Education has been the game changer throughout the history of mankind and we Odiyas know that by paying through our lives! Though it’s a common cliché that public memory is short; yet, no knowledgeable Odia should forget the catastrophe that was the infamous 1866 famine – popularly known as “Na anka Durvikshya” – the that ravaged Odisha during the ninth year of the reign of Gajapathi Dibyasigh Dev. Lest people misunderstood, let me clarify, the administration was under the control of British colonials and the king was only a nominal figurehead.
Famine of 1866:
A third of the population of the then Odisha perished in this famine. How painful the deaths would have been; for, people died by degrees! Death due to malnutrition and hunger saps the vitals and by the time the hapless creatures die they are reduced to bags of bones and it happens over months not days. So if you’ve fasted for a day or two you can fathom the excruciating pain that precedes the eventual death under such circumstances.
The real cause of the large-scale deaths:
Contrary to what a naïve person may think, the then British Commissioner of Odisha- T E Revenshaw- though a simpleton was actually a good man! In the after math, as a stock take, he’d realize that the real reason for such a colossal human loss was the absence of educated people in Odisha. For, then, there was not a single Odiya who was a graduate; whose words the British would respect and heed to. Most of the clerks and support staff of the British administration in Odisha were from Bengal compound the situation. For, true to the nature of these natives, one group slightly advanced looked down upon another marginally backward. So, Bengalis despised and looked down upon- and still they do-Odias. The Odia noblemen, who had access to the commissioner, could not impress upon him the gravity of the situation and hence for a very long time he believed what was fed into his ears by some other native staff: that the lack of grains in the market is due to hoarding by the Sahukars and Zamindars! He was a firm believer in the free market and hence thought the invisible hand of the market would correct this anomaly!
A paradox- a cruel joke!
At the heights of this famine -On December 11, 1865- a French ship named ‘Filanim’ carrying rice docked at Puri and got damaged. This was a fantastic opportunity for the government to procure rice from the damaged ship and sell (not distribute, for people had money) among the needy people. Yet, owing to the misunderstanding stated above, the commissioner declined such suggestions. Eventually the ship was repaired and departed in March 1866, when scores of people were dying due to hunger in Puri. The ship owner, transporters and the insurance company lost money in the process. Had the government decided otherwise, it would have been a win- win situation; for, it had 6,000 bags of rice, which would have saved at least that many families.
The visiting lieutenant governor of Bengal also missed what was obvious!
To rub salt on the wounds, Sir Cecil Beadon (1816–1880) - then lieutenant governor of Bengal – visited Odisha during February 13 to 19, 1866. He reached at Puri on 13 February and despite seeing hundreds of half dead human beings clamoring for food, throughout his visit, completely failed to understand the gravity of the situation and reiterated his deputy’s belief in the market force to self correct itself. What was more; it was for the first time any lieutenant governor of the then British Empire visited Odisha!
To cut the long story short, the commissioner and lieutenant governor were found guilty of neglect by the commission of inquiry and it hurt commissioner Revenshaw tremendously. He realized that because the level of education in Odisha was very low that affected communication between the governed and the governors. Thereafter he whole-heartedly worked to advance dissemination of knowledge in Odisha. The result was the first collage in Odisha- Revenshaw collage (1868), which became a university in November’ 2006.
So; as we paid a very heavy price to convert Chanda-Ashoka into Dharma-Ashoka; so also, our access to higher knowledge is paved with the skeletons of our fore-bearers.
The progress after 1866:
In the last 145 years, since that catastrophe- famine of Odisha in 1866, we’ve made a lot of progress and there are no two words about it. The first Odia News paper – Utkala Dipika- saw the light on 4 august 1866 as the relief operations, in the aftermath of the famine, poured money into this press and now there are hundreds of publications from Odisha.
Utkal University- the first modern day University in Odisha- was established in 1943. With the founding of Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University at Puri- in 1981- the number of universities went to 5. On the last count, this number has further increased to 17 and that of the number of degree collages in Odisha to 636. Besides these, now there are so many other technical educational institutions including more than one hundred engineering collages.
A new hunger for equality (fueled by democracy):
However, now a new reality beckons us. The raw hunger has been replaced with the hunger for higher principles and practices. After testing political equality through democracy now the common man has an insatiable hunger for economic equality and in that path that what comes as a hindrance is: again knowledge! Yes, now the people who are in demand are the ones with the right skill sets.
Last words:
To thrive in this transient world of enormous opportunities and also multidimensional threats, not forgetting that of the nature and environment, what is going to separate men from boys is sought after “skills”. Thanks to the digital and IT revolution now one need not placate the whims or fancy of a semi-literate teacher to acquire skills. The need of the hour are: Digital libraries and reading rooms; tele-teaching where a villager can access the finest lectures at his own village. The government should play the role of a facilitator and what ever skill capital we have we'd judiciously pull that to augment the critical capital and then put our heart and soul to further expand our knowledge base. Perhaps i am sounding hollow! Let me state that in very simple terms.
We are still mostly illiterate. For, most of our collage graduates are incapable of transacting in English, what to talk of simple matriculates or school dropouts. Yet the situation is vastly different from what it was in 1866. Then- in 1866- there was nobody who was a graduate today we have a million plus graduates. If we want our people to make rapid strides then two skill sets are very crucial: Mathematical reasoning and English! Yes, English! For, the key to this eldorado- gold mine- of knowledge is this language. By having functional alumni associations, in our numerous educational institutions, if we make a very determined effort to spread the knowledge about this language to all the people then it would herald a revolution which is unheard of and we- the people in third world countries- would march closer to the status of a "Knowledge economy", the hallmark of developed nations. Why alumni association? Well if you have a better alternative then why don't you suggest that!
So let's spruce up our skill base, which-so-ever way we can!
Famine of 1866:
A third of the population of the then Odisha perished in this famine. How painful the deaths would have been; for, people died by degrees! Death due to malnutrition and hunger saps the vitals and by the time the hapless creatures die they are reduced to bags of bones and it happens over months not days. So if you’ve fasted for a day or two you can fathom the excruciating pain that precedes the eventual death under such circumstances.
The real cause of the large-scale deaths:
Contrary to what a naïve person may think, the then British Commissioner of Odisha- T E Revenshaw- though a simpleton was actually a good man! In the after math, as a stock take, he’d realize that the real reason for such a colossal human loss was the absence of educated people in Odisha. For, then, there was not a single Odiya who was a graduate; whose words the British would respect and heed to. Most of the clerks and support staff of the British administration in Odisha were from Bengal compound the situation. For, true to the nature of these natives, one group slightly advanced looked down upon another marginally backward. So, Bengalis despised and looked down upon- and still they do-Odias. The Odia noblemen, who had access to the commissioner, could not impress upon him the gravity of the situation and hence for a very long time he believed what was fed into his ears by some other native staff: that the lack of grains in the market is due to hoarding by the Sahukars and Zamindars! He was a firm believer in the free market and hence thought the invisible hand of the market would correct this anomaly!
A paradox- a cruel joke!
At the heights of this famine -On December 11, 1865- a French ship named ‘Filanim’ carrying rice docked at Puri and got damaged. This was a fantastic opportunity for the government to procure rice from the damaged ship and sell (not distribute, for people had money) among the needy people. Yet, owing to the misunderstanding stated above, the commissioner declined such suggestions. Eventually the ship was repaired and departed in March 1866, when scores of people were dying due to hunger in Puri. The ship owner, transporters and the insurance company lost money in the process. Had the government decided otherwise, it would have been a win- win situation; for, it had 6,000 bags of rice, which would have saved at least that many families.
The visiting lieutenant governor of Bengal also missed what was obvious!
To rub salt on the wounds, Sir Cecil Beadon (1816–1880) - then lieutenant governor of Bengal – visited Odisha during February 13 to 19, 1866. He reached at Puri on 13 February and despite seeing hundreds of half dead human beings clamoring for food, throughout his visit, completely failed to understand the gravity of the situation and reiterated his deputy’s belief in the market force to self correct itself. What was more; it was for the first time any lieutenant governor of the then British Empire visited Odisha!
To cut the long story short, the commissioner and lieutenant governor were found guilty of neglect by the commission of inquiry and it hurt commissioner Revenshaw tremendously. He realized that because the level of education in Odisha was very low that affected communication between the governed and the governors. Thereafter he whole-heartedly worked to advance dissemination of knowledge in Odisha. The result was the first collage in Odisha- Revenshaw collage (1868), which became a university in November’ 2006.
So; as we paid a very heavy price to convert Chanda-Ashoka into Dharma-Ashoka; so also, our access to higher knowledge is paved with the skeletons of our fore-bearers.
The progress after 1866:
In the last 145 years, since that catastrophe- famine of Odisha in 1866, we’ve made a lot of progress and there are no two words about it. The first Odia News paper – Utkala Dipika- saw the light on 4 august 1866 as the relief operations, in the aftermath of the famine, poured money into this press and now there are hundreds of publications from Odisha.
Utkal University- the first modern day University in Odisha- was established in 1943. With the founding of Sri Jagannath Sanskrit University at Puri- in 1981- the number of universities went to 5. On the last count, this number has further increased to 17 and that of the number of degree collages in Odisha to 636. Besides these, now there are so many other technical educational institutions including more than one hundred engineering collages.
A new hunger for equality (fueled by democracy):
However, now a new reality beckons us. The raw hunger has been replaced with the hunger for higher principles and practices. After testing political equality through democracy now the common man has an insatiable hunger for economic equality and in that path that what comes as a hindrance is: again knowledge! Yes, now the people who are in demand are the ones with the right skill sets.
Last words:
To thrive in this transient world of enormous opportunities and also multidimensional threats, not forgetting that of the nature and environment, what is going to separate men from boys is sought after “skills”. Thanks to the digital and IT revolution now one need not placate the whims or fancy of a semi-literate teacher to acquire skills. The need of the hour are: Digital libraries and reading rooms; tele-teaching where a villager can access the finest lectures at his own village. The government should play the role of a facilitator and what ever skill capital we have we'd judiciously pull that to augment the critical capital and then put our heart and soul to further expand our knowledge base. Perhaps i am sounding hollow! Let me state that in very simple terms.
We are still mostly illiterate. For, most of our collage graduates are incapable of transacting in English, what to talk of simple matriculates or school dropouts. Yet the situation is vastly different from what it was in 1866. Then- in 1866- there was nobody who was a graduate today we have a million plus graduates. If we want our people to make rapid strides then two skill sets are very crucial: Mathematical reasoning and English! Yes, English! For, the key to this eldorado- gold mine- of knowledge is this language. By having functional alumni associations, in our numerous educational institutions, if we make a very determined effort to spread the knowledge about this language to all the people then it would herald a revolution which is unheard of and we- the people in third world countries- would march closer to the status of a "Knowledge economy", the hallmark of developed nations. Why alumni association? Well if you have a better alternative then why don't you suggest that!
So let's spruce up our skill base, which-so-ever way we can!
3 comments:
Hi Sid,
An excellent article. I loved your research of facts behind the famine. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
The paradox of education is if it is not coupled with deep rooted value then it can be as evil. You may like to ponder on this some time.
I agree with you though we should keep our hunger for education keep going to get parity with rest of India and rest of the World. Education here I do not just mean the certificates but the skills. Sujeet
Thank you Sujeet :)
I do mull over the suggestion given. Steven Covey has done some research on that line and some of his findings are nicely captured in his book "7 Habits of highly effective people".
You've rightly said we've to put the thrust on skill acquisition not just bookish knowledge.
Wow good website, thank you.
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