48 SOCIAL SCIENTIST 114 Sarathi, March 19, 1934; in an article entitled "Samajika Biplaba". Mahtab called for a social revolution. 115 For example, Utkala Dfpika, March 18, 1934 published an article, "Bhai Zamindar" which went thus: "Nowadays it is a fashion to get introduced as a friend or sympathiser of the workers and peasants... It is very easy to become a socialist by distributing one's land in benami amongst one's relatives... .'* 116 Thus Sarathi(Msiy 14,1934) viewed Gandhi's padajatra (in Orissa) cynically. A joke published went thus: "A few people were returning after seeing Gandhi. They were asked whether they saw Gandhi. One of them replied that he had seen Gandhi walking with his hands on the shoulders of his two wives". The editor added that the two ladies were Sushila Ben and the daughter of Jamnalal Bajaj. 117 This was a timely concession to the Oriya middle class, and it also aimed at strengthening the links with the landed aristocracy, some of whom had been active in the Utkala Sammilani. Besides, it served to reinforce the "divide and rule" policy of the Raj. Sindh was a "grant" to the Muslims and Orissa to the Hindus. 118 J N Mahapatra, Orissa in 1936-37 to 1938-39, Cuttack, 1941, p 15. 119 Sachi Routray, Granthabali (Oriya). Cuttack, 1972, part 2, pp 220-225. I am thankful to Ms Namrata Nanda for directing my attention towards this short story. 120 This tour lasted from November 10 to 12. 1936. Home Political, file No 4/38/36. "Appreciation of speeches by Pandit J L Nehru in Orissa", gives us an insight into this tour. Nehru visited Cuttack, Ganjam and Puri. About 10,000 people assembled in Cuttack (Town Hall), 8.000 in Ganjam (Berhampur) and 7,000 in Puri (Singha Dwara) to hear him. He talked of socialism, organisation of the Kisan Sabha and in the southern zamindaris of Orissa "made a special attack on the zamindari system". However, in some zamindaris like Khallikote and Atagada the plans to bold meetings could not materialise "due to the activities of the estate officials". In almost every meeting h« made appeals to the people who were present to vote for the Congress in the coming elections. 121 Bipan Chandra, "Jawaharlal Nehru and the Capitalist Class, 1936", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol X, August 1975, sees this period as the most radical phase of Nehru—"the Indian Summer of his Leftism". In any case, the winter that followed was pretty cold! 122 S N Majumdar, "Report on the General Elections in Orissa—1937", p 16. The name of the candidate is not given but it is mentioned that the manifesto was issued by the Executive Committee of the Cuttack District Congress Committee. This radical posture of the PCC was in line with mass pressure. It was also an obvious bid to use "left" slogans for electoral gains. 123 For example, Mahtab's position vis-a-vis the rising in Ganjam (1948) can be cited. At this t'me Mahtab as the Chief Minister, justified the police firing, imposed a ban on the CPFs newspaper and disallowed even Congress (his party) MLA's to make investigations; for details see Gurucharan Pattnaik's, Ganjamare Rakta Prabhata (Oriya^, Cuttack, 1972. 124 Here I have drawn inspiration from George Rude, Paris and London in the Eighteenth Century: Studies in Popular Protest, London, 1974; as he points out, political motives,... though originally derived from outside... were given a particular twist in the course of their assimilation by the small masters, craftsmen and wage-earners who adopted them as it were to their own social and political needs. This is particularly striking in the case of