Utkal Gaurav Madhusudan Das (1848 to 1934) appeared at a time when Odisha witnessed feudal and imperialist exploitation, hunger death, famine, social oppression and also struggles for unification.
It was a time when the religious ideas were dominating mass mind and people were looking for freedom from socio-religious bondage, economic exploitation, misrule of kings, feudalism and British imperialism.
When he was a student, more than one lakh people died in famine of 1866. He was pained to find the killing of women in the name of Sati, religious fanaticism, celebration of inhuman customs and tradition in the name of god and goddesses, practices of untouchability by upper caste Hindus, caste-based discrimination and inhuman exploitation against low caste Hindus, women and working class in society.
Odia people were migrating to West Bengal in search of livelihood and getting engaged in low grade jobs as cooks, caretakers, attendants, gardeners and manual workers in Kolkata. Madhubabu, as he fondly was called, denounced all anti-people unequal ideas of those days that were given legitimacy in the name of god in Hindu religious social order. He converted to Christianity since he found it much progressive and a better religion in those days. He fought against untouchability, caste oppression and for women’s education in a number of ways. Many of his ventures as an entrepreneur were built with active involvement of people from lower social strata and he used their indigenous skill and local materials with dignity of labour to produce foot wear, leather and metal products.
Mahatma Gandhi visited his workshop in 1923 at Cuttack with much appreciation as a creative application of Swadeshi movement with social reform, especially for eradication of untouchability and respect for dignity of labour and indigenous knowledge. Earlier in a conversation with Dr Rajendra Prasad of Congress in 1912, on the occasion of Bihar students’ conference held at Mothari, he told Swaraj will not be realized in a society with increasing caste system. He vehemently argued for the development of backward communities and women without which Swaraj cannot be realized. The rulers such as Maratha, Mughal, Afghan, Muslim and finally British had not intervened in the issues of untouchability and caste because of its religious nature and linked to the fundamentalist sentiment of the upper caste Hindus which the rulers never wanted to disturb by interfering in social customs and prejudices prevalent in social life. So for building a united struggle against the British, it was necessary to build social unity among the masses, especially by including the excluded masses in nationalist struggle. The social liberation of the oppressed and equality was the inspiring central ideas of freedom struggle which had been very much realized by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Madhubabu. Dr BR Ambedkar further refined it by developing the ideas of social democracy as inseparable part of political and economic democracy. In Odisha it was Bhima Bhoi who made an impact in social life of the Odias in that spirit.
Madhubabu struggled to get higher education and exposed himself to a wider spectrum to build him as an educated, informed and enlighten personality to serve the people. His effort was also to challenge the hegemonic rule, exploitation and injustice and to expose the suffering of the lakhs of voiceless people of the State. He had no personal agenda to build a career by doing a high-salaried job or enjoy power and position but to make himself an effective social worker and reformer. He used his education, knowledge, time and wealth for the benefits of masses of Odisha till the last part of his struggling life.
Even at the deathbed he only focussed his mind on the wellbeing of the people of Odisha. He played many roles as an advocate, journalist, legislator, minister, organizer and leader of the unorganized masses.
His patriotism lies in building nation State of Odias as he said Mother Utkal is not different from Mother India. Unity in diversity can only contribute to the growth of Indian nationalism. Though Madhubabu was very well linked with the nationalist struggles in the early days of Indian National Congress but it is primarily the specific issues of the Odias that preoccupied him all the time. For any major change, it has been always the administration which plays a much important role in socio-economic progress of the people but those days Odisha was divided into four administrative zones and being governed from Madras presidency, Central provinces, Patna and Bengal.
It was primary concern of Madhubabu to bring all Odia speaking tracks and Odia domiciles into a single administrative unit and finally it was possible two years after his death. The modern democratic Odisha came into existence on April 1,1936 on linguistic basis with six districts such as Cuttack, Puri, Baleswar, Ganjam, Koraput and Sambalpur having merged. The other feudatory States joined Odisha in 1949 and finally greater Odisha came into existence comprising of 13 districts and later the State got divided into 30 districts.
While Odisha has been demanding for special category State status and more financial autonomy, in the true spirit of federal structure, the ideas were of Madhubabu in those days. In a memorandum to Simon Commission in 1924, he very well explained the problems of Odisha and argued for a united States of India. He motivated the upper caste organizations, Odisha Brahman Mahasabha and Odisha Karan Mahasabha, kings and Zamidars of Odisha to join the State formation process in building a democratic province and many of the then kings were the supporters of the Odia nationalist movement but it was observed that Madhubabu made much effort to involve the ordinary masses especially the excluded communities in hills and forests and the marginalised groups. The separate Sate formation campaign was more dominated by the elites and oppressors of those days.
For Madhubabu, it is not the geography or language but the people who mattered. Thus he wanted the unifications of Odias irrespective of their language, religion and culture. Today it’s not only Odia language or Hindu religion, but there are many languages such as Santali, Kosali-Sambalpuri, Kui, Ho and many more and religious groups such as Christian, Muslim, Buddha, Sarana etc that are inseparable parts of Odisha. The beauty of Odisha lies in its diversity, tolerance and brotherhood, which respects individual freedom and human dignity. The constitutional values and citizenship should be realised by everyone irrespective of his/her social identity. There should not be cultural dominance by the majority over the divided minority.
When poverty continues to be a major challenge for the Odisha and still distress migration, low production, unemployment, agrarian distress, farmer suicide, lack of basic social infrastructure and hunger death disturb us every day, the ideas of Madhubabu continue to be relevant. In the economic front, he advocated for agriculture development and industrialisation and cooperative movement to improve production, employment and income. He said without canal irrigation the agriculture of Odisha will not be developed. land settlement should be completed by recognizing the farmer’s rights over land by abolition of intermediaries and absentee landlords. The real farmers should have land ownership. He further stressed on the development of railway line as equally important factor for development Odisha. After 82 years of his death, Madhubabu’s inspiring life and ideas require to be followed in many respects by the people of the State.
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