BHUBANESWAR: Stories of the struggle for the preservation of Odia identity and the formation of a separate Odia state based on language is what led historian Nivedita Mohanty to author ‘Odia Nationalism: Quest for a United Orissa 1866- 1956’ four decades back. The Odia translation of the book was released in the city on Thursday. The first edition was published in 1982.
Speaking about the extensively researched book, she says it puts in perspective the birth and growth of Odia nationalism which constitutes a major aspect of modern Odisha history. Odisha came under the British in 1803 and the symptoms of Odia nationalism became well discernible around 1866. “These signs slowly but steadily grew into a phenomenon embracing the whole of the Odia land, “ she says.
The culmination came about in 1936 when most of the Odia-speaking areas were constituted into a separate administrative province Odisha. However, the wishes of several outlying areas to be amalgamated remained unfulfilled, adds Mohanty who pursued her PhD at Heidelberg University. “The first edition of the book encompassed the development upto this point.
Subsequently, the process of integration of the Odisha princely states started and marked an important phase of the movement. Therefore a new chapter, ‘Formation of an Enlarged Orissa: Merger of the Princely States’ was added in the second edition,” she says.
The saga of Odia nationalism as covered in the volume spanned 20 more years, i.e. till 1956, which witnessed the final phase of the quest for a united Odisha in the 20th century. The present and third edition additionally carries many photographs, mostly of personalities who considerably impacted the movement on the ground and of a few newspapers that provided support to the action through the media.