Madhusudan_Das

54 Madhusudan Das :
had a great faith, for he never doubted the ultimate reality of the
ideal for which he fought.
The transparent purity of his motives is best shown in his private
letters some of which are revealed in this book. He pours out his heart in
wise counsel to those whom he loved and cherished. In advising then he
could have had no object other than their success and happiness in life. I
am convinced that his attitude towards his people was no less sincere.
In the realisation that material prosperity could come only from
industry and practical effort and was no matter of political catchwords
he was far in advance of his people and his age. His courage in
undertaking industrial enterprise for the common good, ill equipped
as he was with technical knowledge and disinterested assistance, was
very wonderful. His very failures should be a source of inspiration
for the future.
It is remarkable that he should have been able from the first
to see the truth that no salvation is to be found by wandering in the
clouds of metaphysics and the fogs of literary speculations but that
the people must turn their minds outwards practical achievement.
I have lost a very dear friend who kept alive in me a faltering
faith when my mind was assailed by doubts whether any improvement
in the lot oi the Indian people would or could ever be attained by
their own efforts or indeed by help from without. The best memorial
which Orissa can rise will be the fulfilment of the ideal of the Oriya
character which he hoped to call into existence.
• • •
(4)
MY LITTLE CONTRIBUTION
T.S. MAGPHERSON
From more than a decade I pressed Mr. Madhusudan Das both
verbally and in letters to write his autobiography or at least to leave
materials for an adequate biography ; but in spite of all insistence
that it would be of intense interest to the public and of high value
to the statesmen, lawyers and educationists who would succeed him
in Orissa, he too modestly believed that no one would read it.