Gopabandhu Das (English: Gopabandhu Das; born- October 9, 1877, Puri, Orissa; death- June 17, 1928) was a famous freedom fighter, journalist, poet and litterateur. He was a famous social worker of Orissa. Gopabandhu Das is also known as ‘Utkal Mani’. Whenever there is talk of nationalism and freedom struggle in the state of Orissa, people take the name of Gopabandhu Das. The people of Orissa remember him as ‘Daridra Sakha’ i.e. ‘Friend of the poor’. Gopabandhu Das had tried his best to create a complete Orissa state by uniting the various regions of Utkal. He was the founder of Utkal’s daily newspaper ‘Samaj’.
Gopabandhu Das was born on October 9, 1877 in a village named Suando near Sakshi Gopal in Puri district of Orissa. His father’s name was Daitari Das and mother’s name was Swarnmayi Devi. He belonged to a poor Brahmin family. Gopabandhu Das was educated in Puri, Cuttack and Calcutta (present Kolkata). He did L.L. from Kolkata University in 1906. l. B. Received degree of_. After completing his education, Gopabandhu Das started advocating for livelihood. He remained engaged in education, social service and national work throughout his life. National sentiment was present in him since childhood. Gopabandhu Das had joined ‘Utkal Sammilani’ organization since his student days. One of the objectives of this organization was to organize all Odia speaking people into a single state. He made it the vanguard of the freedom struggle. When Mahatma Gandhi started the ‘Non-cooperation Movement’, Gopabandhu Das merged his organization with the Congress.
Gopabandhu Das was the pioneer of national consciousness in Orissa. He visited jail several times during the freedom struggle. It was on his proposal in the Nagpur Congress of 1920 that the Congress accepted the policy of creating language-wise provinces. He became the leading priest of Orissa nationalism and in 1921 he led the ‘Non-Cooperation Movement’ in Orissa. He was imprisoned for two years. Gopabandhu Das also became a member of ‘Servant of the People Society’ established by Lala Lajpat Rai. In the year 1909, Gopabandhu Das established a high school at Sakshi Gopal. This school was a new experiment in imparting education in an open environment like Shantiniketan. In 1919, Gopabandhu Das brought out a weekly newspaper named ‘Samaj’. It became a daily newspaper in 1930. Now Gopabandhu became dedicated to social services. Gopabandhu was also a famous writer and litterateur. He wrote some poems and prose, among them were the following-
