19th Century Orissa Revisited: Perception of Bengali Writers

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A perusal into the writings of 19th century Bengali writers, one gets inexorably drawn towards the period, comes back to second time to sustain the relish. The book in a way portraits Orissan society, Oriya virility, Oriya customs and usages, Oriya culture and above all Orissan history through a cognitive lens- a' Paradigm shift'- a shift from older to something new. Pre 20th century Orissa in - the hands of these neighbouring writers have got a lively lease with a delightful and absorbing reading, liberal dose of humor and a rich source of knowledge.

Soma Chand is a historian cum literateur of immense repute. Her research interest embraces intellectual and cultural ethos of Modern Odisha with more affination for literary detail. Her treatment of literary data is minutely analyzed and shaped for the reconstruction of historical edifice that takes the readers to hoary past to visit it again and again. Besides her research publications, she has more than 500 articles published in prestigious newspapers, periodicals, magazines and 30 books which touch society from historical and literary perspective. At present, she is the Head of the P.G. Dept. of History, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar.

The nineteenth century is regarded as one of the most epochal and formative periods in the history of India. In fact, this is the period of inauguration of Indian Renaissance and the beginning of a series of thoughts and movements that brought the birth of Modern India. Not only India gave farewell to medieval dogmatic orthodoxy, but was characterised by a certain 'Collective Cognitive Identity'.

Discussing this subject in The Bengal Renaissance, Subrata Dasgupta observes in Prologue,

This particular cognitive identity came into being amidst a small but remarkable community of individuals in nineteenth century Bengal as the outcome of their restrictive, individual acts of creation in a number of realms, in particular, ancient history, theology, literature, science and practical religion...... The products of these individual acts of creation and the resulting shared cognitive identity were both radically distinctive relative to the Indian past, and of propound consequence to the future; so much so that it behoves us to claim that this collective creativity and the resulting shared cognitive identity over the span of the nineteenth century represent a genuine cognitive revolution.