Madhusudan_Das

His Life and Achievements 203
viz. Hindi in the North and North-West, Telugu in the
South, and Bengali in the East, which had already
swallowed up parts of Orissa under their respective border
areas.
(d) There was no unified cultural, educational, social, political
and administrative authority to safeguard or champion
the cause of Orissa as a whole.
(e) Though the freedom loving Oriyas did not accept the
imposed British Rule for a long time so recently imposed
upon them in 1803, and the remembrance of independent
Orissa was foremost in their mind, yet the failure of the
Paik Revolt and other localised rebellions particularly
those of Bir Surendra Sai and the rebellions in
Parlakhemundi and Ghumsar and other places made it
clear that freedom from the alien Rule must be fought out
on all-India basis and it cannot succeed locally.
Utkal-Gourab Madhusudan was alive to all these handicaps and
the centrifugal tendencies which had to be guarded against. He knew
of the external weakness of the people and also of their inner strength.
He abused nobody, befriend all but never forgot for a moment his main
task — the establishment of the identity of the Oriya Nation with all its
manifestation e.g. culture, tradition, mythology, arts and crafts, folklore
including religious ceremonies. Though not frightening the opposing
forces, he never forgot the great task of making Oriya the mother tongue
of Adivasis 6f Orissa. In his editorial of The Oriya, in October, 1918,
he recorded the fact:
Instead of losing its vitality in any degree, the Oriya language
has been adopted by the hill tribes and is now their mother
tongue.
He gave a fitting reply to the Full Bench decision of the Calcutta
High Court by electing Maharaja Shreeram Chandra Bhanj Deo of
Mayurbhanj as the first President of Utkal Union Conference, declaring
thereby that the people of the native states of Orissa are integral part of
Orissa. He firmly and repeatedly recalled the mythology of Lord
Jagannath and its impact on Oriya culture and nationality and declared:
"The foundation of temple of Jagannath was laid on the ruins of the