The current view of Odisha would look depressing to anyone who admires her history. Many of the African countries are still struggling from the shackles of racial and inter-tribal problems, but Odisha is different. Monuments exist, dance and music are performed, but the local population does not appear to own it. From a culture that revered creativity and encouraged independence, we see general poverty and complacency. Odisha's transformation to depression is several hundred years in making. After the last independent king of fifteenth century, the monuments were used as a part of evangelic symbolism than the work of art and the pride of people. In stead of new construction and new trade, the population was led to consumption and blind superstition. The exact path of this transition has not been studied. Though some beautiful literature came out, the message was more of survival than adventure. Survival led to demoralization and degradation. Possibly utter opulence led to decadence. The traders who abandoned their adventure created small principalities. They operated these by exploiting the local tribal population. A rabid state of feudalism brewed. Vanity-oriented little "kings" fought among each other as a conduct of engagement. Islamists were blocked by the priests in Puri and people in the coastal area, but the Marathas sped through. There was terror and torture. The trader "kings" became puppets of the Maratha cavalry. It made way for the British to show up Odisha was converted from an independent state to be ruled by various tiers of looters. Each extracted its quota of taxes. It is a story of devastation that has rare parallel on the earth. Only the Temples were protected respecting religious sensitivity. Most people had to survive through the food distributed in the Temple. Odisha's morals were mortally wounded.
A Language commission set up by the British in the nineteenth century took an unfortunate decision to wipe out all vernacular languages in the country. While other areas tried to adjust to this injunction, Odisha was lame and tired. Internally proud of her heritage, people thought to fight back for the lost glory. Then the British did the final trick. A famine occurred in 1866 and no relief showed up. It was willful negligence. Apparently the bad conditions continued for a decade. Massive loss of life occurred. Some say twenty percent perished. The old Odisha died.
There were efforts of reconstruction. A few energetic leaders worked hard to protect the language by securing a separate administrative unit. A person got himself elected to the ruling Assembly and spoke only in Odia. The Bristish allowed the new Odisha State to be born. This was 1936. After independence, some more people got active and helped expand the boundary of the Odisha State. My father participated in this movement. Odisha became the first language-based administrative unit in the country.
People of this generation were idealists. Administering the State needs robotic crookedness. A businessman promoted himself as a leader by creating slogans. Massive corruption ensued. Other corruption-minded individuals competed with him. Odisha's resources were abused. A new class of self-promoting profit-seekers presented themselves as the sole caretakers. Though it happens in other areas of the country, the traders in Odisha knew blind manipulation.
Currently the deceased businessman's son has taken over the control. He does not speak the language and had never been in the State. Covering occasional pot-holes on the roads is promoted as development by the Government. The newspapers tow the Government because of the subsidy they receive. There is lethargy and complacency. Some young people get over- rebellious and kill people. They engage the Government with a task to perform. In general, there is no law or any order. Feudalism is rampant.
I am amazed, disturbed and depressed with my belonging to this condition. I had advised a friend if we can arrange a meeting where I can hear what the youth is thinking. The meeting was scheduled for July 19, Sunday at a building in the University. I had instructed for a three hour sessions. In the first hour, some of the senior members in the community could explain what the issues are. In the following two hours, the students can present their views either through written composition, or through oral presentation.
The Vice-chancellor of the University graced the first hour as the Chief Guest. He is a physicist like me. The university was going through student unrest and he was worried. Dr D. P. Pattanayak, the renowned linguist, was a guest as also Sri Bibhuti Patnaik, the novelist. Dr Bijoy K Satapathy, the noted writer and a few other younger writers were present. The meeting was hosted by a new outfit called a Utkal Literary Festival Trust. There was an audience of more than a hundred people half of them belonging to the post-graduate Department of Odia in the University.
The speakers emphasized the importance of mother tongue for human expression and thinking. The mapping of thoughts to words is best done through a vocabulary acquired when we were infants. Dr D. P. Pattanyak spoke about the recognition of Odia as a classical language by the Government of India, but lamented about the lack of progress in the spread of the language. I spoke about the distortion of the language through artificiality in writing in newspapers and magazines. Others pointed out how the school education has suffered through the lack of teachers and lack of general interest. There was a perception that Odia learning would not help lead to employment, since the Government did not encourage the language. People did not get into why such an unsupportive government was in power.
I expected the follow up session would be led by the students do discuss how they might plan to rejuvenate the language. I was interested to check the student leadership and creativity. In stead of a student panel, a panel of middle aged academics took the podium in the second half. Speaker by speaker went on presenting the western academic theories how the language might present the social fabric of a land. Since the theories were from the books, the speakers had to quote extensively from the books. Then they asked the students if they understood. Students had many questions on the technical terms. Students need to know the name of the sister of George VI if that is what expected in the test! It was a total waste!
I was seeing the remnants of colonialism in a free country. None of the speakers had studied the Odia literature at depth to analyze the writers' point of view. I imagined that the observation could be the general state of the classroom instruction in the country. If the teaching is divorced from the happenings in the society, there is no engagement. The students were not being encouraged to be the future leaders but to be followers of some imported technology. Such copying process had failed in the sciences and now it being tried in literature. I just hoped that teachers in other vernacular languages were more thoughtful to be relevant to the society.
After observing for twenty minutes or so of such artificiality, I did communicate my resentment to the organizers through a vocal protest. They said no student was willing to speak. Then they did invite students to read their creative composition. Some read. They were of good thoughtful quality. I liked. I recited a poem I had written. My cousin Dr Seba presented her thoughts about the process of writing. Some others in the audience read their own composition. It was nice to hear freshly written contemporary literature. My sister Aparimita sang a song of my father's composition. Beautifully rendered, the song suggested that the society has to be rewoven than supported by patches. The song captured the fragmentation I was observing in the meeting.
All attendees were treated to a lunch, which was well done barring the problems of the messiness caused by a crowd jumping on food. Sanitation and civic rules are still in their infancy in India. Adaptation of western style to Indian set up continues to look like a patch work. Reweaving is a slow process. There is competition between survival and overhead. The Government and the individuals fail to create an "overhead" and all efforts degrade to "survival." We need food, cleanliness may follow!
