Sashi Bhusan Rath (1885-1943) was a social reformer, industrialist, politician and founder-cum-editor of the Dainik ''ASHA'' newspaper (The first Odia daily), published from Brahmapur. He is famously known as Ganjam Byaghra which means The Tiger of Ganjam.

Early life

Sashi Bhusan was born and brought up in

Surada Surada (also known as Sorada or Soroda) is a town and a Notified Area Council in Ganjam district in the Indian state of Odisha. Geography Surada is located at . It has an average elevation of . It is situated at the North-Western border of G ...

. Rath was the second son of Lambodara Mahapatra by birth. Nilakantha Mahapatra instructed his son Lambodara that, Sashi should be given for adoption to his childless uncle Digambara Rath. So, from his early days, he used ''Rath'' as his surname. There are institutions which bear his name such as ''Government Sashi Bhusan High School'' in Surada and Sashi Bhusan Rath Govt. (Auto.) Women's College in Brahmapur.

Career

He was elected as vice-chairman of the former Berhampur Municipality and later elected as Public Representative from the Ganjam district to Madras Assembly Council during the British Raj. He briefly worked as a manager of ''Utkal Tannery'' of

Madhusudan Das Madhusudan Das (28 April 1848 – 4 February 1934) was an Indian lawyer and social reformer, who founded Utkal Sammilani in 1903 to campaign for the unification of Odisha along with its social and industrial development. He was one of the mai ...

. In 1928, Sashi Bhusan Rath started the Odia Daily 'Dainik Asha' from Berhampur on the Odia New Years Day (Mesha Sankranti). It had helped the people of Odisha to launch their struggle to secure the unification of the outlying Odia areas under one administration and spread the message of freedom movement of the country in the rural areas of the State. The Asha press also gave the opportunity to receive the practical training in daily newspaper work and journalism. After the publication of ''Dainik Asha'', Sashi Bhusan also published an English weekly called ''The East Coast'' and entrusted its editorship to Pandit Godavarish Misra. On 5th May, 1933 the first English daily of the Orissa, ''The New Orissa'' started publishing from the Asha Press of Berhampur under the Editorship of Sashi Bhusan assisted by Mr. Sharma and Mr. K.N. Acharya who came from Madras. Mr. Acharya who was the colleague of Mr. Rath later became the Editor of New Orissa. The management of the paper was looked after by Mr. Hadu Raiguru who was a trusted Assistant and colleague of Mr. Rath. Sharat Mahapatra, a brother of Sashi Bhusan was an Asst. Editor in Dainik Asha who later became the Editor of weekly Asha and continued it for a long time even after the death of Mr. Rath. For the proper growth and development of Odia language and literature, necessity for the invention of Odia typewriter was greatly felt and a brother of Sashi Bhusan named Ranganath Mahapatra of

, Ganjam district invented the Odia typewriter in early forties. The typewriters were manufactured in Germany and were put to use in some of the offices soon after the formation of the separate Orissa Province. The Zamindars of Ganjam and the Rajas of some of Garjats were encouraged to use the Odia typewriter.

References

1885 births 1943 deaths People of British India People from Ganjam district {{Odisha-politician-stub