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{{Use Indian English|date=October 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gopabandhu Choudhuri
| image = Portrait_photo_of_Gopabandhu_Chowdhury.jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1895|05|08}}
| birth_place = Kheras, [[Jagatsinghpur district|Jagatsinghpur]]
| residence =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1958|04|29|1895|05|08}}
| death_place =
| constituency =
| party = [[Indian National Congress]]
| spouse = [[Ramadevi Choudhury]]
| children =
|alma_mater = [[Presidency University, Kolkata|Presidency College]], Kolkata
| website =
| footnotes =
| date =
| year =
| source =
}}

'''Gopabandhu Choudhuri''' (also spelled '''Gopabandhu Choudhury''') (born on 8 May 1895 at [[Cuttack]], [[Odisha|Orissa]], India – died 29 April 1958) was an Indian activist, social worker and freedom fighter. He participated in the [[Non-cooperation Movement]] , [[Salt March|Civil Disobedience movement]] .<ref name="GOPABANDHU CHOWDHURI: A Declassed Gandhite">{{cite web | title=GOPABANDHU CHOWDHURI: A Declassed Gandhite | website=Home | date=1930-11-23 | url=https://www.etribaltribune.com/index.php/volume-8/mv8i3/gopabandhu-chowdhuri-a-declassed-gandhite | access-date=2019-08-09}}</ref>

==Early life==

Gopabandhu Choudhuri was born to Gokulananda Choudhuri at the village of Kherasa, [[Jagatsinghpur]] District, Odisha. His father belonged to a landlord family and was an eminent advocate.<ref name="Mishra 1979 p.224 ">{{cite book | last=Mishra | first=P.K. | title=The Political History of Orissa, 1900-1936 | publisher=Oriental Publishers & Distributors | year=1979 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jk4dAAAAMAAJ | access-date=2019-08-09 | page=224}}</ref> His younger brother was [[Nabakrushna Choudhury]] who was Chief minister of Orissa.

He graduated from Presidency College with B.A. in Mathematics in the year 1912. He got his master's degree from the same college in 1914 . In 1917 he got his preliminary law degree from the Calcutta University .<ref name="Orissa (India). Public Relations Dept Orissa (India). Home Dept 1986 p.56 ">{{cite book | author=Orissa (India). Public Relations Dept | author2=Orissa (India). Home Dept | title=Orissa Review | publisher=Home Department, Government of Orissa | issue=v. 43 | year=1986 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ApWAAAAYAAJ | language=en| access-date=2019-08-09 | page=56}}</ref> After his education he joined the British Government as a deputy magistrate.

Gopabandhu married [[Ramadevi Choudhury|Rama Devi]], niece of [[Madhusudan Das]] on 1914.<ref name="Chandrababu Thilagavathi 2009 p.313 ">{{cite book | last=Chandrababu | first=B.S. | last2=Thilagavathi | first2=L. | title=Woman, Her History and Her Struggle for Emancipation | publisher=Bharathi Puthakalayam | year=2009 | isbn=978-81-89909-97-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZmyUpHdPWYC | access-date=2019-08-11 | page=313}}</ref>

==Indian Freedom Movement==

In 1921 after four years of working for British Government, he resigned from his job as of Deputy Magistrate . He decided to spend the rest of his life in the service of the people. It was an unprecedented action which surprised the people of Odisha.

In the words of celebrated novelist, Jnanpitha Award Winner and his biographer [[Gopinath Mohanty]] ,
{{Quote
|text=
There was a tremor in Orissa. Almost all the newspapers reported the incident. People came running to him. Friends and relatives were shocked. They came to find the reasons for such unusual step. The people in freedom movement however, came to congratulate him. Everywhere they were talking, 'Gopa Babu had resigned’.<ref name="Dhuli Matira Santha P. 47">{{cite book |last1=Mohanty |first1=Gopinath |title=Dhuli Matira Santha |date=1985 |publisher=Vidyapuri |location=Cuttack, Odisha |page=47 |ref=Dhuli Matira Santha}}</ref>}}

His resignation, which was an extraordinary step and a brave decision, brought him immediately to the middle of the Indian freedom movement. While most of the population thought his resignation was a great sacrifice but he himself never considered it as such.<ref name="Dhuli Matira Santha P. 46">{{cite book |last1=Mohanty |first1=Gopinath |title=Dhuli Matira Santha |date=1985 |publisher=Vidyapuri |location=Cuttack, Odisha |page=46 |ref=Dhuli Matira Santha}}</ref>

He selected Jagatsinghpur as his place of work. He laid the foundation of famous "Alakashrama" near the banks of Alaka river January 1922.<ref name="Mohanty Patnaik Ratha 2003 p.561 ">{{cite book | last=Mohanty | first=G. | last2=Patnaik | first2=J.K. | last3=Ratha | first3=S.K. | title=Cultural heritage of [Orissa] | publisher=State Level Vyasakabi Fakir Mohan Smruti Samsad | series=Cultural Heritage of Orissa | year=2003 | isbn=978-81-902761-4-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7ZKAQAAIAAJ | access-date=2019-08-09 | page=561}}</ref> There was a school attached to the ashram. Along with imparting education, the school also taught sanitation work and ran programmes to fight the communicable diseases like malaria and cholera.<ref name="Nayak 2003 p.123 ">{{cite book | last=Nayak | first=P.K. | title=History of modern political movements | publisher=Akansha Pub. House | year=2003 | isbn=978-81-87606-40-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yDRuAAAAMAAJ | access-date=2019-08-09 | page=123}}</ref>
In 1921, he represented Orissa in AICC.It was for the first time Orissa was represented in AICC. His responsibility in was to give popularize the Congress, and expand its organisational base. He was also responsible of the Congress office and managed the Congress establishment in Orissa.<ref name="GOPABANDHU CHOWDHURI: A Declassed Gandhite"/>

In his political thought, he was a dedicated Congressman with unwavering faith in Mahatma Gandhi.<ref name="Dhuli Matira Santha P. 122">{{cite book |last1=Mohanty |first1=Gopinath |title=Dhuli Matira Santha |date=1985 |publisher=Vidyapuri |location=Cuttack, Odisha |page=122 |ref=Dhuli Matira Santha}}</ref> He never wanted power for himself. His belief was a strong Congress would be crucial to achieving independence from British.Hence His goal was to strengthen the Congress.He did not contest the elections for Provincial Legislative Assembly. he led a group of Congress workers who would shun power, who would not sit on any committee nor would be members of any Board. They would work to strengthen the Congress.<ref name="Dhuli Matira Santha P. 226">{{cite book |last1=Mohanty |first1=Gopinath |title=Dhuli Matira Santha |date=1985 |publisher=Vidyapuri |location=Cuttack, Odisha |page=226|ref=Dhuli Matira Santha}}</ref>
For him, the freedom movement and the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi was the most important consideration. So, he was eager to merge Utkal Sammilani with Congress and fight for separate linguistic province under the aegis of Congress. However, there was a group of Utkal sammilani members who was opposed to the idea. Ultimately Choudhury could not reconcile with both the factions and resigned from Utkal sammilani in 1924.<ref name="Acharya 2008 p. 79">{{cite book | last=Acharya | first=P. | title=National Movement and Politics in Orissa, 1920-1929 | publisher=SAGE Publications | series=SAGE Series in Modern Indian History | year=2008 | isbn=978-93-5280-260-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9RjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT79 | access-date=2019-08-09 | page=79}}</ref>

In 1934, Mahatma Gandhi undertook a padyatra in Orissa. One of the places he visited during his travel was a remote village [[Bari]], in Jajpur subdivision of the erstwhile Cuttack district. Bari and surrounding areas were regularly afflicted with floods. He was posted here during his days in the Government service and he was well acquainted with the area. Gandhi suggested Gopabandhu to choose one of such place and to stay there to work with the people. Gopabandhu selected Bari . He set up a base at Bari with his family and a few followers on 13 August 1934. While he remained a congress member, he bid adieu to active politics.<ref name="GOPABANDHU CHOWDHURI: A Declassed Gandhite"/>

At Bari, he undertook many social reconstruction various programmes such as village cleaning, teaching Dalits, empowering Dalits to fight exploitation by landowners. He also undertook setting up small scale industries like leather tanning and manufacturing units, units to produce molasses, units to manufacture [[khadi]], units to produce soap and paper etc. He also encouraged local people into vocations such as apiculture, dairy farm, basket and mattress production. He trained farmers to grow new vegetables such as tomato, cauliflower, etc. and plant various fruit bearing plants. The practice of growing vegetables that was started by him still continues in Bari and its nearby areas. Besides his work to strengthen the village economy, he also wanted to bring in inter-caste harmony. He persuaded the villagers to let untouchables enter into the Baldevjiu temple as early as 1936.<ref name="GOPABANDHU CHOWDHURI: A Declassed Gandhite"/>
He translated Mahatma Gandhi's biography "my experiments with truth" to odia, ''"satyara prayog"'' <ref name="Datta 1988 p. 1360">{{cite book | last=Datta | first=A. | title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti | publisher=Sahitya Akademi | issue=v. 2 | year=1988 | isbn=978-81-260-1194-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&pg=PA1360 | access-date=2019-08-11 | page=1360}}</ref>

==Post Independence ==
India got independence in 1947. He continued his work at Bari that he began before independence. He was however disillusioned by the Congress governments approach towards governance. He boycotted the 1952 elections and joined the Acharya Vinoba Bhave led [[Bhoodan movement]].

==See also==
* [[Ramadevi Choudhury]]
* [[Nabakrushna Choudhury]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1895 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists from Odisha]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:People from Jagatsinghpur district]]

Gopabandhu Choudhuri - Revision history

UpdateBot at 14:32, 28 January 2022