Orissa Matters

Rare Humanitarian Surgery: Python saved

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

I am personally indebted to Prof. Dr. Indramani Nath, who had saved the life of my GSD ‘Tommy’ in 2012 and to Dr. Jasmin Singh, who had save my booster ‘Badsah’ in 2013. Dr. Nath is Professor-cum-HoD and Dr. Singh is an Asst. Professor in the Department of Surgery in the College of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry under Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar.

But I am not going to repeat my gratitude to them in this presentation. I am just eager to say how much in wonderment I am at the enormity of humanitarianism and love for animal world the both of them have displayed in trying to save the life of a 15 year old, 14 ft long, 30 kg python that a general public had mortally injured.

The python was crossing the road at Rameshwar in the district of Khurda, when people of the locality, afraid of the demonic danger it may pose to them and their livestock if allowed to live, tried to kill it with whatever means readily available.

On being informed of this, the forest officials had rushed to the spot and rescued the snake and kept it under watch at Ketaki Jhara nursery for four days.

As no improvement was marked, they consulted the Snake helpline organization and thus, on August 19, it was brought to the Surgery Department of the College of VSAH.
Physical as well as X-Ray examination showed serious bone fractures including in its jaws.

Prof. Dr. Nath decided to repair the fractures through surgical operation. He preferred Dr. Singh to be the other member in the team. And both decided to take the risk.

After the surgery, about the success of which both the experts are confident, the python has been kept under medical observation. The Doctors are hopeful that after a week, it may be released back into its freedom.

Forgery committed by (Padma Bhusan) Radhanath Rath Established: Signed Will of Utkalmani Retrieved

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
The Will, which Utkalmani Pt. Gopabandhu Das had dictated to his employee Radhanath Rath is missing, though Rath’s son Prof. Nilakantha Rath says that, he had seen the “original” with his father.

But the Will taken dictation of by Lingaraj Mishra with Gopabandhu’s signature in various parts of the same has been retrieved. And with this, it is established that the Servants of the People Society is using a forged Will of Gopabandhu to loot the paper he had co-founded.

The day designated for declaration of India’s independence – 14 August 1947 – was greeted with a special edition of the Samaja, of which a copy is in our possession. This special issue is especially silent about Servants of the People Society having any relationship with the Samaja. The photo copy below shows that Udayanath Sarangi printed and published it at Satyabadi Press, Cuttack when Radhanath Rath was its manager and editor.

We have already published in these pages earlier how SoPS had asked its member Lingaraj Mishra to receive the Satyabadi Press only from the executors of Gopabandhu’s will, as he had wanted the SoPS to take over the charge only of that Press, as and when the Samaja, to which that Press was pledged, would release the Press from its duty. And, Mishra had complied with it.

On this ground mainly, we were sure that Lingaraj and Radhanath suppressed the Will of Gopabandhu and prepared a forged Will to show that along with the Press, the newspaper Samaja was also given to it; because, thereby, it is they who were to derive maximum benefits both politically and financially.

After forging the Will, they had tried to tamper with the copy of the Will recorded in the Register of Registration. Their attempt was foiled by an alert official of the court and thus having failed to do so, they have destroyed the file containing records of the probate case; and sure that there shall be no trace of the signed Will, they have used the forged Will sans any qualms in all law courts as and when they were to exhibit the Will. Because of this forgery, the SoPS have obtained registration from the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) for the Samaja, firstly as Trustee and later as Owner. We have wanted clarification from the RNI on these two distinctly different phenomena along with all applications for registration, and order sheets; but the nation’s apex authority on publication of newspapers has not yet been able to answer our query. This has led the ‘Save the Samaja Forum’ to demand for scrapping SoPS as owner of the Samaja, as the said society has occupied the Samaja through treachery and forgery. Press Laws never permit publication of a newspaper by any person illegitimately claiming to be the owner thereof. As the RNI has failed to act, SSF has preferred a writ case before the High Court of Orissa seeking action against inaction of the RNI.

Sadly, the State Government of Orissa is sleeping over such serious fraud, as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is enjoying his nexus with the miscreants in this case.

Waiting for Independence

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

For me and my likes, independence is yet to come. It had not come even to Mahatma Gandhi on August 15,1947. Gandhiji had not participated in the celebrations of independence. Instead of ‘Independence Day’, he had observed ‘Mahadev Desai Day’ that day. He had refused even to give a message on achievement of independence. He had “run dry”, he had told an official of Information and Broadcasying Department of Government of India, who had come for his message.

Jatiya Kabi Birakishore Das had serious questions.

He had written:
Dhani, Mahajana, Raja, Jamidara
Tyaga Mali Dhari Hoibe Bahara,
Gerua Basana Madhura Bachana
Shuni nija niti Bhuliba Ki?
The rich, the moneylenders, the Kings, the landlords would pose wreathed with tags of sacrifice. Should we forget our principles by hearing the sugar-quoted words of fellows wearing saffron colored cloths?
Dhala Badalare Kala Hele Joka
Mentiba ki Koti Garibanks Duhkha
Chasi Mulianka Khapuriki Churi
Delhi Darabara Toliba Ki?
If the white leech goes away and black leech takes over, will bloodsucking stop and sorrows of the crores of poor be over? Should we strengthen the seat of power at Delhi by smashing the skull of farmers and workers?
These questions are yet relevant and unanswered.
I am waiting to celebrate independence when the leeches – white or black – would be no more to suck our blood.

SoPS in misguiding acrobatics again in the name of Gopabandhu

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
When our research prompted our conscience to expose the serious offenses committed against Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das and Orissa by the Servants of the People Society {SoPS), and when the people of Cuttack, where it is having its State Branch, rejected its invitation to participate in annual oblations (Tila Tarpana} it was to offer in his memory, and when the Save-the-Samaja-Forum organized public pledge campaigns through silent black-flag-demonstration as well as vociferous rallies with Sankalpa Rath (vehicle of pledge) rolling ahead in making people aware of how SoPS has betrayed Gopabandhu and occupied the Samaja by using a forged will of the late lamented leader, the hoodlums of SoPS, in jittery, contrived methods to mislead the people of Orissa with a motor vehicle running into different places of the State under a mischievously designed banner, ‘Gopabandhu Jyoti Rath’, for the first time in 2013 since his death in 1928.

At a cost of several lakhas of rupees, they engaged an event-management firm to run the ‘Jyoti Rath’ and by misusing media power cultivated the Chief Minister’s office to off-the-record force field officers to pompously receive the said Rath in order only to lessen the impact of the ‘Sankalpa Rath Yatra of Save-the-Samaja-Forum.

The low-paid, unpaid, exploited reporters from Block to District level were asked to hire people to help the ostentatious event appear popular. They carried out the instruction against assurances that the money spent for purpose would be reimbursed. But till date they have not got back the money they had spent on hiring the fellows.

The criminals in its roll of SoPS who have earned disdainful mention in the report of Justice Arijit Pasayat Committee that had investigated into financial and moral offenses rampant in the Samaja establishment are in jitters, as discovery of the original will of Gopabandhu has established that they are using a forged will to keep the newspaper in their illegal occupation.

They are sure of criminal prosecution for the crime they have committed.

Only if the police could be tamed, they may gain some time.

With this design, they have devised a new method to dazzle the Police-Station level officials to escape immediate arrest.
In nexus with a private TV channel and with support from a few commercial/industrial houses, they have devised an evening of entertainment by some singers and dancers under the pretense of expressing gratitude to martyrs of freedom movement on the occasion of this Independence day. They have roped in the Police Commissioner as the chief guest. The very same fellows of SoPS that are actively misusing a forged will of the legendary freedom fighter Pt. Gopabandhu Das, have projected themselves as authorities of the Samaja in various capacities, even though they have yet to establish their authenticity in the court of law where their claim of office is challenged by distinguished life member of SoPS, Prof. Kishore Ch. Tripathy. President of Utkalmani Newspaper Employees Association Journalist Deviprasanna Nayak has also wanted them to clarify their position in context of the challenge to their authenticity as employees are deeply affected by uncertainty over ownership of the Samaja. But, there is no reply as yet, as SoPS knows that their crime is no more a secret.

It is not that the Police Commissioner doesn’t know of the offenses these fellows are involved with. Hon’e High Court of Orissa have given direction to the Police Chief to act upon allegation of crime against these swindlers of Samaja funds. FIRs filed by Tripathy are also pending.

One is at loss to understand, how the Police Commissioner allows himself to be associated with these fellows when their criminal conduct forms the crux of so many disputes.

RAKSHI FROM MY SISTER LAXMIMA

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Rakshi has become such a mass affection festival in Orissa that, nobody will accept that, it is, by origin, not an Oriya festival.

In the process of acquiring this popularity, Rakshi has almost replaced Orissa’s traditional fest Gamha Punei celebrations.

Gamha Punei celebration is the culmination of paddy growing activities in Orissa, the land of rice.

Orissa celebrates Raja (Menstruation cycle of Mother Earth), when, with advent of the rainy season, the soil in heat due to summer, earns maturity to be sowed with the seed of paddy.

Symbolically, the lady of Srimandira – the epitome of the matriarch concept of Buddhism, the concept of creation caused not by Bramha, but by copulation, Sri Jagannatha – also gets the Raja treatment spanning from Snana to Nava Jouvana Darshana, typically like a Oriya girl having her first menstruation, particularly in a farmer’s family.

Under the sway of such matriarch concept, women folk of farmer families play a major role in shaping social ceremonies. On the full moon day of Shravana, they treat the Oxen (Balada) as their brother with whose help the farmers cultivate the fields.

Process of cultivation starts on Akshi Trutiya. Wife of a farmer puts the seeds of paddy in Akshaya Gauni and sends her husband to the field with the oxen to plough and sow the seeds. From that day till all the phases of paddy growing – Bida, Bihuda, Bachha, khelua, Beushana, Rua – are over, the oxen do not get adequate rest. By full moon day of Shravana, all these phases are usually over in Orissa.

So, on the last day of Shravana, the wife of the farmer conveys formal gratitude of the family to the oxen with tasty cakes she prepares from the best of the cereals and feeds the oxen while greeting them as her brothers; because, like a brother does not hesitate to help his sister even if that requires physical hardship and strain, the oxen perform all the hard works of cultivation for prosperity of her family. Every year, on the full moon day of Shravana, wife of an Oriya farmer renews her bond of affection with the oxen, fastening strings of flower on their horns.

This great occasion unfolds the unique Oriya philosophic concept that female factor is the presiding factor of life.

Gamha Paita

This being the greatest challenge to patriarch supremacism propounded by Vedic philosophy, not only Asoka had tried to destroy Orissa, but also Vedic chauvinists like Shankaracharya had flocked to Orissa to impose the patriarch god Brahma on the people of Orissa. In this process, they had contrived a legend that, a powerful demon had obtained a boon from Bramha that he can devour any number of human beings as he would want to satisfy his hunger on the full moon day of Shravana. As panicked people prayed God to save them from the demon, they were advised to become a Brahmin on that day, as the demon – Bramha Rakshasa – being a devotee of Bramha will not kill any Brahmin. So, on this day village Brahmins distribute Paita (the thread that the Brahmins wear) amongst all the members of farming families, against Dakshina (money or rice and vegetables they collect against the said service). Thus, on this day, the entire population of Orissa become a Brahmin population. And, though this is only for a single day, the concept of Brahmin as a protector gets implanted in the mind of the people, the Brahmins were thinking. When, therefore, to solidify the impression, they were calling this day as Bramha Parva (Festival of Bramhinisation) the farming people of Orissa, who by birth are anti-caste-divide, were mocking it as Gamha Parva, linking it to Gamha Poka (a silky white insect that damages the paddy) and the tread the Brahmins were instigating the people to wear being called Gamha Paita. Till my childhood days, this was in vogue in my birthplace Tigiria. It also continues in many places of Orissa till date. And, Srimandira of SriJagannatha continues to be place of no Brahminism.

People against caste divide

Many fights the people of Orissa have fought against caste supremacism and have heroically revolted against their own emperors like the patron of Brahminism Purusottam Dev, forcing him to withdraw his own book Abhinav Gita Govinda wherein attempts were made to transform Jagannatha from Buddha – the nullifier of caste divide – to Bishnu of caste-supremacism. In their fight against caste supremacism, the people of Orissa, history has witnessed, had dragged out the statue of Adi Sankara from Ratna Singhasana of Sri Jagannatha, where Purusottam Dev had consecrated that to be worshiped along with the deity and thrown the same to the dust where people were discharging their urine. Since then no Sankaracharya had dared to poke his nose into affairs of SriJagannatha, though this year the religious revivalists taking advantage of educated Oriyas running away from the agro-traditions, had tried to get him implanted on the horizon of Jagannatha.

Tricks to transform Buddha to Bishnu

However, having failed in the Brahminisation trick, the Vedic chauvinists had devised ways to project Jagannatha as Krushna, whose character depicted in the misleading Mahapurana Bhagavata was akin to that of a Sahaja Nayak perceived in Sahajayana of Buddhism, with a motive to slow-poison Oriya psyche to accept Jagannatha as Bishnu, in which name, Krushna was also projected.

Nefarious design

And, in this nefarious design, in order to wipe out the image of Krushna as a hero of class war, who, in Mahabharata, had given clarion call to wipe out the self-styled Aryas, who in the name of Vedic religion, were, by force, taking into their possession others’ properties including wives, they started Jhulana yatra with Jagannatha projected as a promiscuous lover of many women including Radha. The aim behind this was to show superiority of man over woman, to counter the matriarch effect of Buddhism in the Srimandira system.

In retaliation, Anangatura

People of Orissa foiled this design by providing for worship of the image of Anangatura (woman eager for copulation) which mocks at the Mukti Mandapa, a podium the Brahmins have erected for imposing their supremacy with the help of their patron king. The so-called Jhulana is being executed in the side of this Mukti mandap, in the outer campus of Srimandira, till date.

Rakshi introduced with Import of Balabhadra and Subhadra

Inter alia, in the design to transform Jagannath from Buddha to Krushna, they have added Balabhadra and Subhadra of Dwaraka to the system of Jagannatha Buddha. And, to eliminate the Gamha tradition, where women of farmer families were renewing their bond of affection with the Balada (oxen) treating them as their brothers, legends of Subhadra tying Rakshi in Barabhadra’s hands were introduced.

Balabhadra being Haladhara (whose distinction is based upon plough) is not different from Balad (oxen) that females of farmer families so lovingly accept as brothers. Therefore, the legend of Subhadra renewing her bond with Balabhadra with tying the Rakshi has not been rejected by the Oriya population.

Gamha strings become Rakshi

Thus the strings of flower tied on the horns of oxen by women in farmers’ families on Gamha Punei (Full moon day of Shravana) have, by extension, merged in sisters renewing their bond with brothers putting Rakshi in their hands.

But my family being a proud family of farm land owners is yet having the oxen greeted in traditional method and my sisters by birth have never been encouraged by my parents to tie Rakshi on my hand.

Laxmima in my life

But I have a sister in Laxmima Sircar, to whom, since her childhood, I am the elder brother, being adopted as a spiritual son of her most revered parents. Her Rakshi is always tied to my hand on this day every year, even though she is living in Ranchi. It never happens that the full moon day of Shravan arrives and Rakshi from Laxmima has not reached me. And, every year this is the only Rakshi I wear.

This year, it did not come in time.

The sun rose in the morning of Shravana Purnima as usual. The clock proceeded into 10 AM. I felt hungry, as I was waiting for Laxmima’s Rakshi so that after a bath I would take it and then have my breakfast. I telephoned her and she became instantly worried on hearing that her Rakshi has not reached me.

I decided to procure a Rakshi in her name and wear the same in her name.

But that was not to happen.

As I was going to ask my nephew to purchase a Rakshi on behalf of Laxmima, the postman entered into my campus and delivered me the speed post carrying her Rakshi, with her letter that she sends every year on this occasion, full of affection.

Rakshi, to me, is entirely sister-centric, despite attempts to make it patriarch.

It has become a great event in agrarian Orissa, despite not being an Oriya festival by origin.