New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Odisha last week announced year-long celebrations to mark the 125th birth anniversary of ‘Utkal Kesari’ Harekrushna Mahtab, BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab’s father. BJP leaders attribute the decision to appropriate the state’s first Congress chief minister to his legacy of opposing former prime minister Indira Gandhi and the Emergency.
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said on 4 November that the celebrations would begin with state-level functions from 21 November to 23 November. The government will also set up a memorial museum at Agarapada in Bhadrak district, Mahtab’s birthplace.
Other endeavours such as publishing books on his contributions, a biopic about his life, and a centre at the Utkal University in his name are also being considered.
During the launch of the programme, his son, Bhartruhari Mahtab, a seven-time MP, said, “‘Utkal Kesari’ has made a great contribution to the making of Odisha. It’s good that the government is making an effort to place his legacy in history books and to bring awareness to the new generation.”
Mahtab is considered an architect of modern Odisha, helping freedom fighter Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with the merger of 26 Odia-speaking princely states into India. A freedom fighter, social reformer and Gandhian who fought against untouchability, his legacy is seen as having helped shape Odia asmita (pride).
The latter part of his life, when he had a falling-out with Indira Gandhi and was subsequently jailed for opposing the Emergency, fits well with the BJP’s playbook.
In 2021, three years before the Odisha assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed appreciation for the ‘Utkal Kesari’.
While releasing the Hindi translation of Mahtab’s book ‘Odisha Itihas’ on 9 April 2021, Modi said, “Mahtab ji dedicated his life to the freedom struggle and dedicated his youth…But what is important is that along with the freedom struggle, he also fought for society. In the movement against casteism and untouchability, he also opened his ancestral temple to all castes… It was a very courageous decision in that era.”
“Despite being in power, he always considered himself a freedom fighter and remained a freedom fighter for the rest of his life. It may surprise people’s representatives today that he went to jail during the Emergency opposing the same party from which he became the chief minister. He was a rare leader who went to jail for the country’s independence and to save the democracy of the country as well.”
After the Opposition’s ‘Save the Constitution’ campaign damaged the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in June, the Union government announced in July that, starting next year, 25 June—the day the Emergency came into effect—would be observed as ‘Samvidhan Hatya Diwas’ and that the 75th year of the Constitution would be celebrated in a year-long campaign.
Also Read: Harekrushna Mahatab: The man who started the merger of princely states with India
A long legacy: from Independence to social reform
Harekrushna Mahtab began his career in politics by leaving his studies to join the Independence movement in 1920—when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement—for which was jailed by the British several times. He also served as the secretary of the Balasore district Congress committee.
A decade later, in 1930, he was elected president of the Utkal Congress committee and oversaw Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha campaign in Odisha.
He was a minister in the first cabinet of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and one of the 299 members of the Constituent Assembly.
Inspired by Gandhi, Mahtab also made his mark by campaigning against untouchability. A biography of his life, written by Professor M.N. Dass and Dr C.P. Nanda, recounts that in October 1932, “Mahtab led a group of outcasts to his family temple in Agarpara and made them touch idols, for which his family suffered a social boycott by the orthodox Hindu elements. Under his initiative, a night school for the outcasts came into function in the Bonth area.”
Mahtab served as the last prime minister of Orissa from 1946 to 1950 and then as chief minister for 107 days in 1950 and between 1957 and 1961.
In 1966, he was elevated as Congress vice president but disagreements grew with Indira Gandhi, who became prime minister after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, and he left the Congress to form the Odisha Jana Congress.
He was imprisoned during the Emergency and Modi, in his 2021 speech, recalled that he had visited Mahtab afterwards. Despite the young Modi’s weak credentials, Mahtab spent two hours with him.
Mahtab’s legacy has a huge imprint on the social and political conscience of the Odia people but there is a belief that was ignored in the latter part of the Congress governments.
But BJP’s love for Mahtab has one more reason: it claims the legacy of Sardar Patel and Mahtab played a crucial role in bringing the princely states of Odisha together with the Indian Union with him.
Odisha BJP vice president Golak Mohapatra told ThePrint, “Mahtab was a pioneer of Odisha. He brought all development in the state from ports to educational institutes from Delhi. He was a known personality in Delhi during the early days of Independence but only two personalities were membered in Odisha history.”
He added, “For the last 2-3 years, (Union Minister) Dharmendra Pradhan has been leading the efforts to give Mahtab due respect by organising seminars to functions where the PM has participated. Now that the BJP is in government, the party wants to popularise his entire work before the public so that the new generation knows the maker of modern Odisha.”
A leader of Odia asmita who fits the BJP’s narrative
The BJP was a late entrant into Odisha politics, which was shaped by the Congress and Janata Dal in most of the six decades after Independence. Biswabhusan Harichandan, the former governor of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, was an early leader of the Jana Sangh and state general secretary of the Janata Party.
After the formation of the BJP in 1980, he became the party president of the state and served in the state assembly five times. He was also a cabinet minister in the BJP-Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in 2004, but the party still lacked a leader who had shaped the legacy of Odia asmita.
In 24 years in power, the BJD government named most of the schemes after Biju Patnaik and erected a statue of him in the state. Similarly, the Congress claimed the legacy of J.B. Patnaik, who was chief minister of the state for 13 years. The legacy of Harekrushna Mahtab, however, lay unclaimed.
A senior BJP leader of Odisha told ThePrint, “Celebrating the birth anniversary of ‘Utkal Kesari’ is part of the BJP’s effort to restore Odia Asmita and nationalism, which helped the party dislodge the Naveen Patnaik government this year after more than two decades. Mahtab’s legacy fits the BJP because it lacks its own icon to claim the legacy of Odia asmita. The BJD has Biju Patnaik and the Congress has J.B Patnaik.”
Odisha revenue minister and BJP leader Suresh Pujari told ThePrint that “Mahtab is a household name in Odisha due to his large imprint on social and cultural life but only the assembly has a statue and library in his name… He was forgotten during the Congress’s rule as he revolted against Indira Gandhi. It’s our duty to honour forgotten heroes of state and accord him his place in history.”
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
