Orissa Review * April - 2006 Movement for Special Province of Orissa Dr. Janmejay Choudhury The British contact with Orissa began in the first had been separated from the Mughal dominion half of the 17th century. Orissa emerged as one and as such from the rest of Orissa. Those areas of the eleven units of British India in the 20th were known as Northern Sarkars under the century.1 From the beginning of the 16th century Muslim rulers of the south. Following the death external aggression became virulent and when the of Aurangzeb when the Mughal Empire began to Surya Vamsa came to an end, Orissa entered into distintegrate, Orissa passed under the rule of the a confused period of internecine struggle. The last virtually independent Nawabs of Bengal. The independent king of Orissa, Mukunda Dev, was Nawabs, however, could not rule for long. killed by one of his feudatory chiefs while engaged Frequest Maratha attack on the dominion of in a prolonged struggle with the Afghan rulers of Alivardi Khan, the Subedar of Bengal, Bihar and Bengal. In 1568, Medieval Orissa lost her Orissa, finally forced him to surrender Orissa to independence. It was one of the last Hindu Raghuji Bhonsla of Nagpur in 1751. The River kingdoms of India to fall to the Muslims. Before Subarnarekha became the new boundary the Afghans could consolidate their power, the between the Maratha dominion of Orissa and Mughals entered the field and in 1592 Mansingh Alibardi's Subah of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The annexed Orissa to Akbar's empire. By the time northern territories of Orissa beyond the river of Akbar, the territories of Orissa were Subarnarekha thus remained with the Nawab of apportioned into five Sarkars such as Jaleswar, Bengal. The territories which were ceded by Bhadrak, Cuttack, Kalinga Dandapat and Raj Alivardi extended from the river Subarnarekha Mahendri. Those Sarkars were included in the in the north to Chilika lake in South. The truncated subah of Bengal and were generally known as Orissa was under the Maratha possession when Mughalbandi. The hill territories were kept under 2 a separate head in the revenue accounts of the the British conquered it in 1803. empire. Those areas were known as Garjats In the meantime Lord Clive got the diwani whose rulers were recognized as the Mughal of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1765. Orissa in feudatories and paid annual tribute to the the said grant was nothing more than the areas Emperor. Soon after the Settlement of Akbar, the beyond the river Subarnarekha, especially the Sarkar of Raj Mahendri and a portion of the district of Medenapur. The titular Mughal Emperor Sarkar of Kalinga Dandapat were occupied by used the term 'Bengal, Bihar and Orissa' as those the Qutbshahi kings of Golconda. By the time of territories had long formed one administrative unit Jahangir, territories to the south of the lake Chilika in the days of the Great Mughals. At the same 1 Orissa Review * April - 2006 time the Emperor gave the Northern Sarkars as spread of English education raised its voice for inam or free gift to the English.3 It was not, the unification of Oriya speaking areas and to however, until another treaty had been concluded safeguard the legitimate interests of Oriyas and between the English and the Nizam in November preserve and promote the Oriya language and 1766, that the former decided to take actual culture. In 1888, Sir Stafford Northcote, the possession of the Northern Sarkars. The Southern Secretary of State for India, held the view that territories of Orissa including Ganjam came under for the purpose of better administration, the Oriya- the British possession by the end of 1766. Thus speaking areas should be grouped into a single in 1765 -66, the East India Company was at both administrative unit. The problem which agitated the ends of Orissa, but those territories remained the minds of enlightened Oriyas for a long time under two different administrations - the Southern was the amalgamation of Oriya-speaking tracts areas under the Madras Presidency and the into one administrative unit and then the formation northern areas under the Bengal Presidency. of a separate province. It led to an organised Considerable attempts were made by the British movement and a sustained struggle for many years administrators from Clive to Cornwallis to take in a constitutional way to achieve the said possession of the coastal Orissa from the objective. The agitation for amalagamation of Marathas, but without any success. It was left for Oriya-speaking tracts raised and moulded public Lord Wellesly finally to conquer Orissa during the opinion in the Province and helped much for the Second Maratha War. By the Treaty of Deogaon growth of political consciousness of the people in which was concluded on 17 December 1803, the early decades of the 20th century. The first Raghuji Bhonsla II ceded to the East India proposal for unification of scattered Oriya- Company in perpetual sovereignty, the province speaking tracts under single administration came of Cuttack, including the port and District of from raja Baikuntha Nath De of Baleswar and Baleswar.4 Subsequently, 18 Garjat states also Bichitrananda Patnaik of Cuttack in 1875.5They came under their control. Thus, only three district presented a memorandum to the Government in of Balasore, Cuttack and Puri in the coastal region this regard. In November 1888 Sir S.C. Bayley, and 18 Garjats in the hilly tract constituted the the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal visited Orissa. British Orissa in the 19th century and were under He was presented with a memorial by the 'Utkal the Bengal Presidency. The rest of the Orissa Sabha' of Cuttack and among other things, he Garjats including Sambalpur were placed under was requested to give attention to the problem of the Central Provinces. The dismembered Oriya- uniting the Oriya-speaking territories of Madras, speaking territories remained under different Central Province and Bengal in one administrative jurisdictions for considerable period. unit so that its all round development would be As a result of this dismemberment, the possible. However, the Lieutenant-Governor rejected the proposal outright in his reply to the Oriya-speaking territories virtually became 6 appendages to four provinces-Bengal, Bihar, memorials. Madras and Central Province, being remained as It is curious to note that in July 1895, H.G. linguistic minorties in all these provinces, the Oriyas Cooke, the Commissioner of Orissa, supported felt neglected and dominated by the linguistic the movement for amalagamation of the Oriya- majority, and particularly felt distressed at the speaking tracts. According to Cooke, the areas deliberate efforts of the authorities to abolish Oriya which could be united with the Orissa Division language. The new elite that emerged in Orissa in were : (i) Sambalpur district of the Chatisgarh the later half of the 19th century as result of the Division of the Central Province, (ii) Tributary 2 Orissa Review * April - 2006 States of Patna, Sonepur, Rairakhol, Bamra and a scheme would solve the question of language Kalahandi, and (iii) the whole or part of the once and for all. This change would relieve both Ganjam district with the states of Kimidi and the Central Province and Madras of a trouble- Ghumuser.7 Cooke's arguments for amalgamation some excrescence upon their administrative were based on ethnological and philological system; and it would result in handing over the consideration, but his suggestions were completely Oriya problem to one Government alone on a ignored. Towards the end of the year, Raja scale and with a unity that would admit of its being Baikuntha Nath De of Balasore presented a treated with consistency and efficiency".8 The memorial to Lord Curzon in which he had urged proposals regarding Orissa in Risley Circular was the Governor General to constitute a separate widely supported in different quarters. The administrative unit for all Oriya-speaking Government of Bengal observed : "The proposals territories or to keep them under one provincial are based mainly on the idea that it is desirable to administration of either Bengal, Madras or the unite under one administration all the Oriya- Central Provinces. Thus, by the beginning of the speaking races. The Lieutenant-Governor is able 20th century the constitutional agitation in different from his own experience to give strong support parts of the Oriya-speaking territories had started. to this proposal." The Chief Commissioner of It aroused political consciousness of the people the Central Provinces likewise favoured the union to a great extent and that paved the way for the of the Oriya speaking tracts, and advocated the establishment of a new organisation in the province transfer of Sambalpur and the Feudatory states to spearhead their demands before the British of Sonepur, Bamra, Patna, Kalahandi and authorities. Rairakhol to Orissa. The people of Orissa The Oriya movement, which thus begun in overwhelmingly favoured the creation of a 1903, was the first and pioneering attempt in India separate province to be carved out of all the to create a province on the linguistic basis. In the Oriya-speaking tracts and to be kept under a meantime, Lord Curzon's government was Chief Commissioner. But the scheme was preparing a scheme for some territorial adjustment opposed by Lord Ampthill, the Governor of in the country. It was outlined in the famous Risley Madras, who was not prepared to transfer Circular sent to the Government of Bengal on 3 Ganjam and Vizagapatam areas to Orissa. Sir December 1903. In that document, the problems Andrew Fraser, the then Lieutenant - Governor of the Oriya-speaking tracts and how they of Bengal, subsequently changed his views and affected the administration of the local opposed the transfer of the Oriya areas from the governments were fully discussed.