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Bhubaneswar, June 7: A book about the famine of 1866, which affected millions of people in Orissa, is to be released on International Archives Day June 9. Organisers of the event announced this at a press conference held at State Archives here Tuesday. The book ‘Odisha Famine or Na’ Anka’ is a documentation based on primary sources.
Culture secretary Manaranjan Panigrahi spoke about the book: “The book on the great famine of 1866 is being published for people who want to know more about it. It will give youngsters, research scholars and educationists insight into how the famine spread and affected millions of people.”
He added that the famine was a watershed in the state’s history. “People realised that if the state had been independent the famine would never have happened. The struggle for an independent state based on language grew stronger after the famine.”
The authorities said price of the book has not been fixed yet. Superintending in-charge, Bhagyalipi Malla said: “We are also organising a painting exhibition about the famine as part of the event. Documenting the event was a huge challenge for us as pictorial evidence was scant. We trawled the internet, too, but could not find anything. Painter Ramakanta Samantray has helped us a lot in depicting the history of the great famine through paintings. He has depicted the incidents that led to the famine in detail and has given the works a period look using a specific style. He created these works from written information available in the archives.”
Ramakanta, in turn, said: “The publishers had decided to include paintings of the famine right when they decided to publish this book. We searched for photographs of the famine but could not find any. The images we got were those of the Bengal and Madras famines. We used these as reference material for the paintings. There are 21 paintings in the book and Smrutikant Rout and Sushant Panda have joined me in creating these. We tried to make these paintings in the Company Style, which was introduced by East India Company.”
According to Bhagyalipi, a huge collage is to also be displayed at the venue besides 75 terracotta figures. “An audio-visual presentation of five minutes duration about the book will also be there,” she added.
Another proposed highlight of the event is a discussion on the topic ‘Orissa Famine and present Orissa’ which is to be attended by professor Atul Chandra Pradhan and professor Ashok Kumar Patnaik, among others. Tourism and culture minister Ashok Kumar panda is to also attend the event.
The theme for this year’s International Archives Day is ‘Archives, Harmony and Friendship’. The famine of 1866 was the worst of the 19th century and was also called as ‘Na Anka Durvikhya’ (or nine number famine) as it happened in the ninth regnal year of King Divyasimbadeva. The death toll is an estimated one million spread across different regions.
During the famine, Babu Bichitrananda Das and Gouri Shankar Roy published a magazine in Oriya, ‘Utkala Deepika’, which appeared on August 4, 1866, from Cuttack Printing Press. The magazine, which spoke of the famine, was the first independent publication in Oriya.
