Review: Fakir Mohan Senapati's Discovery from below: Decolonisation and the Search for

Linguistic Authenticity
Reviewed Work(s): Chha Mana Atha Guntha (Six Acres and a Third) by Fakir Mohan
Senapati
Review by: Gaganendra Nath Dash
Source: Economic and Political Weekly , Nov. 18-24, 2006, Vol. 41, No. 46 (Nov. 18-24,
2006), pp. 4801-4806
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4418924

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Economic and Political Weekly

This content downloaded from

103.212.147.245 on Sun, 22 Aug 2021 08:27:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Fakir Mohan Senapati's Discovery from Below
Decolonisation and the Search for Linguistic Authenticity
Unlike his contemporary Oriya writers, Fakir Mohan Senapati played a major
role in constructing an Oriya identity in literature, shunning Bengali influence. He came
to know where the real differences between the Bengali and Oriya languages lie
and also what kind of Oriya, free of any Bengali influence, he would have to adopt in
hisfuture literary endeavours. He decided to use the living speech of the
men and women belonging to agrarian rural society.

GAGANENDRA NATH DASH

U nlike his contemporary Oriya (and Indian) writers, Fakir in each of these administrative units and who were also the
Mohan Senapati wrote his novels and short stories in the middle-ranking officials of the colonial government.4 Wheneve
colloquial speech - the living language - of the common a government position fell vacant, some of these officials saw
people. But why and how Fakir Mohan came to draw on thisto it that one of their own fellow speakers, preferably one o
language - using mostly 'desaja' and 'tadbhava' words - while their relatives or friends, secured the job.5 Taking advantage o
his contemporary Oriya writers were using mainly 'tatsama' the sunset-law, some Bengalis acquired many 'zamindaris' in
words, Sanskrit words borrowed into Oriya language, has never Orissa at throwaway prices.6The Oriya speakers, speaking
been explained satisfactorily.1 language different from the languages these middle-rankin
In order to understand why and how Fakir Mohan adopted such officials spoke, felt that they were at the receiving end simply
a prose style, we need to go back more than a quarter-century because they were outnumbered, the result of being divided int
earlier than 1897- the year he started writing prose fiction -different administrative units. As Oriyas were considered th
and examine a set of significant historical events as well as the"other" by their neighbours, the Bengali, the Telugu and the Hind
forces and counter-forces that operated in the context of the Oriyaspeakers, they felt the need to construct an imagined community
Language Agitation (hereafter OLA), a socio-political move-of Oriya speakers7 and in turn to view those Bengali, Telug
ment that occurred, in three successive phases, from early 1868and Hindi speakers as the political "others". This feeling found
to mid-1870. an expression in the organised manner in the form of the OLA
In the modem age, characterised by the construction of com-in coastal Orissa, comprising the Cuttack, Puri and Balasor
peting and contesting social identities, the role of language,districts under the Bengal presidency (which was the only area
that was identified as Orissa under British rule). That is how th
especially because of its capacity to determine a group's identity,
became crucial. Because of the increasing mass readership, itselffirst major step in the construction of language-based Oriy
a result of the introduction of the printing press, the spread of identity was taken.8 The colonial administrators such as T E
education and the governmentjobs (a source of prosperity, prestigeRavenshaw, the commissioner of Orissa, and John Beames, the
and power)2 mass education created, the political role of language collector of Balasore, played direct and/or indirect roles in the
became clear and battles over linguistic authenticity were being OLA and through it in the construction of a modem Oriya identity
waged all over the world. Two of the competing and contesting The primary goal of the OLA9 was to oppose the imposition
identities in eastern India, the Bengali and the Oriya - themselves of Bengali in the Orissan schools. lR L Mitra1l and Kanti-
engaged in claims and counter-claims in the context of the OLAchandra Bhattacharya, representing Bengali and with the inten
- provided indirect impetus for Fakir Mohan to seek a modeltion of replacing Oriya with Bengali in the schools of Orissa
of linguistic authenticity. advanced the self-interested ideological claim that Oriya was no
an independent language, but a mere dialect of Bengali because
Decolonising Process of the great similarities between the two. Gourishankar Ray an
Jagamohan Ray - both Orissans of Bengali origin - John Beame
The OLA was the first concrete step towards a "decolonising"(the colonial administrator and philologist), Bhudev
process in the Oriya-speaking tracts. Let me explain this in someMukhopadhyaya, the respected Bengali intellectual and educa-
tionist and Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, the Bengali poet12 (and
detail here. It does not suffice to state that in the 19th century
the people in the Oriya-speaking tracts were under colonial rule.many others, including Fakir Mohan Senapati) disputed that
The situation was much more complex. It may not be entirely claim, representing the interests of Oriya speakers.
wrong to state that the Oriya-speaking tracts were at that time The imposition of Bengali in Orissan schools would have meant
divided into three "smaller colonies" inside a larger British the strengthening or the perpetuation of the "colonising" process.
colony. The Oriya speakers in these smaller colonies, in theIt was intended to ensure that Bengalis would continue to secure
Bengal and Madras presidencies and the central provinces,3 felt the government jobs. After the British occupation, which coin-
dominated, looked down upon, cheated and unjustly treated bycided with the advent of the modem period in the history of Orissa,
the Bengali, Telugu and Hindi-speakers, who outnumbered them government jobs had become a secure source of income, nay of

Economic and Political Weekly November 18, 2006 4801

This content downloaded from

103.212.147.245 on Sun, 22 Aug 2021 08:27:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
prosperity, prestige and even power.13 Furthermore, the impo- language-based modern Oriya identity, was naturally very
sition of Bengali would have augmented the income of the writers sensitive to such criticism. It appears that this criticism made a
of Bengali textbooks through the sale of these books in Orissa. deep impression on Fakir Mohan and also made him determined
R L Mitra argued for the imposition of a Bengali identity on to write only in "genuine" or "authentic" Oriya in the future.
Oriya speakers as the ultimate goal: "the Uriyas... would be united His quest for linguistic authenticity - to discover the genuine
with a race of 30 millions with which they have so many things or authentic Oriya, which could be made the "national print
in common". This goal, he stated, was not only desirable, but language"'18- had begun.
also easily achievable through bureaucratic fiat: It may be mentioned in that connection that earlier in 1866
Nor is the fusion of their language into ours at all impracticable. Fakir Mohan had published a book, Jibanacharita, (later edited
The experiment has already been tried and found to be completely by Sudarsana Acharya in 1993, published by Taratarini
successful. Some 20 years ago when the district of Midnapur was Pustakalaya, Berhampur) which is an Oriya translation of a
transferred from the commissionership of Cuttack to that of Bengali book with the same title by Ishwarachandra Vidyasagar.
Burdwan, the language of the courts there and of the people was In March 1867, the language of this book was severely criticised
Uriya. The new commissioner, for the sake of uniformity in all anonymously in the Letters to the Editor column of Utkala
his districts or some other cause, suppressed Uriya, and introduced Dipika.19 Citing instances of artificiality, Bengali influence, and
Bengali language, and nearly the whole of Midnapur has now the dialectal variation in the book, this anonymous person urged
become a Bengali-speaking district, and men there often feel the writer of the book to discard the foreign elements found in
offended if they are called Uriyas. That similar measures in
the speech of the people of the city and to use instead the words
Balasore, Cuttack and Puri would effect a similar change, I have
no reason to doubt.14 found in the speech of the brahmans and karanas (the upper castes)
in the Oriya villages. But compared to the lower castes, the upper
But beneath such lofty rhetoric, Mitra's selfish motive was at castes like brahmans and karanas tend to use more tatsama words
work because he himself was a writer of Bengali language school in their speech20 and even at times erroneously use artificially
textbooks, drawing income from their sales. That may explain created "wrong" words, under the impression that they are tatsama
why he was at the forefront of the efforts to get Oriya replaced words,21 consequently, making their speech artificial. Therefore,
by Bengali in the schools of Orissa.15 The OLA may be their speech can never be called genuine or authentic Oriya. As
interpreted as the beginning of a "decolonising"16 process, and the their speech, unlike the speech of the lower castes, was not
efforts to free Oriya language from the influence of foreign dissimilar to the Bengali of the contemporary textbooks, full of
elements, especially of Bengali, was also another aspect of the tatsama words, the suggestion of the letter writer could not provide
same process. useful guidelines about writing Oriya prose free of Bengali
influence. That is why Fakir Mohan continued to write Bengali-
Second Phase of Agitation inflected Oriya prose even later in his 1869 history of India.
But if the tone of the criticism of the anonymous letter writer
In that context, one particularly important incident was the
in 1867 was harsh, in 1869 the tone of Gourishaikar Ray's
publication of volume I of The History of India, which Fakir
criticism was even harsher, mainly because of the prevailing
Mohan wrote in Oriya as a textbook. It was published in March/
tension arising out of the OLA. Fakir Mohan was, of course, an
April 1869. The atmosphere was already tense due to R L Mitra's
ardent Oriya nationalist and also very active in the construction
aggressive, but unprovoked assertion in a speech in Cuttack,
ofinmodem Oriya identity. So now in 1869, because of the OLA
December 1868, that the people of Orissa are only inflicting injury
and the tense atmosphere arising out of it, he was in no position
on themselves because of "their attachment to a provincial patois
to ignore the severe stricture on his language by Gourishankar.
[i e, Oriya language] which they wish to exalt into a distinct
On the contrary, he must have felt guilty and was determined
language" [Beames 1870, p 201]. He also added that, "the true
to write a more genuine Oriya prose, free of artificiality and of
well-wishers of Orissa must, first of all, try to get Oriya replaced
Bengali inflections. However, Gourishankar's criticism, in spite
by Bengali because otherwise the development of Orissa would of its severity, failed to provide any positive or clear guidance
be impossible" (reported in Utkala Dipika, March 13, 1869; and direction as to how to write genuine or authentic Oriya devoid
author's translation). This declaration and the ensuing contro-of artifice or colonialist influence, far less how to adopt that in
versy in fact started the second phase of the Oriya Language his literary pursuits. (At best his ideas, in this respect, were hazy.)
Agitation. Oriyas - led by Gourishankar Ray, the editor of Nevertheless
the the criticism made a deep impression on Fakir
weekly periodical Utkala Dipika and a prominent figure inMohan, the setting him off on his quest for linguistic authenticity.
language agitation - made vehement protests. Fakir Mohan's just Then in January 1870, another event took place. That was again
published history book added fuel to the fire as the language theofpublication ofanotherbook, this time in Bengali, named Uriya
the book, although Oriya, was, to some extent, influenced by
Swatantra Bhasa Nahe (Oriya Is Not an Independent Language)
contemporary upper caste Bengali. Gourishankar wrote a dama- by Kantichandra Bhattacharya, the pandit of the government
ging review of the book in Utkala Dipika.17 Calling Fakir Mohan school, Balasore. Following R L Mitra closely, Bhattacharya
a "false friend", he called the book a "poisonous sweet" argued and that Oriya was merely a dialect of Bengali or even "corrupt
expressed the apprehension that the author perhaps wanted Bengali". In order to prove his point, Bhattacharya quoted what
the extinction of the Oriya language. Gourishankar, who other- Fakir Mohan had stated in the preface to his Oriya translation
wise held Fakir Mohan in high esteem especially because ofofthe Bengali language Jibanacharita, by Iswarachandra Vidya-
Fakir Mohan's love for Oriya language and literature, was sagar, earlier in 1866 (perhaps without fully comprehending its
provoked to make such harsh comments because of the tense implications) - that Bengali language automatically becomes
cultural atmosphere that prevailed. It is quite likely that Fakir
Oriya when only the verb is changed. Besides, Bhattacharya
Mohan, who played an active role in the construction ofquoted the a passage from the Bengali work by Iswarachandra

4802 Economic and Political Weekly November 18, 2006

This content downloaded from

103.212.147.245 on Sun, 22 Aug 2021 08:27:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Vidyasagar and also the same passage rendered into Oriya by in their language, being or pretending to be under the impression
Fakir Mohan, purporting to show that both Oriya and Bengali that they have always been in use and have come down to the
languages are strikingly similar. The publication of this book present day unaffected by the laws of development to which all
caused a stir and created a great furore among the native Oriya languages are subject. This is an obvious error. If the Pandits'
idea were true, these languages would be...absolute linguistic
speakers, especially in Balasore, and their sharp reaction ushered
monstrosities.23
in the third phase of the OLA. Fakir Mohan, who was already
quite sensitive to the issue, must have felt embarrassed about He further opined, "The excessive number of tatsamas in
his earlier comments on the similarity between Oriya and Bengali. Bengali and Oriya, far from indicating a high degree of pres-
That perhaps prompted him even more to be at the forefront of ervation, points rather to great poverty in the language".24 Finally,
the OLA in Balasore. Now he became determined, more than holding the colonial educational system entirely responsible for
ever, to write in a more genuine or authentic Oriya. But his ideas the artificial entry of a large number of tatsama words in the school
on the nature of "true" or "authentic" literary Oriya, suitable for textbooks, he pronounced,
prose writing, were still far from clear or concrete.
the great brahmanical theory was, and among the orthodox still
Then an event occurred that immensely helped Fakir Mohan
to a great extent is, that Sanskrit, a divine invention, is the only
to define his ideas in much more concrete terms. John Beames
true and correct Indian language, and that all deviations from the
of the Bengal Civil Service, the celebrated philologist, was then
Sanskrit observable in the conversation of the masses are corrup-
the collector of Balasore. The furore among the Oriya speakers tions arising from ignorance; and that to purify and improve the
attracted his attention and he was stimulated to write a paper vernacular - Bengali for instance - every word should be restored
challenging the contention of Bhattacharya's book and present
to its original Sanskrit shape, and the stream be lmade to run
upwards to its source.... So completely does this idea prevail, that
it at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. While
dismissing this Bengali book as "profoundly destitute of philo- the honest old Tadbhavas were entirely banished from books, and
a host of Tatsanea [were] dug up from their graves and resuscitated
logical arguments" he pointed to "the fact that the Sanskrit words
so largely employed by pandits of Bengal and Orissa, are not for daily use....Orissa at a later date followed the lead of Bengali,
and from the causes above mentioned it has resulted that in both
living words at all, (since) they are dead, dead ages ago and only
provinces the national speech has been banished from books, and
now galvanised into the semblance of life; they form no part of
now lives only in the mouths of the people; and even they as soon
the working stock of words of the language". He continued,
as they get a little learning, begin to ape their betters and come
When they died ages ago, their sons inherited their place, and now
out with the Tatsamas with which both languages are now com-
their grandsons or great-grandsons hold it. In plain English suchpletely flooded.25
Sanskrit words as were used by the Uriyas and the Bengalis 25
centuries ago, have since then undergone the usual fate of words,It may be mentioned that the books referred to by Beames were
mostly written by people belonging to the upper castes. No
and have been corrupted, abraded, and distorted till they often
wonder the books were tatsama-ridden.
bear no resemblance at all to the original word. And it is these
corrupted, or as they are called 'Tadbhava' words, that are theThese pronouncements by Beames - especially about the
difference between the speech of "a chasa of Gumsar" and "a
real living words of the language, the words that have been worn
into their present shape by long use in the mouths of the people.
chasa of Dacca" (Beames' emphases) must have made a profound
These words our fastidious writers reject, and when by going back
impression on Fakir Mohan's mind. Whether or not Fakir Mohan
to the Sanskrit for their words, they have composed a workactually
to read the above works by Beames, he must have been
their taste, lo! They say Uriya and Bengali are one language; for
quite familiar with his (Beames') views, since the two men had
proof, read such and such works. I would suggest rather, let them
close intellectual contact: Fakir Mohan was a frequent visitor
take a chasa of Dacca and a chasa of Gunsar, and see how much
to Beames and assisted him in writing his 'Comparative Gram-
they understand of one another's talk.22
mar'. It may be mentioned that Beames was not merely a well
It may be mentioned here that 'chasa' is the name of a caste wisher of Fakir Mohan, but was also responsible for his worldly
or 'jati' of cultivators or peasants belonging to the lowest rung,
success. Fakir Mohan was never shy of admitting Beames' help.
i e, 'sudra' in the four 'varna' scale. Beames treated all the desaja
Indeed, he mentioned that with great enthusiasm and fervour in
words- which, most probably, were derived either from Dravidian his autobiography. Fakir Mohan, who at times assisted Beames
or Austroasiatic/Munda languages - in Modern Indo-Aryan in his intellectual endeavours, had great respect for Beames'
languages as 'tadbhavas'. In other words, according to Beames
learning, knowledge and opinion. His emotional feelings for
not only the tadbhava words, but also the desaja words, foundBeames were so strong that he even went so far as to call this
in Oriya and Bengali, are the real words of the languages. Thus
colonial administrator a great saint or a 'mahatma' (great soul).
Beames could convincingly argue that the so-called similarity
Therefore, Beames' pronouncement on the nature of artificiality
between the Oriya and Bengali languages was artificial, resulting
in the language of the Bengali and Oriya books of the period
from the artificial and abundant use of the tatsama words or words
- the abundance of tatsama words in them - and the profound
borrowed from Sanskrit in both languages and only to be foundimpression that must have made on Fakir Mohan's mind may
in the newly written school textbooks- thus successfully refuting
be considered in the context of Fakir Mohan's both emotional
Bhattacharya's thesis. and intellectual attachment to Beames.
In 1872, the Volume I of Comparative Grammar ofthe Modern Beames' views clearly suggested an answer to the question
Aryan Languages of India by Beames was published. In itabout he linguistic authenticity with which Fakir Mohan had been
went even to a greater length to explain his view. In short, preoccupied. He now seemed to have discovered where the
according to him, independence and authenticity of Oriya language (or, for that
matter, any moder language) lies. Beames opened before him
[Some users of Bengali and Oriya] ... delight in Tatsama words,
and the learned in those provinces are proud of having such words
a route to a new world. It was not just the discovery of a language

Economic and Political Weekly November 18, 2006 4803

This content downloaded from

103.212.147.245 on Sun, 22 Aug 2021 08:27:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
or medium, it led him to study and analyse the agrarian society Mohan held such individual colonial administrators as Beames
of Orissa in depth. He was as it were freed from the linguistic and Ravenshaw in high esteem - they were not only his bene-
net of both Sanskrit and upper caste Bengali. He was now factors, but also played important roles in retaining Oriya as the
determined to use the language of the cultivators, the sudras, the medium of instruction in Orissan schools and thereby also
belonging to the lowest rung of the social hierarchy, the people in the construction of modern Oriya identity. That is, perhaps,
who lived below the world of tatsama.. In other words he decided how his first novel Chha Mana came to be conceived and how
to use the living speech of the common people of Orissa, men his search for the linguistic authenticity lay beneath both the
and women belonging to the agrarian rural society. naturalist and analytical realism29 one comes across in the novel.
In contrast to Beames' emphasis on the speech of chasa, a jati Further, because of this emphasis on the speech (and through
of sudras as the "genuine" or "authentic" Oriya, the anonymous it on the lives and the problems) of the common people of the
letter writer of the Utkala Dipika in 1867 had made the suggestion agrarian rural society of Orissa, it also formed a part of the modern
to go to the upper castes, the brahmans and karans, of the villages subaltern discourse in Orissa in its initial phase.
seeking the genuine or authentic Oriya. Further, unlike the letter It is generally believed that a novelist first chooses his or her
writer of 1867, Beames never suggested that words from Sanskrit subject matter or theme, then constructs the plot and the characters
be borrowed. Fakir Mohan's goal was now to discover the desaja which will best represent the subject matter or theme, and finally
and tadbhava world that lay below the tatsama world. the subject matter and the characters of the novel determine its
Fakir Mohan came to know where the real differences between language and style. In other words, it is generally assumed that
the Bengali and Oriya languages lie and also what kind of Oriya, the subject matter and characters of a novel determine its language
free of any Bengali influence, he would have to adopt in his futureand style. But from the above discussion it appears that in the
literary endeavours. His quest had come to a successful end. It case of Chha Mana perhaps the opposite happened and it is the
will certainly be the speech of the chasas of Orissa, if not exactlylanguage discovered from below in a peculiar historical circum-
a chasa of Gumsar. He was determined to use the speech of thestance that determined the characters as well as the subject matter
cultivators or a language that was as close to it as possible. Inof the novel. Such priority and emphasis on language on Fakir
other words, he decided to use the living speech of the men and Mohan's part was quite natural and understandable, since he had
women belonging to the agrarian rural society. been playing a very active role in the construction of language-
It may further be pointed out here that E C B Hallam, a Christian based Oriya identity.
missionary, then stationed at Balasore, published his Oriya While not exactly disputing the claim that "Senapati's text
Grammarfor English Students in 1874. From the preface of this builds on a pre-text, that is Bengal Peasant Life, and, does so,
grammar, it appears that he more or less subscribed to Beames'moreover, by rewriting and reworking..."30 (or as another critic
views on genuine or authentic Oriya. From the same preface itwill have it, "One of the key literary models Senapati has in mind
is known that he also had a close scholarly contact with Beames is...Bengal Peasant Life..."),31 it may be convincingly argued.
and with Fakir Mohan. Beames had "kindly aided very materially that the interest, impulse and impetus for building the text of
in the work by carefully criticising almost every page".26 There- Chha Mana was most probably provided by the opinion and
fore, he might have come under Beames' influence regarding
pronouncements of Beames and also his own determination to
write in the language of the chasas or peasants of Orissa.
the notion of a genuine or authentic Oriya. Alternatively, he might
have formed the same conclusion on the basis of his own ex- Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why he did not choose
perience as a missionary who came in close contact with the to build this text on any of the other pre-texts available to him,
such as Durgesh Nandini, Rajasimha, or even Bisabriksha by
common people belonging to the agrarian rural society of Orissa.
Hallam's views might also have reinforced and strengthened the
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, which he had also read, especially
profound impression Beames' views had already made on Fakir when at places the presentation and description of Chha Mana
Mohan's mind.27 has come, at least to some extent, under the influence of
Therefore, when Fakir Mohan started writing his novels and Bisabriksha.32
short stories later, his prior decision, nay determination, to writeMy point about Fakir Mohan's decision to focus on the Oriya
in genuine or authentic Oriya free of any upper caste Bengali chasa is further substantiated by the very title of this novel, clearly
influence led him to the speech of the cultivators or chasasindicating
of that it is a tale concerning land (farming and related
Orissa, or in other words, the speech of men and women of the issues). It is devoid of traditional romantic elements, involving
agrarian rural society of Orissa. That compelled him to accept conventional heroes and heroines, belonging to the upper caste
the real speakers, i e, cultivators - or in other words, men and and strata of the society - and this is unusual compared to the
women from the same agrarian rural society - as characters. That,titles of contemporary Oriya (or for that matter Bengali) novels.
in turn, determined the theme or the subject matter of his very As indicated by its title, it is as if a plot of land, rather than any
first novel, Chha Mana Atha Guntha (hereafter Chha Mana) individual human being, has become the protagonist of this novel.
as he had to write on different aspects: the joys and sorrows, Moreover, in this novel there are a good many number of words
laughter and tears, hopes and frustrations, hatred and love, in Chha Mana that are either desaja or tadbhava. They are related
hypocrisies and sacrifices, customs and superstitions, and alsoto agriculture (chasa): different kinds of holding ('lakhraji', 'bahel',
the emotions and passions of the men and women of the agri- 'bajyapti', 'debottara', 'brhmottara', 'jayagiri', 'khandayatimahal'),
cultural/agrarian rural society of Orissa. And that led him tomeasurement
go of land ('bati', 'mana', 'guntha', 'biswa', 'padika',
the roots and analyse the nature of the problems of the chasas 'nala'), measurement of paddy/corn ('bharana', 'nauti', 'gauni',
or peasants and understand the real causes of these problems, 'biswa'), different phases/stages and various operations in the
namely, the British land revenue, general administrative and cultivation of paddy ('hala-jochiba', 'hala-phitiba', 'kadhana',
'doada', 'buna', 'rua', 'pota', 'dhana-kata'), types of agricultural
judicial systems that had been imposed on Orissan society.28 Chha
Mana became an anti-colonial text in spite of the fact that Fakir
implements ('juali', 'langala', 'kodi') and also some other words

4804 Economic and Political Weekly November 18, 2006

This content downloaded from

103.212.147.245 on Sun, 22 Aug 2021 08:27:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
such as 'tali' (seedling), 'pua' (sapling), 'simsa' (ear of corn), with various sections of people during his long administrative career, and
'chasu' (chaff), 'hala' (sheaf of corn), 'rabana' (a kind of paddy), this determined his language in the novel. Further, he argued that it was
shaped by the time frame of action in his novels and short stories. I find
'akhimuthi' (sowing ceremony), 'chaka' (a compact area of land)
this explanation unconvincing. Although Surendra Mohanty and
'dipaniabalada' (bullock underthe yoke only for two years), 'mulia' J V Boulton, had almost stumbled upon the real reason they neither could
and 'halia' (labourer) 'baratana' (annual salary/wages), 'khala' comprehend it fully and nor did they, because of that, pursue and elaborate
(barn), 'amara' (granary), 'bhaga' (sharecropping), 'bakhara' (share- it and make any in-depth study. As a result they missed the point [for
cropping), 'bila' (field), 'kalinda' (fertile land), 'dedhi' (lending detailed information see Dash 1991-92].
paddy/grain at 50 per cent interest), 'karaja' (loan), etc. It even 2 This is another characteristic of the modern period that, with the emergence
of modern state, the number of government jobs, especially those for the
describes how the title or ownership of land used to be transferred.
literates, which have always been a good source of income, increased
In this respect Chha Mana is unique among other dramatically. It was also a European phenomenon. To quote Hobsbawm:
contemporary novels, none of which contain so many such words"the new form of government [was one] in which every adult (male)
relating to agriculture. inhabitant, and indeed as a subject of administration every inhabitant
Besides, one comes across a host of other words (again mostirrespective of sex and age, was directly linked with state government
of them are either desaja or tadbhava), expressions, proverbs and ...We note in passing that in the respective countries it probably constituted
the largest single body of employment requiring literacy" [Hobsbawm
idioms (e g, 'asudhana sukrabara hoinahin', 'ghadiru tela na saru',
1995: 81-82; see also Anderson 1991: 75-80].
'pua munda lukhura na rahu', etc) relating to agrarian rural life
3 That was precisely the case in 1862.
and society almost in every chapter and even in every paragraph4 Some of the chief causes of the 1917 anti-colonial Paik rebellion in Orissa,
of the novel. according to W Ewer, who led the goverment investigation, were "exactions
Of course, certain number oftatsama words (such as 'brahmottara', and injustice of the Bengali Amlas"; according to G Gouldsbury, the
'debottara', 'purnima', 'ekadasi') and also words of Perso-Arabic commissioner, they were "[the] machinations of the Bengali Amlas in
origin (such as 'khajana', 'asul', 'taluk', 'bandobasta', 'baradast') oppressing and plundering the people and fraudulently dispossessing the
Ooriah zamindars of their estates" [quoted in Mukherjee 1964: 139]. See
and even English words are found in the novel. But most of these below fn 13.
words were then used (and perhaps still are in use) either by the 5 In 1837 commissioner Henry Ricketts observed, "Oriahs are admitted to
people themselves belonging to the agrarian rural society or in the lowest situations, Bengalees held every office of emolument and trust
connection with the administration, or where the author either in the province" [quoted in Samantarya 1979: 73]
wants to create a situation or becomes philosophical and expresses 6 R D Banerji, the well known Bengali historian has observed, "While
which he believes to be eternal truths. But there is a subtler reason. British officers in Orissa were proposing the introduction of their own
laws into the semi-independent states, the same laws administered by them
Fakir Mohan, the author, as a narrator was engaging the emerging
and carried into effect by their Bengali subordinates were ruining the
educated middle class, usually from the upper castes, who were nobility of Orissa and impoverishing the richest people of the country
his readers. It was a strategy to get his work - narrating the lives [Banerji 1931: 278] and "So, in fact, Bengalis of a low type ruled Orissa
of the lower castes - acceptable to them. Thus there are two for nearly half a century after the conquest. They became notorious for
linguistic layers in the novel. chicanery and dishonesty, while no protest could be raised against the
The shift in Fakir Mohan's position from writing in a kind of camouflaged dishonesty of the early 19th century English officers, known
as 'Nabobs', out of fear" (Ibid: 279). Further, of the middle-ranking
Oriya in which the nearness to upper caste Bengali language was
Bengali officials Nivedita Mohanty, following P Mukherjee, says, "They
in some ways accepted without any hesitation (see the Preface could persuade the dishonest British officers of the day to sell out the
to his Oriya rendering of Vidyasagar's Jibanacharita), to com- defaulting estates through auction in Calcutta" and then on the basis of
pletely shunning Bengali influence, indicates how in the con- Trowers Report she reports, "Between the years 1806-1816, as many as
struction of Oriya identity, in which Fakir Mohan indeed played 1011 estates out of the total of 2,340 were taken out of possession from
a major role, Bengali speakers were gradually and increasingly Oriya zamindaras in this manner", see Mohanty (1982): p 10. See above
fn no 4.
seen as the "political other". In the medieval period such influence
7 For some more information ori the construction of Oriya identity, see
on Oriya language would have mattered little and would not have Dash 1978.
created any furore and controversy. But in the moder period, 8 Later towards the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, another such
characterised by the construction of competing and contesting agitation took place in western Orissa, especially in Sambalpur. I discuss
political interests and identities, the role of language became it in detail in a forthcoming article, 'Changing One's Own Identity'.
crucial. Thus Fakir Mohan unknowingly played a very significant 9 For more and detailed information on the OLA see Dash 1993.
role - after the 16th-century saint-poet Atibadi Jagannatha Das,10 To quote Hobsbawm again, "linguistic nationalism was and is essentially
about the language of public education and official use. It is about 'office
who rendered the SanskritBhagavata into Oriya- in standardising
and school'..." [Hosbawm 1995: 96].
Oriya. And, Fakir Mohan's involvement in the OLA was at the11 For Mitra's position see Beames 1870. For detail information see Dash
root of this. As we have seen, this involvement also profoundly 1993.
influenced the language used in Chha Mana Atha Guntha as well 12 Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, who worked as a deputy magistrate at Cuttack,
as the novel's thematic preoccupations. [11 wrote a narrative poem entitled Kanchi-Kaberi (1879) in Bengali on the
theme of the famous Orissan traditional account Kanch-Kaveri with
nationalistic undertone/tinge and thereby became a pioneer in the
Email: tdas892@satyam.net.in
construction of a national legend for the Oriyas and played a role in the
construction of Oriya identity. For more information, see Dash 1978,
Notes pp 368-69 and 1979, pp 74-77 and 83-104.
13 In that connection H C B C Raban, the collector of Puri, who opposed
[I am grateful to Rabi Shankar Mishra, who read an earlier draft and offered the imposition of Bengali in Orissan schools, in his report to the
suggestions for improvement. This is based on author's paper 'Fakira commissioner T E Ravenshaw on January 25, 1868, observed, "There
Mohananka Gadyariti O' Odia Bhasha-Suraksha Andolana' published in the is a very strong clannish spirit among the Bengalee employees in different
Oriya journal Jhankar (43/9), December 1991 and (43/10) January 1992.] parts of India and the head of every public office in India knows how
rapidly any influential man will fill the office with his own friends and
1 Natabara Samantaray's explanation is that Fakir Mohan came in contact countrymen. This cause has largely been at work in the educational

Economic and Political Weekly November 18, 2006 4805

This content downloaded from

103.212.147.245 on Sun, 22 Aug 2021 08:27:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 department; and to it I attribute the great proportion of Bengalees among the 'tadbhava' and 'desaja' words in an Oriya textbook by supplying
teachers. The result of this large Bengalee element supervised by those 'tatsama' synonyms for them while teaching. The description is humorous
to whom Ooriyah is unfamiliar is to introduce Bengalee into the teaching because instead of supplying tadbhava and desaja synonyms for the
as less troublesome to teachers than Ooryah". And further, "The result tatsama words, which are mostly unintelligible, the brahman teacher did
is that there is a certain preference for Bengalee subordinates, who have just the opposite.
generally the merit of knowing better than Ooryahs how to understand 21 The process is technically known as hypercorrection or hyper-
and please the superiors..." Proceedings of the Hon'ble Lt Governor of Sanskritisation. 'Andhatkara' is an instance of hyper-Sanskritisation.
Bengal, General Department, Education Branch, 1868 July, No 60, see 22 Beames 1870, p 194 (emphasis added).
also Dash 1993, pp 125-26.These observations are quite significant. Even 23 Beames 1966, Vol I, p 34.
two decades later Fakir Mohan in his Utkala Bramanam observed, "The 24 Ibid, p 35.
officers and the lawyers are all foreigners, Not even the postal clerk is 25 Ibid, pp 37-38.
native". See Dash 1978, p 365, fn 30. 26 Hallam, ECB, 1874.
14 See Beames, 1870, p 212; Mitra's speech was printed as an appendix 27 Fakir Mohan was quite familiar with Hallam. Hallam - who, according
to Beames' paper. to Fakir Mohan, could speak Oriya like a native - as the secretary of
15 R L Mitra has written at least four school textbooks, besides a few books the Balasore Mission School appointed Fakir Mohan as a teacher of
for general reader. For more information on the textbooks and other books that school and persuaded him to continue in that school on a higher
written by him, see his biography in Bengali [Bandyopadhyaya, salary even when he got an opportunity to work in the government
Brajendranath 1368: 16-20]. Further, in course of his debate with Beames, schools. Further, Hallam acknowledged Fakir Mohan's help in the
R L Mitra had argued, "I prepared a map of India in Bengali and it brought preparation of his 'Oriya Grammarfor English Students'. See Hallam,
me a profit within one year of over Rs 6,000. The same map was ECB, Preface, vii.
subsequently translated into Uriya, but even the School Book Society 28 This will be discussed in detail later in another paper, a sequel to this
could not venture to undertake it on their own account and the government paper.
at last had to advance, I think, some two or Rs 3,000 to help the publication. 29 Satya P Mohanty, in the introduction to Six Acres and a Third, 2005,
The map, however fell still born from the press and almost the whole the most recent translation of Chha Mana, explains these two terms.
edition is, I believe, now rotting in the godown of its publisher. Let the See p 2.
government introduce Bengali language in the schools of Orissa, and the 30 H S Mohapatra and J K Nayak, 2004, p 105.
Uriyas, instead of seeking grants-in-aid from government and private 31 Satya P Mohanty in the introduction to Six Acres and a Third, 2005,
individuals for occasionally bringing out solitary new books, will have p216.
whole of our Bengali publications at their disposal without any cost" [in 32 See K C Sahu 1959.
Beames 1870: 211-121. All these not only indicate how textbooks were
a major source of income to him, but also how he was guided by his References
inner motive to protect, nay enhance his income from the same source
while trying, at the same time, to conceal his real motive behind his avowed
Anderson, Benedict (1991): Imagined Comnmunities: Reflections on the Origin
goal of the spread of education in Orissa. For a detailed discussion see
and Spread of Nationalism, Verso, London.
G N Dash 1993, pp 36-50.
Bandyopadhyaya, Brajendranath (1368;1961): Rajendralal Mitra, Bangiya
16 It may be once again made clear that - as Orissa was a "colony of a colony"
Sahitya Parishad, Calcutta, Fourth Edition.
- for the speakers of Oriya language the colonisation consisted of two
Banerji, R D (1931): History of Orissa, Vol II, Calcutta.
layers or two levels: the British and the Bengali (or the Telugu or the
Beames, John (1870): 'On the Relation of Uriya to Other Modern Indian
Hindi). Therefore the displacement of Bengali from Oriya schools and
Languages', proceedings of the Asiatic S6ciety, Bengal, June, pp 192-
also freeing Oriya language of Bengali influence/elements may be
216, Calcutta.
interpreted as steps towards primary layer/level of"decolonising" process
- (1966): Comparative Languages of the Modern Aryan Languages of India,
(Satya P Mohanty in the Introduction to Six Acres and a Third, 2005,
Vol I, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, Vols I, II and III in a single volume
a translation of Chha Mana ...has used the term "linguistic colonialism",
Vol I, First Edition 1872, Truebner and Co, London.
see p 26). It may sound a little strange but it was a fact that in the primary
layer/level of decolonisation colonial administrators such as T E Ravenshaw Bhattacharya, Kantichandra (1870): Uriya Swayantra Bhasa Nahe, Calcutta.
and John Beames played significant roles along with Oriya-speakers Dash, G N (1978): 'Jagannatha and Oriya Nationalism' in A Eschmann,
such as Gourishankar and Fakir Mohan. For more information see H Kulke and G C Tripathi (eds), The Cult of Jagannatha and the Regional
Dash 1993. Chha Mana... operates in both of the layers/levels ofTradition
the of Orissa, Manohar, New Delhi.
- (1979): Janasruti Kanchi-Kaberi, Pustak Bhandar, Berhampur.
decolonising process: written in a language free of Bengali influence,
it operates in the primary layer/level, and with its subtle criticism --running
(1991-92): Fakira Mohananka Gadyariti O' Odia Bhasa-Suraksha
Andolana, Jhankar 43/9, December 1991 and Jhankar, 43/10, January
like an undercurrent - of the British land revenue (including the sunset
1992.
law introduced by the British), general administrative and judicial
systems, etc, it also operates on the secondary layer/level- of
(1993):
the Odia Bhasa-Suraksha Andolana, Cuttack Students' Store, Cuttack.
"decolonising" process. Therefore, Chha Mana ...not only forms Hallam,
part of E C B (1874): Oriya Grammnarfor English Students, Calcutta School
Book Society, Calcutta.
the anti-colonial discourse but also is one of the earliest such instances
in Oriya language. Hobsbawm, E J (1995): Nations and Nationalism since 1780, second edition,
17 Utkala Dipika, April 10, 1869. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
18 See Anderson Benedict for the concept, 1991, p 67. Mohanty, Bansidhar (1989): Odia Bhasa Andolana, Friends' Publishers,
19 Utkala Dipika, March 9, 1867. See Bansidhar Mohanty, 1989, pp 208-10.Cuttack.
Mohanty, Nivedita (1982): Oriya Nationalism: Quest for a United Orissa
20 Because of such linguistic orthodoxy when the Sanskrit 'Puranic' texts
like Mahabharata and Ramayana were rendered into Oriya, since the 15th1866-1936, Manohar, New Delhi.
century, the brahmans vehemently opposed that. Even the Bhagavata Mohapatra, H S and J K Nayak (2004): 'Writing Peasant Life in Colonial
translated into Oriya, in the 16th century, by the saint-poet Atibadi India: A Comparative Analysis of Rev Lal Beheri Day's Bengal Peasant
Jagannath Das, a high caste learned brahman himself of the same Puri Life and Fakir Mohan Senapati's Chha Mana Atha Guntha' in J K Nayak
locality, although quite popular throughout the Oriya-speaking tracts, (ed), Fakir Mohan Senapati; Perspectives on His Fiction, (Prafulla).
was denigrated as 'teli' Bhagavata (the oilmen's Bhagabata) by the Mukherjee, P (1964): Utkal University History of Orissa, Vol VI, Utkal
brahmans and could not get an entry into the 16 brahman-'sasanas' University, Bhubaneswar.
brahman villages) of the Puri region, the citadel of brahman orthodoxy, Sahu, K C (1959): 'Bisabriksha O' Chha Mana Atha Guntha' in The
till the first decade of the 20th century (as is known from the autobiographyJhankar, 11/9.
Samantaraya, Natabar (1979): Adhunika Odia Sahitya Bikashara
ofPandit NilakanthaDas). Fakir Mohan, in his autobiography, humorously
describes how, in his childhood days, a brahman teacher used to explainPrusthabhumi, Bhubaneswar.

4806 Economic and Political Weekly November 18, 2006

This content downloaded from

103.212.147.245 on Sun, 22 Aug 2021 08:27:24 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms