Death of Harekrushna Mahatab | Former CM of Odisha [UPSC Notes]

On 2 January 1987, Indian independence activist and former Chief Minister of Odisha ‘Utkal Keshari’ Harekrushna Mahatab passed away aged 87. Read more about the life and contribution of Harekrushna Mahatab for the IAS exam

Biography of Harekrushna Mahatab

• Harekrushna Mahatab was born on 21 November 1899 in the village of Agarpada in Bhadrak district, Odisha to Krushna Charan Das and Tohapha Debi.
• He passed his matriculation from the local Bhadrak High School and then enrolled at the Ravenshaw College in Cuttack for higher studies.
• But in 1921, he left college to join the freedom movement.
• A year later in 1922, he was sent to prison on charges of sedition. He was imprisoned several times for participating in the independence movement.
• He was appointed the Chairman of Balasore District Board in 1924. He was also a member of the Odisha and Bihar Council.
• In 1930, he participated in the Salt Satyagraha led by Mahatma Gandhi and was imprisoned for it. By then, he was an active member of the Congress Party and held several important posts in the party in Odisha.
• In 1938, Mahatab was nominated to the Congress Working Committee by Subhas Chandra Bose.
• He was also a keen fighter of social evils like untouchability. In 1934, he opened the gates of his ancestral temple for all, which was a first for his state.
• He was again sent to jail for his role in the Quit India Movement and spent three years in jail from 1942 to 1945.
• From April 1946 to May 1950, he became the Chief Minister of Odisha. From 1950, for two years, he became a union minister handling commerce and industries. He was also the governor of Bombay from 1955 – 56.
• After that, he became the chief minister of Odisha once again from 1956 to 1960. His tenure as chief minister saw important measures like the shifting of the state capital from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar, construction of the Hirakud Dam, and the merger of the princely states.
• He became an MP from Angul in 1962 and was elected the Vice President of the INC in 1966.
• He resigned from the party in 1966 and founded and led the Orissa Jana Congress.
• He was elected to the Odisha state assembly several times in the seventies. In 1976, he was imprisoned for agitating against the Emergency.
• He is popularly known as the ‘Lion of Odisha’ and also as ‘Utkal Keshari’.
• Apart from being a politician, he was also a keen writer. He had started a weekly, ‘Prajatantra’ which later became a daily.
• He was also the chief editor of a monthly magazine ‘Jhankar’ and of the English weekly, ‘The Eastern Times’.
• In 1983, he was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award for his work ‘Gaon Majlis’. He was the president of the Sangit Natak Academy and also of the Orissa Sahitya Academy. For his work in literature and society, he was honoured honorary with doctoral degrees from many universities.
• He passed away on 2 January 1987.

Also on this day

1878: Birth of social reformer from Kerala Mannathu Padmanabhan.

1914: Birth of British secret agent and World War II heroine of Indian descent, Noor Inayat Khan.

1943: Death of freedom fighter and martyr Vir Bhai Kotwal.

See previous ‘This Day in History’ here.

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