Madhusudan_Das

His Life and Achievements 193
big landed houses and sympathisers of the Colonial State, the Bill emerged
out of this Committee with slight or no change at all, inflicting a crushing
blow to the hopes and aspirations long entertained by Oriya peasantry. In
a note of dissent to this report of the Select Committee. Madhusudan
pronounced that this Bill was nothing but the result of "an ignorance of
social forces and influences which control agrarian relations of Orissa
and utter disregard of local opinion both official and non-official as to its
applicability in Orissa, in the eightees of the last century."
Notwithstanding, the consistent opposition of Madhusudan. the
Bill was rushed through the Bengal Council in a great hurry most probably,
as evidence at hand suggests, under the direct pressure and manipulation
of the big landlords of Bengal, who possessed vast amount of landed
estates in Orissa. Our view in mis regard is fully substantiated from the
passage quoted below from the autobiography of the men Viceroy of
India. Lord Hardinge:
Now in four days time. Orissa was to be separated from Bengal
and embodied in the new Province of Bihar and it was fairly
evident that the Bill had been rushed through the Council with a
view to getting it passed before the change of provincial
boundaries in order to meet the interests of Bengal landowners.
which I knew to be considerable.
Nevertheless, the Bill though vetoed once by the Viceroy, was
brought before the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council in almost the
same from, where it was passed in the year 1913. bringing untold sufferings
and further impoverishment for the masses of Oriya peasantry in its train.
Madhusudan, as natural, was at grief over this happening yet he fought a
brave fight as none else did for the great cause of the hapless peasants of
Orissa, rotting in abject poverty, hunger and dishonour. He wanted in his
heart of hearts to restore the rights of the peasants, which they had gradually
lost during the years of the colonial rule. How far and to what extent he
succeeded in his noble attempts does not matter, but the fact remains that
he fought well with courage, patience and determination quite uncommon
in those days, without least reservation in his heart, for the will-being and
just rights of the Oriya peasant class.
By the way, as time passed on. there came a definite development
in Madhusudan's throughts. regarding the peasants in Orissa. Around the
year 1912. he felt that the peasant were having not a single organisation
of their own. worth the name, to focus and highlight their grievances to