Madhusudan_Das

His Life and Achievements: 55
It was in 1910 when I was the District Judge of Cuttack that
my friendship with M.S. Das began. (He was always " M.S. Das "
in English and " Madhu Babu " in Oriya) He was then at the top
his vigour and facile princeps in Orissa at the Bar, in politics and
in popular estimation and he had become CLE. in 1904 in recognition
of his public services. In particular he possessed much influence with
the rulers of the Orissa Feudatory States the oversight of which had
since 1905 made the Commissioner of Orissa the most important
official under the Government of Bengal.
I had reason to be grateful to him then for much general help
which he accorded very willingly and which his pre-eminent position
at the Bar made valuable. In his advocacy he was very tenacious and
on points of law and fact very shrewd and acute. In later years he
appeared in my Court in district Sambalpur and at the High Court
Bar both in Patna and in Cuttack, and had a considerable measure
of success in what at first sight appeared to be quite unpromising
appeals. At the Circuit Court at Cuttack for the establishment of which
the credit is largely due to him, he became, specially in recent years,
'an institution' ; the Circuit Court would somehow have seemed
defective if it had not opened and closed with complimentary speeches
from Mr. Das. He was also in a position to indicate numerous little
ways of making the business of the Court run smoothly.
M.S. Das often spoke to me of his educational career and early
struggles, and of the great men he had met at that time, and also
of his work in the Legislative Council both at Calcutta and in Bihar
and Orissa, specially during the passing of the Orissa Tenancy Act.
Others will be better able to deal with those epochs as he was only
for a short time a member of the Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council
while I was Secretary. It was after he became first Minister of Local
Self-Government in 1921 that I saw most of him. As a protagonist
of Orissa and a very able and experienced public man he was obviously
the Oriya to be appointed to the newly constituted Ministry for Bihar
and Orissa. When I congratulated him on his appointment, he wrote
that he would preserve my letter as an additional proof of the cordiality
which he had always experienced from my wife and myself and for
its valuable sentiments, and added : " I hope God will guide me in
the new sphere of life so that I may prove worthy of the congratulations
with which kind friends have honoured me." In long evenings which