Unforgettable life in Koraput (Numa) / Pattanayak, Biswanath

In the year 1946 after being released from the jail Numa (Malati Chaudhury) (She was arrested for participation in Quit India movement) set up Baji Rout Chhatrabas in Angul in memory of Saheed Baji Rout with the objective of providing education to the children of distressed political workers of princely states (Gadajat) of Orissa. Initially only the children of the workers from the Gadajat were admitted to the Chhatrabas. Later since 1949 the children of poor tribals and Harijans (Schedule Castes) were admitted. Thus the tribal boys and girls from Koraput district came to be admitted to the Chhatrabas. In 1948, a meeting  was convened by the great soul Gopabandhu Chaudhury in his residence at 'Bakharabad' to discuss the remedy for the repression on tribals by awakening the their consciousness. In this meeting were present Sage like Acharya Harihara, revered Sarngadhar Dash, revered Nabakrushna Chaudhury, Mother Rama Devi, Numa, Vyasji and the volunteers working amongst the tribals. It was decided to form an institution to work amongst the tribals. A suitable name was looked for during the discussion. Revered Gopababu said, "Minu (Malati Devi) is writing in the Journal krushak a serial under the title 'Nabajeevan' to bring about a new life amongst those for whom the proposed institution will work. Let us keep that name for the institution." This proposal was unanimously accepted and the institution was named as 'Utkal Nabajeevan Mandal'.  Revered Sarangadhar Das became its president where as Revered Gopbandhu Chaudhury, its Secretary. Malati Devi, Acharya Harihara and Mother Rama Devi and others became its members. After this Revered Gopababu and Mother Rama Devi began Padayatra (moving on foot) through the tribal belt of Orissa. At that time there was no road. He was overcome with grief by seeing the pitiable condition of the tribals. He gave the entire responsibility of Utkal Nabajeevan Mandal to Numa and asked her to work for their development and awakening their consciousness.  Then onwards the Utkal Nabajeevan Mandal was managed under the direction of Numa and she, till her death engaged herself in unwavering service to the tribals.

    A women training center was started in Angul to train the women to work in tribal belts by staying with tribal people. From various districts the girls got the training so also were trained the widows and deserted women. Though these girls to start with were not enough educated yet the way they were taught three RRR's and were so trained that they could cause an awakening among the tribals to fight against injustice, repression and torture of the money-lenders, revenue police and forest officials.

   Numa was requested to visit Koraput to see the conditions of the tribals. She came to Gunupur region of the district and was impressed by the tribal culture when she saw the simple living of the tribals, their costumes, their frugality, their cleanliness etc. Whenever she cam to Koraput she stayed with them, took food with them and relaxed in their verandah. Durign festive occasions she used to roam, dance and sing with them. The tribals accepted her as one of their own. They used to openly discuss issues with her both Numa and Bapi (Nabakrushna Chaudhury) were very fond of dancing. 

    It wont be an exaggeration to say that Numa was available where the tribals were in distress. She used to be overcome with grief and shock to find the condition of neglected tribals. She opened centers of Utkal Nabajeevan Mandal in tribal areas and made efforts to raise their consciousness. In Koraput district many centers were opened in different regions. The workers of the centers at Gunupur, Durgi, Bisam Cuttack, Rayagada, Kolasakata, Koraput, Talabonda, UparaBonda, Patangi, Sunabeda, Nawarangpur etc began fighting against the injustice and oppression. This resulted in the end of the exploitation by the money-lenders, police and foresters etc. The movement for freedom from bonded labour continued. Numa used to visit all the centers. Due to this the rate of interest charged by the money-lenders reduced. The practice of the tribals working without any wage came to an end. The fear of the people reduced. To a large extent they mustered courage to tell the truth. Numa moved around the forests and mountains of Koraput and worked. Wherever she felt the pain of climbing or descending the mountains people carried her happily on a cot. She had gone into very very remote areas. In Gunupur region a disease called Yaws was rampant and it was very painful for the person suffering from it. Trained workers of Utkal Nabajeevan Mandal along with doctors were able to eradicate the disease. The workers were also attending the patients suffering from leprosy. These workers were engaged in the eradication of illiteracy, awakening of consciousness amongst the women, prohibition and building self confidence within the tribals. 

    In 1950, in the drought hit regions of Ramanaguda of Gunupur, Chandrapur and Bisam Cuttack people died of hunger. Receiving this news Mother Ramadevi and Malati Devi both came to these areas and  saved the children by opening food centers and getting them attendance of the doctors. The government when realised the gravity of the situation sent the help as there was no arrangement for transporting the food materials. She suggested the government to engage four elephants of the king of Jaipur for the purpose of transporting the food materials to the relief centers. Government accepted her suggestion and engaged two elephants in the relief work. Wit the help of these elephants the food a materials could be reached at the appropriate place. 

   The money-lenders in connivance with the then Zamindar of Jaipur took the possession of the lands of the tribals and in the same land the tribals were made to work as labourers. After independence on realising this the tribals in 1951 requested the government to   take steps towards the return of such lands to them as the possession by the money-lenders was taken without their knowledge. As the government did not heed to their request they decided, by informing the money-lenders and the government to take possession of their earlier land. On this basis a movement was launched under the name Bhu-Satyagraha. At the instance of Malati Devi these tribals began cultivating these lands. The money-lenders in connivance with the  police harassed these tribals and filed cases against them. The tribals were not taken to jail but used to be made to sit in the police station for long hours. This continued for a few months till the government found a solution to it by consulting with the tribal leaders. The government deputed Mr. Gopinath Mohanty as special officer with independent power to settle on the spot the allegations by the tribals against the money-lenders. The decision of Gopinath Babu went in favour of the tribals. Therefore the money-lenders took the shelter of court. Some of them however without going to the court tried to solve the problem through discussion. At that time Numa had been to Gunupur area. Gopinath Babu went to meet her. Numa told to Gopinath babu that she on hearing from Biswanath (Pattanayak) his (Gopinath babu) sympathy for the tribals felt like touching his feet. She was saying so  to an officer of the government which her husband, Nabakrushna Chaudhury heading as Chief Minister This demonstrates her commitments towards the tribals. The thought and vision of Numa and Bapi were revolutionary. They opposed injustice and untruth. She used to be disturbed at others distress. Her heart bled for the neglected tribals and Harijans, exploited and suppressed people. Those who worked for instilling courage in them and for their development they always enjoyed her affection and sympathy. 

    She was firm in her view that the Naxals are working for poor and deprived. Therefore whenever she heard the woes of the family members of Naxalites she reached them to console. She heard that the police is harassing the family members of Naxal Ramchandra Madkami. She went to see the family members of Madkami. Madkami's village was in a remote area of Korukonda block of Malkangiri sub-division of Koraput district. Yet both Numa and Bapi could reach the village and on finding the misery of the family members they burst into tears. Madkami had two wives. There was no food in the house. The body was scarcely covered. They also visited the village Nandapur and met the wife and daughters of Naxal leader Purosattam Pali. They were disturbed on hearing the police atrocities on the Pali's family members.

    The Naxal leader Nagbhubshan patanaik was sentenced to death. This saddened Numa and Bapi. They made efforts To save Nagbushan. By collecting signatures from various persons they submitted mass petition to the then president V. V. Giri. On the basis of this petition, personal letters and appeals Nagbhusan was spared from death sentence. But had to suffer imprisionment. when Nagabhusan was in Rajmahindri jail he fell ill. Numa and Bapi met repeatedly the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Sri P.V. Narashima Rao requesting him to make proper medical facilities available to Nagabhusan. In Gunupur area, the police tortured the innocent Garanda tribals dubbing them as naxalites. Numa and Naba Babu along with some workers, camped in Garanda village for three months and infused courage in the people. She brought to the notice of the people the torture that police was inflicting on the worker Baikuntha Patra. But she did not approve of  all the activities of naxalites. She condemed the activities which she thought are not proper. They were shocked at the ruthless murder of Dinabandhu, a poor pawn broker of the Badamul village of the Kamnagnda block. he was slaughtered to death on sleep before the eyes of his wife. what hurt them the most was that they had nothing but a handful of grains. Thy remarked that if the naxalites continued doing such activities, they would lose sympathy of the people.

    In another incident,  the tribal people of Balikhama and Sankalpa villages  filed a case against Harihara Mishra, a pawnbroker of Paikapada village, who had forcibly taken away their lands. Harihara Mishra entangled the ignorant people in legal formalities. The tribal people without finding anyway took possession of their land and started cultivating without bothering for the legal repercussions. Harihara Mishra and his nephew in an attempt to prevent them  from cultivation shot dead two persons on the field. This incident lead to the arrest of 42 tribal people, who were given lifetime imprisonment. Numa and Bapi visited both the villages and with the help of Sri Ratan Das, a noted social worker, took the uphill task of rescuing the tribal people. It took three years to collect the necessary evidences. The then chief minister Biren Mitra, on the request of Naba babu, appealed to the President of India to free those people. Finally, they were released, after a lot of efforts. Out of the 42, 7 persons expired in the jail. Out of the 35 released, 28 were from Balikhamana and 7 from Sankhalapada village. Since the tribal people suffered a lot, fighting for their own lands, Numa and Bapi did everything to help them. Like Numa and Bapi, Subara Panigrahi of Manjusa Village was working on the hilly regions of Mahendra Tannaya for the neglected tribal people. He was gunned down by the policemen and was accused to be a naxalite. Many tribal villages were burnt down. The tribal people had to hide in villages to escape the wrath of the people. On hearing this incident, Numa sent MLA Biraja Prasad Ray for investigation. Biraja babu and I moved about the hilly regions of Mahendra tanaya and collected the necessary information. We also had discussions with some tribal people who had hidden themselves in the forests. After probing into the matter, Biraja Babu sent an informative report to Numa.

    The Bonda tribe of Koraput district are the most backward and neglected clan. after moving about with Numa and bapi for 2 days, we deceded to take up the lower Bonda Kadamguda village as the central village in the Bonda region for the Navjeevan Society. Intially Sister Radhamani, Sita and Shantilata stayed at the centre. In the first three months there was no problem. But after that they had to face the atrocities of the police. Two policemen of Mudulipada police station visited the nearby village Khuriguda situated near Kadamguda. They asked Guru Sima who was sleeping on the verandah to climb the tree and bring down the pot of liquor that was hanging and serve them. As Guru Sima was ill, he refused to do so. This angered the two policemen and they attacked Sima with bow and arrow which was lying there. This was brought to the notice of the women workers (called apa)  by Samantrisani and Sunadhar Sisa. They  could not tolerate the injustice done to Sima and raised a protest. Police lodged cases against them. The judicial proceeding started.I had to attended the court on all the dates. late T Sangana, the then MP and Ratan Babu had for also many a times attended the court during the proceedings.Numa bapi had also attended the proceedings. Following the judgment,  Kalia jaman and Pandra jaman were suspended. Both Numa and Bapi had  a soft corner for the tribal people.  They could never tolerate any injustice done to them and were always ready to stand by them. They were revolutionaries propelled by the kindness and  sympathy . I, personally have given a lot of pain by dragging both of them to a lot of places where these tribal people have been oppressed or faced problems.

    I had been asked to write on Malati Devi's experience in Koraput but she had also worked a  lot for the tribal people residing in Phulbani and Ganjam, many of them are worth mentioning . She raised  a protest against the policemen who had arrested the Sarvodaya workers in Phulbani under the instigation of the pawn brokers. She was also instrumental in the release of sister Radhamani Sahoo, a worker of Burlubaru Mandal who was arrested by the policemen while fighting for the cause of the tribal people. She was protesting against the policemen who had looted the money and gold of tribal people. On raising a protest the police gave back the belongings of the tribal people but arrested Srimati Radhamani Sahoo. 

    Numa's love and affection for the people is unforgettable. In the back of her mind she was always concerned for the tribal people of Koraput. When she was ill, she used to enquire about the people living in those places and would ask why she was not taken to Koraput anymore? Today, she is no more with us but her work has made her immortal. I pay my homage to her for her service to the tribal people.
 Translation : Madhulika Panda
Courtsey : The Tribal Tribune

Tribals of Phulbani and Malati Chaudhury / Mohapatra, Dhobendri

Belghar is a remote area in the Baliguda subdivision of Phulbani district. Its natural surrounding being forests and mountains is extremely scenic and beautiful. Herein live for ages tribals belonging to the Kutia Kondh tribe. They are simple and innocent people but exploited and neglected. Malati Devi came to this region in the year 1959-60. No individual or agency had ever entered this region prior to her arrival with purpose to work among the tribals.

    She came into this region when she was reported that leprosy had become widespread amongst the people of the region and no medical fecility was available from the government. She in fact came with her husband Nabakrusna Chaudhury and was moved by the sufferings of the leprosy patients. To ensure attendance to them, she sent for the workers of the Utkal Nabajeevan Mandal who were trained under Dr. Isaac Santra of Sambalpur to attend the leprosy patients. Under her guidance the work continued for six to seven years till the government decided to open medical centres to attend to the leprosy patients of the region.

    Being successful in her work in alleviating the sufferings of the leprosy patients of the region, she shifted her attention to the problems of poverty, illiteracy, exploitation and repression dogging the Kuti Kondhs. She set up two service centres at Burlubaru and Dupi where she deployed well-trained activists of the Utkal Nabajeevan Mandal.

    The workers of those centres organised the tribals to form in each village Gramsabha (village committee), peace force, youth forum, Save independence and prohibition committee, Kasturba Nari Sangha etc. Then after began fight against injustice and exploitation. As a result the lands, cattles, gold etc. mortgaged to the moneylenders could be recovered back whereas the police could be forced to return the money they had taken from the tribals. The exploitation by the government officials could be exposed and the government could be persuaded to punish the guilty officials. Naturally due to such activities of the workers, the local administration became vindictive and to harass them began filing false cases against them. The police even did not hesitate to break into the hut where Radhamani Apa (she is no more) was staying, at the dead of the night, to arrest her. This incident aroused indignation amongst the local tribals. Malati Devi organised a protest meeting, which was attended by about three thousand tribals. The gathering had frightened the local administration. Radhamani Apa was released unconditionally. Numa (Malati Devi is addressed so affectionately) had instilled in the people of the region fearlessness.

    It was in the year 1974, a report reached the Sarvodaya Mandal of Phulbani district that the traders of Kumuti community and Dombs (a scheduled caste community) of Shraliguda, Keshraguda, Judabali villages of Kotagada block were taking possession of the lands the tribals were forced to mortgage to them, even for trivial purchases like goat, pig or blade besides cereals. Sarbi Pradhan, Pitabas Kanhar and Mukteswar Pradhan were sent to ascertain truth of the report. But before they could reach these villages and begin their investigation, they were arrested on the way. Numa on getting this news arrived immediately and released these workers from the clutches of the police. She lived in Kotgada for two three days and organised protest meetings against such practices by the money -lenders, traders and dombs. This resulted in the return of the lands to the tribals. The police officers that arrested these workers were also punished.

    Besides organising such protest meetings, Numa had made many useful suggestions to the government to solve the land-related problems of the tribals. She had suggested that the boundary of the reserve forest should be shifted by a mile from the tribal villages and the cultivable land should be distributed amongst the landless and marginal tribals. She had felt that this would disengage the tribals from shifting cultivation. This suggestion by Numa had overwhelming support of the tribals but the government never implemented it.

    Numa’s greatest contribution was the creation of consciousness amongst the exploited and neglected tribals to identify their legitimate rights and then to fight for it without break. It is for such contribution that Malati Chaudhury would be remembered not only in Phulbani but she would be remembered across the length and breadth of Orissa.

Source : Numa, compiled by the Utkal Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Bakharabad, Cuttack; published by Malati Devi Nabakrushna Chaudhury Trust, Bhubaneswar, 1998)

Translation : Birendra Nayak

Malati Choudhury /By Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty

(26 July 1904 - 15 March 1998)

    Malati Chaudhury, fondly called Numa by the generations of people that she inspired was on the forefront of all the struggles of the oppressed people of Orissa throughout her life. The uniqueness of this ceaseless fighter was that she spurned offices of power, lived with the children of the downtrodden and fearlessly confronted not only the colonial state and feudal rulers but also authoritarian regimes and forces of exploitation in independent India.     Malati Chaudhury together with her illustrious husband and co-fighter Nabakurishna Chaudhury, who later became the Chief Minister of Orissa was one of the founders of Congress Socialist Party in India and was the President of the Utkal Pradesh congress Committee in 1946. Leading many campaigns against Zamindars and autocratic rulers in Princely States she was among the few who persisted with the effort to give the Congress in Orissa a democratic and socialist orientation. Malati Chaudhury's catalytic role in the State People's Movement in Dhenkanal, Talcher and Nilgiri is part of the heroic saga of anti-feudal history of Orissa.
    She founded the Baji Raut chhatrabas in Angul in 1948 to give protection to the children of political activists and deprived sections of society and' provide education to them. This hostel was named after the young hero Baji Raut of the .area -who was shot dead by the British imperialist forces when he refused to take them In his boat across the river. Now most of the inmates of Baji Raut Chhatrabas are orphans, tribal and dallt children.
    Baji Raut Chhatrabas became the simplest possible habitat for Numa and Bapi (as Nabakrushna Choudhury was known) where they lived all their life In free India and from where they launched many struggles for justice. The mud-walled thatched house where they lived and breathed their last remains today as the place of pilgrimage for many.
    Numa was determined to highlight the plight of the tribal people and fight to liberate them from the exploitation and harassment by money lenders, landlords and forest officials. She was one of the founders of Utkal Navjeevan Mandal. Established In 1948 the founding members of Navajeevan Mandal were all veteran freedom fighters of Orissa. Malati Devi was not only one of the founding members but also remained its moving spirit till she breathed her last.
    As far as social action is concerned NavaJeevan Mandal is one of the few pioneering organisations of India working among tribals and dalits. While preparing these oppressed people to fight against various kinds of oppression and exploitation NavaJeevan .Mandal has also taken up various activities to encourage self-development programmes among its beneficiaries.
    New challenges always brought her to the forefront of struggles. In the dark days of Emergency (1975-77) she rose in protest and went underground to organise opposition to the dictatorial rule. She was arrested and put behind bars. One who had gone to jail many times during the anti-colonial struggle was once again ready to carry on the battle for democracy at her ripe old age.

    Her commitment to democratic rights of the poor made her the acclaimed mother of all the activists of the agrarian and tribal struggles during the last four decades of her life.

As President of Orissa Civil Liberties Committee in 1968 she was among the first voices of conscience in the country to strongly condemn killings of 'Naxalites' in false encounters and demanded justice according to law and response to the socio-economic demands of the landless, poor peasants and tribals.
    Throughout her life she was a Gandhian Sarvodaya revolutionary and voiced her protest against repression by police, bureaucracy, landlords and business corporations. All the people's movements of Orissa, the Baliapal Movement against the Missile Test Range, the Gandhamardan Movement on the BALCO project, the Chilika Bachao Andolan and the Women's Movement drew great inspiration and support from her. Her final battle before leaving us for good was against the rising tide of globalization and communalism.

    History records Malati Chaudhury's role walking with Mahatma Gandhi in the streets of Noakhali in 1947 in the wake of the communal riots and tirelessly working for peace. Her pace of work earned her the epithet 'Tofani' ('the storm') from the Mahatma. She was always among the first to reach the strife torn places such as Raurkela in 1964 and Cuttack in 1967 striving for peace, dignity and harmony among the affected people.
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