Article in English on Utkalmani Gopabandhu

 Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das: the selfless freedom fighter who took up journalism as social work

Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee

Gopabandhu Das, known as Utkalamani (Gem of Odisha), was a freedom fighter and journalist. He was also a social worker, reformer, poet, and essayist.  He founded the Odia newspaper Samaja in 1919 to highlight the problems of masses and to spearhead national independence movement in Odisha. The newspaper propagated Gandhian ideologies.

 Gopabandhu, like Gandhiji, considered journalism as means of public service. He was instrumental in foregrounding the people’s issues and problems in Odia journalism.

He founded a monthly magazine Satyabadi in 1915. Later on October 4, 1919, the day of Vijayadashami he launched the weekly newspaper Samaja. He served as editor of Samaja till his death.

 Gopabandhu Das was born on October 9, 1877, at Suando, a small village in Puri district. His father’s name was Daitary Das. He was the head of the village and his family were reasonably well-off. Gopabandhu’s mother Swarnamayee Devi died when he was quite young. Young Gopabandhu received his early education in his village Primary School. He married at the age of twelve but continued his education. His academic excellence impressed his teachers and they supported him for his higher education. After receiving the basic schooling in the village he progressed to a middle school nearby. Then, in 1893, with the award of a scholarship, he studied in the Puri Zilla School. Here, he was influenced by Mukhtiar Ramchandra Das, a teacher with nationalist values and zeal for public service.

By that time, his father had died. However, he continued his education at the Ravenshaw College in Cuttack. Here Das contributed regularly to local literary magazines like Indradhanu and Bijuli. In his writings, he often argued that any modern literary movement had to acknowledge and base itself on its past.

Once he wrote a satirical poem that terribly enraged the Inspector of Schools. Das refused to apologize for it and was ultimately punished. While at Ravenshaw, Das initiated a discussion group, named Kartavya Bodhini Samiti (Duty Awakening Society). Here he and his friends used to assemble and ponder upon social, economic and political problems. It was the time when separate statehood demand for Odisha was gaining momentum. Das also attended a meeting of the Utkal Sammilani (Utkal Union Conference) in 1903. Here he strongly disagreed with the proposal that Odia-speaking areas should be merged with Bengal Presidency. Helping the flood victims, and participating in other social works, adversely impacted his studies. He failed his degree examination. However, he passed the BA exam in his second attempt.

At his early age, Das went through a difficult time when his new-born son fell sick while he was busy in providing food and shelter to the flood victims. He preferred to stay with the flood victims and said, "There are many people looking after my son. What difference can I make? But I can make a difference here as so many people crying for help. It is my duty to go there and help them. Lord Jagannath will take care of the boy". Unfortunately, his son died.

After graduation, Das went to Calcutta University and pursued Master’s degree in Arts and Bachelor’s degree in Law. Even here, he devoted much of his energies for social service and tried to improve the education of Oriya people who were living in the city. He opened night schools in many parts of Kolkata. He was quite influenced by the philosophy of the Swadeshi movement and wanted to bring about social and educational reforms.

However, personal tragedies kept testing him. Das lost her wife on the day he passed his law examinations. By the time he was 28, all of his three sons lost their lives. He gave away his share of property and gave up care of his two daughters to his older brother.

Gopabandhu Das started the Vanavidyalaya at Sakhigopal to impart quality education to young students. The school had eminent teachers like Pandit Krupasindhu Mishra, Godavarisha Mishra, Pandit Nilakantha Das and Acharya Harihar. He also took part in the Non-co-operation Movement which was started by Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1905 Das launched a monthly literary magazine titled Satyabadi from the campus of his school and took up the position of its editor. With this, his childhood dream of becoming a poet came true. Other enlightened teachers of the school like Pandit Nilakantha Das and Godabarish Mishra became contributors to the magazine and it created quite an appeal for itself within a certain group of society. After six years of its launch, the founders of the magazine decided to stop publishing it and focused on their new venture The Samaja.

Like his source of inspiration Mahatma Gandhi, Gopabandhu Das considered journalism as a mean to inform and educate the masses even though they were less educated. He initially became part of a Berhampur  based daily newspaper Asha. However, he found this job to be too constraining and started a weekly newspaper called The Samaja in 1919. This step would change the course of Odia journalism in the forthcoming decades. Once based at the school campus, the paper eventually gained a significant presence among the Indian nationalists. The Samaja became extremely popular thanks to its simplistic writing style and pro-people approach. It turned into a daily publication in 1927.

He was much influenced by Lala Lajpat Rai who founded the Loka Sevak Mandal (Servants of the People Society), a charitable trust working for the betterment of the downtrodden people,  after meeting him at a session of Congress in 1920. He was associated with Lok Sevak Mandal for the rest of his life. Before his death, he donated the paper along with its properties to the organization. 

Gopabandhu was always concerned about the poor people in Odisha. He intended to work for the poor. He joined politics and came in contact with many illustrious sons of Odisha like Madhusudan Das. He became a member of Bihar and Orissa Legislative Council in 1917 and discharged his duties as a legislator with élan and commitment.

Gopabandhu Das was also a poet. Some of his popular and critically acclaimed poems include Karakabita (Prison verse), Bandira Swadesha Chinta (Thoughts of a Prisoner about his homeland) and Dharmapada.

His inspiring life came to an end on June 16, 1928. He breathed his last at the age of 51.

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