Nrusingha Guru, popularly known as ‘Gandhi of Western Odisha’ was a renowned freedom fighter, a journalist of repute, social reformer and Gandhian to the core. He was born in a remote village Gurupali under Sambalpur district on 24th March, 1902, on the auspicious full moon day (Purnima) of Phalguna and passed away on 2nd January, 1984 on the New Moon Day (Amabashya) of Pausha. He was born to give something to the mankind and not to take anything; a rare personality indeed. He never ran after fame, instead fame graced him always by virtue of his service to the mankind and sacrifice for the poor and the downtrodden.

Attire & Lifestyle
Deeply influenced by Gandhian principles, Shri Guru was unshaken by all material temptations. He wore only a Khadi Dhoti and a Chadar from the moment he decided to be a sincere follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Besides the Dhoti, that covered up to his knees and the Chaddar that covered the upper part of his body, he also hung a Khadi bag on his left shoulder. He adopted Gandhiji’s Swadeshi principle, in a wider sense and instead of imported sugar, he used the indigenous ‘Gur’ (Jaggery) prepared from Sugarcane juice. In place of machine made umbrellas, he used ‘Chhata’ made of Tal leaves or bamboo. Never did he use any kind of leather footwear but walked barefoot in all seasons. Shri Guru was a devout disciple of Gandhiji in true sense of the term.

Spark of Nationalism since his Student Days
From his very school days he was deeply influenced by the Indian National Movement. The first spark of Nationalism was fired in him in the year 1921. In response to Gandhiji’s call, Shri Guru, a teen aged brilliant student, participated in the Freedom movement from his student days. Under his able leadership, the students of Sambalpur Zilla School boycotted their school, as it was managed by the British Government and never looked back till India became independent. This incident caught the headlines of many National newspapers, as it was the first of its kind in the whole Country and helped in boosting up the morale of the National leaders including Mahatma Gandhi. Banishing all thoughts of his career and welfare of the family, with single minded devotion, he devoted all his energy for the furtherance of the freedom struggle. If he then so liked, he would have lived the life of a householder, but he decided to do otherwise. Achieving Freedom for the motherland was his uppermost consideration and he decided to give all that he could to the freedom struggle. Had he not left school then and passed his matriculation examination the same year, he would have been recruited in a high post, as all other matric passed students of his time.

First meeting with Gandhiji
During Gandhiji’s august visit to Sambalpur in 1928, Shri Guru was entrusted with the responsibility of looking after him. As a result, he came into personal contact with Gandhiji, enabling him to imbibe Gandhijis principle of Truth and Non Violence. Thereafter, he decided to follow Gandhiji’s teachings in his life and practised Non-violence and Truth in word, thought and deed till his last breath.

Efforts for Upliftment of Harijans
Shri Guru worked tirelessly for the upliftment of Harijans, who were marginalised since time immemorial and were considered as untouchables. As an active member of the District Harijan Sevak Sangh, he led the movement against the practice of untouchability. Under his able leadership, the Harijan Movement in Sambalpur became so conspicuous that Amritlal V. Thakkar, in charge of Harijan Movement at the National level not only came down to Sambalpur in 1933 but also impressed upon Gandhiji to visit Sambalpur to see for himself how selflessly Shri Guru was trying his utmost for the upliftment of the Harijans. As a result, Mahatma Gandhi visited Sambalpur in 1934 and went to the Harijan Basti at Thelkopara and was full of praise for the work done by Nrusingha Guru. Shri Guru, as the superintendent of a Harijan Hostel served the boarders in all respects, endowing love and passion just as a father loves his own Children. Although he belonged to a conservative Brahmin family, every year during his ‘Pitru Shradha’, he used to invite the Harijan boarders of this hostel and used to feed them in his house. Many of the boarders of the hostel later occupied important positions in the society. One of them became a Cabinet Minister in Odisha and some of them became top Government servants.

Personal Sacrifices during Freedom Struggle
In 1942, during the Quit India Movement, he was arrested under the National Defence Act on false charges, which were later proved to be frivolous and vindictive. When he was arrested, his six year old daughter Dineshwari was having high fever. People advised him to apply to the authorities to give him a week’s time so that he could give proper treatment to his daughter. But Nrusingha Guru could not think of demeaning himself before the British Government by doing so. He chose to remain in the jail, leaving everything to God. His younger brother, Durga Prasad Guru, was arrested immediately thereafter and the girl died after three days due to lack of proper treatment. For a brief period Nrusingha Guru worked in the Sambalpur Municipality Office. But when the Civil Disobedience Movement was launched in 1930, responding to Gandhiji’s call for resigning Government Jobs, Nrusingha Guru resigned his job in the Sambalpur Municipality and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement. He played a significant role during this movement and courted arrest. Besides these, he was arrested on different occasions for his active participation in the Freedom movement.

Crusader of Liquor Prohibition Movement
Nrusingha Guru successfully led a movement for prohibition of Liquor. He vigorously launched many agitations against this practice. The impact of this agitation was so effective, that people stopped going to Wine shops. As a result, many license holders for selling wines surrendered their licenses to the Government. The revenue accrued to the Government on this account dwindled and the then Deputy Commissioner of Sambalpur was placed under suspension, for his inability to counter this movement. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had personally lauded this work of Shri Guru.

An Ideal Journalist
In the post independence period, he kept himself aloof from all political activities and took to journalism as his profession. He chose the profession of Journalism not for making money but to set the Nation in the right path. He was the District correspondent of ‘Samaj’ for more than five decades till his death. He was instrumental in making ‘Samaj’ a newspaper of the masses in Western Odisha. Even his name was synonymous with ‘Samaj’ in every household of Western Odisha. In 52 years of his journalism, not a single news item was proved to be wrong or false. In 1937, Shri Guru was appointed as the reporter of Associated Press of India, which later became Press trust of India, and acted as such for two decades. For a brief period, he also acted as the Editor of the weekly ‘Jagarana’, which was published from Sambalpur. Once, an accident occurred at the Dam Site at Burla when Hirakud Dam was being built. Ten People died and more than a hundred labourers were injured. As soon as Nrusingha Guru came to know of this accident, he went to the site of the accident on his old bicycle after covering a distance of about twenty kilometres as no other means of conveyance was available to him then. After visiting the site of the accident he came back to the hospital at Sambalpur and collected information from the injured persons who were admitted in the hospital. Then he prepared a detailed and sent it to N.R.Swamy, the manager of Press Trust of India, Cuttack and the news was relayed the same evening by the All India Radio, Cuttack. On another occasion Surya Kumar Pujari, the then Land Acquisition Officer, Hirakud Dam Project and Shyam Sundar Padhi, the then Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sambalpur were stranded on a rock in the bed of the river IB on account of a small accident which occurred when they were crossing the river on a motor boat. They had to spend the night on the rock and were rescued in the morning. Nrusingha Guru immediately rushed to the spot and collected all the detailed information and sent it to Cuttack the same day. This piece of news was highly acclaimed by all concerned and the Press Trust of India gave him an award for his excellent work later. Nrusingha Guru undertook an extensive tour of the drought affected areas of Nuapada and Paikmal in 1965-66 and sent detailed reports about the plight of the people in the affected areas, about starvation deaths, about the inadequacy of Government measures to alleviate people’s sufferings and all these reports were published in the columns of ‘The Samaj’. These reports created a great uproar in the Odisha Legislative Assembly then. The Government was put to severe criticism and it was, thus, forced to take up corrective measures that eventually proved to be of great help to the people of the draught hit areas. Though he was in the profession for more than half a century, he created no antagonism or enmity of any kind. He was a very humble and reticent person. He had to face real tests many times in life while discharging the social responsibilities and that of a fearless journalist, but every time he came out successful with great courage. He was so perfect, accurate and unbiased in his reporting that this helped the Government to take necessary steps on different occasions.

Came with Light and passed away in Darkness
Would we believe that the time of his death was known to the heavenly bodies? It was 2nd of January, 1984, the new moon dark night of Bakula Amabashya, when he breathed his last. He was born on a full moon day and the moon disappeared when he departed at the age of Eighty Two.

A Rounding off
A true Gandhian as he was, he always strove to translate the ideals of Gandhi into realities. In fact he was the visible embodiment of the Gandhian principles for which he is rightly called the ‘Gandhi of Western Odisha’.