of natural resources, Railways,Educational institutions and roads whereby thedoors for economic development and expansionfor a poor province like Orissa will be once forall closed. (Nabeen, 25th July 1933) Thememorandum had thus contained the pro-Oriyasentiment of Krishnachandra who had the visionof new and prosperous Orissa. Being assured bythe members of the Joint Select CommitteeGajapati returned home on 13th August 1933.As he returned back he got a letter from one ofhis friends from London some months later thatthe committee had decided not to includeParlakhemundi in the proposed province ofOrissa. Gajapati again tried in this regard and metthe Viceroy in Delhi with a group. The Viceroyaccepted the map and the records from the groupand transmitted them to the Secretary of State,London with his favourable recommendation. Atlast this problem was over. The hard labour ofGajapati brought into effect the creation of OrissaProvince.

The members of the Utkala Ashram,Berhampur on 24th September 1935 hadpresented an address of cordial welcome andexpressed their feelings of admiration, joy andgratitude for the valuable services the Maharajahad rendered to the cause of the Oriyas. (Nabeen,24th September 1935) Their address has beenquoted here for the appreciation of the historians-

“We must begin with that memorable dayon which you moved for the formation of aseparate province for Orissa at the First Round

Table Conference. A great strain was imposedon your capacity and resources when you wereassociated with the work of the O’DonnelCommittee -which appreciated your valuable co-operation and a majority of which recommendedthe inclusion of the greater part of the Oriya-speaking areas in the south as aptly advocatedby you. There was a greater call on yourpatriotism and capacity for self-sacrifice with theannouncement of the White Paper boundaries andits revision by the Joint Parliamentary Committeeshowed your tenacity of purpose and yourcapacity to fight for the righteous cause in keepingwith the traditional achievements of the Gajapatikings. Your magnificent donations in the cause ofeducation and for charitable purposes your widesympathies and cultured outlook, your solicitudefor the welfare of the peasantry and impartialadministration and above all your spirit ofSportsmanship and patriotism have won for youa unique place in the hearts of the people and inthe estimation of the Government. We feel surethat with your able guidance, your forcefulpersonality and your spirited leadership, theprovince will steer clear of all obstacles and itwould have distinct contribution to the growth ofthe Indian nation." Krishnachandra in reply madea clear statement which can be quoted here forthe study of his mission; "The dismemberedcondition of the Oriyas being placed in fourdifferent provinces forming peculiarly a mostinsignificant minority community everywhere wasa most attractive phenomenon to excite sympathyand interest from one and all, and it is thereforenothing extra-ordinary for me, an Oriya to havetaken up the work zealously despite severalobstacles and opposition from different quarters.In these days of severe competition such acondition as we were in would have been vitallydetrimental to the interests of the community foradvancement in future and even for a political

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existence amidst other communities in theprovinces, xxxx I appeal to you that whatevermay be the title or creed popularly acceptablewe should all join hands sinking all differencesand personal aspirations and motives and workunitedly the consitution graciously conferred uponIndia by His Majesty’s Government for the benefitand abound advancement of our community andfind means to develop the natural resources ofour province.”

On 1st April 1936 the province of Orissawas inaugurated which included Cuttack, Puri,Balasore, Sambalpur, Ganjam and Koraput.Gajapati's happiness knew no bounds. But at thesame time through the press he made an appealto the people not to be complacent only on theformation of Orissa province and he made themconscious of the tasks ahead of them. Theformation of the separate province of Orissaaccording to him protected the Oriyas from theirtotal degradation. But he could not appreciate theboundary of the province in 1936. Hence in anappeal in Nabeen of 10th November 1936 hehad articulated the necessity of the amalgamationof all the Oriya-speaking areas.

He stated that as long as all the Oriyaswere not united in one great province theemancipation of the Oriya Race would not bepossible. He demanded at that time theincorporation of Singhbhum with Orissa. Heaccepted that the declaration of the separateprovince of Orissa in 1936 was the first significantstep for the making of greater Orissa. Theunification of Singhbhum with Orissa would be avery important work which would establish theeconomic potency of the Oriyas. Therefore in1936 he strongly appreciated the enthusiasm anddetermination of Krishna Chandra Acharya, agreat Oriya leader of Singhbhum and he appealed

to the Oriyas to extend all possible support toAcharya in the fulfillment of his mission.

Thus Krishnachandra Gajapati hadimperishable contribution to the making of modernand progressive Orissa. He was a man ofmiraculous action. He came to the focus of politicsof colonial Orissa at a crucial phase; but he gaveaway his interest and devoted his career to theprogress of Orissa which he accepted as hismotherland. His articulation of Oriya identity andhis cogent expression of the economic potencyof the Oriyas before the colonial masters in theturbulent decades of the 20th century A.D. woulddefinitely remain a chapter of lasting significancein the history of modern Orissa.

References:

1. Patra K.M. and Devi Bandita 1983 An AdvancedHistory of Orissa (Modern period), New Delhi.

2. Mohanty Nibedita 1982 Oriya Nationalism : QuestFor a United province, New Delhi.

3. Mohapatra Baikoli 1976 Odisa Andolanara Itihas,Cuttack.

4. Oriya weekly newspaper, Berhampur, 1930-31,1935-36, 1933.

5. Patro S.N. 1981 Krishnachandra Gajapati NarayanaDeo, The Maharaja of Parlakhemundi, Berhampur.

6. Samantaray Natabar 1964 Odiya Sahityara Itihasa,Bhubaneswar.

Dillip Kumar Behura lives at Qrs. No. F 9/1, Unit - 9 Flat,Bhoinagar, Bhubaneswar-22.

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Late Bijoyananda Patnaik (1916-1997) was bornat Cuttack on 5th March, 1916. Both his fatherlate Laxmi Narayan Patnaik and mother lateAshalata Devi were freedom fighters. There wasimpact of the character and spirit of the father onyoung Biju Patnaik. He beganhis education in Mission HighSchool at Cuttack. He passedthe entrance examination in1932 and preferred since studyin Ravenshaw College. Besideshis interest in studies he exhibitedextraordinary capacity in gamesand sports. He becamechampion in college meet forconsecutive years. Aftercompleting I.Sc. he was joiningAeroplane Training College inDelhi. Later he joined ImperialRoyal Air Force as a Pilot. Hecould exhibit both courage andapplication as Airman.

When young Biju was shaping up, thecountry was a colony and nationalist struggleunder Gandhi's leadership was picking up. OnceGandhi visited Orissa and was scheduled toaddress at Cuttack. Young Biju was attractedtowards the messianic personality of Gandhi andfor this he had to incur the wrath of the security

personnel at the venue of the meeting. This had avisible impact upon the young mind and he wasattracted towards the cause of the freedomfighters. Initially he was in a dilemma as to thepath to be followed - a terrorist way or a non-

violent path. As a young,dynamic and spirited person hecould have chosen the formercourse for which he had thementors in his maternal uncles.But he chose the Gandhian way.Even when he was in service inthe colonial establishment hecould secretly associate himselfin air dropping prominentfreedom fighters like JayaPrakash, Ashok Mehta, RamaManohar Lohia and Aruna AsafAlli etc. In 1943 Sri Patnaik wasarrested due to his anti-Britishactivities and was imprisoned at

Red Fort. After serving two years jail term atseveral places he was freed in 1945. The jailterm and his daring activities had already broughthim closer to national heroes. His passion to comecloser to Gandhi and his political successor PanditNehru inducted him into national politics and heassociated himself with number of daring acts.During March 1947 when Asian Relations

Biju Patnaik and National Politics

Prof. Surya Narayan Misra

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Conference was organised at Delhi, the freedomstruggle against Dutch in Indonesia was very muchin the news. Biju could take a dare devil role in asolo flight to Indonesia along with his wife andcould escort the Indonesian leaders to Delhi. Theact of associating one risking one's life for one'scountry was known. But for another country wasrarely known. Sri Patnaik by escorting Dr. Md.Hatta and Sultan Sjahrir from their place ofconfinement could exhibit his commitment to thecause of nationalism.

India got independence with a shock. Thepost-partition Indo-Pak dispute over Kashmirwas almost escalated into a war. The initialhesitation of Maharaja of Kashmir delayed militaryoperation. But when the process commenced itwas Mr. Patnaik who led the air dropping of ourmilitary personnel to the valley. It might have beenhis first flight to the difficult zone during the tensiontime. But it was he and his spirit led the way.

When the country began its plannedeconomic development and the process ofindustrialisation started Biju could think about thefuture industrial map of Orissa and consequentlythat of the country. The industries he began atChoudwar was the action of a visionary to developthe zone into a multiplex city with immensepossibilities of water and road transport intodifferent destinations.

During the one party dominant era of theIndian National Congress, our State was peculiarin its political reference. There was clear cutdivision of public opinion in the coastal plain andthe western upland. Whereas the public choice inthe coastal area was shared among Congress, PSPand CPI, the western upland belonged to Princegroup - the Ganatantra Parishad. This politicaldivision of 1950s kept our State in low profileand we could not get deserving share out of the

national development plan. A State which washaving peculiar demographic composition andsuffered due to regular natural calamities desiredsympathy assistance from the centre. But it wasnot possible due to political instability. After theelections of 1957 the situation was furtherdeteriorated. The Second Legislature in Orissawas fragile in nature and difficult to run. But Bijuhelped the political leadership by ensuring outsidesupport of Jharkhand group through personalcontact with Jai Pal Singh. When the situationbecame uncontrollable he could impress uponPandit Nehru with a novel plan of coalitiongovernment between Congress and mainopposition Ganatantra Parishad. This could bethought of by a visionary statesman who couldthink interms of political stability in the interest ofhis homestate. Thus he became one of the pioneersof political polarisation in the country as early as1950s and infact he played a significant role incombining non-Congress opposition in Orissa in1970s and later for the country in 1977 and after.

Biju's political leadership gave Orissa thefirst stable Congress Government. His tenureinitiated a number of development projects andsome of them were innovative in nature. If wefind Sunabeda HAL, Balimela Project, ParadeepPort, Express Highway, Regional ResearchLaboratory, Regional College of Education,Regional Engineering College and Sainik Schoolin the State, it was due to his national vision andto put Orissa in the national map of India.

Biju Babu was central to the decision onhaving Paradeep Port when the Central Planmachinery was not positive in its approach. Rightlysome one has said that a politician thinks for thenext election but a statesman thinks for the nextgeneration. The way Paradeep Port constructionstarted it raised many eyebrows and critics startedvillifying his image. This could cost him dearly in

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the next election. But Paradeep today is the mostfunctional and revenue earning port in the eastcoast. This port if named after late lamented BijuPatnaik during his centenary will be a fitting tributeto him.

He was a Union Minister under MorarajiDesai in 1977. Whenever Parliamentary debatetook place and Government was cornered Bijucame to the rescue on number of occasion. Hisspeeches on the floor of the House were full ofnational flavour and spirit of nationalist statesman.His political opponents feared both his personalityand courage of conviction.

In 1989 when Rajiv Gandhi lost theelection and V.P. Singh was the hero but politicalarithmatic was different, it was Orissa Bhawanwhich became the venue for politicalconsolidation. He helped to arrive at a solutionand could prevail upon aspirants like Devilal andChandrasekhar to accept V.P. Singh as the leader.The way he handled the 1990 Assembly Electionalone in the State and provided an all time recordvote and seat share could prone his popularsupport base. During his Chief Ministership bothhis age and objectives were on the wrong side.His role as the Chairperson of AusterityCommittee and his suggestion for reservation foreconomically backward irrespective of caste

during Mandal agitation gave enough evidence ofa visionary Biju. Very few people could up to thelevel of Biju's level of thinking and expression.But it was also a fact that he was good but hisfollowers were not.

Biju Patnaik was a natural hero and alsoa national hero. He was popular but not populist.His obsession to see his home state grow instrength to strength confined him to the State since1985. He did not contest for 1989 election. Inpost 1996 era there was an opportunity for himto lead the nation but his age and health were onthe wrong side. A person who was close associateof the fist Prime Minister and one time adviser ondefence matters remained as an idol in the heartsof people but his own class (political circle) hadinferiority complex and played negative rolewhenever an opportunity for him and for his dearhome State appeared. He may not be decoratedby highest civilian award of the country, but hewas really the 'Bharat Ratna'.

Professor Surya Narayan Misra is the EmeritusProfessor, KIIT University and lives at 60, RoyalGarden, Patia, Bhubaneswar.

Shri Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Chairman, OCC handing over a cheque of Rs 29 lakh as dividend from

OCC to the Hon'ble Chief Minister Sri NaveenPatnaik at Secretariat on 03.03. 2011.

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Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil was sworn in asthe twelfth President of India on 25 July 2007.Before this she had been the Governor ofRajasthan from 8 November 2004 till 21 June2007. Smt. Patil, who had been a member of theNational Indian Congress for many years, wasnominated by the ruling United ProgressiveAlliance supported by the Communist parties. Shewon the Presidential election held on 19 July2007, defeating her nearest rival Bhairon SinghShekhawat by over 300, 000 votes.

In this victory, Smt. Patil was underlininganother unique aspect of her life. Becoming alegislator at the young age of twenty-seven in theMaharashtra Assembly, she had been a memberof both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha andhas never been defeated in any election in whichshe has stood.

Smt. Patil was born on 19 December1934 in Nadgaon village of Jalgaon District,Maharashtra. Her early years were spent inJalgaon town, where she completed her education– first at R.R. Vidyalaya, and later, up to herMaster’s degree in political science and economicsfrom Mooljee Jetha College. It was here, in 1962,that she was voted ‘College Queen’. The sameyear Smt. Patil won an Assembly election fromJalgaon and became an MLA. After her

Hon'ble Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil(First Woman President of India)

Rekha Mohanty

graduation, Smt. Patil enrolled for her Bachelorof Law (LLB) degree from Government LawCollege, Mumbai. Although she was now alegislator, she pursued her studies and completedher degree. She also found the time to take anactive part in sports, excelling in table tennis andwinning several shields at various inter-collegiatetournaments.

After getting her LLB degree, Smt. Patilbegan practicing law at the Jalgaon District Court.She married educator Devisingh RamsinghShekhawat, a Rajput from Rajasthan, on 7 July1965. The couple was well-matched in their desirefor active social service, especially in the field ofeducation and the uplifting of poor women. Theyhave a daughter, Jyoti Rathore, and a son,Rajendra Singh.

Edlabad, or Muktai Nagar in Jalgaondistrict, remained Smt. Patil’s constituency from1967 right up till 1985. She was elected four timesfrom here to the Maharashtra Assembly. Duringthis long period, she held various importantpositions both in the government and theLegislative Assembly of Maharashtra. Smt.Pratibha Patil’s political career began under thementorship of senior Congress leader and formerChief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan. She beganby becoming a Deputy Minister for Education in

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1967 in the Vasantrao Naik ministry. In her nextterms between 1972 and 1978 she was a fullCabinet minister for the State, various importantportfolios like Tourism, Social Welfare andHousing were handled by her in the successivegovernments.

The Congress party, which has seenseveral splinter groups break away from it in post-independence era, split up in 1977 in Maharashtraafter Indira Gandhi’s defeat in the general electionsfollowing the Emergency of 1975 to 1977. Duringthis split, many senior leaders like Y.B. Chavanand his protégé Sharad Pawar joined theCongress (U) party floated by Devraj Urs.However, at this time, and on all subsequentoccasions, Smt. Patil remained loyal to Smt. IndiraGandhi, although she was taking a political riskby antagonising other Maharashtra stalwarts.

Smt. Patil’s belief in Indira Gandhi, andher unshakeable loyalty, was immense. One lesserknown fact was her quiet support to Indira Gandhiwhen her son Sanjay Gandhi died in an air crash.In the hours following the tragedy, Smt. Patilquietly managed Indira Gandhi’s kitchen andhousehold. When Indira Gandhi was arrested in1977 by a government thirsting to avenge therepression and humiliation of the Emergency, Smt.Patil took part in a protest, for which she had tospend ten days in prison.

From 1978, when the Congress (U)came to power in Maharashtra, she became theLeader of the Opposition in the State Assembly,and later chief of the Maharashtra PradeshCongress Committee.

Smt. Patil’s political career had grownalongside the work she and her husband weredoing for women and disadvantaged groups. Thecouple set up an educational institution called

Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, whichruns a chain of schools and colleges in Jalgaonand Mumbai. Smt. Patil also set up the ShramSadhana Trust that runs hostels for workingwomen in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune and anengineering college in Jalgaon. Other institutionsshe has been a part of are the cooperative sugarfactory known as Sant Muktabai Sahakari SakharKarkhana, of which she has been the chairperson,and a cooperative called the Pratibha MahilaSahakari Bank, named after her. Smt. Patil setup an industrial training school for the visuallychallenged in Jalgaon and a school for the poorchildren of Vimukta Jatis or nomadic tribes.

It was her work in the social arena thatgot Smt. Patil elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1985as a Congress candidate. In the Rajya Sabha,Smt. Patil served as the deputy chairperson from1986 to 1988 and as the chairperson for a shortperiod in 1987 from July to September when R.Venkataraman was elected as the President ofIndia. In 1991 she contested the general electionsfrom the Amaravati constituency for the Lok Sabhaand was elected MP to the tenth Lok Sabha.

Her social work and association withinstitutions furthering the cause of women and theless privileged has meant that Smt. Patilrepresented India abroad on various occasions.Notably, she was present at the InternationalCouncil on social Welfare Conferences at Nairobiand at Puerto Rico. In 1985 she accompaniedthe AICC (I) delegation to Bulgaria in 1985 andin 1988 she went to London as part of theCommonwealth Presiding Officers Conference.She led the Indian delegation to the conferenceon the ‘Status of Women’ in Austria and was adelegate at the World Women’s Conference,Beijing, in September 1995.

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From 2004 to 2007 Smt. Patil was theGovernor of Rajasthan. On 14 June 2007, theruling U.P.A. nominated her as their candidate forthe presidential election to be held on 19 July2007. She emerged as a compromise candidateafter the Communist parties who supported UPAgovernment did not agree to the nomination ofthen Home Minister Shivraj Patil. Smt. Patil’s namewas proposed by Indian National CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi. Critics of this choicealleged that Sonia Gandhi had put forward thename only because Smt. Patil’s loyalty to theNehru-Gandhi family was well-known, and hadbeen proved and tested in many circumstances.

Smt. Patil, who asserted at the beginningof her presidency that she would not be a‘rubber-stamp’ President, had the tough job offollowing the vibrant and widely popular term ofPresident A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. She also had thetask of proving that she was not carrying the tagof ‘woman President’ without adding any valueto the President’s post on account of her gender.After her election, the bitter political atmospherethat had surrounded Sonia Gandhi’s choice ofpresidential candidate continued. Smt. Patilbecame embroiled in a controversy for her quotesabout Purdah and her claim of having silentcommunion with the spirit of dead ‘Baba’. Herfamily members’ misdemeanours and variouscases filed against them were also widelydiscussed. She survived the initial months of herpresidency in the background of all thesecontroversies.

Her subsequent actions have showedPresident Smt. Patil to be keenly responsive topresent-day development and her countrymen’sneeds. ‘Terrorism and communal hatred areenemies of development, stability and a peacefulsociety,’ she said on 23 September 2008 inLucknow after receiving the D.Litt degreeconferred on her by Lucknow University. Smt.Patil praised the security and police personnelengaged in fighting terrorism, and said that ‘It isthe duty of every citizen of the country to co-operate in combating terrorism’.

‘We have to divest hatred from the mindsof some of our misguided youth and bring themto the path of peace, amity and communalharmony,’ she further added. Latter, regretting thedecline in the country’s research facilities, Smt.Patil said that research facilities in our universitiesneed to be reinforced. She described India ascommitted to building and improving itsinfrastructure facilities and ensuring health,education and connectivity across the country.

As twenty-first century India movesforward to a greater global presence, Smt. Patilhas the opportunity to bring meaning andimportance to the role of the Indian President.

Rekha Mohanty lives at Plot No.994/2819,Samantarapur, Old Town, Bhubaneswar.

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The name Ekamra is mentioned in theAnantavasudeva Inscription of Paramarddi(1200-1278 A.D.) which praises “the provinceof Utkala where lies the holy place of Ekamra….. adorned with hundreds of mango-groves,wherein exists a single Devakula (temple)surrounded by numerous temples. This epigraphdescribes "the holy place (kshetra) of Ekamra asvery dear1 to god Krittivasa, well known forbestowing divine achievements and alwaysdecorated with flowers of every season”. TheBrahmeswar Inscription of UdyotakesariMahabhavagupta IV also describes Ekamra asSiddhakshetra.2

During early period ‘Ekamra Kshetra’(Old Bhubaneswar) bordered by Khandagiri inwest, Kundalesvara temple in the village namedTankapani in the east, Bahirangesvara temple onthe river bank of Daya near Dhauli in the southand the Varahi temple in the north.3 This sacredkshetra was a Panchakrosa (10 miles) incircumference with the temple of Lingaraj at thecentre. The shape of the Kshetra as described insacred texts is circular in nature.4 MedievalSanskrit texts like Ekamra Purana complied during13th century A.D. and Ekamra Chandrika,describe that the inner circle of this holy Kshetrawas bounded by Meghesvara temple in the eastand Sundaresvara temple in the south. It wasdivided into astayatana or eight wards and 45villages were included within the boundary of theSacred Site (Kshetra).5

In ‘Ekamra Chandrika’, the Sanskrit textdealing with Lingaraj, it has been stated that the

Gauda king Sasanka, a staunch devotee of LordSiva, built the first temple on this site of Tri-Bhubaneswar in the first quarter of 7th CenturyA.D.6 Due to the vigorous activities of the Yogiesof the Pasupat sect, Siva worship reached itsheight. This sect gave an impetus to the templebuilding for the image of Siva Lingam. By the 5thcentury A.D. this sect established itself inBhubaneswar region and had to compete withBuddhism and Jainism which have been prevailingfaith in that region.7

The Saiva cult in Ekamra Kshetradeveloped with Lingaraj (Lingam) as the presidingdeity in the temple. The Lingam is a naturalunshaped stone that rests on a Sakti which hasbeen carefully and traditionally shaped. ThereforeLingaraj is otherwise known as ‘Krutibasa’ meansnatural born or self established (Swayambhu)Lingam. Such Lingams are found in sixty-eightplaces in different parts of India of whichBhubaneswar is one. Ekamra Purana indicatesthat the Deity was originally under a mango(Ekamra) tree and was not seen as Lingam inSatya and Treta. In the Dwapara and Kali ages itrevealed itself as Lingam.8

With the advent of Ganges who weredevout Vaishnavas, a new movement startedresulting in the synthesis of Saivism andVaishnavism. The Ganga kings are described asversed in the tantric schools of Saivism andVaishnavism. Therefore the place Ekamra isassociated with Krishna and Balaram, though itis described as eminently dear to Krittivasa.9

Lingaraj Worship in Ekamra Kshetra

Dr. Saroj Kumar Panda

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During this period, the religious sphere inBhubaneswar underwent a radical change. TheGanges while remodeling the Lingaraj Templeintroduced certain Vaishnavite elements which arenot usually found in other Saiva Shrines. In theSouthern doorjambs of the Natamandir of LingarajTemple, the images of the Vaishnava Dwarapalas,Jaya Vijaya were placed instead of ChandaPrachanda. On the western side of the maintemple of Lingaraj and on the northern side of itsBhogamandap the images of Jagannath andLaxmi-Narayan were enshrined, so that a devoteewhile making Parikrama around the main templecould first meet these Vaishnavite deities.1 0

Thereafter he could enter into the main temple topay homage to Lord Lingaraj. It is during this timethat a Vaishnavite image of Garuda (eagle) wasplaced on the Garuda pillar to the left side of theNandi bull of Siva. Tulsi leaves were alsopresented to Lord Lingaraj along with Bela leaveswith are favorites to Vishnu and Siva respectively.

Lingaraj was hence called as Harihara,Combination of Vishnu and Siva. The flag on theLingaraj temple was fixed to a Pinaka bow insteadof a trident usually found in the Siva Temples. Thischange was not only confined to the LingarajTemple but also had its repercussion among thetemple priests. After Lingaraj was conceived tobe the synthesis of Hari and Hara, the Sacredmarks of the priests serving the Deity alsochanged. The Saivites who marked their foreheadwith Sandal wood paste in horizontal lines with abig dot in the middle afterwards added a big ‘U’with the dot in the middle on the horizontal lines.It signified the sacred mark of both Siva andVishnu.11

The Ganga also added many Vaishnavitefairs, which were foreign to Siva Cult. The SwingFestival (Dola) and Sun worship (Surya Puja)performed in Vishnu temples were observed inLingaraj Temple. Besides, on the day LordLingaraj’s return to the temple after completionof Car Festival of Asokastami, a mock quarrelwas staged between two parties of priests

representing Lingaraj and Parbati because duringthe Car Festival, the former had taken with himLaxmi (Rukmini) wife of Vishnu and not Parbati.12

This tradition is the replica of Laxmi-Jagannathquarrel, which occurs at Puri during Car Festivaldays.

The cumulative effect of the influence ofthe Jagannath cult on the Lingaraj temple has beenthat it has lost its distinctive character of a Saivashrine and has adopted the cosmopolitanism ofthe Jagannath at Puri. The Priest, known as Badus,who have been described as the descendants ofa Savar mother by a Saiva Saint known asSiddhabuti are like the Daitapaties of theJagannath temple. The custom of partakingcooked rice offered to Lingaraj by all caste Hindusis also seen here. It is analogous to the oneprevalent in Jagannath Temple, Puri.

Reference :1. OHRJ – 1, 1952, P.- 282.

2. JASB – XIII, 1947, p.- 70.3. OHRJ – XLVI, No.- 3, p.- 59.

4. OHRJ– XXIV, XXV, XXVI, 1980, p.149.

5. Mahapatra, M. – “The Lingaraj Temple, itsStructures and Change (1900-1936)” Ph.D. Thesis,Utkal University.

6. Kedaranath Gaveshana Pratisthana, EkamraChandrika (Oriya), Bhubaneswar, 1995. P-72.

7. OHRJ – XXIV, XXV, XXVI, 1980, p.- 149.8. Panigrahi K.C., Archaeological remains at

Bhubaneswar, 2nd Edition, Cuttack – 1981, p.- 219.

9. OHRJ – VII, No.-1, 1958, p.- 50.

10. Senapati Nilamani, (Ed.), Puri District Gazetter,Bhubaneswar, 1977, p.-727

11. OHRJ – XXIV, XXV, XXVI, 1980, p.- 149.

12. Senapati Nilamani, op.cit.

Dr. Saroj Kumar Panda is the Principal, GadibrahmaCollege, Delang, Puri.

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The Jagagharas, the traditional cultural institutionsof Puri is unknown to tourists. Both the domesticand international tourists are unaware of theexistence of a number of Jagagharas in Puri. It islinked with the daily life ofthe people of Puri likebathing, body building,wrestling, music and fun. AJagaghar is a breathingplace, a place to rest andrelax, playing cards, Passaand Ganjapa. It is meantstrictly for the male people.It is believed that theshadow of women shouldnot fall on the young boysthose who labour hard tobe somebody in the field ofbody building andwrestling. The temple andtank are both mandatoryfor the Jagagharas. In thetemple, Lord Mahavir(Hanuman) is worshipped.Lord Mahavir epitomizesphysical strength andcelibacy. The tank is usedas a bathing place. From the point of view ofresearch, the Jagaghara is a virgin field till date.

Origin :

Some scholars believe, this institution hasbeen created by the kings for the security of thispilgrim place in general and Jagannath temple in

particular. Certain names ofsome Jagagharas indicatethat the Jagagharas playedthe role of paramilitaryorganizations. We knowthat Puri was attacked byinvaders during non-Hindurule in India. The templechronicle "Madalapanji"tells the story of invasion ofRaktabahu for which thedeities were shifted to faroff Sunupur (probablySonepur or Suvarnapur).The name Gada isassociated with the name ofcertain Jagagharas. TheGada in Oriya is fort, theexample - Dhwaja Gada,Luhagada, Malligada andChampa Gada etc. Theword 'Kote' is a Dravidian

and Telgu word which means fort, for example -Kalikakote. Marichikote, Jadukote etc. Similarlythe word Guruja or Buruja used in Jagagharas

Jaga Culture of Puri and Tourism

Abhimanyu Dash

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which means half circle wall with holes used infour directions where cannons are kept like a fort.The name of such a Jagaghara is Ganesh Gurujawhich is situated near the Narendra Tank. TheJagaghara is not visited by the tourists due to lackof advertisement. The Journalists have to playdynamic role to focus on it.

The time of origin of the Jagagharas isnot yet traced. The records of the Jagagharas arein the name of Jaribdar. The members of the Jagasare called Sangas (friends). We find one or morethan one Jagagharas in one Sahi. The apex bodyof the Jagagharas are known as Akhadas. InKalikadevi Sahi there is one Jaga namedGandamala Jaga and one Akhada that isDakhinakali Temple. In Kundeibenta Sahi thereare twenty two Jagagharas controlled by oneAkhada which is known as Pathara Akhada.

Functions :

Traditional equipments such as wood ofdifferent sizes like Mudgara, a bed for wrestlingknown as Phulka, a tank and an open space andsome musical instruments like Mardala are foundin Jagagharas. Odissi song and Gotipua danceare practiced in the Jagas. So it is a cultural centrefor the people of Puri. Cool breeze, shady treesand crystal clear water of the tank are the sourcesto pastime. Bhanga, Sanga, Sangeeta, Pangataare also there for entertainment.

In every year procession starts from theJagagharas during twenty one days of ChandanYatra in Summer. The members of the Jagagharasgo for royal bathe in Narendra Tank duringChandan Yatra. The day after Krushnajanma theygo to Jamunagadhua. There is a river on theoutskirts of Puri known as the Madhupur rivermeant for Jamunagadhua in Sahi Yatra. FromRama Navami, Sahi Yatra is performed as a street

play. Lenka carries Rekhasundari meaning piecesof coloured clothes as a token of order of LordJagannath to deliver to distinguished man of aparticular Sahi to initiate Yatra. The Yatra likeRamalila and Krushnalila during which time theRekhasundari is delivered through Lenka to SahiNayak in the past and elected body members ofthe present time.

Sahi Yatras :

A spectacular street play of the Sahiscommences from Rama Navami. They performthe birth of Lord Ram to His coronation. Itcontinues for about a fortnight. The traditionalSahi localities take part in this grand gala duringthe night. The Sahi Yatra of a particular Sahi startsits procession to its competitor Sahi or Badisahi.For example Balisahi is the Badisahi ofHarachandi Sahi. Suppose today the processionfrom Balisahi goes to Harachandi Sahi anddisplays their performances, the other day theprocession from Harachandi Sahi comes toBalisahi. In Sahi Yatras all the members of theJagagharas take part. The Nagas, Sataras,Medha, Kela Keluni, Palabala and Sanyasiacrobats with swords, knives and fireballs performin this Yatra. The Jaga which is entitled to pilotthe procession is known as Nishanijaga.

The tourists who come to Puri usuallyprefer to sea side hotel, take bath in the blue waterof the sea, pay visit to Jagannath Temple,Gundicha Temple and then go for outing in busesto visit golden triangle of tourist interest. But theymiss a vital tourist attraction of Jagagharas of Puri.

Abhimanyu Dash lives at Plot No.99, At/Po- Rasulgarh,Bhubaneswar - 751010.

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Women occupy an important position in anysociety. The development of status of women isconsidered as an important condition of socialdevelopment. This condition varies from countryto country, State to State and region to regiondepending upon their culture, power of adoptionof moderm changes and education. The past threedecades have witnessed a steadily increasingawareness of the need to empower womenthrough measures to increase social, economicand political quality and broader access tofundamental rights. Along with sub-ordinate statusof women; has come the concept of gender as anoverreaching socio-cultural variable, seen inrelative to other factors, such as race, class, ageand ethnicity.(WEF 2007)

Empowerment of women refers to thespiritual, political, social and economic strengthin communities. It often involves the empowereddeveloping confidence in their capacities. Itincludes decision making power of their own,access to information and resources for takingproper decision, to exercise assertiveness incollective decision-making and involvement in thegrowth process. Empowerment of women couldbe only achieved if their economic and socialstatus is improved. Swami Vivekananda had said,"That country and the nation which does notrespect women will neither become great now

Economic Empowerment and Women of Orissa

Dr. Bandana Pathak

and nor even in future and in pursuit of makingIndia a great nation, let us work towards givingwomen their much deserved status.” In thiscontext five important dimensions are important,they are, economic participation, economicopportunity, health and well being, politicalempowerment and educational empowerment.The economic participation is important becausepresence of women in the workforce inquantitative terms is important not only forlowering the disproportionate levels of povertyamong women but also as an important stepforward raising household income andencouraging economic development of thecountry.

In past; service sector was not muchdeveloped, so mostly women were engaged inagricultural sector, but nobody paid attention totheir contributions. Our women are also active inother fields. Going deep into history of Orissa,through the articles of historians, we can getinformation of these great ladies of substance. Thehistory of Orissa shows that from the middle of6th century AD to 8th century AD, the womenwere excelling in culture and arts. Even the womenduring the Sailodbhava dynasty ruled oversouthern part of Orissa (Patel A.M.2009). Royalwomen of these times were benevolent and coulddonate villages but did not play an active role in

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affairs of administration (Patel A.M. 2009).During 736 AD to 945 AD during the rule ofBhaumakars, women enjoyed good position andpower. The Bhaumakars follow the custom ofallowing their female members to succeed theirdeceased husbands. Six widowed queens and oneunmarried princess of the Bhaumakar dynastyruled as sovereign rulers which is unprecedentedin Indian history. Even during 1038 to 1435 ADwomen commanded respect and had finance andsocial status. Sarala Das’s Mahabharat in 15thcentury AD showed that, dowry payment, malechild preference all were there in the society.Despite all these some women such as SumitraDevi of Mayurbhanj ruled from 1803 AD to 1810AD. Similarly Rani Sukadei of Banki showed herintelligence (Patel A.M. 2009).

In mid 1800 the British effort tried toprevent child marriage, permit widow re-marriageetc. Social forums on child marriage prohibitionetc. were established in Cuttack and elsewhere.Post independent Orissa did not see many womenin public life. Politically their impact on governmentis too early to be assessed, but the potential isgreat and it demands a conducive atmosphere.But coming to ordinary women, economically andsocially, there has not been much transformationsince the last 50 years. The first condition to beempowered is education, because that opens oureyes to other fields. The Census report 2001 saysthe sex ratio in Orissa is 972:1000, and the femaleliteracy rate is 50.51 percent where as maleliteracy rate is 75.35 per cent. The total literacyrate is 63.8 per cent. Education plays animportant role in getting, understanding andfollowing various information. It helps in creationof awareness. But both literate and illiteratewomen can also have economic empowerment.One such area is engagement in Self Help Groups(SHG) through microfinance. In creating the

concept of micro loans, Muhammad Yunuschanged the lives of Bangladesh and earnedhimself a Nobel prize. SHG based microfinanceprogramme in Orissa started since the early 1992with the initiatives and refinance facility providedby NABARD. With the formation of SGSY in1999 and launch of Mission Shakti, the banklinkage shows a significant growth. The missionis to uplift women of Orissa economically.

Mission Shakti was launched on theoccasion of International Women’s Day on 8March 2001 by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Orissa.The mission aims at empowering women throughformation and promotion of one lakh women’sself help groups (SHG) over a period of four yeari.e. 2001-05 and strengthening the existing ones.A tie up has been arranged between Orissa Khadiand Village Industries Board and Orissa Khadiand Village Commission for involvement ofWSHGs (Women Self Help Groups) in RojgarYojana (Sahoo 2004). With the help ofdepartment of Horticulture, banana cultivation bySHGs is being encouraged. Steps have beentaken for providing Gram Panchayat tank towomen’s SHGs on priority basis for taking uppisciculture. In collaboration with UNDP it hasbeen decided to impart computer literacy toWSHGs in 38 IT kiosks in the State. Exhibitionof goods produced by SHGs is being organizedwith the help of ORMAS and KVIC in differentdistricts of State. Project “Shakti Gaon” has beenintroduced in the State, engaging SHGs indistribution of LPG cylinders (Sahoo 2004).Women SHGs are taking up varieties of incomegeneration activities such as piggery, goatery,pisciculture, dairy, setting up at PDS outlet,kerosene dealership, vegetable cultivation,floriculture, khadi, stitching, bee keeping, ropemaking etc.

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The objective of Mission Shakti is tofacilitate for creation of conducive environmentthrough self-help act, to strengthen the quality ofthe existing SHGs in Orissa, to provide institutionalcapacity building support to strengthen the SHG.It also helps in identifying an area as nodal agency,responsible for overall SHG strengthening. It alsoaims at to expand and development of the qualityof self help movement in the State.

In Orissa; women are employed in largenumbers, as non-workers in the agricultural sectorand their contribution to the household incomecontinues to be ignored. Industrially, over all Stateis undeveloped, so there is less scope for jobopportunity for women of Orissa. But MissionShakti’s mission through SHG is now a vitalweapon to fight against rural poverty. Theintroduction of SHG concept and itsimplementation is a mechanism to empower poormasses and particularly women of Orissa. Theprogress of SHG is remarkable both from the pointof view of numbers formed and bank-creditlinkage established. So in this situation MissionShakti is a ray of hope. It is certainly working for

the future and development of the status of womenin our State. It leads the path towards economicempowerment of women in Orissa.

References:

1. Patel A.M. (2008) : Women of Orissa: Chronicle"Status of Women in the Historical Context andPrevailing Gender Biases.”

2. Sahoo P (2007) Report on Mission Shakti, Dept. ofInformation and Public Relations, Bhubaneswar.

3. World Economic Forum (2007) WomenEmpowerment Measuring the Global Gender Gap.The status of women: current reality’.

Dr. Bandana Pathak is the Lecturer in Economics,J.K.B.K. Jr. Govt. College, Cuttack.

Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik  inaugurating Extension Block of OrthopedicsDepartment at SCB Medical College, Cuttack on 27.2.2011. Shri Prasanna Acharya, Minister forHealth & Family Welfare, Public Grievances and Pension Administration and Shri Pratap Jena,

Minister for School & Mass Education are also present.

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The Port of Paradip, one of the MajorPorts of India was mainly constructed on the landof Sandhakuda, Bhitaragarh and Bijaychandrapurof Jagatsinghpur district which was a part ofCuttack district during the period of the inceptionof the Port. It was a dense mangrove forest withfull of flora and fauna. Prior to the sixth decade ofthe twentieth century, there were no active humanactivities except a few people of nearby villages,who used to visit the area for collection of wood,hunting of wild animals and catching of fish. Thearea is blessed by nature being surrounded byBay of Bengal, river Mahanadi, Atharbanki Creekand a number of small creeks flowing across theland.

The place had a glorious history stretchedfrom Puranas to British rule in India. The area isnamed after Shree Parashara, the celebratedmonk of India. Monk Parashara had divinedirection to meditate for years together toinculcate, knowledge and enlightenment. He wasin search of a dense forest with natural beautyaway from the human activities and disturbances.After a great search, he selected the confluencepoint of the river Mahanadi as the area wasblessed with God-gifted beauty and solitude. Heengaged himself in meditation for many years andby the influence of such sacred activities, the entirearea was filled with divinity. After the return of

The Port of Paradip : Mangrove Forest to aMajor Port

Prabhat Kumar Nanda

monk Parashara, the area was named as“Paradweepa” (i.e. Sacred Island). The Port ofParadip is mainly situated on an Island surroundedby Bay of Bengal, river Mahanadi and AtharbankiCreek. In due course of time, the public parlancenamed the area as Paradip.

During the medieval period, the area wasa centre of Buddhist activities. Puspagiri Universityof Buddhism, monuments of Lalitgiri, Udayagiriand Ratnagiri at a distance of about seventykilometers from Paradip were visited by manyforeign tourists. Nearby Ports like Chelitalo,Hariharpur played important role for the voyageof such tourists. From 5th to 9th century such areawas actively used for the alma mater activities ofMahayanic Tantra and Yoga based on principlesof Buddhism.

With the decline of Buddhism in Odisha,the area could not play significant role for abouteight centuries. During the seventeenth centurySendha Dynasty started ruling the area andemerged as a mighty sea power. “Sendha” titlewas awarded by the Raja of Dhobaigurh to MallikSamanth in the year 1645 A.D as the later by hisunwanted courage and physical prowess took afrantic bull by the horns and brought an end to it.Kings of Sendha dynasty ruled the area for twohundred thirty years. Bidyadhar Sendh was thelast king of Sendha Dynasty at Kujanga. In the

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year 1876, Burdhwan Maharaja took thepossession of Kujang and the administration ofthe area was taken over by the Anchal Adhikari,Government of Orissa in the year 1952.

Maritime activities around Paradip wasrecorded in history during the period 1600 to1800 A.D. The Port of Hariharpur rose toeminence as an effective Port and boat buildingcentre. Later Batighar and Hukitola were Portsof operation used by French, Portuguese andEnglish Traders. Batighar, popularly known asFalse Point Light House is about one and halfcentury old. Such Port was used mainly for exportof rice and spices. The historical Light House nearthe Port have been serving mariners of east-coastby disseminating marine signals for safe voyage.Hukitola was a prominent Port for small vesselsand anchorage point for big vessels. The WareHouse constructed one hundred years ago, is noweven present in dilapidated condition.

Both Batighar and Hukitola wereabandoned for trade for political and economicreasons. The historical light house at Batighar(False Point Light House) is still in operation,flashing during night, breaking the solitude ofMahanadi estuary and Bay of Bengal.

In 1948 the Port (Technical) Committeeformed by Government of India felt the necessityof a Port between Visakhapatnam and Calcutta.After the independence, Port of Dhaka wasseparated from the maritime map of India and tocompensate such loss, it was required for anotherPort on the east coast.

Central Water & Power Commissionwas requested by Government of Orissa toexplore the possibility of commissioning a Port inthe Mahanadi river delta. CWPC recommendedfor a Port at Paradip on Mahanadi river in theyear 1950. A group of consulting engineers ofFrance were engaged by the Government of India

in 1951 to offer advice for a particular site for thePort in the delta of the Devi, Mahanadi andDhamra rivers.

French Mission suggested theconstruction of Port at the mouth of the Mahanadiriver. As per their suggestion the Port facilitiesshould be located within the estuary with anapproach channel dredged through the bar andprotected by breakwaters. Study was alsoconducted by Indian Navy in the year 1951 forthe movement of vessels from sea to Paradip Portand observed that there was no hindrance toshipping to the Port of Paradip. Central Waterand Power Research Station, Pune conducted amodel study during 1954 to prefer between twoalternatives viz. an estuarine harbour and a coastalharbour. Such study continued upto 1958 andrecommended for a lagoon type harbour.Meanwhile during 1956, Mr.I.G. Chacke,Officer-on-Special Duty (Minor Ports) studiedthe feasibility of investment of funds for thedevelopment of Paradip Port under Second FiveYear Plan. He suggested to declare Paradip asminor Port. In the same year, Kinoshitra &Company of Japan after detail study throughTokyo University recommended for the harbourjust south of the Mahanadi.

In 1958, the Intermediate PortDevelopment Committee of Government of Indiaaccepted the report of Mr.Chacke and Paradipwas declared as a Minor Port. Port of Paradipstarted as a fair weather anchorage Port forexport of Iron Ore through lighters to take IronOre to the Ship at the anchorage. During suchperiod, Chaumuhani at a distance of about 15kilometers from Paradip was the centre oftransportation of Iron ore through barges. IronOre transported by big boats from the mines headand brought to Chaumuhani by Taladanda Canal.Iron Ore were further transported to the anchoragepoint of Bay of Bengal for loading in ships for

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shipment to different Ports of Japan. Thereminiscences of damaged barges named asGajaraja, Kites etc are now even visualized atChaumuhani.

M/s.Rendel, Palmer & Tritton, aconsulting engineering firm of United Kingdom,popularly known as ‘RPT’ recommended for alagoon type deep water Port at Paradip. Afterone year study, report was submitted in June,1962 and Government of Orissa started theconstruction work on the 15th March, 1964.

The 3rd January, 1962 is a red-letter dayin the history of Paradip Port. Pandit JawaharlalNehru, the first Prime Minister of independentIndia laid the foundation stone of the Port anddedicated the endeavour to the people of Indiawith following enunciation “Willed by the people,I commend you, to this another NationalAdventure”. The foundation stone with the aboveenunciation in Odia, Hindi and English was laidbeing prepared in the black granite stone. Oncareful analysis, it is observed that the writing ofthe text on the foundation stone was a departurefrom the prevalent style of writing of foundationstone. Usually in every foundation stone the nameof the person laying the foundation stone and thename of the project/industry etc along with thechief guest are engraved/painted on the stone. Thefoundation stone now displayed in front of theJawahar Guest House depicts only the saying ofPt.Jawaharlal Nehru and the date of the function.Like that of conventional writing on foundationstones, there are no mention of the dignitariespresent during the function. It is analysed that whenBiju Pattnaik requested Pt.Nehru for laying of thefoundation stone, Pt.Nehru was not sure aboutthe completion of the Paradip Port Project.Hence, instead of normal writing on the foundationstone i.e. the name of the inaugurator, the projectand the date of inauguration etc with dignitaries

present during the ceremony, he only preferredfor a statement as a message to the nation.

Dignitaries like Biju Pattnaik, the thenChief Minister of Orissa, Sri Y.M.Sukthankar, thethen Governor of Orissa, Sri Nilamani Routray,the then Minister of Commerce and NilakanthaMishra, Chief Engineer of the project werepresent in the ceremony but their names were notrecorded in the foundation stone.

As per the request of Government ofOrissa, Government of India took over themanagement of Port from Government of Orissaon 1st June, 1965. Later Paradip Port establishedthe firm position in the maritime map of India as aMajor Port on the 8th April, 1966. The first TrustBoard was formed on 1st November, 1967. ThePort which was commissioned for export of IronOre to Japan, was later developed as a multi cargoPort. The Port commissioned with the single berthfor handling of Iron Ore has added 14 more berthsin her lap by the 1st decade of 21st Century. ThePort which was started in the year 1966 with thehandling of cargo within few thousand tones ofiron ore, has achieved the glory of handling morethan 50 million tonnes of cargo during the 1s t

decade of 21st Century and the Port has also setthe target of handling more than 100 million tonnesof cargo by the end of 2nd decade of 21st Centurypromising to be the main commercial hub ofEastern India.

LOCATION:

Paradip Port is situated 210 nautical milessouth of Kolkata and 260 nautical miles north ofVisakhapatnam at Latitude 20° - 15'-55.44" Nand Longitude 86° -40'-34.62" E. It is strategicallysituated so as to serve a vast hinterland spreadingover the States of Orissa, Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and West Bengal.

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CARGO PROFILE:

Initially port was started as amonocommodity port to handle iron ore only.There was no rail connectivity to this port fortransportation of cargo from hinterland. The portwas only connected by an “Express Highway”presently known as National Highway- 5A toDaitari Mines. The Iron ore was transported byMitsubishi Bottom Dump Trucks and was storedin a twin stackyard. All the activities for cargohandling at the port were carried out manually.The Port could be able to handle eighty-four (84)numbers of vessels with traffic of 67080 metrictonnes during 1966-67.

After nine years, Paradip Port diversifiedits cargo profile by constructing new facilities. Inthe year 1975, the first general cargo berth nowknown as EQ-1 was commissioned for handlingof care foods, sugar, wheat, and other generalcargoes. Afterward, Paradip Port aggressivelycontinued to augment its capacity by constructingnew berths and procuring new state-of-artequipment in order to bridge supply-demand gap.As a result, the traffic of the port started exhibitingupward surge leveraging on its competitiveadvantage over other ports and locationaladvantages. The installed capacity in million metrictonne (MMT) vis-à-vis the cargo handled for lastthirteen years is charted out in the Exhibit 1.

Paradip Port handled an all-time recordtraffic of 57.01 MMT during the year 2009-10surpassing the previous year record of 46.41MMT handled during 2008-09 registering agrowth of 22.84% over the previous year.Paradip Port achieved the highest growth rate intraffic handling amongst all the Major Ports duringthe year 2009-10 beating the competition and slowExport/Import business in international market.Paradip Port’s position had improved to 5t h

position from earlier 8th position amongst the

Major Ports in terms of volume of traffic handled.The traffic handled at this port during the last sixyears has more than doubled. The principalcommodity-wise cargo handled during 2009-10compared to 2008-09 is indicated at Table 1.The growth of traffic at the Port since inceptionover years is charted out in the Exhibit 2. Thecharts showing the cargo handling trends forprincipal commodities like Iron Ore, ThermalCoal, Coking Coal and POL & Crude are shownin the Exhibit 3.

At present, the Port is equipped with eightgeneral cargo berths, two mechanised coalhandling berths, one mechanised iron ore handlingberth, one oil berth, one single point mooring(SPM), one Ro-Ro Jetty apart from two captiveberths for PPL and IFFCO to serve the maritimeindustry by handling dry bulk, break bulk, liquidbulk, project and over dimensional cargoes aswell as containers. Now port is capable ofhandling almost all types of cargoes like iron ore,thermal coal, coking coal, chrome ore, manganeseore, charge chrome, ferro chrome, ferromanganese, limestone, hard coke, ingots andmoulds, billets, finished steel, scrap, fertilizer,clinker, gypsum, project cargo, containers, cleancargo, POL and crude oil.

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Exhibit-1

Table-1

Principal Commodity-wise traffic handled in MMT

Cargo 2009-10 2008-09 % Variation

P.O.L. 11.65 3.24 259.57Iron ore 16.16 14.27 13.24Thermal coal 14.82 14.70 0.81Coking coal 5.00 5.46 (-) 8.42Other cargo 9.38 8.74 7.32T o t a l 57.01 46.41 22.84

Exhibit – 2 TOTAL CARGO HANDLED ( IN MMT)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1966-67

1968-69

1970-71

1972-73

1974-75

1976-77

1978

-79

1980

-81

1982-83

1984-85

1986

-87

1988-89

1990-91

1992-93

1994-95

1996-97

1998

-99

2000-01

2002-03

2004

-05

2006-07

2008-09

1968

-69

1969

-70

1970

-71

1971

-72

1972

-73

1973

-74

1974

-75

1975

-76

1976

-77

1977

-78

1978

-79

1979

-80

1980

-81

1981

-82

1982

-83

1983

-84

1984

-85

1985

-86

1986

-87

1987

-88

1988

-89

1989

-90

1990

-91

1991

-92

1992

-93

1993

-94

1994

-95

1995

-96

1996

-97

1997

-98

1998

-99

1999

-00

2000

-01

2001

-02

2002

-03

2003

-04

2004

-05

2005

-06

2006

-07

2007

-08

2008

-09

2009

-10

0

4

8

12

16

20

I.ORE ( IN MMT)

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Orissa Review

THERMAL COAL (IN MMT)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

1966-6

7196

9-70

1971-7

2197

3-74

1975-7

6197

7-78

1979-8

0198

1-82

1983-8

4198

5-86

1987-8

8198

9-90

1991-9

2199

3-94

1995-9

6199

7-98

1999-0

0200

1-02

2003-0

4200

5-06

2007-0

8200

9-10

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POL (IN MMT)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1968

-69

1969

-70

1970

-71

1971

-72

1972

-73

1973

-74

1974

-75

1975

-76

1976

-77

1977

-78

1978

-79

1979

-80

1980

-81

1981

-82

1982

-83

1983

-84

1984

-85

1985

-86

1986

-87

1987

-88

1988

-89

1989

-90

1990

-91

1991

-92

1992

-93

1993

-94

1994

-95

1995

-96

1996

-97

1997

-98

1998

-99

1999

-00

2000

-01

2001

-02

2002

-03

2003

-04

2004

-05

2005

-06

2006

-07

2007

-08

2008

-09

2009

-10

Exhibit - 3

CARGO PROFILE DYNAMICS

During initial four years of operation as amono-commodity Port (1966-70), share of ironore in the total traffic handled was 95%. Duringthe next decades, share of iron ore in total traffichandled reduced to 80% (1970-80), 46% (1980-90), 14% (1990-2000), and 27% (2000-2010)due to diversification of cargo profile in the Port.

(i) CARGO PROFILE DURING 1966-70 (IN MMT)

I.ORE, 3.809, 95%

CH.ORE, 0.0693, 2%

Others, 0.0615, 2%

WHEAT, 0.02, 1%

Shares of iron ore, chrome ore, POL & crudeoil, thermal coal, coking coal and other cargosare 29%, 2%, 7%, 33%, 11%, and 18%respectively in the total traffic handled up to 31/03/2010 (505.28MMT) since inception of thePort. The profiles of cargo handled during the fivedecades along with the cargo composition in thetotal traffic handled during the entire operationallife of the Port (1966-2010) are as follows:

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CURRENT TREND

The traffic growth of PPT in recent yearsmay be analysed in two phases viz, Phase I (1996-2003) and Phase II (2003-2010). During PhaseI, PPT grew at a CAGR of 13% and in Phase II,PPT demonstrated a healthy CAGR of more than15%. An interesting trend which could beobserved in the last ten years is that the share ofoverseas cargo (Import and Export) grew from50% in 2001 to 78% in 2010. The main exportdestination was China which attracted around60% of total exported cargo in 2010.

During the last ten years, the share of ironore in the total traffic has almost doubled from15% to 28%. The imported coal share grew from8% in 2001 to 17% in 2010 and the export coalshare dropped from 41% to 17% during theperiod. The major drive for last years growth wasimported cargo which grew by 47% to 29.18MMT from 19.88 MMT.

Countries of Export cargoes destinationand Import cargoes origin, principal commodity-wise, are presented in the Table – 3.

(vi) CARGO PROFILE DURING 1966-2010 (IN MMT)

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Table – 3

Export Cargo Import Cargo

Commodity Destination Commodity Origin

Iron Ore China Crude Oil Algeria, Brunei, Iraq, Nigeria,Kuwait, UAE

Ch. Ore China, Japan, South POL (HSD, SKO) Coastal (India), SingaporeKorea

T. Coal Coastal (India) C. Coal Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia,Singapore

POL (HSD, Coastal N.C.Coal Indonesia, South Africa, AustraliaSKO)

Container Singapore, Myanmar, Fertiliser Indonesia, South Arabia, China.Malaysia, China

FRM (Dry) Jordan, Morocco, Vietnam, UAE,Iran, Qatar, Russia, Ukraine

Project materials China, Germany, UAE, Belgium,South Korea

FUTURE ROAD MAP:

The State of Orissa is considered as theprimary hinterland of Paradip Port. Orissa is richin mineral reserves having 183 MMT of Chromite(98% of total reserve in India), 440 MMT ofNickel (95% of total reserve in India), 1743 MMTof Bauxite (60% of total reserve in India), 5428MMT of Iron Ore (26% of total reserve in India),and 61999 MMT of Coal (24% of total reservein India). Apart from other hinterland, the capexfor total projects under implementation in Orissaonly and annual average growth rate of exportfrom Orissa as on 01/01/2010 is pegged at ‘ 3240billion and 33% respectively. About 49 nos. ofSteel Plants of 83MMTPA total capacity, 4aluminium complexes with more than 4 MMTPAcapacity and 1MMTPA aluminium smelter, 27nos.of Thermal Power Plants of 32000MW

generation capacity, 15MMTPA megapetrochemical complex by IOC and megaPetroleum, Chemical and PetrochemicalsInvestment Region (PCPIR) at Paradip are someof the major projects coming up in Orissa.Paradip Port is set to play the role of key memberin the supply chain as maritime gateway for importof project materials & input materials and exportof finished products. Apart from the opportunitiesin the primary hinterland, the secondaryhinterlands (Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhrapradesh,Chhattisgarh, WB) also provide immenseuntapped business prospects for Paradip Port Asa proactive action, Paradip Port is presentlyundertaking major expansion projects likeconstruction of deep draught Iron Ore & CoalTerminals, construction of multipurpose berth,

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installation of Single Point Moorings, constructionof RO-RO jetty, and deepening of channels andberth face dredging. The cargo forecast up to the

year 2015 – 16 and the major upcoming projectshave been indicated in Table – 3 and Table – 4respectively.

TABLE – 3: CARGO FORECAST

Year POL Iron Ore Coal Container Other TotalCargoes

2011-12 18.00 17.00 23.00 0.05 11.50 70.00

2012-13 21.00 17.00 23.50 0.05 13.30 74.85

2013-14 23.50 17.00 24.00 0.10 14.80 79.40

2014-15 29.00 17.50 25.00 0.10 15.40 87.00

2015-16 34.50 18.50 26.00 1.00 16.00 96.00

TABLE – 4: CAPACITY EXPANSION PROJECTS

Name of Plan Capacity Year of Present TotalAddition Completion Capacity of Projected

Port Capacity

Deepening of Channel and berths. 5.00 MTPA 2011 76.00 MTPA 157.00MTPA

Mechanization of CQ-III. 4.00 MTPA 2011

Installation of second SPM by 11.00 MTPA 2013IOCL.

Development of new deep draught 10.00 MTPA 2013Iron Ore berth on BOT basis.

Development of new deep draught 10.00 MTPA 2013Coal berth on BOT basis.

Construction of one no. of Oil berth. 10.00 MTPA 2013

Installation of 3rd SPM by IOCL 11.00 MTPA 2014

Construction of one no. of 5.00 MTPA 2014Multipurpose berth.

Development of Western dock. 15.00MTPA 2015

TOTAL 81.00 MTPA

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CONCLUSION

Leveraging on core strengths, i.e, deepdraft, proximity to mineral reserves, vicinity to thelarge land-locked hinterland, Paradip Port has thepotential to become the economic thrust enginefor Eastern India by serving the State as well asNation through world-class services. DelayedStatutory clearances, Long decision makingprocesses, land expansion constraints, andconnectivity to land side for seamless cargoevacuation are the key challenges for the Port tobe competitive and reactive to market demands.The Port has already developed its corecompetence in handling Bulk and Break-bulkcargo. Though the major share of total traffic beinghandled at present is Bulk and Break-bulk cargo,

the Port is striving hard to become the hub port inthe Eastern India by diversifying its cargo profilefurther. As the first step, the Port has decided toconstruct a Multipurpose berth of 5 MMTPAcapacity on BOT basis to handle clean cargoincluding containers. After commissioning of themultipurpose berth, mega petrochemical complexby IOC and mega PCPIR at Paradip, the cargoprofile of the traffic at Paradip Port may witnessa change.

Prabhat Kumar Nanda is the Secretary of Paradip Port

Trust.

Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik giving award to Padmini Rout at theBiju Patnaik Award Giving Ceremony -2011 at Jaydev Bhawan on 5.3.2011. Shri Prabin Chandra Bhanj Deo, Minister for Sports & Youth Services and

Dr. Prasanna Kumar Patasani, M.P. are also present.

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It is a well known fact that during thecolonial rule and for a considerable period afterindependence, the money-lenders had remainedthe main source of rural credit in Orissa. In fact,in the absence of any other convenient sources ofcredit in the countryside during the colonial rule,the money-lenders not only enjoyed monopoly inthe business of money-lending but also had earnednotoriety for demanding and extracting usuriousrates of interest from the cultivators. To save thepoor cultivators from the exploitation of themoney-lenders, the Co-operative Movementstarted in Orissa as early as in 1903. By the Co-operative Credit Societies Act, 1904 several Co-Operative Societies were established in NorthOrissa. But prior to the enactment of the Act,three Co-Operative Societies had beenestablished at Charchika, Suvarnapur and Barputin Banki-Dampara area of Banki sub-division in1903 by the pioneering and collective effort ofRai Bahadur Bidyadhar Panda and BalamukundaKanungo. By 1910, 50 co-operatives wereworking in Banki area and taking all thesesocieties the Banki-Damapada Central Co-operative Union was formed on 26 March, 1910.It was the second Co-operative Union or Bankin the entire Bihar and Orissa Province. In 1919co-operation became a provincial subject and thisgave scope to the provinces to enact co-operative

Seventy-Five Years of Co-operative Movementin Orissa (1903-78) - A Review

Sarat Parida

laws. The movement suffered a setback duringthe 30s’ in the wake of the economic depressionand many weak co-operative societies which werein a moribund condition were weeded out. Owingto this the number of co-operative societies inNorth Orissa declined from 2213 in 1932 to2137 in 1936. Nevertheless, in 1936 when Orissawas made a separate province there existed intotal 2154 co-operative societies with amembership of 74,000 and working capital ofrupees 98 lakhs. After the formation of theprovince of Orissa, the State Governmentappointed a one man Committee headed byDiwan Bahadur K. Deivasikhamoni Mudaliar,on 23 December, 1937 to enquire into thecondition of co-operative movement and theworking of the Co-operative Banks in Orissa.

The Ministry of Biswanath Das whichappointed the Committee also initiated measuresto promote co-operative activities in the State andin this regard it had enacted the Orissa Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank Act in 1938. TheAct was enacted mainly to facilitate theestablishment of a Provincial Co-operative LandMortgage Bank in the State. Under the Act, theProvincial Co-operative Land Mortgage Bankwas registered on 16 September, 1938 and itstarted working with effect from 20 February,

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1939. The Bank, however, confined its work inthe beginning in the districts of Cuttack andGanjam. The Act was amended in 1943 to rectifycertain defects which had prevented the LandMortgage Bank to advance loans in time to itsmembers.

However, during the intermediate periodbetween the formation of the province of Orissain 1936 and the achievement of independence in1947, no new Co-operative Bank wasestablished in the State. There existed in all 15Central Co-operative Banks, out of which 13were in North Orissa and 2 in South Orissa. Themovement received stimulus in the State in thepost-World War period. The Government ofOrissa implemented one of the recommendationsof the Mudaliar Committee when an apex Co-operative Bank called the Orissa Provincial Co-operative Bank was registered on 2 April, 1948.The Bank was inaugurated by the Governor ofOrissa in the forenoon of 17 October, 1948. Thenumber of Central Co-operative Banks in theState increased to 23 by 1951, as a result of theintegration of the Garjats with the State. Thenumber of co-operative societies were alsoincreased and by the beginning of the First Five-Year Plan there were 5145 co-operative societiesin the State with a membership of 2.95 lakhs andworking capital of rupees 4.28 crores.

After independence, the Governmentmade a planned attempt to nurture the co-operative movement in the State and accordinglythe Orissa Co-operative Societies Act, 1951 andthe Orissa Co-operative Societies Act, 1962 wereenacted to make the co-operative laws simple,comprehensive and to facilitate the growth of co-operatives in the State. The attempt became morefocused after the All-India Rural Credit Surveyconducted by the R.B.I came out with its reportin 1954. It brought out the fact that in 1954 exactly

after fifty years of its existence, the co-operativeinstitutions supplied only 3 per cent of the creditrequirement of the farmers. An economic surveyconducted by the Government of Orissa in 1954-55 too revealed the same fact that the co-operative Banks supplied only 3.61 per cent ofthe rural credit and the commercial Banks only0.17 per cent. Most of the recommendations ofthe All-India Rural Credit Survey Committee wereimplemented into practice by the StateGovernments during the Second Five-Year Plan(1956-61). Accordingly, the State Co-operativeBank, the State Co-operative Marketing Societyand the Orissa Provincial Land Mortgage Bankwere re-organized. By the end of Second Five-Year Plan, 8740 co-operative societies wereworking in Orissa which included 5888 small-sized societies, 149 multi-purpose agriculturalcredit societies and 593 large-sized agriculturalcredit co-operative societies.

In 1964, the Reserve Bank of India foundthat though the institutional sources made theirpresence felt in the credit sector since theimplementation of the recommendations of theAll-India Rural Credit Survey Committee, thegrowth was uneven in different parts of thecountry. It was noticed that in some Statesespecially in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissaand Rajasthan, the co-operative structure wasvery weak but the progress of the co-operativemovement was satisfactory in Gujrat, Maharashtraand Madras.

The All-India Rural Credit ReviewCommittee in its report submitted in 1969 broughtto the fore one of the major weakness of the co-operative movement. It reported that the smallfarmers were still unable to get their share of creditfrom the co-operatives. In fact, the R.B.I. foundthat the tenant cultivators, agricultural labourersand others were able to secure only 4 to 6 per

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cent of total credit supplied. In July 1969, 14Commercial Banks were nationalized and theCommercial Banks came into the field of financingthe agricultural sector through the primary creditsocieties at the instance of R.B.I. in 1970.Nevertheless the co-operatives remained themajor institutional sources of credit in the countryand their share of rural credit increased from 3.1per cent in 1950-51 to 22.7 per cent in 1970-71in the country. However in the State 49 per centof the population derived benefits from the co-operatives by the end of 1972.

In 1978 the co-operative movementcompleted 75 years of its launch in the State andby this platinum jubilee year of the movementthere existed in the State 5793 societies with amembership of 30.64 lakhs and working capitalof 374.13 crores. Out of these only 60 per centwere credit societies and the rest were non-creditsocieties. Thus during the first seven and halfdecades there had been tremendous expansionof co-operative societies both in membership aswell as working capital, but they had not beenable to replace completely the non-institutionalsources of credit in the State. Nevertheless withtheir growth and expansion the stranglehold ofthe money-lenders over the cultivators hadslackened considerably.

References :

1. Co-operative Movement in Orissa, A Profile,1984-85, Registrar of Co-operative Societies,Orissa, Bhubaneswar.

2. Economic Survey of Orissa, 1977, Bureau ofStatistics and Economics, Orissa, Cuttack.

3. G. R. Madan, Co-operative Movement in India,New Delhi, 1994.

4. Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama, An Inquiry intothe Poverty of Nations, Vol. II, New Delhi, 1982.

5. N.C. Behuria (ed.), Orissa State Gazetteers, Vol.III, Cuttack, 1991.

6. Surasingh Patnaik, Samabaya Satabdire Odisa ,(Oriya), Bhubaneswar, 2004.

7. The General Report of the Committee ofDirection All-India Rural Credit Survey,Bombay, (Abridged Edition) 1955.

8. The Nabeen, Berhampur, 2 August, 1938 & 19October, 1948.

9. The Samaja , Cuttack, 26 January, 1974.

Sarat Parida is the Lecturer in the Department of History,Govt. Women’s College, Sambalpur.

Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik inaugurating the 100 seated Boys Hostel atSCB Medical College, Cuttack on 27.2.2011.Shri Prasanna Acharya, Minister for Health

& Family Welfare, Public Grievances andPension Administration is also present.

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Law is Not an Ass

Bimal Kumar Chatterjee

‘Law is not an ass until we, designfully or skilfullyor otherwise, turn the same into one,’ I remember,was the opening sentence of my submissions in acivil matter where a certain woman by causingher children begotten by a man, then deceased,to file an action for partition of the estate leftbehind by the man adopted an indirect and veiledattempt to establish her own status.Understandably I hurled the insinuation at myadversary. The woman lost at the trial. An appealsince then is pending. I do not know if I made theapplicable law an ass or my adversary did. Apartfrom interesting fact. intriguing questions of lawrequiring correct (?) interpretation were alsoinvolved. Either side wrestled as much as he could.

There are three dicta. They are :(i) Needless verbosity is the mother of difficulty.(ii) One half the doubts in life arise from the defectsof language and (iii) Most of the disputes in theworld arise from words. The correctness of theaforesaid dicta is undoubtedly corroborated bythe language of statute. There is authority for sayingthat “the language of statutes is peculiar”. Thedraftsman of statutory law (law made by statutes)is known as the parliamentary counsel. If thatparliamentary counsel in his draft had made himselfplain, there was likely to be less scope forlitigation. But however careful he may be in his

drafting, he would almost necessarily fall intoconfusion or obscurity. Yet the debt owed to himby the legal profession is incalculable. He has beenpictured as happily singing to himself—

“I’m the Parliamentary DraftsmanI compose the country’s laws

And of half the litigationI’m undoubtedly the cause.”

The draftsman’s lot is indeed hard. Aconsiderable degree of precision is certainlyrequired. But is he so blameworthy ? I think not.On many a occasions, in my experience, I haveseen that there are statutes which are easy tounderstand but people and especially people oflegal profession continually try to misunderstandand thus misinterpret the same.

I give an example. In one case in Englandunder the Road Traffic Act 1930, dealing withdriving a car while under the influence of “drinkor a drug”, LORD GODDARD C.J, said that hedid not think it necessary to deal with an ingeniouspoint as to “whether a non-alcoholic beverage isdrink within the meaning of the Act. If that wereso, 1 should be inclined to apply the dictum ofMartin B., where the bailiff was sworn to keepthe jury without meat or drink, or any light butcandlelight, and a juryman asked if he might have

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a glass of water. Martin B. said: ‘‘Well, it iscertainly not meat and I should not call it a drink.He can have it.’ I think ‘drink’ means alcoholicdrink.” I may venture to give another example.By referring to the word “person” in 1853, againin England, a complaint was made against anaccused to the effect that he did expose … thebody and person in an omnibus. The defencecounsel objected that the offence charged wasnot stated with sufficient certainty. Such anobjection, if sustained, renders the accusedunanswerable. During the argument the learnedJudge asked “what do you mean in law byexposing his person ? The complaint should havebeen for exposing his private parts”. In spite ofthe aforesaid, in a subsequent statute theparliamentary counsel used the words “exposinghis person”. The controversy and the cloud overthe language continued until 1972 when the Courtsfirmly decided that “person” means “penis” andno more no less. Legislative drafting however hasimproved over the years. For example, the FoodHygiene Regulation 1955 (in England) providesthat a person engaged in the handling of goodsmust “keep any open cut or abrasion on anyexposed part of his person covered with a suitablewaterproof dressing”.

Thus, it will be seen that although ideasare not difficult to find but words are the devil. InIndia many a problem and particularly in litigationarise due to wrong choice and user of words andlanguage as mostly our statutes are drafted in alanguage which is not our own. In multilingualcountries the Courts sometimes face problemsunknown to a unilingual country. For example, inone case in Natal, the applicant’s affidavits werein English and his counsel addressed the court inEnglish. The respondent’s affidavit was inAfrikaans and the counsel for the respondentaddressed the Court in Afrikaans. In which

language then should the Court give judgment?One’s experience is that the winner is usuallycontent to know merely that he has won. But theloser likes to know the reason why he has lost.The Judge proceeded therefore to give judgmentin the language of the loser.

The problems thus we are facing are noteasy to solve. They are of many kinds and colours.The problem of language is more pronounced invarious Finance Acts. By Finance Acts theParliament tries to impose taxes which is reallylawful confiscation of a share in the revenue ofyours. The Rent Acts too have evoked a richvolume of judicial vituperation. To my mind, WestBengal Premises Tenancy Act 1956 is a classicexample. Although the said Act intended toprotect a section of the community in the age ofgrowing need for shelter but unfortunately hasunintentionally implanted the seed of distrustbetween two sections. A recent attempt tomodernise, to cater for the need of the time hadbeen shelved for an uncertain period.

To whom can then we turn for help ? Notthe draftsman.

I see no reason why in our day-to-daylife, which is already strewn with such a largenumber of statutes, we and the Courts should notfollow the principles enunciated by the SupremeCourt of India in interpreting the words andlanguage without such unnecessary verbosity. Inthe recent period England has voted against theuser of ancient and archaic language in legaldocuments. Americans took up this route muchearlier to the benefit of all concerned.

As the articulation of a statute increases,the room for interpretation must contract; but themeaning of a sentence may be more than that ofthe separate words, as a melody is more than the

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notes, and no degree of particularity can everobviate recourse to the setting in which all appear,and which all collectively create. Again, of courseit is true that the words used, even in their literalsense, are the primary, and ordinarily the mostreliable source of interpreting the meaning of anywriting: be it a statute, or anything else. But it isone of the surest indexes of a mature anddeveloped jurisprudence not to make a fortressout of the dictionary; but to remember that statutesalways have some purpose or object toaccomplish, whose sympathetic and imaginativediscovery is the surest guide to their meaning. Iwould advocate the same philosophy andapproach. Use plain simple words and sentenceswhich your hearers and readers will understandand then only the need for interpretation willcontract. The scope for misunderstanding will becurtailed. Life will be a little less difficult.

Understanding Mrs. Worry versusMr. Apprehension

So long Mrs. Worry had not let out herground floor flat to Mr. Apprehension, anexecutive, neither she was a landlady, nor hadshe any worry. Mr. Apprehension also had nocause for concern. The relationship between thetwo is now contractual. It is a contract betweenher and Mr. Apprehension for the possession ofthe offered flat on the one side and therecompense by rent on the other. Mrs. Worryhas thereby parted with her possession of the flatby transferring and creating a limited interest infavour of Mr. Apprehension against considerationof rent.

Prior to 1882 both Mrs. Worry and Mr.Apprehension used to feel absolutely free tocontract. Such freedom was for the first timearrested and curtailed by the legislativeIntervention in 1882 when Transfer of Property

Act came into force in July of that year. The Actof 1882 intervened to regulate the relationshipbetween Mrs. Worry and Mr. Apprehension byintroducing provisions as to the (a) manner inwhich tenancy (lease) is to be contracted;(b) rights and obligations of Mrs. Worry and Mr.Apprehension; (c) minimum tenure of a tenancyin case of tenancies for agricultural andmanufacturing purposes and also for otherpurposes in the absence of written contract;(d) modes for determining such contractualrelationship; (e) minimum notice periods fortermination of tenancies; (f) effect of breaches ofcontractual terms including non-payment of rent;and (g) nature of legal relationship afterdetermination of contract.

In the field of contractual relationshipbetween a landlord and a tenant the law ofdemand and supply always had a major role toplay. Exigencies like war prompted the landlordsto take monetary and other advantages of thesituation at the cost of the tenants. To prevent thelandlords from taking such advantage, furtherlegislative intervention in the field of freedom tocontract has been made to further control andregulate such contractual relationship. Theseintervention became more pervasive since the firstworld war. The legislative trend to protect thetenants from the onslaught of the landlordscontinued till 1956 when the West BengalPremises Tenancy Act 1956 was brought intoexistence. The said Act is a socio-economiclegislation tilting its favour more towards the tenantclass as against the landlord class. The object wasnot only to control rent but also to provide thetenant a sense of security which perhaps at therelevant time was of utmost importance andnecessity as the governmental resources andmachinery were wholly inadequate to come tothe aid and assistance of vast number of tenants

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by effecting required construction activities toprovide minimum shelter to the maximum people.

The 1956 Act held the field for about halfa century and we also got substantially used to itdespite our displeasure. The irritants in theoperation of the said Act grew in number andjudicial experience could identify such irritantswhich are of repetitive nature. It was felt that to acertain extent the 1956 Act had out-lived its socialneed. It was also felt that the legislative protectionto the tenant class had slowed down the incentiveof the landlord class to make investment or furtherinvestment in real properties facilitating the scopefor organizing better, if not cheaper, shelter to meetthe larger demand. This disincentive was furtheraggravated by abuse and misuse of the protectiveclauses of the said Act. This was experienced notonly in our State but also elsewhere. This led theCentral Government to recommend appropriateamendment in the existing laws and regulationsfor creating atmosphere for housing activities inthe country following a national housing policy.The Ministry of Urban Development, Governmentof India also prepared a model rent controllegislation. The national housing policy correctlyfelt that unless the people largely felt free to bargainand contract the malaise experienced in theoperation of Rent Control Acts including the WestBengal Premises Tenancy Act 1956 could not beremedied. In this backdrop The Delhi Rent Act1995, The West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act1997 and the Maharashtra Rent Control Act1999 have been enacted with the same modusoperandi.

The West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act1997 seems to be the first step towards releasing,decontrolling and deregulating the freedom toContract in this sphere and the same has beensought to be achieved Principally by redefining a“tenant” and exempting certain tenancies from the

applicability of the controlling and regulatingprovisions of the said Act. This has been largelyachieved by :

(a) abolishing inheritability of tenancy right. In theevent of death of a tenant, only the dependentheirs ordinarily living with the tenant up to the dateof death of the tenant and not owning oroccupying any other residential premises will beentitled to occupy the tenanted premises for aperiod not exceeding 5 years from the date ofdeath. Such heirs, however, have been clothedwith a right of preference for entering into a freshagreement in respect of the tenanted premises.However, this time limit of 5 years does not applyto the case of a dependent spouse ordinarily livingwith the tenant up to the date of his death and notowning or occupying any residential premises:

(b) (i) exempting the premises situate within thelimits of Calcutta Municipality or HowrahMunicipality let out for residential purposes at amonthly rent exceeding Rs.2000 from thepurview of the said Act. The premises lying inother areas and the monthly rent therefore beingmore than Rs.1000 will also remain outside thescope of the Act.

(ii) similarly, in the case of non-residentialpremises, the ceilings have been fixed at Rs.3000and Rs.1500 respectively.

In 1995, the Supreme Court of India inJuthika Mullick’s case1 was pleased to hold thatin view of s.13(1) of the 1956 Act, the partieshad freedom to contract out of the said section.Section 13 of the 1956 Act made provisions forthe grounds for eviction. While construing a clausein a lease deed the Supreme Court held that theclause stipulated that the heirs of the lessee willhave no right to hold after the death of lessee andthey had to deliver quiet, peaceful and vacant

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possession within 3 months after the demise ofthe original lessee. In other words, by contractleasehold right had been made specifically notheritable and therefore the heirs of tenancy couldnot claim tenancy rights on death of tenant. Thisfreedom to contract out has, however, been takenaway now by the 1997 Act in view of the languageincorporated in s.6(1) of the said Act.

The depressing atmosphere brought aboutby long operation of the 1956 Act has beensought to be removed by introducing a few othernotable provisions which have also simultaneouslyremoved many of the grey areas that existed underthe said Act. Those notable provisions are :

(a) (i) The fair rent for a year in respect of anypremises constructed and let out after the year1984 shall be fixed on the basis of’ 10% of costof construction of the premises and the marketvalue of the land at the time of commencement oftile construction and the cost of constructionwould be determined with due regard to the matesadopted for the purpose of estimate by the PublicWorks Department of the State Government ofthe area concerned with an over-riding power totile Controller to allow or disallow the variationof estimate upto 10% having regard to the natureof the premises.

(ii) The rent of a premises occupied by atenant for more than 20 years will be increasedby adding 3 times of rent at the time of inductionof tenancy and then deducting the increase, if any,as per a schedule provided in the Act. Similarly,the rent of a premises occupied by a tenant formore than 10 years but below 20 years, wouldbe increased by adding 2 times of the rent at thelime of induction of tenancy and deducting theincrease, if any, as per another schedule providedin the Act.

(iii) The fair rent initially fixed would beautomatically increased by 5% every 3 years andsuch rate may be increased by notification by theStale Government every 4 years from the date ofcommencement of the Act.

(b) Every tenant would now be liable to paycharges for the maintenance and amenities of thepremises let out to him @ 10% of the fair rent orthe agreed rent, as the case may be.

(c) Every tenant is now obliged to allow thelandlord or his authorized agent to enter upon thepremises and inspect the conditions thereof afterservice of a notice on him.

(d) In addition to the grounds for evictionenumerated in the 1956 Act, it has also beenprovided under the Act that a tenant is liable tobe evicted if he has acquire or constructed or hasbeen allotted a house or a flat after a moratoriumperiod of 1 year from such acquisition/construction/allotment and that if the tenant or anyof his dependant heirs does not reside in thepremises for the most part of a year and keepsthe premises under lock and key, he is liable tohe evicted.

(e) Where the landlord obtains a decree fordelivery of possession from the tenant on theground of building or rebuilding or addition oralteration, but the activity of building or rebuildingor addition or alteration is not commenced withina period of 6 months therefrom, the Controllermay, on the application of the tenant made within9 months of his vacating the premises, by orderdirect the landlord to put such tenant, inpossession of the premises within 14 days fromthe date of time order.

(f) Where the landlord obtains delivery ofthe possession from the tenant in pursuance of adecree obtained on the ground of own

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requirement, but the premises are not occupiedwithin 6 months from time date of vacation bysuch tenant or the premises are re-let within 5years from the date of such occupation withoutthe permission of the Controller, the Controllermay, on the application of such tenant made within9 months of his vacating tile premises or within12 months of re-letting, by order, direct thelandlord to put such tenant in possession of thepremises within 14 days from the date of the orderif the premises has not been re-let and if it hasbeen re-let to pay him such compensation as maybe deemed adequate by the Controller.

(g) A Government employee-landlord undercertain circumstances would be entitled torecover immediate possession of the Premises letout by him.

(h) The obligations of the landlord and thetenant towards each other has been expressly andseparately provided for.

Under the 1997 Act the power of theController has increased immensely particularlyby reason of ouster of the jurisdiction of the CivilCourt in respect of matters relating to fixation offair rent and eviction. An appeal from an orderpassed by the Controller shall lie to a tribunal.The Civil Court has also been barred from grantingan order of injunction in respect of any actiontaken or to be taken by the Controller under theAct, Any proceeding in any Civil Court pendingat the commencement of the Act would, however,continue in accordance with the provisions of the1956 Act.

Since West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act1997 was brought into operation on and from10th July, 2001 there has been lot of vituperationon and around some of the aforesaid provisionsseeking appropriate amendments thereof. It is true

that there is scope for debate on a number ofissues but from an overall point of view the Actappears to lie an example of a good legislativedraftsmanship in the recent period of good cropof bad legislations as many of its provisions seekto limit or remove many a grey areas in the matterof contractual relationship between Mrs. Worryand Mr. Apprehension which cither Mrs. Worryor Mr. Apprehension inadvertently or otherwiseforgot to expressly specify iii their contractualrelationship and such omission often used to leadthem to meet each other in Court rooms. Suchprovisions are beneficial to both as also to theadjudicating authority in the matter of speedydisposal. Now Mrs. Worry is likely to have lessworry and Mr. Apprehension, less apprehension!Both may feel less constrained to bargain and thencontract but worry and apprehension are still notover. We can only hope to feel some amount of‘perestroika’ ! After all laws must follow the lifeand not the other way round.

Reference :

1. AIR 1995 SC 1142.

2. Based on a lecture delivered in 1997 to the studentsof Symbliosis Society's Law College, PuneUniversity. Published in The Symbiosis Law Tiems,November 1999.

3. Based on a lecture delivered at a seminar organisedby Merchant Chambers of Commerce, Kolkata,Published in (2002)1 Calcutta Law Times 17.

4. Since the Act has been amended but the salientfeatures remain unchanged.

Bimal Kumar Chatterjee lives at "Homely", 40/1C, BroadStreet, Kolkata- 700 019.

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