Shri. Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi was born on 1st February 1908. He was a visionary and a revolutionary who propagated nationalist views through his writings. The most popular among these was the story titled ‘Shikar’ wherein he described the plight of tribal communities, their
exploitation by the British and the methods adopted by the British to suppress their revolt. This was made into a movie by Padma Bhushan Mrinal Sen. It is this movie ‘Mrigaya’ was the first movie of Padma Bhushan Mithun Chakraborty and he had won a national award for the same.
In November 1935, Shri. Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi formed Navayuga Sathiya Sansad -a literary society along with his elder brother Padma Bhushan Dr. Kalindi Charan Panigrahi . However, his nationalism was not confined to literary activities. Initially, he was inspired by Mahatma Gandhiji’s ideology but soon he joined the Congress Socialist Party and ultimately launched the Communist Party of India in Orissa on 1 April 1936. His connection with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was through a common teacher in Beni Madhab Das. He not only led Netaji’s Forward Block in 1939 but also became one of his close confidents. He was working for Azad Hind Sarkar in India. In September 1943 he was picked up by the British Police and interrogated on Netaji’s plans for India. Shri. Panigrahi refused to divulge any information. It has to be noted here that Netaji consistently maintained contact with his confidents in India while he was away in Germany and in South-East Asia. During this period, the Azad Hind Fauj’s (AHF) Secret agents had also landed at the Chilika/ Puri/ Konark coasts and got local support. It has been argued by some that Shri. Panigrahi was to travel to Singapore to join Netaji and Rash Behari Bose but because of his arrest he could not make it.
However, this assumption may not be correct as Netaji wanted his confidents in India to carry out the work of AHF from within main land India. He was tortured by the British Police while in custody, resulting in his death. Though the post mortem report stated the reason of the death as unknown illness and food poisoning, there were severe injury marks on his body and all his finger nails had been plucked out. These were noticed by the family when his body was handed over to them on 23 October 1943 (just two days after Azad Hind Sarkar was announced by Netaji in Singapore) Shri. Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi became a martyr of India’s freedom struggle at the young age of 35 years. His head quarter was at 9, Pithapur, Cuttack. This petite but iconic address was a secret meeting spot for several legendary revolutionaries like Netaji, Bagha Jatin, Veer Baishnab Patnaik. Kartar Singh Sarabha and more.
His niece Smt. Nandini Satpathy nee Panigrahi at an early age was inspired by his nationalist views. She later on went to become Minister attached to PM of India and then the first woman to take charge as Chief Minister of Orissa.
His great grand son Shri. Suparno Satpathy is a highly respected socio-political leader of Odisha albeit India.
