Nabakrushna Choudhary

Chittaranjan Das, fondly addressed as Chittabhai in Odisha, is a universal man. The Socrates of Odisha, he is a poet, essayist, historian, critic, sociologist, philosopher, freedom fighter, professor, erudite and above all a humanist par excellence. A perfect example of Gandhian's 'simple living and high thinking'. Chittaranjan is undoubtedly an adventure of consciousness.

Madan Mohan Sahoo, Biswanath Patnaik, Prafulla Das, Lokanath Roy, Narasingh Charan Mohanty, Ananta Ram Babu, Jayakrishna Biswal, V. Sitaramiya, Kishori Charan Choudhury, Jitendra Mohanty, Shukadev Sahoo, Gayadhar Barik, Shibram Patra, Prafulla Behera and Prashanta Das have extended their help unhesitatingly to prepare this book. While some of them have supplied me information, some others have given me relevant books. On this occasion, I deeply acknowledge my debt to them.

Nabakrushna Choudhury is in the limbo of oblivion. Except naming after him the Social Sciences Institute established by Dr Baidyanath Mishra at Bhubaneswar after so many years of his demise, nothing has been done to commemorate him. Naba babu himself, to some extent, is responsible for this. An exception to our political leaders who don't wish to devote their time to reading, he used to read till death like school students. A sharpened pencil in hand and a dictionary by his side, he would read and underline and search for meaning of words in dictionary. After the reading was over, he would write down his remarks on the book. In this connection, I reminisce that I had borrowed from him a book of about five thousand pages in six volumes by Trotosky. I was astonished to find underlines and comments on each page. I can't remember now if I had taken four months or more to finish the book. But I had to undergo a thorough test at the time of its return. Two days passed in discussing about the book at Baji Rout Hostel. I had anticipated it and had, therefore, prepared myself for such a test after finding such underlining in the book. Naba babu used to read as it was his passion. While reading he would also smoke cigarettes at times. Indeed, he was radically controversial by nature. Though a Gandhian, he was not prepared to imitate Gandhism. Therefore, he was a non-vegetarian and did not give up smoking. Similar was the case with Jayaprakash Narayan. Gandhiji that he would stay at his Wardha Ashram and eat non-vegetarian food in spite of Gandhiji being a vegetarian. A wiser Gandhiji agreed instantly. A similar unconventional Gandhian, Naba babu was exceptionally erudite, quite idiosyncratic among politicians. Scholarship notwith-standing, he was averse to writing anything. He had turned down point blank the requests to write his autobiography with remarks such as, what's its utility and what's its worth. His political opponents outnumbered his followers in requesting him in this regard. He has not left behind anything written. Rather he has destroyed all his private letters which could have been immensely valuable for the nation. Gradually, he turned so cynical that neither he himself preserved those letters and documents nor handed them over to others. As a result, the next generation got impoverished.

**Contents and Sample Pages**