UTKAL DIVAS ORISSAMATTERS.

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Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Day that Reshaped Mother Orissa

By SUBHAS CHANDRA
PATTANAYAK

Orissa has a distinction

that can never be
surpassed by any in
India. She is the founder
of the modern epoch
of State formation on
language basis.

W hen her children were trying to form the new State on the basis of their mother tongue
Oriya, packs of regional chauvinists from Bengal led by R.L.Mitra had tried hard to convince their
British masters that Oriya was not a separate language, but rather was a part of Bengali. Their
falseness was razed down by scholars with factual records so detailed that Bengal’s famous linguist
Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee had to admit in course of time, as noted in Indian Historical Quarterly,
Vol. XXIII, 1947 at p.337,

It may be said without travesty of linguistic truth that Oriya is the eldest of the three sisters (Oriya, Bengali
and Assamese), when we consider the archaic character of the language”.

Before Chatterjee had said this, taking cue from chauvinists like Mitra and his associates, inhabitants of
Hindi and Telugu speaking tracks had also started claiming linguistic superiority over Oriya in order
only to retain the opportunity to exploit the Oriya peoples and their soil made available to them by
the British that had annexed Orissa to their States by fragmenting her body under a state of fear
psychosis, which shall be discussed later.

“It may be said But their false claim was dismantled when Sir G.A. Grierson declared in Linguistic Survey of India that
without travesty, Oriya was highly superior to these three languages. To quote him:
Oriya is the eldest of “The Oriya language can boast of a rich vocabulary in which respect neither Bengali nor Hindi nor Telugu
the three sisters can vie with it. The richness of the vocabulary is the index by which the vastness of a vernacular can be
(Oriya, Bengali and gauged”.

Assamese) when we Why the peoples of the Bengali, Hindi and Telugu speaking provinces were in conspiracy against Oriya
consider the archaic language?
character of the This was simply because, if Oriya language was to be restored to its original majestic position and
language” Oriya lands were to go back from their provinces, they were sure to loose financially; and massively.
The peoples of those provinces were in traditional rivalry with Orissa and traditionally envious of
Orissa’s matchless cultural, sculptural, commercial and natural splendor. None of those provinces was
able to aspire to be compared with Orissa. Observations of impartial historians and administrators,
available on records, confirm this.
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 UTKAL DIVAS
“NATURE OF THE
COUNTRY
(ORISSA), AND
DISPOSSESSION OF
INHABITANTS WILL
ALWAYS PRESENT
FORMIDABLE
OBSTACLES TO THE
SUPPRESSION BY
MILITARY OR
POLICE”
As for example, Rev.J.Long, in Notes and
Queries Suggested by a Visit to Orissa in
January 1859 has written,
“Antiquarian enquiries in Nepal, Ceylon and
China show that the Buddhism so noted in
its regard for enlightening the masses and
opposing caste, was for ages predominant
all through Orissa both among rulers and
the people, though Orissa be now the
garden of the Hinduism and Jagannath its
Jerusalem” (Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, 1859, No.III, Vol.XXVIII, pp.
185-187).
The peoples of those days knew that
Buddha was born in Orissa. Hence
Buddhism, as “antiquarian enquiries in
Nepal, Ceylon and China” had made
R e v. J . L o n g n o t e , “ w a s f o r a g e s
predominant all through Orissa both
among rulers and the people”.
Afraid of Buddhism and unable to defeat
its impact, the Vedists had accepted
Buddha as their own Lord and had
equated their Lord Vishnu to Orissa’s
Lord Buddha Jagannatha and thereby had
succeeded to transform Buddhism to
Hinduism in Orissa with Jagannath as the
epitome of casteless culture. This had
made Orissa such a land that as reported
by Rev. Long above, Orissa had become
“the garden of Hinduism and Jagannath its
Jerusalem”. No land of India, specifically in
the neighborhood of Orissa, had to her
credit such splendid historical distinction.
When other provinces of India,
s p e c i fi c a l l y t h o s e i n O r i s s a ’ s
ORISSAMATTERS.COM
neighborhood were surrendering to or
being subjugated by Muslims, Orissa was
the land that was attacking and occupying
Muslim dominions around her territory.
Describing how the King of Orissa had
out-generalled the Bengal ruler Tughral
Tughan Khan, the Muslim historian Minhaj-
i-Siraj, who had also joined that war,
which, to him, was a ‘holy war’, had to
admit that a greater disaster had not till
then befallen the Muslims in any part of
Hindustan. (Dr. K. R. Quanungo, The
History of Bengal, Muslim period, (pp.
48-52). No land in India, specifically those
in Orissa’s neighborhood had ever been
credited, in enemy’s pen, with such valor.
This was the cause of envy of the peoples
of those provinces towards the Oriyas.
When India was per ishing under
occupation of Muslims, Orissa was so
sure of her invincibility and so victorious
over enemies, specifically the Muslim
Rulers in the neighborhood, that in
support of Buddhist Sahajayana and in
exhibition of her power and opulence
and in celebration of her victory, she had
addressed herself to build up the
wonderful Konark temple.
Analyzing the sculpture of war animals in
display at Konark, in Indian Sculpture and
Painting, Havell equates the fire and
passion expressed therein with the
greatest European art – the pride of
victory and the glory of triumphant
warfare. (Noted in History of Orissa by
Prof. K. C. Panigrahi, at pp.413-14)
No people of India were more marked
than the Oriyas for establishment of
colonies overseas by name akin to those
of their own soil and society. Known for
the best of ports along her vast coastline,
Orissa was famous for her matchless
ships. Even when the British occupied
India and eventually thereafter Orissa, to
their mind, Orissa’s vessels were the best
in India. “…by far the best that I ever saw
in any part of India”, wrote E.Watson, 4th
Judge, Calcutta Court of Circuit, to
W.B.Bayley, Secretary to Government in
the Judicial Department on 3 May, 1817)
No other province, specifically those in
Orissa’s neighborhood was of such
historic heritage. They were therefore
envious of Orissa.
Orissa was such unique that when
peoples of those provinces had accepted
the British as their lord, her children had
been fighting against British invasion.
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History knows that Orissa was the last of
all the Indian States to have been
occupied by the British. And according to
British historians, Oriyas were the first
amongst all the peoples of India to have
raised battles against the British to
“expel” them from their soil.
“It was not long, however, before we had to
encounter a storm which burst with so
sudden fury as to threaten our expulsion, if
not from the whole of Orissa, at least from
the territory of Khurda”, G. Toynbee has
admitted. (A sketch of the history of Orissa,
O.H.R.J. Vol No.1 & 2).
British had ruthlessly fought back the
battle. But it had to eventually admit that
the
“nature of the countr y (Orissa) and
disposition of the inhabitants will always
present formidable obstacle to the
suppression of these disturbances either by
military or police”(Report of Joint Magistrate
W. Forrester dated. 9th September 1818 to
Commissioner Robert Ker).
It is thus clear from Mr. Forrester’s Report
that the peoples of Orissa were too
valiant to be suppressed by “military or
Police” of the British power.
This being the reality, it had to devise
means to weaken the Oriya peoples in
order to stay safe.
And thus it had divided Orissa into parts
and annexed those parts to neighboring
States compelling the brave peoples of
Orissa to suffer the ignominy of minority
status under rival populations. They were
deliberately tortured by being forced to
accept the language of those rival
populations as their official language.
Taking advantage of their ignorance of the
so-called official language, the crafty
inhabitants of the rival States to which
Oriya speaking tracks were arbitrarily
annexed, were grabbing Oriya properties
by tampering with Official records.
Sri Veer Bikram Singh, the then Raja of
Khariar had raised a literary revolution
against this exploitation. “Utkal
Durdasha” (The miseries of Orissa), a
drama authored and enacted by him
though out western Orissa had heart
touching stanzas depicting the
exploitation to which Orissa had been
subjected to after division.
 UTKAL DIVAS
THE ENTIRE ORIYA
SPEAKING
COMMUNITY HAD
WOKE UP UNDER
THE ABLEST
LEADERSHIP OF ITS
‘PRIDE PERSONIFIED’
KULAGAURAV
MADHUSUDAN DAS
Sir Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser, who
was Chief Commissioner of Central
Provinces when Orissa’s western part
was annexed to that province, in his
famous work Among Indian Rajahs and
Ryots, having seen in his own eyes how
the peoples of Orissa, reduced to
linguistic minority status, were being
harassed in CP, had mentioned details of
the damages done to the Oriyas and had
recommended that the Oriya speaking
tracks be amalgamated for better
administration. But the British Secretary
of State for India had turned down
Fraser’s proposal as to him, the Oriya
peoples were of such disposition that
once united again, they shall be the most
formidable danger for the Britishraj in
India.
When peoples of the western parts of
Orissa were thus being exploited under
the CP administration, condition of the
Oriyas of the southern part of Orissa
annexed equally arbitrarily to Madras was
no less disadvantaged.
Dinabandhu Pattanayak of Dharakot
made a public appeal to peoples of
Cuttack to come forward to fight for
amalgamation of the Oriya speaking
tracks in entirety as otherwise Oriya
culture, sculptures and natural wealth
cannot be saved from non-Oriyas.
This call of Dinabandhu eventually gave
birth to Utkal Sammilani, the great Oriya
movement that paved the path for
formation of language-based States in
India.
Why the peoples of Cuttack responded
to the call given by Dinabandhu
Pattanayak?
ORISSAMATTERS.COM
We get the answer from the Report of
W. Trower, Collector, Cuttack on Revenue
Administration in Orissa, dated the 23rd
May 1817, in which he says,
“I believe I am the first and the only officer
of the Government that has hitherto visited
the interior of the District. I have traveled
through the greatest part of it, conversed
with all classes of people from the highest
to the lowest and certainly the complaints
against the Police, and the Moonsifs exceed
anything I could have supposed. A regular
system of oppression and peculation
appears to exist throughout and instead of
proving a protection to the country and a
preventive against improper conduct, these
people are considered the terror and the
scourge of the district”. (Ms.Vol. 387, Orissa
State Archives.)
The Peoples of Cuttack had responded
to the call of Dinabandhu Pattanayak as in
that they had found the reflection of their
own feelings.
Who were these Police officials and
Munsifs? They were the peoples from
Bengal whom the British officials were
calling as native servants.
Why Mr. Trower has mentioned that they
were “considered the terror and the
scourge of the District”? It is because,
these fellows were looting Orissa taking
advantage of their situations under the
British.
Trower has described,
“Of the evil of permitting native servants of
Government holding situations in the District
to purchase lands at public sale I have had
many proofs, and in a letter to the late
Commissioner under date the 1st October,
1813, I stated my sentiments on the
subjects. Not only does the influence of
these people prevent the Oriyas from
entering into competition with them in the
purchase of lands, but if any of their own
Estates are in arrears, the Oriyas are
deterred from appearing as purchasers.”
He has given details of how Estates of
Oriyas were being auctioned at Calcutta
under stratagems contrived by Bengalis
and how they were grabbing the same by
way of cheating.
“It appears from accompanying
statement…. that from December 1906 to
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December 1816, a period of 10 years, the
number of Estates sold by public auction,
have been 1011, which gives an average of
101 yearly”. Showing that 350 principal
Estates out of the above-mentioned sales
have gone into Bengali hands, Mr. Trower
has told, “The Board will further remark that
of those, 235 have been purchased by
persons holding official situations under
Government directly in their own names, or
indirectly by their relations or dependents
and by a reference to the price paid for
those Mehals (more particularly during the
four or five fist years) they cannot fail to
discover strong marks of that undue
influence, complained of by me. But as the
number of Bengalees have increased in the
district and advanced in opulence, greater
competition has taken place between
themselves and a somewhat fairer market
established. The Jumma of the lots marked
in the margin was 121695 rupees and the
money paid for them at sale 46205 which
can be considered as little better than
downright rubbery.” (Ibid.)
The use of the words “downright
rubbery” by Trower in this report speaks
volumes of how peoples of Orissa were
being looted by Bengalis as well as those
of Hindi and Telgu speaking provinces
when afraid of Oriya disposition, the
British had fragmented their motherland
and merged those parts with provinces
of rival tongues.
The entire Oriya speaking community
had woke up against this mischief under
the ablest leadership of its ‘pride
personified’ Kula Gaurav Madhusudan
Das. The Congress party, under influence
of the leaders hailing from those
provinces opposed Madhu babu, so much
so, that Harekrshna Mahtab, then a crafty
ambitious young man with a motive to
ingratiate himself to Congress high
echelon, went to the extent of pressing
an organized assault on an audience at
Cuttack gathered to hear Mr. Das.
Gandhiji stood firmly with Madhu babu
and insisted that unless Oriya speaking
tracks are amalgamated into a separate
province, the “fine race” of Oriyas would
continue to suffer and that cannot be
accepted.
The culturally advanced elements in
British administration ultimately accepted
the Oriya demand and the new province
of Orissa was created on 1st of April
1936.