66 SOCIAL SCIENTIST It was against this background that the Utkala Kisan Sangha was bom in 1935. This gave a new thrust to and offered new possibilities for the peasant movement in Orissa. Mohanlala Gautam presided over its first conference at Cuttack in which a resolution was put forward for the abolition of the zamindari system. Although opposed by most of the leaders the resolution was passed and the kisan delegates stoutly supported it.11 The Utkala Kisan Sangha welcomed people of all shades, so much so that even Mandhata Gorachand Pattnaik who was a spokesman of the landed elements and was a retained lawyer of some big zamindars found a place in it. Mahtab became its President and Malati Chaudhury its Secretary. Intensive work was launched in the three coastal districts of Cuttack, Balasore and Puri. The initial successes of the Kisan Sangha had a very positive impact on the rural folk by weakening the hold of the established order on them and kisan committees sprang up in different villages.12 The province of Orissa was formed in April 1936. When the All India Kisan Sabhz had its first conference at Lucknow (11 April 1936), Orissa was represented by Mahtab, Lingaraj Misra, Nabakrushna Chaudhury, Bhagirathi Mahaptra and Surendranath Dwivedy.13 Swami Sahajanand Saraswati was elected as the President. In a speech he argued that there was no possibility of a compromise between landlords and the peasants except by dispossession of the landlords. Ram Manohar Lohia criticised the Gandhian policy of defending the landlords vis-a-vis peasants. Sohan Singh Josh pleaded for combining the struggle for zamindari abolition with the struggle against imperialism.14 These developments boosted the peasant movement in Orissa. The PCC, especially the youthful Socialists spread the message of the Kisan Sangha in some of the remotest corners of the province.15 The Kisan Sabha exposed zamindar-government collusion and attracted many rural Congressmen. As surendranath Dwivedy puts it, for the first time there was a clear realisation among the peasants that the government was on the side of the zamindars.16 Although it is not possible to determine how widespread this realisation was, one can perhaps associate the coastal tract with his observation. While analysing the various issues discussed in the meetings in the countryside (April to June 1936) some features stand out quite clearly. We do observe a contrast between the meetings of the Kisan Sangha and the PCC. The Kisan Sangha, like the PCC, urged the necessity of strengthening the anti-imperialist struggle. But it went beyond this goal by stressing the need for anti-feudal struggle as well. A section of the PCC (i.e. the Socialists) was identified with this trend. This was the 'left* wing of the PCC which was shaping, and was being shaped by, the Kisan Sangha. In contrast the PCC meetings harped only on the anti-imperialist theme and clung to the Gandhian programmes of