Madhusudan_Das

142 Madhusudan Das:
of India. The above narration reflects Nehru's strength of mind and
courage, unyielding character and the intellectual frame of mind which
gave him the capacity to talk to even to the highest dignitary of the land
in pre-indcpendent India on equal terms. Like Nehru. Madhusndan also
talked to British aristocrats and the top dignitaries on equal terms.
Madhusudan though remained far away from the village crowds, he
however occupied the hearts of millions of Oriyas like Nehru who occupied
the hearts of millions of Indians and people in other countries.
GOPABANDHU AND COMMON MAN
Gopabandhu Das who followed the Gandhian ways was always in
the midst of the common people sharing their sorrow and happiness. He
gave cheers and comforts to the common people at the time of their
sorrow and gave them inspiration to follow the ideal of plain living and
high thinking. In 1920 he brought the message of revolutionary ideas of
the Congress Party to Orissa and merged Orissa in the national mainstream.
He popularised 'Charkha' Khadi. boycott of foreign cloth and British
goods in Orissa . Madhusudan also equally moved on the same road
popularising handspun cloth. Orissan filigree. Utkal Tannery and cottage
industries. In 1917 Madhusudan in an article captioned War is Business
and Business is War said :
We are now crying for 'Swaraj' but we don't realize how much we
depend upon others for the pettiest of our necessities. A Nation
that hands over raw materials produced by it to foreigners in
order to get finished goods from them is indeed a mere infant in
the field of lndustry. We get our supplies of cloth, of shoes, even
of a needle, infact of any thing of our every day needs from
foreigners. Yet we demand "Swaraj"—such Swaraj is meaningless.
In 1925 Mahatma Gandhi when visited Cuttack he was guest.of
Madhusudan Das. He was very much impressed with the tannery of Mr.
Das from social and economic points of view. In 1923 Mr. Das resigned
his Ministership on the ground that he did not want to take any salary as
a Minister. This proposition of Mr. Das was not acceptable to the Governor
and the British administrators of India. Therefore, he resigned on .this
issue.
MADHUSUDAN'S TRIBUTES TO GOPABANDHU
The friendship, cordialitly and feeling of brotherhood between
Madhusudan and Gopabandhu cannot be measured by ordinary standards.