“Odisha is dearest to me in the whole of India... I am being told of the poverty and famine in Odisha since the day I landed in India… I had realised that one would be able to serve India in the real sense if he could serve Odisha. Afterwards, Odisha became a place of pilgrims for me…” — so said Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, way back in 1938.
Between 1921 and 1946, Gandhi visited Odisha seven times and even contributed to the formation of Odisha as a separate state on linguistic basis. Until then, the state was under the control of Bihar, Bengal, central provinces and Madras Presidency, besides several other princely states. There was no separate place for Odisha and Odias in the Congress, which was reshaped by Gandhi in 1921. At his insistence, the Congress also accepted the principle of reorganising provinces on the basis of language. The Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee was formed under the leadership of great Odia leader, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, who later said: “Like Bhagirath brought the Ganges to the earth, Gandhi brought the Congress to Utkal (Odisha).”
Overall, Gandhi spent 69 days in our state, of which he undertook padayatra from Puri to Bhadrak in two phases in May and June in 1934. A friend of the poor, Gandhi fought the war of Independence with the objective of ending poverty. He believed that salvation from poverty lied in service to the poor. “Odisha is the epitome of poverty,” he said, adding that if one wants to serve the poor, he could serve Utkal. During his tour of Sambalpur, Gandhi said: “When Hanuman’s heart was torn into two, Ram naam was found inscribed there. Similarly, if you tear my heart, you will see there, the words Daridranarayan.”
When famine struck Odisha in 1920 and claimed hundreds of lives, Gandhi appealed for generous donations. It was on his request that Christian missionary and social reformer C.F. Andrews visited the state and undertook massive relief operation. After his first visit to Odisha, Gandhi wrote: “Could you imagine what I saw in Odisha? I saw only skeleton-like figures awaiting death.”
While addressing a meeting in Madras, Gandhi urged youths to come with him to Odisha to see skin and bones around the holy land of Puri. He said that in most famine-stricken families, the poor sisters had no saris and yet, they had not lost their sense of decency. “We are naked in spite of our clothing and they are clothed in spite of their nakedness,” he said.
While addressing the Ahmedabad session of the Congress in 1921 (where it was decided to start Satyagraha for achievement of Swaraj), Gandhi, in a choked voice, said: “All of us will be moved to tears if I narrate the suffering of the people of Odisha.” The plight of this state haunted him day in, day out and it is for this reason that he made a conscious decision to drape himself in as less clothes as possible — a small piece of khadi, dhoti and a chadar. Before that, Gandhi used to dress in a shirt, dhoti and a turban. The lathi, which Gandhi used, was also a gift from Odisha.
Gandhi admired Odia leaders like Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das, Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, Gopabandhu Choudhury, Acharya Harihar, Chandra Sekhar Behera, Rama Devi and Nabakrushna Choudhury. He was in regular touch with them and also took their constructive suggestions on different matters. He was so deeply involved with the state that if anyone approached him to offer his services, he directed them to Odisha. That is how industrialist-cum-freedom fighter Jamunalal Bajaj, businessman Ghanshyam Das Birla and others came here several times to serve the poor. Bajaj’s daughter Uma and political leader Jayaprakash Narayan’s wife Pravabati Devi were also part of the Odisha Padayatra.
Gandhi stressed on development of agriculture, cottage industries, khadi and dairy farms to free Odisha from the clutches of poverty. While addressing delegates at Belgaum Congress session, he said: “The picture of Odisha, which is dancing before my eyes, has convinced me that it will be Swaraj for them, if we can provide food to them. The best way to this is to propagate khadi. If this programme is carried out sincerely, khadi production in Utkal will increase and one day, this province may become the khadi store of India.”
Gandhi admired the artisans of the state. This reflected in the Congress’ Lucknow session in which handcrafted pieces of art by Odia artistans were being exhibited. “Do you know Utkal?” he asked people present there. “Artisans have come from that part of the country where poor people are nothing but skeletons suffering from hunger… Yet they have been able to bring life to lifeless matter… With their own hands, they have created these beautiful handicrafts out of ivory, gold and silver,” he said
He was, however, critical of the laidback attitude of the people of Odisha. He felt alcohol and other addictions, laziness and ignorance were the root cause of the backwardness of the state. He pointed fingers at the British regime and frequent natural calamities as enemies of the state. During one of his visits here, he asked his followers if they wanted to be leaders or plain workers. And to be a leader in the truest sense, one had to follow the path of truth and righteousness. “You must know that someday people may tear you to pieces and you will have to be prepared for it. But you must stick to the truth. Nobody can aspire to be a leader unless he knows how to lead the people, nobody can lead the people if he himself does not know the right path,” he had said.
Unfortunately, however, Odisha continues to be one of the most backward and poor states in India, though 65 years have elapsed since we became an independent nation. We must tread the path of truth and take recourse to the Gandhian methods in our battle against poverty. Let us all put up a united fight, forgetting our differences, social or otherwise, to liberate our state from the shackles of poverty. There’s no better day than October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) to start adopting the ideals of Gandhi and working towards a prosperous Odisha.
