The Odisha Official Language Act and Language Movement in 21st Century Ad

The Odia language, since its inception has played a significant role in establishing the uniqueness of the people of Odisha.In the 12th century AD Chodagangadev of Eastern Ganga family has established “Sakalatkola” and made the Odia language the dominant speech in this land. In 15th century AD the great pioneer of Odia Identity ‘Kapilendradev’ used the word ‘Odisha’ and introduced ‘Odia’ as the Official Language in his empire. After 1568 this community has lost the hard earned Identity and this was again restored in 1936 with the creation of Odisha state on Language basis. After introduction of Indian Constitution in 1950 the provision in Art.345 351 resulted in the “The Orissa Official language Act, 1954”. Though we got the Act for the use of Odia Language in all official purposes of Odisha still we are thousand miles behind the achievement of ‘Kapilendradev’ in 15th Century AD. Now in the 21st Century after 71 years of the establishment of democracy in India, ‘Black Flag march’ have been organising in the banner of ‘Bhasa Andolan’every day since 13 04 2016 till date. After amendment and official notifications it is still to be implemented in the real term of the above Act in Odisha..In this paper emphasis is given on the attempts made to implement the above Act the successes and failures, stumbling blocks on path necessity of the use of Odia Language in administration and the relevance of present day Odia Language Movement in Odisha. The study is qualitative and descriptive in nature basing upon secondary data. Suresh Chandra Rajahansa "The Odisha Official Language Act and Language Movement in 21st Century Ad" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-3 , April 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30775.pdf