Madhusudan_Das

His Life and Achievements: 37
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MADHUSUDAN DAS
BAWA KARTAR SINGH
It is sad now to refer to the death of the Grand Old Man of
Orissa ~ the late Mr. Madhusudan Das. To say that he was a pioneer
in many fields, and that he was one of the makers of new Orissa,
is not enough. He was much more besides. His death has left in public
life a void difficult to fill.
Although it may not be generally known, Mr. Madhusudan Das
was an educationist with actual experience of teaching. He took up
the teaching of Law with considerable success at Cuttack when he
found that Oriya students were not doing well in that subject. He used
to tell me that he was the private tutor of the late Sir Ashutosh
Mukherji, during his childhood, with whom he kept up constant
correspondence. He also told me that he had a presentiment of the
death of Sir Ashutosh on the day it occurred.
Mr. M.S. Das was indeed the foremost Oriya of modern times.
He was the first Oriya graduate in Art and Law of the Calcutta
University, the first Oriya to go abroad and the first Oriya to become
a Minister.
Although Mr. Madhusudan Das did well in the legal profession
his interest was mainly in industry, as he felt that the rejuvenation
of Orissa was only possible through it. He gave great impetus to the
silver filigree work, the horn work and the tanning industry by
establishing institutes and factories which gave great scope for the
training and the employment of the Oriya people.
The difficult postwar period and the trade depression which
followed in its wake led to the failure of his enterprises, and I believe
this came as a heavy blow to Mr. Das in his old age.
There is no doubt, however, that Mr. Madhusudan Das was a
great idealist. His main ideal was to create a separate province of
Orissa. The separation of Orissa from Bengal in 1912 was only a
partial fulfilment of his ambition. He lived to know that his ideal
had been accepted at the Round Table Conference, and though he