{"id":56515,"date":"2025-07-24T10:41:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=56515"},"modified":"2025-07-24T10:41:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T05:11:44","slug":"paika-rebellion-controversy-odishas-historic-uprising-and-the-ncert-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/paika-rebellion-controversy-odishas-historic-uprising-and-the-ncert-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Paika Rebellion Controversy: Odisha\u2019s Historic Uprising and the NCERT Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Paika Rebellion Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Former Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has strongly objected to the exclusion of the 1817 Paika Rebellion from NCERT\u2019s new Class VIII history textbook, terming it a \u201chuge dishonour\u201d to the valiant Paikas.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The NCERT clarified that the rebellion would be included in the second volume of the textbook, to be released later this year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Paikas: Odisha\u2019s Warrior Farmers<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 19th-century rural India, widespread discontent often erupted into armed resistance due to longstanding injustices and the disruptive policies of the expanding British East India Company.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among those who rose in rebellion were the <\/span><b>Paikas of Odisha<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a class of traditional foot soldiers<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the 16th century, Odisha\u2019s Gajapati kings had recruited Paikas from various social groups to serve as military retainers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In return for their martial services, they were granted <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hereditary rent-free lands<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> known as <\/span><b><i>nish-kar jagirs<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which they cultivated during times of peace.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The erosion of their privileges under British rule sowed deep resentment, setting the stage for uprisings like the Paika Rebellion of 1817.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>British Betrayal and the Fall of Khurda<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1803, Colonel Harcourt\u2019s British forces marched from Madras to Puri with little resistance and moved on to capture Cuttack.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Harcourt struck a deal with <\/span><b>Mukunda Deva II of Khurda<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, promising him compensation of \u20b91 lakh and four parganas in exchange for safe passage through his territory.\u00a0 However, the British failed to fully honour the agreement.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response, <\/span><b>Jayee Rajguru<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the king\u2019s custodian, led 2,000 armed Paikas to Cuttack to pressure the British.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Harcourt paid \u20b940,000, he withheld the promised parganas. Rajguru&#8217;s subsequent conspiracy against British rule was thwarted, leading to his arrest and execution on December 6, 1806.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The British then dethroned the king, destroyed Barunei Fort, seized royal lands, and exiled Mukunda Deva II to Puri.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Growing Resentment and the Road to Revolt<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fall of native rule in Odisha led to a sharp decline in the status and livelihood of the Paikas.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Stripped of royal patronage and hereditary rent-free land<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they were further burdened by the British East India Company\u2019s new land revenue policies<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These reforms forced many Odia landowners to sell their land cheaply to absentee Bengali landlords.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, the <\/span><b>switch to a rupee-based taxation system<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> increased economic pressure, especially on tribals, who now had to meet rising demands from landlords paying taxes in silver.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The British also <\/span><b>tightened control over salt trade<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, extending it to coastal Odisha in 1814, further straining hill communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These combined economic hardships and the loss of traditional privileges ultimately sparked a full-scale rebellion against British rule.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Paika Rebellion of 1817<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In March 1817, a group of around 400 Kondhs from Ghumusar, armed with traditional weapons, marched towards Khurda.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were soon joined by the Paikas, led by <\/span><b>Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the former commander-in-chief of the Khurda kingdom and ex-holder of the Rodanga estate.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Together, they launched a fierce revolt against British authority\u2014attacking the Banpur police station, burning government buildings, looting the treasury, and killing officials.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The uprising spread across several regions with bloody confrontations, but the British eventually suppressed the rebellion.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jagabandhu evaded capture for years, hiding in the forests, and finally surrendered in 1825 under negotiated terms.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Paika Rebellion and Contemporary Political Narratives in Odisha<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The legacy of the Paika Rebellion has become a strong symbol of Odia pride and sub-nationalism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2017, marking 200 years of the uprising, the then State government demanded that it be <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recognised as India\u2019s \u201cfirst war of independence<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d citing its occurrence decades before the 1857 Revolt.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the Centre did not accept this status, the then Union Culture Minister stated in 2021 that the rebellion would be acknowledged in Class VIII textbooks as one of the early popular uprisings against British rule.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Prime Minister Modi honoured Paika descendants in 2017, and the then President Ram Nath Kovind laid the foundation of the Paika Memorial in 2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-history\/paika-rebellion-omission-ncert-odisha-10144924\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Know why the Paika Rebellion&#8217;s omission from NCERT textbooks has sparked a political row and revived Odia pride in Odisha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":56528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,1770,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-56515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-paika-rebellion","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}