Poetry and Social Transformation: The Legacy of Sachi Routray

Introduction

Sachidananda Routray, popularly known as Sachi Routray (1916–2004), the recipient of the country’s highest literary award, the Jnanpith, was both a famous poet and a radical activist of modern Odisha. In the early 1930s, Sachi Routray’s initial poems represented a sense of romance but soon his leftist ideas permeated his creativity moulding him into a famous literary figure, known for his experimentation, and bringing in a new thinking into Odia poetry. Sachi Routray’s poems contained an important message of his flowering soul and revealed a rare power and beauty which were his own (Chattopadhyay & Sinha, 1954). They vibrated with the poet’s multi-coloured personality, which was devoted to art and beauty.

In fact, Sachi Routray was the first radical writer and poet in colonial Odisha even though some literary critics have given that honour to Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi. ¹ His political ideas, particularly his interest in Marxist views and thoughts, were not only an innate part of his literary creations, both in prose and poetry, but they formed a significant part of his activities that included movements for the emancipation of workers and peasants from the bondage of landlords and chiefs of the princely states existing in colonial Odisha. Hence this essay, written in the centenary year of this iconic poet, addresses the activities of Sachi Routray both as a creative writer as well as a radical intellectual activist in the momentous decades that mark 20th century Odisha.

The Young Activist and the Progressive Platform

Sachi Routray as a poet came into focus in the 1930s, first through the weekly Odia newspaper Nabeen, published from Brahmapur, then edited by Krupasindhu Narendra Deb, the chief of Mahuri Estate. Sachi Routray was then a young school-going boy but despite his age, many of his poems were published in Nabeen between 1930 and 1933. ² The poems were full of romantic, starry-eyed notions but were very different in tone and temper with the poems of the Sabuja group, a literary circle that had acquired a reputation of raising new and critical issues relating to traditions and customs. The Sabuja group included notable poets like Annada Shankar Ray, Kalindi Charan Panigrahi, Baikunthanath Pattnaik, Sarat Chandra Ray and Harihara Mohapatra. This group used romantic imagination in their verse which appeared in Utkala Sahitya, a publication edited by Biswanath Kar in the 1920s.

But in Sachi Routray, there was a new voice waiting to be heard. In 1930, when his poems were published in Nabeen, Kantakabi Lakshmikanta Mahapatra, a famous literary figure in Odisha, in a letter to the editor of Nabeen, stated that he could foresee an extraordinary talent which would shape modern Odia literature and predicted this poet’s future greatness. ³ This prophecy made in 1930 was prescient; Sachi Routray entered into a remarkable phase of his life when in 1932–1933 he began to introduce visionary ideas in the essays and poems he wrote for Nabeen.

Sachi Routray’s first poem called Avyakta ⁴ (Untold) was published in Nabeen while he was still a school student in Jajpur. Subsequently, a number of poems got published in that literary weekly, some laced with romantic, idealist thoughts but others showed his deep-seated views (Dash, 1996, pp. 63–66). In 1931, Sachi Routray was to reveal a more radical side when he wrote a letter from Banki in Asha (23 March 1931), another important Odia weekly newspaper published from Brahmapur. In that missive, Sachi Routray clearly stated his views on a forthcoming session of a separate Utkal Provincial Conference to be held in Cuttack. He requested the leaders and organisers of the conference to include delegates from the student community of Odisha who, he felt, embodied the hopes and aspirations of the nation’s future. He felt that the leaders needed the cooperation of students and that the participation of the student community would, in turn, create considerable interest and enthusiasm for programmes relating to the development of marginal groups in the province and that these students would also be interested in the movement for the formation of Odisha which was as yet a fragmented region.

During this phase, apart from his interest in organisational activities for students, his literary career continued to flourish and he eagerly contributed to the literary resurgence in Odisha through the publications like Nabeen and Shishir. ⁵ In 1932 and 1933, the poems of Sachi Routray, mostly appearing in Nabeen, contained different kind of ideas. In fact, many of them still reflected his romantic views but others were very pronounced with leftist and progressive ideas. The first significant poem, revealing his progressive thinking entitled Bhagavan Achha Kahin? (O God, Where Are You?), was published in Nabeen. ⁶ Before its publication, other poems, such as Puri Mandira (Puri Temple), Kavi (Poet) and Rakta Kavita (Red Poem), were also published in Nabeen, with bold radical ideas. ⁷ Another significant poem, Kalapahad, published in Nabeen was a marked departure from the conventional Odia poetry, and charged with forward looking and progressive thoughts entering into hitherto unknown terrain. ⁸ The poet praised Kalapahad, the so-called iconoclast in the traditional accounts of eastern India, for liberating God’s idol by breaking the temple which he considered to be a prison. Almost reformist in tone and temper, the poet stated that he liberated humans and their Gods from old, worn out ideas and narrow religious spaces. He stated very emphatically that those temples should be destroyed where Gods in stone mocked progress made by human beings. These almost revolutionary poems of Sachi Routray were greatly valued. In Nabeen (26 December 1933), a perceptive comment on these poems appeared. Here was a poet who had realised in his heart the true suffering of the dalits. In an environment of mass suffering and exploitation the poet could not think of comforts. He passionately conveyed that life which is subjected to oppression is also lost in the tyranny of a deceptive civilisation. It indicated his true radicalism.

By 1933–1934, it was clear that Sachi Routray was deeply influenced by Marxist ideas and thoughts. This was evident in his lengthy essay Kankalara Shobhayatra Ba Bolshevism (The Procession of Skeletons or Bolshevism) which appeared in a serial form from 6 February 1934 onwards in Nabeen. In it, he brilliantly narrated the origin and progress of Bolshevism in Odia, helping to provide an interesting and rare dimension to Odia literature. His ideas further evolved with the publication of Sarathi, another progressive magazine brought out by its editor, Nabakrushna Chaudhury, from March 1934 onwards. The weekly was published to champion the movements of peasants and the workers in Odisha (Dash, 2006; Dwivedy, 1984, pp. 30–31; Satapathy, 1995).

The poet’s connection with Marxist groups was noted and reported by the Criminal Investigation Department, Odisha special branch in the British colonial administration. ⁹ According to the report, Sachi Routray had shown distinct political tendencies from the young age of sixteen years. In 1933, while a student at Puri Zilla School, he took part in the All Orissa Youth Conference by becoming its secretary. By 1934, he changed his university and moved to Calcutta, enrolling first in the Brahmo Boys’ High School and later to City College. While in Calcutta, he was in touch with S. N. Goswami, secretary of the Progressive Writers Union, Bengal, S. A. Zaheer, secretary of the Progressive Writers’ Association, Allahabad, Sibnath Pathak, secretary of the Bengal Press Workers’ Union and president of the Calcutta Carters’ Association. All these groups were communist organisations. His house and belongings were searched twice by the Calcutta Police for communist literature. On 13 February 1937, he was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the Calcutta Communist Conspiracy Case. While in Calcutta, he became a member of the All Bengal Students Federation and was one of the organisers of Calcutta’s Andaman Day Demonstration. In asking his friends and associates to organise a United Students’ Front, he exhorted them to fight against the alleged enslavement and exploitation of imperialist powers. He also appealed to them to organise peasants, labourers, press workers, factory and electric supply workers side by side with student’s movement on the lines planned by the Bengal Students Federation. In Calcutta, he was also associated with Dipak Sangha, an Odia association that fostered progressive and modern ideas (Dash, 2003).

With Calcutta having become too dangerous a city for him, Sachi Routray moved to Cuttack in 1937 and joined Ravenshaw College for his B. A. But he continued to pursue his political beliefs. In collaboration with Ananta Pattnaik, Biswanath Pasayat, Gokul Mohan Rai Chudamani, Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi and others, he persisted with arousing the interest of students to his broad-minded ideas and to infuse local student communities with communist principles and liberal political views.

In 1937 and 1938, Sachi Routray concentrated on spreading his progressive thinking through his writings along with his organisational activities in Odisha. He contributed articles on communism in magazines such as New Age published from Madras and National Front published from Bombay. ¹⁰ He was by now also interacting with M. N. Roy, by then the famous marxist leader. His visionary ideas found in this phase were articulated brilliantly in Nabeen. A significant essay that he wrote was Bharatare Krushaka O Shramika Andolana (The Movement of Peasants and Workers in India). ¹¹ This article was sent from Brajabandhu Night School, Calcutta which was one of the centres of his radical activities. Even though he was a student in Ravenshaw College in 1938, he went to Calcutta and it was here that he wrote his essay in which he succinctly wrote on the emergence of mass movements in India. He pointed out that the age of leadership of the so-called bourgeoisie or middle class over the movements was over and that people in India had risen against colonialism and imperialism. In elaborating these ideas, he was greatly influenced by the book War of Independence published by Ganesh and Co. of Madras.

In another insightful essay published in Nabeen, Biplavamukhi Sahitya (Literature for Revolution), ¹² he decried the old literature which he described as ‘slavish’ as it supported the very idea of oppression. He immensely admired progressive, contemporary and modern literature revealing his commitment to marxist ideas. In his discourse, he advocated a united struggle by workers and peasants against the colonial and imperial yoke, condemned feudal literature championing instead progressive Marxist ideas and its revolutionary call to end the feudal system not only in Odisha but in India as well.

Sachi Routray’s ideas found yet another platform with the formation of Nabayuga Sahitya Sansad by Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi and others in 1936 and the publication of a progressive magazine in Odia, Krushak under the leadership of Sarangdhar Das and others. In 1938, a collection of poems was published in the form of a book called Abhijana (Campaign) by Saraswat Press from Cuttack and was dedicated to his friends, the comrades of Nabayuga Sahitya Sansad. These poems appearing in Odia magazines at different times from 1932 to 1937 presented a powerful and imaginative discourse on the issues of the time through the creative form of poetry.

The People’s Movement

From 1937 onwards, till the outbreak of the Second World War a momentous phase of Sachi Routray began with his organisational activities becoming more pronounced than his literary resurgence. The 1930s witnessed an unprecedented awakening of peasants and workers with the formation of socialist organisations in North India (Josh, 1992, pp. 89–116). These years in Odisha were also characterised as a remarkable phase for the awakening of the peasants and tribals (Ernst & Pati, 2007, pp. 1–5; Nanda, 2008, pp. 60–146; Pati, 1993, pp. 86–142; Pati, 2001, pp. 93–98; Sengupta, 2015, pp. 203–232). Sachi Routray as a college student was conscious of the changing times. His first important activity in this respect was to organise workers and peasants in Odisha for a struggle that reinforced the process of democratisation and decolonisation in the princely states.

The confidential reports of 1937 written by British authorities indicated his active participation in the peasants’ and workers’ movement in Odisha. During this period, there was the Utkal Congress Socialist Party active under its General Secretary Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi. ¹³ Kishan Sabhas (peasant associations) were being organised by Phanindranath Pal, Ananta Pattnaik, Bijoy Chandra Das, Prananath Pattnaik, Gouranga Charan Das and Baidyanath Rath. Sachi Routray was a prominent organiser of the Kishan Sabhas in Orissa in 1937–1938 and he attended the Patia Peasants’ Conference on 6 November 1937 at Kalarahanga. ¹⁴ By 17 December 1937, as the peasant movement was spreading, split occurred in the Socialist Party in Odisha. ¹⁵ Younger members like Ananta Pattnaik, Sachi Routray and Baidyanath Rath believed that Nabakrushna Chaudhury, the socialist leader in the province, was no longer the extremist that he once was. The role of the younger activists was not adequately appreciated by Nabakrushna Chaudhury and his associates who wanted to strengthen their own hold over the organisation. On the other hand, the Students Federation was relatively active and under the sway of Sachi Routray who, along with his young associates, favoured more militant peasant struggles.

In the Patia Peasants’ Conference held on 6 November 1937 at Kalarahanga, in Cuttack, Sachi Routray had made his mark. ¹⁶ He seconded a resolution in the conference moved by Bijoy Chandra Das powerful address. In that address, the poet-activist stated that in the impending World War, in which England would be taking an active part, Congress would become a supporter of this imperial power. ¹⁷ This speech in the Peasants’ Conference was to articulate more strongly his anti-colonial stance and his campaign for the emancipation of peasants. To further motivate the peasants of Odisha, he wrote some inspiring poems in Krushak such as Let Him Ignite As Much As He Can (17 September 1938). ¹⁸ The tone of protest in Sachi Routray’s poems had a lasting impact on the peasant masses and contributed towards creating a sense of revolutionary consciousness in many areas of Odisha.

By the middle of 1938, Sachi Routray was active in student politics in Odisha, instilling into their movement his communist ideas. ¹⁹ Interception of his correspondence by the state’s intelligence officials in June 1938 corroborated his political activities. He requested Professor Surendranath Goswami of Bangabasi College and secretary of the Bengal Progressive Writers’ Union to come to Cuttack to preside over the local branch of the All Orissa Progressive Writers’ Association in its inauguration ceremony at Cuttack. He was also in touch with S. S. Zaheer, Ahmad Ali from Allahabad, Premananda Mitra and Muhammad Jaffar from Amritsar, all well-known communists, and members of All India Progressive Writers Association. Sachi Routray published another revolutionary poem, The Banner of Those That Have Lost Their All Is Unfurled in Odia in Krushak (3 December 1938). ²⁰ The poem was composed against the backdrop of the unrest in the princely state of Dhenkanal. This poem, too, was considered seditious by the colonial regime in Odisha. In 1939, he was appointed as a Congress party organiser for the Sukinda area and with Phanindra Pal, he had organised a number of meetings in Keonjhar-Sukinda region against British imperialism and the oppressive rule of the rulers of the princely states.

The most important revolutionary poem of Sachi Routray, Baji Rauta, appeared in Sahakara. ²¹ The hero of the poem was a young boy, Baji Raut, who worked as a boatman. After refusing to take some military police personnel in his boat to cross the river, he was shot dead by the police. Baji fell martyred to the imperialist bullets of the British Raj and its feudal underlings in India (Chattopadhyay, 1954, p. 7). Sachi Routray commented on the incident.

The sacrifice of Baji Raut was soon to become a part of the popular movement and a reference point for people and historians on the colonial administration (Pati, 2001, p. 93; Rath, 1993, pp. 183–184). Sachi Routray, through his resounding verse in Odia, made him an extraordinary symbol of the popular narrative not only in Dhenkanal where the boy was actually fired upon but also throughout India where popular unrest assumed the shape of a great crusade against colonialism and feudalism. ²²

The poem on Baji Raut of Dhenkanal princely state made Sachi Routray popular and his extraordinary creative activism resonated not only in Odisha but beyond. By 1939, he had already emerged as a young leader and a promising poet. He began to renew efforts to form a new party for the youth, the Cultural Party, because, as official records noted, he was disappointed at not getting a senior position in the existing, but divided, youth association. ²³ Youngsters of Odisha were then working under the leadership of S. A. Haque, Nilakantha Das and Jadumani Mangaraja who were themselves divided and confused. Sachi Routray held a meeting at Cuttack on 10 June 1939 with Sudhir Kavi, Narasimha Charan Samantasimhar, M. A. Momin and about forty others and proposed that a conference of the Cultural Party should be held in July. They proposed to invite either Professor Humayun Kabir or M. N. Roy to preside. In order to encourage students, he launched a weekly journal, Chhatra Sakti in 1939. ²⁴

During a strike by the students of Cuttack Medical School, Sachi Routray, as spokesperson of the Students Federation, published a news bulletin called Chhatra at regular intervals in 1939. ²⁵ This bulletin contained accounts of incidents connected to the strike and was instrumental in creating a level of enthusiastic fervour amongst students. The first two issues of the bulletin were printed at Shree Press, the third at the Saraswat Press and the remainder, up to Issue 9, at Observer Press. Ultimately for this, both Sachi Routray and his patron Madhusudan Mohanty of Observer Press were charged for engaging in illegal activities and fined. During the strike of 1939, a number of news sheets and leaflets were issued by the students with Sachi Routray being the master brain behind them.

It was in late July that the communist leaders of Odisha proposed a boycott of the viceroy’s visit in 1939 and Sachi Routray in order to galvanise a public outcry issued a leaflet—Viceroy’s Visit to Orissa: Responsibility of Students. ²⁶ This famous bulletin, particularly addressed to the student community, outlined in detail why they should protest against the viceroy’s visit. The bulletin stated that Viceroy Linlithgow would be visiting Odisha representing the highest authority of British imperialism. One of the ways of achieving independence was by severing all connections with the imperialistic power by organising a boycott of all functions being arranged by the colonial regime and their lackeys to receive the Viceroy. Sachi Routray also said that the birth right of the students was to free themselves from the foreign imperialistic chain of slavery in order to achieve Swaraj. All these thoughts reflected his intense involvement in the anti-colonial struggle in Odisha even as a young college student. Through his outpourings, he was able to mobilise many students in his campaign against feudalism and colonialism.

Perhaps the most renowned publication in the late 1930s was Chhatra, a periodical of the All Orissa Student Federation, which printed many issues in 1939 and 1940 under his supervision. Sachi Routray’s office was located then at the Old College Lane in Chandni Chowk, Cuttack (Dash, 2001, pp. 199–210). Chhatra posed many insightful questions, arousing a consciousness among the students against colonialism and imperialism. In some of the more discerning articles such as Karagara (Prison), Srunkhala Nimantrana (Invitation of Bondage), Diali (Light), Ame Kahinki Satyagraha Arambha Karibaku Sthirakalu? (Why Did We Decide to Launch Satyagraha?) Chhatra, in a sense, led the discourse of the protest using powerful arguments which stirred the youth towards revolutionary programmes. By 1941, Chhatra, under the supervision of Sachi Routray, became the mouth-piece of the All Orissa Students Federation wielding considerable influence. On 21 April 1941, in an article called ‘Student and Culture’, the poet articulated a new definition of culture by stating that for the present and future safety of mass culture, students needed to collectively become part of a movement (ibid.). Mass movements everywhere in the world, according to Chhatra, would have to be closely connected to the cultural movement of the students.

In 1939, an anthology of poems, Rakta Shikha (Flames of Blood), was published by the Shree Press of Kasinath Sahu, Cuttack. ²⁷ A poem, Biplabara Janmadine (On the Birthday of Revolution), by Sachi Routray was branded ‘very objectionable’ by the colonial administration, similarly other poems were also severely criticised. According to a confidential report, written in 1939, by the inspector general of police: ‘His poems in a booklet Rakta Shikha published by the Communists of Orissa clearly indicate his connection with that party and his radical ideas. It was desirable that a strict watch should be continued to be kept over his correspondences.’ ²⁸

On 5 August 1939, Sachi Routray visited Manikagorda Camp, a refugee camp of Khandapara state where about fifty refugees from the Odisha princely states were living. He urged the campers to go to Cuttack to attend the A.U.Y. (All United Youth) Conference to be presided over by the popular leader, Jayaprakash Narayan from Bihar and place their grievances in the conference. ²⁹ Such positions indicated his considerable involvement in the peasant unrest that was taking place in the princely states of Odisha. His activities were being closely watched by the colonial administration. He was already in touch with the radical anti-imperialistic forum of Dwijendranath Ray (son of Jatindra Mohan Ray), an active member of the Dacca Anushilan Samiti, who was released from detention on 7 April 1938. ³⁰ Sachi Routray met him in March 1940 at the All India Kisan Conference at Palasa. The local communists had organised a Summer School of Politics in Cuttack on 10 June 1940 and Dwijendranath was invited by Sachi Routray to deliver a series of lectures at the school. Another contact point was Balai Bose, an active member of the Bakarganj Anushilan Samiti, who after being released from detention in August 1938 made his way to Cuttack. In June 1940, he promptly contacted Sachi Routray who used him as a lecturer in his Summer School of Politics. ³¹ In the 1930s, Sachi Routray single-mindedly wanted to inculcate the radical ideas into the minds of young students of Odisha and to an extent he was successful at the time in his venture.

In 1940, there was a strike in the examination hall of Ravenshaw College, Cuttack and several students meetings were held in the tennis courts on 20 February in which Sachi Routray had played a prominent role ³² in the shaping of Left and youth politics in Odisha in the 1930s and 1940s. In the meetings, Sachi Routray powerfully, and passionately, criticised the government for encroaching upon the fundamental rights of students in India. He even pointed out that Indian students studying in Cambridge and Oxford universities in England were allowed to organise themselves under the leadership of the Communist Party. Indeed, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain could even advise the students to legitimately leave their institutions and fight, should they want, for the national cause. On the other hand, he said, the same regime was forbidding Indian students from even holding discussions on the independence of their country.

Finally, Sachi Routray exhorted the students that if they really wanted to fight against the imperial control, they should organise at least 700 volunteers who should be prepared to become martyrs. In a public meeting presided by Sachi Routray and held at Cuttack Town Hall on 22 February 1940 the poet-activist held an audience of about 400, mostly students, ³³ spellbound. He said that this meeting was being organised not to influence students by using words, but to make them decide their future line of action through which they would take revenge against the insult meted out to them as well as to their country by the colonial rulers.

Poetry as a Political Catalyst

A series of poems written by Sachi Routray, brimming with his leftist ideology and reformist ideas, were published in Nabeen and Sahakara in the 1930s. This could be considered to be the most visible phase of his radical activities. During this period, he was also closely connected with Dipak Sangha, a literary association of Odia youth in Calcutta, present-day Kolkata. The association was formed by a young group from Odisha in collaboration with their counterparts in Calcutta to acquaint the former with progressive internationalist ideas (Dash, 2003, pp. 81–91). This body had come into existence in Calcutta in 1935 and its secretary was Gauri Charan Kanungo of Borikina (now in Jagatsinghpur district).

The first important contribution of the Sangha was a psycho-analytical novel in Odia, Ye Dheu Uthe Sagara Tale (The Wave That Springs from the Ocean) written by Sachi Routray and published in the Puja edition of 1935. Then Sachi Routray was a student of City College, Calcutta. By 1936, the activities of the Sangha expanded and Sachi Routray, through this group, got wider recognition. His fiction Chitragriba, collection of essays titled Prema O Panya (Love and Merchandise) and a collection of poems on village life, Palli Shree, were published on behalf of the Sangha. The last one was a collection of poems on Odia rural life which were earlier presented in magazines like Sahakara, Pallishree and Rasachakra. Its expanded version appeared in Odisha in 1941. His prose piece, Prema O Panya was critically evaluated in the progressive magazine Adhunika, edited by Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi, and in the Odia weekly Asha. ³⁴ A number of his one-act plays were also published in Nabeen in the 1930s of which Miss Odisha was very significant (Dash, 1998, pp. 154–173). Miss Odisha, which was published in Nabeen in its April issue, 1936 strongly criticised the way the truncated, separate province of Odisha was formed, and Sachi Routray cogently spoke of the incomplete form of Odisha in all its cultural barrenness.

His most important anthology of poems, Pandulipi, was written from 1934 to 1946 and was published in 1947 when Sachi Routray was in Calcutta. Sachi Routray had dedicated this work to Malati Chaudhury, Surendra Dwivedy and late Bhagabati Charan Panigrahi in the preface. ³⁵ The first poem Jhada (Storm) was an indication of the new roots sprouting in Odia poetry, challenging old romantic and traditional notions. ³⁶ In the poem, there was an appeal to those who had closed the doors to social change, urging them to meet the swirling storm of transformation. The poet called upon the new generation to welcome the swift but sudden changes in the social milieu as ‘the mounts and woods and waves even bent all in respectful glee’. The poem indicates the concern and connection Sachi Routray had with the onset of modern, humanitarian ideas in Odia poetry which was till then full of romantic and old ideas.

Another landmark verse in Pandulipi was the poem, Konarka. It was originally presented in Sahakara in 1937 and evocatively spelt out a paradox of human history: how the magnificent ruins of the Sun Temple in Konarka were also an unmistakable symbol of ruthless despotism of feudal monarchy. ³⁷ The poem contains Left ideas in abundance, although in medieval Odisha, Sishu Krushna Das had also put forth his words of protest in the same vein in his text, Deula Tola (Construction of the Temple) at the end of the 18th century AD (Dash, 1988–1989). In this poem, Sachi Routray masterfully stated that Konarka might be a delicate work of art for many, but for him it was simply a place where the heaped-up bones of a thousand artisans lay; workers who had toiled ceaselessly, painfully inch by inch, to create this exquisite structure with their chisels and hammers simply to please a king. There were no signatures of the artisans who had made such a magnificent structure. The poem is but one example of the radical perspective of Sachi Routray in Odia literarature. ³⁸

The poem was significant enough to challenge all existing studies on Konarka, widely considered to be the greatest landmark of the Kalinga School of Architecture by myriad poets and writers. Many poets, such as Mayadhar Mansingh, had overlooked the significant contribution of the labour and craftsmen in the making of Konarka and had only celebrated its final artistic beauty. But the searing poetry of Sachi Routray in his masterpiece Pandulipi conveyed a critical perspective that contrasted strongly with the ideas of both the Sabuja group, including Mansingh, and also with other nationalist poets. The latter, according to Sachi Routray, indulged in an uncritical glorification of Odisha.

In fact, Sachi Routray, in the kind of verse he penned, could be compared with Radhanath Ray, who had experimented a lot while writing Odia poetry in the late 19th century AD. Sachi Routray had an expanded vision which combined national concerns with international issues and in all his poems he had all along dealt with multiple socio-political questions affecting people of Odisha. Then also he had written poems like Alaka Sanyal in which his imaginative ideas were still prominent.

Sachi Routray, though essentially a poet, also wrote a number of short stories in Odia which were published in the 1930s and 1940s in Nabeen, Sahakara, Arati and Dagara. ³⁹ They reflected the major themes with which Sachi Routray was consistently pre-occupied: tyranny of the social order, conflicts and struggles of urban and rural life, both in the pre-colonial and post-colonial India, psychological issues such as frustration, loneliness and death. Stories such as Masanira Phula (The Flower of the Cremation Ground), Hata (The Hand), Rickshabala (The Rickshawallah) and Andharua (The Dusky Man) depicted many moods, ranging from gently satiric and ironic to the macabre and in the classic sense, tragic. Boldly delineated and deeply moving, the characters revealed the soft nuances of the human mind and were charged with delicate overtones of implications. ⁴⁰ English versions of many of Sachi Routray’s short stories were published in the daily Amrita Bazaar Patrika and Hindustan Standard in their Calcutta as well as the North Indian editions and were appreciated by discerning readers all over India. ⁴¹

In the 1930s and 1940s, Sachi Routray was not only an outstanding writer in Odia but also a renowned activist-intellectual who wrote analytical essays and commentaries. He participated in the national debate on the homeland of Jayadeva and with cogent arguments and ideas, fearlessly projected Jayadeva as a poet of medieval Bengal (Routray, 1960, pp. 430–434, 733–745). Although, he deeply admired Odia language and literature, he was free from chauvinistic obsession and was always inclined towards scientific and objective ideas. This critical approach was visible in his writings in the 1950s and 1960s on history of Odia literary thought and values (Routray, 1972).