An icon of Odia language & literature
Rup Narayan Das
Fakir Mohan Senapati whose birth anniversary falls today is remembered for his seminal contribution to Odia language and literature. Born in 1843 in Baleswar (Balasore) in colonial India, he grew up in the milieu of social inequity and injustice which found resonance in his writings. His foremost contribution, however, was the protection and preservation of Odia language against all odds.
In a portion of his Atma Jivana Charita, which is ably translated into English by John Boulton, who was a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, as My Times and I, Senapati wrote that the complete disappearance of traditional Odia primary schools from South Midnapur adjoining Baleswar was intriguing and was a sorry tale. Sometime between 1865 and 1870, a Bengali sub-inspector of schools was appointed to set up government schools there. He tried to found Bengali medium schools there, but people refused to have their ch