After receiving the Padma award reams of words have been written about Haldhar Nag. Still many things are in dark and unknown about the gifted and powerful Kosali poet.

Haldhar is famous with surname Haldhar Nag. But actually his surname is Kharsel not Nag.  Haldhar belongs to Baidpali village of Gaisilat block.  Baidpali is the ancestral village of Haldhar. The elder member of Kharsel family dies in the epidemic cholera. Then they moved to Ghess, to their aunt’s place due to severe drought and cholera at Baidpali. Haldhar’s aunts were with surname Nag. When Haldhar was enrolled in the school, the teacher mentioned Haldhar Nag keeping the surname of his aunt. And there onward child Haldhar Kharsel was known as Haldhar Nag.

It is known to all that he could attend school only up to 3^rd standard. In present time, tenth passed students are not able to write a few lines properly. But Have you ever wonder, how this poet writes such beautiful verses without having a formal education? Haldhar gives signature, he can read Odia or Kosali slowly, but he cannot write Kosali or Odia fluently. It is Gopal Bariha, a boy from Ghess who helped Haldhar in scribing down all his writings on paper. Haldhar dictates and Gopal used to writes those on paper.

Haldhar has struggled for a square of meal since his childhood. He was working in a hotel as a dishwasher. He used to be the assistant to the cook in a hostel mess. Later on, he started a small shop in a wooden cabin to sell peanuts and eateries to school kids. Poverty has debarred the poetic genius from a life with comfort. Working all these odd jobs, he used to attend dand rehearsal, drama rehearsal, etc in night and used to compose his poems in day time. At a time, he used to visit Bijepur Zamindar Late Tulsi Prasad Gartia to practice dance and song. There he has learned Kathak, Manipuri and Odissi singing also.

Saket Sreebhushan Sahu

saket.sahu@gmail.com

by Saket Sreebhushan Sahu

Handloom weaving tradition in western Odisha is prevailing since many a generations. The handloom clothes of western Odisha have carved a niche for itself in the international market, especially sari. Saptapar, Bomkei, Habaspuri are some household names of sari design. Apart from sari, bed sheet, table cloth, screen, dress material, cloth for shirt, wall hanging, dupatta, stole etc. All these clothes are woven by a special technique named. “Baandha”/tie & die. In this technique first the thread is coloured with the tie and die technique. The coloured thread is then used to weave clothes and designs of choices forth-out from it. The designs of baandha art are inspired from temple art. The weavers are found at Sargipali of Sonepur, Barpali, Bijepur, Tarbha, Patnagarh, and Bargarh.

People like to use clothes of natural threads. Handloom clothes are preferred for luxury as well as comfort use.   This Baandha/Tie &Die is a traditional art like a painting. The weaver conceptualizes extraordinary things and draws natural scenery, trees & shrub, flower & leaves, fish, river, ocean, deer, elephant, tiger, horse, mountain, birds, and human on the cloth. Even exact human faces or portrait can be drawn with this art of weaving.  Deer on one site and lotus on another site can be drawn with this weaving technique.

Saptapar/Pasapali

Saptapar or Pasapali saree design is mainly woven at Sonepur, Barpali, and Baunsri.  The importance of Pasapali is the chequered design in white, black and red colour. Generally Pasapali or Saptapar is woven with cotton or silk thread. The face of the saree is designed in golden coloured thread.In the face, cronch, chakra, flower, animal and birds etc is designed.  And the boarder of the saree is designed with floral pattern.

The weaver designs flower, scenery, geometrical shapes, and other designs as per the order.

Habaspuri

Habaspuri name has been derived from the name of the village Habaspur of Kalahandi district of Odisha. The special Habaspuri design came to lime light in the 19^th century. Now around dozens of weavers are engaged at Chicheiguda, Kalahandi.  In recent time Master weaver Ugrasen Meher has revived the Habaspuri design.  For the Habaspuri handloom weavers Chicheiguda Handloom Cooperative Society has been founded.

The Habaspuri design is famous for the traditional art of temple, fish, and flowers of Kondha tribes.

Bomkei

The name Bomkei design has been derived from Bomkei village of Chikiti Tahsil of Ganjam district. Bomkei is woven in traditional bandha (tie &die) and jaal (net) method. Generally Bomkei saree is used by Brahmin in puja time.  In this Bomkei, Karla (bitter melon), Atsi flower, Kanthi flower, fish, Ruhi fish, tortoise, lotus, peacock etc shapes are designed.  In Bomkei saree, Haldi (turmeric), Laakh ( ) etc natural colours are used.

Adhikar organization of Gaisilat block in Bargarh district planted trees on the occasion of 70^th Independence Day celebrations of India.

As per the report, Saket Sreebhushan Sahu one of the guests of the occasion quoted Mahatma Gandhi and says, “There is no independence without economic freedom”. Pranay Kumar Sahu, Vice Chairman Gaisilat says, there should be collective effort from people and administrations for the betterment of the system. The chief guest Gaisilat BDO Sadakar Kumbhar emphasized on different schemes available for the common man and higher rate of awareness is required for the proper utilization of those.

Other guest present in the meeting were Aditya Kumar Panda, Secretary SSC Gaisilat, Samir Kumar Gartia, DO LIC Padampur,  Shantanu Padhan, Sarpanch Ganiapali, Tikelal Bariha, Headmaster, Ashram School Malmanda, Saroj Sahu, President Adhikar. The dignitaries present in the meeting kept their views on the different aspects of tree plantation. Cultural programmees were presented by the school children. The prize distribution ceremony followed it.  This Independence Day meeting was chaired by Tulsiram Seth and vote of thanks was presented by Sushanta Sahu.

After the completion of the meeting all the guests, members of the organistion and present audience participated in the tree plantation work.

Recognize Kosali as the second state language of Odisha demands Khadial Nagarik Manch in a press meet hold at Khadial Kalyan Mandap.

The Press meet was presided by Ranjit Singh Maharatha, coordinator, Khadial Nagarik Manch and other dignitaries joined the meet were Natraj Mahapatra, Irfan Mohammed,  Tulsi Jain, Sanjay Khamari etc.

In the press meet, the members says, the Odisha government is only supporting Odia language where as the Odisha is having Odia and Kosali two major languages.  And both languages have equal number of speakers; approximately two crore.  Apart from this the Kosali speakers also pays tax and Odia speakers also pays tax in Odisha but the Kosali speakers are feeling left out  after declaring only Odia as the official language of Odisha.

Further the Odisha government is supporting only Odia medium schooling in primary level whereas according to the Right to Education Act 2009, children should be avail education in its own mother tongue. The mother tongue of children of western Odisha is Kosali not Odia.  But a kind of Odia imposition is going on in the state run government school.

Activists campaigning for their mother tongues have formed an India level trust named ‘Campaign for Language Equality and Rights Trust’. The Trust mainly aims to spread awareness throughout India about the importance of mother tongues in education, services, administration, culture and other linguistic domains. To work for making all scheduled languages the official languages of the Indian Union and inclusion of the unrecognized ones in the scheduled list, for obtaining equality of all Indian mother tongues at all levels, and for ensuring linguistic rights of the speakers of Indian mother tongues are other objectives which the Trust wants to pursue.

Dr. Joga Singh, the President of the trust, in his statement released to the press has said that Indian language policy is completely on a wrong track. Leave aside the results of the worldwide research and the opinions of the language and education experts, the Indian policy makers have turned a completely blind eye to even the recommendations of all commissions and committees formed on the issue after independence. As a result of this, he said, the ruination of Indian education, languages and cultures is pretty obvious now. Along with this, it has negatively affected the domains of administration, services, inclusive growth, just and democratic social set-up, establishment of a genuinely federal structure, and sense of unity among Indian people.

Dr. Joga Singh said that some myths about language issues which most of Indian people are carrying in their minds are the primary reasons for Indian language policy being on an erroneous track. We, he said, need to look at the fact that only the countries which have based each field of their life on mother tongues are ahead in education, trade and commerce, knowledge, science, and technology. But India, by neglecting her mother tongues, has shackled its energy and talent. This has also created serious difficulties for each field of the country’s life. It is very much essential, therefore, that the language policy attested internationally and recommended by the experts be put in place throughout the country. This policy guides us to give primary place to mother tongues in each linguistic domain. To achieve this goal, we need to pool together the efforts being made by Indian mother tongues activists across the country. The ‘Campaign for Language Equality and Rights Trust’ will keep making its sincere efforts in this direction, he said.

Dr. Joga Singh told that the beginning for the establishment of this trust was made in September 2015 when Tamil language activists organized a gathering in Chennai and a platform with the name ‘Campaign for Language Equality and Rights’ was floated there. A large number of activists from eight languages, including Dr. Joga Singh, participated in that gathering. The platform had such an impressive response that within a period of less than six months it could gather representatives from forty languages in Delhi on 21^st February 2016, the International Mother Languages Day. A common demand charter was released on that day.

Dr. Joga Singh (Punjab) has been nominated as President, Mr. Senthil Nathan (Tamilnadu) as Secretary, Mr. Anand Guru (Karnataka) as Vice-President, and Dr. Rawail Singh (Delhi) as the Treasurer of the Trust. Dr. P. Pavithran (Keralam), Dr. Deepak Pawar (Maharashtra), Dr. Garga Chatterjee (West Bengal), Mr. Saket Sahu (Odisha) and Mr. K.S. Priyank (Karnataka) are the other founding trustees. The Trust has made an appeal to all Indian citizens to connect actively with the Trust’s activities.