Bhubaneswar: The silver ingots seized from the Emar Mutt and now kept at the police armoury in Puri should be converted into commemorative coins as a tribute to the one million people who died during the 1866 famine in Orissa, researcher Anil Dhir said.
The recovered silver ingots are connected to the Great Orissa Famine of 1866, the Na’Anka Durbhikshya, Dhir said.
He also said that there was conclusive evidence that the bullion was part of the payment made by the British authorities to various mutts for rice purchased from them.
Speaking at the release of his book ‘Great Orissa Famine of 1866: Na’Anka Durbhikshya,’ here recently, Dhir said the mutts were the biggest landowners of the time and had overflowing granaries.
When the British administration wanted to buy the stocks, the mutt heads refused payment in coins and demanded bullion.
Dhir said he found documents proving that the mutts sold a major part of their stock to the relief kitchens organised by the authorities. Although a few mutts and the Puri Temple opened free kitchens, most of their stocks were sold to the British.
The researcher had sought the government’s permission to inspect the ingots but in vain. He said the assay markings on the ingots giving measurements and weights can reveal information about their origin and time.
Dhir is planning to approach the courts for permission to examine the ingots kept at the Puri police armoury.
Dhir’s book is the product of a seminar held during the 150th Commemoration of the ‘Na’Anka Durbhikshya’ in December 2016. Lt. Gen. Narayan Mohanty (Retd) PVSM, AVSM, VSM, and Chairman of the committee, said a memorial should be constructed to honour those who died in the famine.
Dhir said there was no exhaustive narrative about the Great Orissa Famine. He opined that to write the book they had to review “much that were forgotten or perhaps deliberately hidden.”
While written history about the great famine is limited to contemporary writing, the Famine Commission Report, Utkal Dipika and other facts can be found in British documents of the time.
British parliamentary debates, papers of the India Office Library, British Museum Library, the William Carey Library at Serampore and other sources were scoured for writing the book.
The famine, Dhir said, was not an act of nature. It was caused by a series of mistakes. For many decades after the great famine it was considered simply a dark, humiliating experience which the survivors and their descendants had little desire to recall.
Many things concerning this tragedy have not been uncovered. A proper history of the famine, its after effects, and lessons should be written down and studied.
UNITED NEWS OF INDIA