Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Das (28 April 1848-4 February 1934) was born on 28 April 1848 in a village called Satyabhamapur, 20 kilometres from Cuttack

Cuttack

Cuttack is the former capital of the state of Orissa, India. It is the headquarters of Cuttack district and is located about 20 km to the north east of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The name of the city is an anglicised form of Kataka that literally means The Fort, a reference to the...

, Orissa

Orissa

Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...

. He was the first Graduate and Advocate of Orissa.

Family

He was born to father Choudhury Raghunath Das and mother Parbati Debi. They had initially named him Gobindaballabh. Later they changed his name to Madhusudan. He had two older sisters and a younger brother named Gopalballabh. He had adopted a daughter, by by name Shailabala, in whose name the famous Shailabala Women's college was founded. Shailabala was a Bengali, and her parents had left her in ther care of Madhusudan Das and his wife at Calcutta. Madhubabu had taught Ashutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University in Calcutta.

Early life and education

Madhusudan Das had his early education in the village school. He had studied many subjects, including Persian, from a Maulvi

Maulvi

Mawlawi is an honorific Islamic religious title given to Sunni Muslim religious scholars or Ulema preceding their names, similar to the titles Maulana, Mullah, or Shaykh. Mawlawi generally means highly-qualified Islamic scholar...

. After his early education, he moved to Cuttack High School (later known as Ravenshaw Collegiate School) which offered English education. In 1864, he passed the Entrance examination and went to Calcutta

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 for Higher Education in the renowned Calcutta University. In spite of uttermost challenging conditions he lived in Calcutta for almost fifteen years (1866 to 1881). In 1870, he became the first Oriya to complete B.A. He continued his studies in Calcutta to complete his M.A. and B.L. degrees, thus becoming the first ever scholar of Orissa to achieve these feet.

Professional life

After returning to Orissa from Calcutta in 1881, he started his legal practice. His insight knowledge on this field helped him to earn sufficiently and spend for the common.

Political career

'Madhu Babu' as acknowledged by the common people, was a stupendous personality in politics. He worked untiringly for the political, social and economical upliftment of people of Orissa and served his mother-nation as a lawyer, social reformer and patriot. He founded Utkal Sammilani which brought a revolution in the social and industrial development of Orissa.

He has always been admired as a great Legislator and Journalist. He was the first Oriya to be the member of both Legislative Council

Legislative Council

A Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A Member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC.- Unicameral legislatures :...

 and Central Legislative Assembly

Central Legislative Assembly

The Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature for India created by the Government of India Act 1919 from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms...

. He was the first Indian Minister. He was also the first Oriya to sail overseas.

He founded Utkal Tannery in 1905, a factory producing shoes and other leather products. In 1897 he founded Orissa Art Ware
Works. With his support, the Tarakashi

Tarakashi

Tarakasi is a type of silver Filigree work from Cuttack, a city from Orissa in the eastern part of India.-Origin:This highly skilled art form is more than 500 years old and is traditionally done by local artisans on the Eastern shores of Orissa. Presently, the silver filigree workers are largely...

work of gold and silver ornaments achieved commendable feet.

Contribution to literature

As a writer and poet, patriotism was always been the reflection of his works. He penned a number of articles and poems in both English and Oriya language. Some of his important poems are “Utkal Santan”, “Jati Itihash” and “Jananira Ukti” etc. He was also a influential speaker in Oriya, Bengali and English.

Last years

He sacrificed his whole life for the welfare of his country and people. He spent all his wealth for the sake of the country and declared himself as an insolvent. He died on 4 April 1934. Mahatma Gandhi described him as a great Indian patriot who wore himself out in giving shape and reality to various nation-building schemes.