Madhusudan_Das

146 Madhusudan Das:
original residents of Bengal and they had to make much lee-way to come
to the level of the latter ; still the Oriya leaders had their education in
Calcutta, they had their provincial Capital there with the Governor, the
Legislative Council and the High Court and it was also the capital of
India with the Viceroy and the Imperial Legislative Council. The contact
between Begal and Orissa was so intimate that there were common ideas
and sentiments among the leaders of two people. Contribution made by
persons like Surendranath Banerjee, Bankim Chandra Pal and the terrorists
after the partition of Bengal had their echo in Orissa also but the
predominant current of Oriya thought was amalgamation of the Oriyaspeaking
tracts, for which the Oriyas organised the Utkal Union Conference
(the Utkal Sammilani) in 1903 on the model of the Bengal National
Conference and in fact, Madhusudan Das thought of such a Conference
only after Sir Surendranath suggested to him to play host to the Bengal
National Conference. 1 The Utkal Union Conference was the final form of
the Utkal Sabha or Orissa Association which Das had formed in a miniature
form in 1882.
Madhusudan dominated the political stage of Orissa till after the
first world war when he become the first Oriya to accept office as a Minister,
and the first Indian Minister to resign after two years in office. 2 When the
Indian National Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi started
non-cooperation movement in 1921, Madhusudan stood aloof from
militant politics and handed over leadership to a younger colleague of
the Utkal Union conference. Pandit Gopabandhu Das. Gopabandhu
accepted leadership of the non-cooperation movement in Orissa,
subordinated the Conference to the Congress and formed the Orissa
Provincial Congress Committee with himself as the President.
Gopabandhu stood at the Centre of a group of people who constituted the
Satyabadi School and provided Orissa with a number of leaders like Pandit
Nilakantha Das, Pandit Godavarish Mishra, Pandit Kripasindhu Misra
and Acharya Harihar Das. Nilakantha was a member of the Central
Assembly from 1924 till 1946 and he entered Orissa Assembly in 1952
and remained as such till he became the speaker in 1957 and retired in
1961. Godavarish was in the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council from
1927 till 1935 and in Orissa Assembly from 1936 till his death in 1956
except during the period 1946-52 and was a Minister in Orissa between
1941 and 1944, Pandit Kripasindhu died young and Acharya Harihar
after being in active politics till 1934, followed the constructive