Madhusudan_Das

46 Madhusudan Das :
It was several years after— a year or so before his passing away.
By a special messenger I was called to his presence. It was after a
long time that I was seeing him. I saw him a wreck of his former
self. He was sitting crumpled up in a chair and there was nothing
in him of the old Madhu Babu except the eyes and the voice. The
first announcement by Government about the formation of a separate
Oriya province had been made. We talked over this announcement
for about an hour. His was a passionate appeal to all Oriyas to realise
the necessity of making the separate province a success. I distinctly
remember how the story of his own lifelong exertions for the
amalgamation of various Oriya-speaking tracts brought blood into his
languishing frame and how his eyes flashed fire. I remember how
in spite of his desire each and every Oriya should join in making
the separate province a success, he was not forgetful of the fact that
Orissa was a part of India and that Oriyas had something to do for
the existence of India as well.
• • •
(6)
MADHUSUDAN DAS OF CUTTACK-
A TRUE STATESMAN
SARALADEVI CHAUDHURANI
From the deep memory out of the dim shadows of the past the
figure of a man rises to life with his unique personality.
To begin with Mr. Madhusudan Das struck me as a curious
Christian missionaries and their converts I could discern in him. He
was as broad-minded as any born Hindu should be. He acceded to
others their individual ways to realisation while accepting for himself
the was by Christ. His simplicity of life, his veneration for his mother
and the many other Hindu qualities in him made endeared to his
compatriots who were not his co-regionalists.
I was warned that he was a Bengalee-hater. I could not reconcile
this charge with his adoption of a Bengalee girl as his daughter and
his acting as a benefactor to all the members of that family. Moreover