Saswat Ranjan Das, Mahanga, Cuttack, 13 July 2023
“Karmaveer” Gourishankar Ray has made a unique contribution to enrich the field of Odia literature and journalism. Gourishankar was one of the few elite orthodox leaders who were dedicated towards making Odisha a separate province. He always believed in “karma”, i.e., work. He was given the title of “Karmaveer” for his dedication and ethics towards work. Gourishankar was an ardent social reformer, a skilled organizer, a pioneer of orthodox journalism, a nationalist leader, and a lover of education and culture.
In the 19th century, Gourishankar was the priest of the Oriental revival. He was born on 13th July in 1838 in Dikhitpada village of Asureswar Panchayat in Mahanga Block of Cuttack District. After completing his primary education in his village, he went to High School in Cuttack and then to Hooghly for higher education. After completing his education, he first worked as a teacher in the Baleshwar District School. He was getting a salary of Rs. 20/- per month. After leaving teaching, he worked as a grocer in the Cuttack Commissioner’s office. With the efforts of Gourishankar and his close associate Bichitrananda Das, he formed the ‘Cuttack Printing Company’ in 1864. On 4th August 1866, the first orthodox newspaper “Utkal Deepika” was published. It was the first ever published Odia weekly. Gourishankar served as its Editor for about 52 years. In the same year that Utkal Deepika started, 10 lakh people died of hunger in Odisha due to the severe famine. Gourishankar regularly published articles in “Utkal Deepika” about the famine and subsequent horrors, drawing the attention of the then British government. He did not hesitate to raise his voice against the government even though he held a government job. He was a principled and hard-working personality. Even though he was born in a Bengali family, he adopted Odia as his mother tongue.
Gourishankar was a liberal in his personal life. His body color was brown. In order to keep himself healthy, he used to practice wrestling and swimming daily. Discipline and regularity were his special qualities. He died on March 7, 1917, before the formation of the separate “Utkal Pradesh” (Odisha Province). As a skilled journalist, Gourishankar presented the demands of the general public to the government and brought the government’s faults to public criticism. He will always be remembered for his outstanding contribution to the field of Odia literature and journalism.
