A Note on Utkala Samyabadi Karmee Sangha and Sarathi

A Note on Utkala Samyabadi Karmee Sangha and Sarathi
Kailash Chandra Dash

Nabakrushna Chaudhury had devoted fifty years of his active life to the
political, social and economic progress of colonial and post-colonial
Odisha. He came to the focus of politics at a crucial phase of Odisha-in –
making. He was unforgettable for his socialistic ideas and experiments,
participation in the peasant movement and the movement in the princely
states of Odisha, his constructive activities in the Gandhian phase of
nationalism. His revolutionary and constructive activities began with the
formation of Utkala Samyabadi Karmee Sangha and the publication of
Sarathi, a weekly Odia magazine in 1934. Unfortunately some scholars
working on this aspect have followed blindly the autobiography of
Surendranath Dwivedi and have
presented a wrong picture of the
context. Hence in this brief study an attempt has been made to review the
contemporary periodicals for a revisit of the context.
In 1970 in an issue of Nua Dunia on Prananatha Pattnaik
Surendranath Dwivedi stated-“Probably before one year of the contact with
the Indian context we in collaboration with Nabakrushna Chaudhury, so far
I remember, in 1933 started the foundation for the organization for

socialist activities in Odisha. It was named as Odisha Congress
Samyabadi Karmee Sangha(Odisha Congress Communist Workers
League). In his autobiographical study published in 1984 he also statedFrom Feburary 1933 the Samyabadi Karmee Sangha started active work in
Odisha and after two months of the formation in May 1933 Sarathi was
published. This view is absolutely wrong as he himself in his essay entitled
“Odishare Samyabadi Dala”(Socialist Party in Odisha) in Naba Bharat (of
Karkata, 1343 Sala or August, 1936) he stated-After gradual evolution of
ideas every one felt the necessity of a disciplined and united institution and
consequently in February 1934 without waiting for the help or well-wishes
of any leader some activists started an institution called Utkala Congress
Samyabadi Dala. Scholars should read this context of Surendra Dwibedi in

Naba Bharata of 1936 first as in the 1970s onwards he might have not
remembered the correct date. Besides Naba Bharat we have other reliable
references for this context.
Nabakrushna Chaudhury as general secretary of this league had
given a report in Asha of June 11 1934. He stated in this report-“on the
basis of the past experience many amongst the activists desiring for full
independence of India clearly understood that the path must be scientific
which is the programme displaying socialism. For that everywhere in India

there is a call for socialist movement. In every country there is a small or
big party of socialism. Congress in India is the biggest political organization
and it has come to mass contact more by the leadership of Mahatma
Gandhi. For that reason nowadays many Congress activists have joined
the Socialist movement and many socialists in Congress have attempted to
reorient the movement of the Congress towards Socialism. As a result
inside Congress there is a Socialist Party. Some Congress activists of
Utkala in February(1934) started working after forming a Samyabadi
Karmee Sangha. Now on the basis of the resolutions of the All India
Congress Socialist Conference this Karmee Sangha would be reconstituted
and efforts would be made for its expansion.” On the basis of this report of
Nabakrushna Chaudhury in Asha of June 11 1934 one can be definite that
in Odisha Samyabadi Karmee Sangha was established for the first time in
Feburary 1934.Before the formation of this Karmee Sangha Nabakrushna
was asked in Deshakatha in November 1933 about his future activities. He
stated-“He has nothing to do alone. As there is no regular political party for
the general people some indiscipline is being created during Congress
phase. As the wave of national movement began to recede suddenly we
have been divided, personal interest looms large, in the educated society
there appears mean and contradictory divisions like Bengali-Odia, KaranaBrahmana, Puri-Cuttack which confuse all of us. It seems Odisha suddenly

is now twenty years backward. Due to all these conflicting and narrow
divisive tendencies in Odisha united effort or a combined party for common
welfare is necessary. I am thinking in this line and am trying to work in a
party consisting of those members having similar interest, opinion and
belief.” With this idea he with the collaboration of others had formed the

Samyabadi Sangha in February 1934 and by June it began to expand with
some new but important members. Gangadhar Mishra, Gokulmohan
Raichudamani, Gaurachandra Das, Malati Chaudhuri, Gobinda Chandra
Mishra, Dibakar Pattnaik and Prananath Patnaik were some of the
members in this association.
For the expansion of socialism in Odisha though the Samyabadi
Karmee Sangha a weekly magazine called Sarathi also appeared from
March 1934. According to Deshakatha of 13th March 1934 Nabakrushna
was its editor. Deshkatha stated that Sarathi was to focus on the peasants
and wage earners. It stated that the nation would prosper only with the
prosperity of the peasants and workers. Evaluating the new magazine
Sarathi Deshkatha also stated that the peasants of Odisha were in a testing
phase. They were almost dead though alive. The Congress and the colonial
government enjoyed all opportunities in this helpless pitiable situation of the

peasants. Some Odia nationalists were in the dreamland of making
separate province of Odisha so that in the new province the peasants
would be more helpless in the exploitative system of the landlords and
babus. In this situation Sarathi of Bhai Nabakrushna should prepare some
peasants to face the situation.(Deshkatha, 13th March, 1934) Sarathi
presented the programmes of the Samyabadi Sammilani in one of its
issues of June 1934(First year, 14 th Number, 18th June). In Sarathi
Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi, Prananath Patnaik, Manmohan Chaudhury
and others had presented insightful issues. For example the article of
Bhagabati Panigrahi entitled “Pruthibira Sankata O Sethiru Nistara Paibara
Upaya”(The World Crisis and Ways for Escaping from it) appeared in
Sarathi in 16th April, 1934(Sarathi, 1/6). It was serialized in Sarathi and was
completed in five issues. In that insightful focus Panigrahi explained the
theory of socialism in simple language. Besides Panigrahi, Nabakrushna
Chaudhury had several essays and editorial notes in this Sarathi.
Manmohan Chaudhuri had a focus entitled “Itihasaku Bikruta Karibara
Chesta”(The Effort to tarnish History) in Sarathi of 27th August,
1934(Sarathi, 1/23). Gurucharan Patnaik and Gokulananda Mohanty had
also contributed to the first volume of Sarathi with their meaningful ideas.
Thus though Sarathi prepared the Odias for the new generation in the

1930s it was not properly appreciated by the scholars. Sarathi needs to be
studied and used for a comprehensive study of Marxism in Odisha.
References
1. Dwibewdi, S. N., “Odishare Samyabadi Dala”, Naba Bharat, ed.
Nilakantha Das, Vol.3, No.2, Kakada, Sala 1343, August, 1936.
2. Dwibedi, S.N., Mo Jibana Sangrama, Grantha Mandira, 1934.
3. Asha, 1934, June.
4. Deshkatha, 1934, March.
5. Satpathy, Bijay Kuymar, Odia Sahityare Prgatibadi Dhara, Odisha
Book Store, Cuttack, 1995.
6. Dash, Kailash Chandra, “Abismaraniya Samyabadi Nabakrushna
Chaudhury”, Samadrusti, ed. Sudhir Patnaik, June, 16-30, 2006,
p.18-22.