The fifth episode of the National Cultural Padayatra – Dhai Aakhar Prem was in Odisha State. A one-day march was organized in Cuttack city on 04 November 2023. The speciality of this Yatra was that everyone from different age groups including from a nine year old child to a 92 year old veteran IPTA member, Shri Vivekananda Das, not only participated but also gave the message of fraternity among the people by traveling on foot.
This journey was also historical because Cuttack is a city with many golden memories related to history. The place from where the padyatra started was Gandhiji’s favorite place, which is called Swaraj Ashram. Gandhiji had come there several times and created public awareness among the people for the Swaraj movement. There is a huge ground adjacent to the ashram, in which lakhs of people used to listen to Gandhiji. The journey started from there. In this, cooperation was received from ISCOF, Gandhi Peace Foundation, Utkal Sarvodaya Mandal and Utkal Gandhi Memorial.
Two elderly friends started the program by singing ‘Saare Jahan Se Achha, Hindostan Hamara’, ‘Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye Peer Parai Jaane Re’ and Gandhiji’s favorite bhajan ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ to the tune of flute. After that, Manimay Mukherjee, member of the National Committee of IPTA and President of Chhattisgarh IPTA, said that the people from many cultural organizations of the country will come together across the country to spread the message of unity, peace, solidarity and humanity through various folk art performances. From 28 September 2023 they are doing padyatra to 30 January 2024. Music, drama and folk arts have kept Indian culture alive. Indian culture is rich with the combination of many religions and communities like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian. It is the duty of every Indian to preserve it.
The march passed through Bhashakosh Lane via Nimchudi, Balu Bazar, New Road and reached its next stop Gaurishankar Rai Park, where freedom fighter and famous literateur of Odisha Gaurishankar Rai, who despite being a Bengali speaking person, fought to make Odia language the state language. Wreaths were laid on his statue. School girls presented a dance on a patriotic song. Next stop was the memorial of Gopabandhu Chaudhary, the most popular freedom fighter of Odisha located in Dargha Bazaar, who left the job of ICS in protest against the British rule and dedicated himself to the freedom movement. After paying homage to him, the common people present there were informed about the purpose of the ‘Dhai Akhar Prem’ march. From here the march proceeded towards Kadamrasul.
Then the group reached the birthplace of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. He grew up here and received his education till matriculation here. Subhash Chandra Bose was remembered by garlanding his statue. There, floral tributes were also offered to the statue of Parimohan Acharya. Tributes were paid in front of the statues of Utkalmani Gopabandhu and Utkal Gurum Madhusudan after going to the society office. The group reached Barbati Fort.
After this the padyatra reached the office of the historical ‘Samaj Akhbar’ published from Cuttack. This is the same place from where during the freedom struggle, a newspaper was published which kept people aware. Gandhiji also came to this office. Even today, the office of ‘Samaj Akhbar’ is there, all the profits of which are spent to help the common people and the credit for this goes entirely to the freedom fighter Gopabandhu Chaudhary, who founded it. Wreaths were placed on his statue and a cultural program was presented there.
At the last stop of the journey, people reached the historical Varavati Fort, which contains many memories of the Mughal and British rule. There, the senior partner of ISCS started the program by playing Gandhiji’s favorite bhajan ‘Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye’ and Ramdhun on flute. Then dance on patriotic and folk tunes were presented by the children. A play on Gandhiji was also presented. In the end, Sushant Mahapatra, Odisha state coordinator of ‘Dhai Akhar Prem’ National Cultural Padyatra, apart from giving information about the ongoing yatra in the country, also gave information about its purpose and thanked all the friends, artists, police administration, local administration, and press. Expressed gratitude to his colleagues and National Executive member Manimay Mukherjee who came from Chhattisgarh. He assured that this ‘Dhai Akhar Prem’ Padyatra will be organized in different parts of Odisha in the coming days for the unity and integrity of the country.
In this yatra, Cuttack Mayor Subhash Singh, IPTA State General Secretary Sushant Mahapatra, National Executive Member, Vijay Padihari of ISCUS, Gandhian Justice Manoranjan Mohanty, Dr. Vishwajit, Jayant Kumar Das, CPI State Secretary Abhay Sahu, AITUC leader Kishore Jena, Chittaranjan Patra, Prasanna Behera, bank employee leader Prafulla Tripathi, Bipin Bihari Padhi, Subashchandra Bose, Bhramarbar Sahu, Amarendu Mohanty, Vidyaprasanna Mahapatra, teacher leader Vivekananda Das, Ashok Ta, Inderjit Ghosh, Anima Ray, Vishwajit Suryavanshi, Basant Raut, Rabiranjan Sahu, Apart from Sanand Sethi, Sukant Barik, Tapan Kumar Swai, the yatra was led by Dr. Sheikh Kalimulla, Vijay Kumar Mohanty, Akhtar Hussain, Vijay Mahapatra, Sampoj Samant Rai, Vinod Behera, Priobat Patnaik Major. Bank Union, Teachers Union, all progressive people’s organizations, ISCUS, Gandhi Peace Foundation, AIPSO and many dance organizations remained together and made yatra a success.
Report: Sushanta Mohapatra, Manimay Mukherjee