As scheduled, a book “Great Orissa Famine of 1866: Na'Anka Durbhiksha” was released by former Ambassador lalit Mansingh here on Saturday.
The book, edited by Anil Dhir and Ramesh Mohapatro, has been jointly published by the Pipli Sanskrutika Parishad and the Amadeus Press. The first copy of the book was taken by 105-year-old Kashinath Sahoo, the founder of the Parishad.
Releasing the book, Mansingh said that commemorating the Na'Anka is a noble endeavour while recalling the State’s rich history, which has both dark and bright chapters. “The great famine was a cataclysm on a scale never witnessed in the country before. And yet people endured, survived, emigrated and above all remembered,” he said.
Chairman of the committee for Na’Anka’s 150th year commemoration committee chairman lt Gen Narayan Mohanty (Retd) said a suitable memorial for the one million people, who died during the famine, should be erected.
RD Women’s University Vice-Chancellor Prof Padmaja Mishra terming the famine as a dark chapter in the history of Odisha said it has been a part of Odia consciousness and subconscious ever since.
Parishad secretary Ramesh Mohapatro said that the Parishad would erect a suitable memorial in the vicinity of Pipili as many of the remnants of the famine are still there. The Christian villages of Adarshpur, Kalyanpur, Ashrayapur, Anugrahapur and Bharasapur are all living testimonies of the difficult times when the missionaries set up orphanages and shelters for the victims, he said.
Speaking on the book, editor Dhir said that as there is no single narrative regarding the famine they, to write the book, had to revisit, revise and include much that has been forgotten.
Dhir said he has written about the Chhatarkhais, the role of Cecil Beadon and TE Ravenshaw and the lassiez Faire attitude of the British.
The great hunger had left many emotional and social wounds and waves of emigration that lasted well into the 20th century. It was responsible for major agricultural changes in the State, he said.
He said that for the research more than 200 English newspapers of 1865-67 were sourced and the reportage analysed.
He said the British Parliamentary debates, papers of the India Office library, British Museum library and the William Carey library at Serampore were scoured for writing the book apart from other sources.
Contributors of the book include eminent scientists, scholars and writers like Dr Bidyut Mohanty, Dr Manoranjan Mohanty, Dr JK Ray, Dr BC Samal, Amiya Bhusan Tripathy, Dr lalatendu Das Mohapatro, Dr Bimlendu Mohanty, Murali Manohar Sharma, Br GC Nanda, Dr Prabhakar Nanda, AC Padhiary, Dr Kornel Das and Dr PS Brahmananda.
