Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
I do not know the miscreant, but it must be someone who has the power and ability to intervene in LIVE launching of my book ORIYABHASHAKU NAVEENANKA MARANAAGHAT – Naveen’s death blow to Oriya Language.
September 11 is a day of great significance for our race, as on this day in 1870 the first demand for creation of a new province by amalgamation of all the Oriya speaking tracks, so that all official works of the Oriyas could be done in their Language.
Gandhiji had expressed his support to this demand, saying, “This fine race cannot possibly make the natural advance which is its due, if it is split up into four divisions for no sound reason.'(Young India on 18 Feb, 1920)
In fact, for no sound reason the Oriya speaking land was divided by the the British after occupying this splendid soil though treachery. One of its great officials, Magistrate W. Forrester, in a report on the revolt of the Oriyas against what the British was claiming to be their administration, had noted “The nature of the country (where Oriyas dwell) and the disposition of the inhabitants will always present formidable obstacle to the suppression of these disturbances either by Military or Police.” (Report to Robert Ker, 9 September 1818). The British fear to this disposition had led to division of the land and to force-attach the divided parts to rival provinces on the borders in order to reduce the Oriyas into linguistic minorities in those provinces.
The Oriyas had not tolerated that. With people of Ganjam district raising the demand for creation of a linguistic State where rule in their language would prevail, the entire race had given a very unique non-violent battle for amalgamation of all their divided areas which had no parallel in the history of mankind. Gandhiji had pointed out that the Oriya movement “raises the large question of distribution on linguistic basis.” (Ibid). The same British that had divided Oriya-speaking land for no sound reason except their fear for the disposition of the members of the “Fine race of Oriyas”, had to bow down to the most peaceful and incomparable movement ever seen anywhere by then and to create a new province that is known to the world as Orissa.
When India got her freedom, created her Constitution, established the Republic, it was natural for the people of Orissa to use their first Legislative Assembly to frame and promulgate a Law styled ‘The Orissa Official Language Act. 1954’ that mandated the “Oriya to be the language for all or any of the official purposes in the State of Orissa.”
But, this splendid linguistic State has a Chief Minister now, who, for reasons discussed in this book, has ruined this Act and has resorted to forgery and a cabinet scam to deny the people their right to governance in their own language .
As I was launching this book live in Facebook on September 11, the program was brutally intervened with a notice to the august watchers that the they are prohibited to watch it! However, by then a few eminent persons had inscribed their approval and appreciation, screenshots of which I have already published in my bhasha andolan site at https://bhashaandolan.com/12092021/
For the esteemed visitors to this site, the same screenshots are presented here:
