The Language Agitation era

A new awakening was marked in Odisha after the ‘Na Anka’ famine of 1866 and during the time of the ‘language agitation’. Growth of education, development of communication, increase in the volume of trade and commerce, establishment of printing press and publication of journals and periodicals paved the way for the growth of political consciousness in Odisha . This consciousness made the people aware of administrative disadvantages.

The tales of the woes of the scattered Odias under other neighbouring people and their strong desire for union with Odisha crowded the columns of the newspapers and journals. When Lord North Brook, the Governor-General, suggested to break up the Central Province and to merge its areas with other provinces, the pioneers of the Odia movement advocated strongly merging Sambalpur with Odisha .

The question of amalgamating outlying Odia-speaking tracts with Odisha was so far confined to newspapers and journals but later steps were taken to submit representations to the Government to that effect. When John Beams was the Commissioner of Odisha , the Odias appealed to him for the merger of the Odia-speaking areas into a distinct linguistic unit. The people of Balasore made a similar representation to Richard Temple, the Lieutenant-Governor, who did not pay any heed to that appeal. In 1876, Raja Baikunthanath Dey of Balasore and Bichitrananda Das, the Sirastadar of the Commissioner of Odisha , made a representation to the Government for the union of all the Odia-speaking areas under a single administration.