Draft:Manmohan Misra

[[File:Manmohanmisra for wikipedia.jpg|thumb|Manmohan Misra

Poet, Revolutionary, Freedom Fighter

Born - March 23, 1920, Puri, Odisha,India. Died- November 19, 2000, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

.

President, Ravenshaw College Students Union, 1938

Quit India Internment 1942-1945

Chairman, Cuttack Municipality, 1959-1963

Editor, The Kalinga, !960-1963

Poet, Writer, Activist

Trade Union Leader

Spouse- Nirmla Kar (1929-2009)

website - https://manmohanmisra.com/]] Manmohan Misra was a twentieth century revolutionary poet who joined the India's struggle for freedom against the British occupation.. Much of of his writings were banned by the British. His poems gave voice to the farmers and the mill workers in the State of Odisha

Summary
He was the Founding President of the Ravenshaw College Students Union. His nationalistic leanings were guided by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who was his high-school alumnus. He served as a member of the Communist Party of India from 1940 to 1956 and was a member of Indian National Congress from 1957 to 1964. He served as the Founding Editor of daily Kalinga from 1960 to 1963 and served as the Chairman of Cuttack Municipality 1959 to 1963. He wanted to apply Marxism to uplift the poor and landless in Odisha.. He founded the grassroots People's Literature movement..

Education
He studied English Literature in Ravenshaw College (now University) and was influenced by the liberal ideas of the English poets.. Hearing the leftist call to demolish India's feudal structure and empower the farmer with land redistribution, Manmohan joined the movement as a student leader..

Leadership and political life
Upon his release from jail in 1941, he joined Communist Party of India. as a follower to late Bhagavati Charan Panigrahi Quit India Movement landed him again in jail for three years. He composed freedom songs that were smuggled out of the jail.

Communist Party
Manmohan was famous for his eloquence and oratory. He fought in Puri Parliamentary Constituency in the first general elections of India in 1952, but was defeated. He established branch units of World Peace Council in Odisha and became the Founding Secretary. In 1955, he attended the World Peace Council event at Helsinki, Finland as a poet delegate from India. With the Russian invasion of Hungary in November 1956, Manmohan condemned the aggression and severed ties with the Communist Party..

Indian National Congress
He was solicited to join the Indian National Congress by Late Govind Ballabh Pant. He joined as the Odisha correspondent of the nationalist English daily Hindustan Standard. He edited a weekly bulletin called The Congress and helped establish the daily Kalinga from Cuttack. Manmohan was elected the Chairman of Cuttack Municipality in 1959. As Chairman, he opened night schools, public health facilities and vocational training schools for the youth.

Literary life
Manmohan's early literary compositions were used in marches, meetings and in stage shows to express protest. They were banned from circulation by the British. Manmohan succeeded in recreating many of them from memory A translation of the collection of poems by Soviet poets has been a unique addition to Odia literature. ରୁଷୀୟ ସଂଗୀତାବଳୀ (Anthology of Poems from Russia) published in 1967 won the Soviet Land Nehru Award for the year. Two other translations Maxim Gorky's "On Literature" and Thomas Mann's "The Transposed Heads"  appeared the following year. Manmohan produced two research books on Odia linguistics (i) ଚଳନ୍ତି ଭାଷାର ପ୍ରୟୋଗ caḻanti bhāṣāra prayoga, (The use and application of current language) and (ii) ଚଳନ୍ତି ଭାଷାର ବିଜ୍ଞାନ caḻanti  bhāṣāra  bijñāna (the science of the current language).

He created a biography of Barrister Bishvanatha Misra,. the first Bar-at-law from Odisha who articulated his views in British Legislative Council in his native language Odia. In the '80s, Manmohan edited a literary journal called "Abhijatri." He led training workshops for young poets and artists in teaching language art and techniques of expression

Work on the land rights for people
He camped in the tribal areas and mobilized people to do sit in strikes in protecting land. In 1971, he was put under solitary confinement at Hazaribag jail .. He again led peasants against the land grab movement in Baliapal. i The Baliapal protection movement of 1985 has become a historical landmark against usurping land from the farmers.

Trade Union Movement
The trade union at Orient Paper Mill in Brajarajanagar was founded by him in 1942. He led protests at the Glass production factory at Barang in 1955. Many of the trade unions that he founded in Joda, Biramitrapur, Barbiil, Brajarajnagar, Rayagada, Sunabeda remain active.

Maoist teacher
Manmohan adored Lenin and the Bolshevik revolution. Mao Tse Tung's success with People's Liberation Army drew his attention. He visited China in 1979 as the leader of an Indian Cultural delegation. He ran teach-in sessions where farmers can assume leadership of land management and economy.. He wrote about the possible armed clash between the entrenched henchmen of feudalism against the farmers.

Dementia and death
In late life, Manmohan suffered dementia and was detected with Alzheimer's disease in 1999. He succeeded in publishing a poetry book containing the poem from the freedom struggle dictated from memory. Manmohan died of a stroke on November 19, 2000 at Kalinga Hospital in Bhubaneswar .The Central Sahitya Academy has commissioned a biography to be released in 2024..