Prasanta Ku Bishoyi (AGM, NFTimes ) : On the occasion of 175th birth anniversary of Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Dash, Swabhiman Dibas was celebrated at Jeypore by the joint coordination of “Ama Odisha” and “The Sambad”.
Madhusudan Dash, the Pride of Odisha who not only fought tirelessly towards the unification of Odisha but also earnestly desired to provide justice to socio, economic and political spheres of this historical land. His love, passion and devotion involved in the struggle for the formation of separate odisha was unique in many ways.
Joining the occasion as Chief Guest, the scholar, awardee of Odisha Sahitya Academy and officer of Odisha Police Service Mr. Chandrasekhar Hota addressing the gathering highlighted that the true identity of odia was triggered in the devotional thought process of Barister Madhusudan Das. Kulabrudha (Senior Citizen ) Madhusudan said ” whosoever lives within the province of odisha irrespective of castes or religions or beliefs is an odia”. When Madhubabu returned to odisha, he spoke about the “Unification of Indian Alphabet ” Madhusudan, the renowned lawyer was sucessful out and out to execute so much impact upon the socio, economic and political lives of odiayas because he was born during Bengal Renaissance and Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Gourisankar Ray and many radiant stars of odisha and west Bengal were his contemporary. After the death of his beloved wife Saudamini Devi, Madhusudan came to odisha. He formed Utkal sammelan so as to provide a dignified status to odia language. Although being Christian, his love and altruistic fight to protect Lord Jagarnath temple Puri and respect to Muslims made him an extraordinary personality in this pious land of ours. Madhusudan’s life got deeply influenced by the preaching of his grandfather Choudhary Raghunatha Das who motivated him not to bend before any injustice, never to beg, don’t allow for the misappropriation of temple (Debotara) lands and provide shelters to the needy and underprivileged. When Madhusudan presented the memorandum to Lord Curzon, it was not a sheet of paper but well decorated with the brilliant artistic craftsmanship of odia culture which Curzon could not but appreciated highly. In addition to this, Mr. Chandrasekhar Hota while narrating the greatness of Madhubabu drew a rosy account of his love for public Library, Ranga Mancha and his efforts for the recognition of plurality. But even so far, we could not nurture a culture to inculcate the great sanctity of odia language among our youths nor took efforts to make prevalence of odia in full mind and spirit in “Bichinnachala” A very sorry state of affairs of our love for odia language was vividly seen in the SSB question papers prepared. Nobody could afford to comprehend the odia question except the man who made it or God, the Chief Guest reacted.
The Chief speaker of the occasion Dr. Manoranjan Pradhan, Lecturer from VD University while depicting the story of three tigers kept in a cage freed into a jungle lost the originality of their owns while referring sarcastically the damage and denigration of our love and pride for odia language. Madhusudan was such a dynamic personality whose greatest vision and mission was not imprisoned within the cell of odisha but spread beyond the boundaries and across the country. We have to learn the ethics of patriotism from Japan and Israel, then only we can revive the lost glory of odia language, Mr Pradhan categorically stated. While inspiring the audience through the life analysis of Madhusudan Das, gone are the days every youth wanted to be like Madhusudan Das, the Original Super Hero of our cultural identity, political struggle and economic prosperity. Madhusudan was not the pride of odisha but of course, the nation.
Krushna Singh, a noted Bhoodan leader and Chairman of SCITM engg College, in his brief speech, told about the multidimensionality of the personality of Madhusudan Das. “No body was yet to be born on the soil of our land who can perceive or access the vast ocean like contributions of Barrister Madhusudan Das. We, at every stage of our life must have to recapitulate the life and contributions of Madhubabu. Harihar Karsodha Patnaik, a popular social activist and lawyer of far reaching reputation highlighted the cleverness adopted by Utkal Gourab in resolving many complicated legal issues.
The program was anchored by Ashok Maharana, some poems of Madhu Babu was melodiously sung by Jagyaswar Panda and at last, vote of thanks was proposed by Ashok Palei. The Swabhiman Dibas celebration, its analysis and depiction of the life and contributions of Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das towards the formation of Odisha was stated to reach at a conclusion that no body could evaluate or access or describe the greatness of Madhusudan Das in any combination of alphabets of either Odia or English.
