Nabakrushna Choudhuri

Nabakrushna Choudhuri (23 November 1901 – 24 June 1984) was an Indian politician and activist.

He served as Chief Minister of the Indian state of Odisha.

He was a freedom fighter who participated in the Non-cooperation Movement, the Civil Disobedience movement, and the Peasant movement.

Nabakrushna Choudhuri was born to Gokulananda Choudhuri at the Kherasa village of, Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha.

His father belonged to a Zamindari Karan family and was an accomplished advocate.

Nabakrushna Choudhuri studied at the Pyari Mohan Academy, Cuttack.

He completed his studies for to Matriculation Examination at the age of 15 but had to wait for a year due to age restriction.

In 1917, joined the Ravenshaw College, Cuttack.

His brother Gopabandhu Choudhuri resigned from British government service to work in social service.

In 1921 he left the Ravenshaw College along with few of his classmates, e.g. Nityananda Kanungo, Loknath Patnaik, Jadumani Mangaraj and Harekrushna Mahtab to join non-cooperation movement and to work in social service.

He lost his father around this time so he came under his elder brother Gopabandhu Choudhury's guardianship.

In 1922, Nabakrushna Choudhuri went to Gandhiji's Sabarmati ashram, Ahmedabad to learn all about Khadi – the principles and philosophy of spinning and weaving.

On return from Sabarmati, Nabakrushna tried to organize Gandhian programs in Odisha along with his brother in a school at Alakashram, that his brother established.

In 1925, Nabakrushna went to Shantiniketan to further his studies of Mahatma Gandhi.

During his ten-month stay there, he came in contact with Malati Choudhury (née Sen), whom he married later.

Later, he and his wife worked at Tarikund, a village near Jagatsinghpur.

There, they both worked as farmers and teachers with his first daughter, Uttara being born in 1928.

Mahatma Gandhi started Salt Satyagraha in 1930.

Inchudi in Odisha was epicenter of the movement in Odia speaking regions.

Srijang was equally active in another area – the movement against payment of Tax for Chowkidari.

Nabababu was the frontline leader in this movement, for which he was jailed for four months.

He used the prison time in studies and in organising games and gymnastics for his fellow prisoners.

In 1931 a son was born to him and Malati Devi.

By that time his brother and his family were jailed as well.

All of them were transferred to Hazaribag Jail.

Nabababu got the opportunity of meeting fellow freedom fighters Minoo Masani, Ashok Mehta, Yusuf Mehrali and Jayaprakash Narayan.

He came back to Tarikund after being released from Hazaribag Jail.

He created a small group within the Congress and began editing and publishing a journal named ‘Sarathi’.

For meeting the recurring costs of ‘Sarathi’, Malati Devi sold her jewelry.

‘Sarathi’ was the mouthpiece of small farmers and labourers.

When the Congress Socialist Party was formed in India with Ram Manohar Lohia, Acharya Narendra Dev and Jayaprakash Narayan as its founders, Nabababu's group was merged in this forming Utkal Congress Samyabadi Sangha (Utkal Congress Socialist Party).

In 1935 Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi in collaboration with Ananta Patnaik set up Nabajuga Sahitya Sansad to create progressive literature in Odisha.

At the inaugural session of Nabajuga Sahitya Sansad, Malati Choudhury sang "Nabeena Jugara Taruna Jagare" written by Ananta Patnaik.

This society functioned as the cultural wing of the UCSP.

Odisha became a separate linguistic province on the first of April 1936.

In 1937, elections to the Odisha provincial Legislative Assembly were held for the first time.

Nabababu stood for election against Rai Bahadur Chintamani Acharya from the Tirtal-Ersama constituency.

He won the election with an overwhelming majority and this marked his entry into active politics.

As an MLA, he was always sensitive to, and concerned about, the interests of the poor and downtrodden in Odisha.

All the farmers of Odisha united themselves to fight against the landlords who were exploiting them.