Who is Harekrushna Mahatab, the Odisha icon whose legacy the BJP wants to claim?

The BJP lacks a popular icon in Odisha, whose legacy it can claim. Mahatab, known as Utkal Keshari, was a Congress leader who had a falling out with Indira Gandhi in the late 1960s, and was subsequently jailed for opposing the Emergency. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan have hailed Mahatab as a great nationalist.

About Harekrushna Mahatab

A freedom fighter, prolific writer, and one of the architects of modern Odisha, Harekrushna Mahatab was born on November 21, 1899 at Agarapada in Bhadrak district (then Balasore district) to Krushan Charan Das and Topha Bibi, and was adopted by his maternal grandfather Jagannath Mahatab, the Maharaja of Agarpada, and his wife, Rani Dhani Bibi.

In 1918, Mahatab joined the Utkal Sammilani, a social and cultural organisation founded in 1903 by the social reformer Madhusudan Das to campaign for a separate Odisha province and its social and industrial development.

When Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920, the Sammilani decided to join it. Mahatab, who was then a student of Cuttack’s Ravenshaw College, was deeply influenced by the Mahatma, and plunged into the freedom struggle, and was jailed by the British several times.

Mahatab held positions in the Utkal Pradesh Congress Committee and the Congress Working Committee. In the 1920s, he led the Praja Mandal Movement in Odisha, known as the Gadjat Praja Movement, a people’s movement against local aristocrats and the British in the princely states.

As Independence neared, Mahatab was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the state. He served as the last Prime Minister of Odisha from 1946 to 1950, and then as Chief Minister from 1956 to 1961.

As Chief Minister, Mahatab is credited with the integration of 26 erstwhile Odia-speaking princely states with Odisha. He played the key role in the movement of Odisha’s capital from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar in 1949, and pioneered major infrastructure projects including the Hirakud dam on the Mahanadi.

Mahatab served at the Centre as a member of Jawaharlal Nehru’s first cabinet, and was appointed the Governor of Bombay province in 1955.

In 1966, Mahatab was elevated to vice president of the Indian National Congress. Following policy disagreements with Indira Gandhi, who had become Prime Minister after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri, however, Mahatab left the Congress that same year and founded his own party, the Orissa Jana Congress.

Thereafter, he was elected thrice to the Orissa Legislative Assembly, and was imprisoned in 1976 for opposing Indira’s Emergency.

Mahatab retired from active politics in 1977, and passed away on January 2, 1987. The Prajatantra, a newspaper founded by him in 1923, continues to be published to this day, and is now edited by his son, the BJP MP from Cuttack Bhartruhari Mahtab.

Mahatab and the BJP’s search for an icon

Probably because of his rebellion against Indira, Harekrushna Mahatab never got the respect he deserved from the Congress, which ruled Odisha for more than four decades. For the Congress, the tallest leader in the state remained Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, who was Chief Minister for 13 years.

After Naveen Patnaik formed the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in 1997 and became Chief Minister of Odisha in March 2000, Biju Patnaik was put on the highest pedestal, and identified as the tallest Odia leader ever.

In its 24 years in power, the BJD government named the majority of its schemes, as well as a range of popular establishments, institutions, and structures after Biju, and erected his statues across the state. Despite being known as the architect of modern Odisha and retaining enormous public goodwill, Mahatab remained largely forgotten. The Odisha Assembly is perhaps the only place that has his statue, and the State Library in Bhubaneswar is the only institution that bears his name.

All of this is ideal for the BJP to claim Mahatab’s legacy, especially in light of his differences with Indira. In the 50th year of the declaration of the Emergency, the BJP and its most senior leaders have repeatedly invoked the suspension of civil liberties and imprisonment of popular leaders during that period to put the Congress on the mat.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election this year, the BJP managed to get Mahatab’s son Bhratruhari, then a six-time MP from Cuttack, into the party fold from the BJD. Bhratruhari Mahtab has now represented Cuttack continuously since 1998.

To commemorate Mahatab’s 125th birth anniversary, the Majhi government intends to establish a memorial museum and install his life-size statue at Agarapada, his birthplace, and develop it as a tourist destination.

There are also plans to organise seminars on his life, work, and ideas, and to incentivise research on him. Books authored by Mahatab will be republished in Hindi, English and other languages, and a Mahatab Centre or Chair will be established in various universities.