Paika Rebellion of 1817 : Was it the First War of Independence ?

 Forty years before the occurrence of  the great revolt of 1857, the Paik rebellion took place in Odisha in 1817. It was an outbreak in which mostly the Paikas and the Ryots  of Khurda participated. Though it originated in Khurda, spread to different parts of Odisha. Bakshi Jagabandhu  who inspired the movement became its leader.

The rebellion which originated from Khurda and Banpur later spread to Pipli, Gop,Tiran,  arishpur, Marichpur, Kujanga, Kanika, Paradip, Nuagarh and Pattamundai. In March 1817, about 400 Kandha tribals of Ghumsar  came marching towards Khurda. They were joined by the Paikas and attacked the police station at Banpur and burnt all Government quarters. There they killed 100 men and looted 15,000 rupees from the Government treasury. When the Kandhas were marching towards Khurda ,people from adjoining villages joined with them in large number.This  event proves that the tribal as well as common people participated in the movement. Their aim was to throw out British rule from Odisha .

Ewer in his report has mentioned that the rising was promoted by the “misery beyond endurance under which the people of Khurda were sinking.” So the rebellion had definite connection with the people’s grievances. Though the personal suffering of Jagabandhu was immense and he spearheaded the movement, the people’s grievances can never be avoided.

Ewer has also remarked that the rebellion was not pre-planned and it was sudden upsurge of the spirit of revenge smouldering in Jagabandhu.1 But facts don’t substantiate  this  view. Jagabandhu had conceived of plans long before to restore Mukunda  Dev II to the gadi of Khurda. Further he had induced the Garhjat Rajas to join him. The Rajas of Ghumsur, Kujang and Nayagarh were in direct league with him.

A contemporary British officer named W.Ker  characterised  the rebellion of 1817 as a freedom movement in the following words, “Jagabandhu has given a lead in organising a movement, no matter in how haphazard manner for ousting the newly established English from Odisha; he expected that other people who (were) also hit hard by the mal-administration under the English and the Odisha chiefs, who had been deprived of all their freedom would follow up the lead to make a common cause with him for the purpose of liberating their motherland from foreign yoke.” Trower, the then collector of Cuttack stated that, “the rebellion was a crusade, the objective of which was to expel the English from all interference with the land of Purusottam Khetra.”

Whether freedom movement or resistance movement, the rebellion of 1817 became a source of inspiration for the nationalist leaders, intellectuals and poets to create awareness against foreign dominance and its repercussion on common people. The leftist politician Prananath Pattnaik infused new life into the Paikas by giving a clarion call in the spirit of late  Godavarisha  Mohapatra’s  Utha  Kankala (oh, skeleton; arise) invocation. Eight years after this rebellion Madhusudan Bipra, an eye-witness wrote a kavya, entitled  Firingi Kali Bharata which gives an account of conflicts of the Khurda people with the British, particularly the rebellion of Tapanga.5