The epochal famine of 1866, called Na’anka Durbhiksha’, had its epicentre in Cuttack and its adjoining areas. Nearly half a million people had died in this region and over four million had perished in entire Odisha.
While the impact of the famine was severe in and around Cuttack, the tragedy was a clarion call to awaken the Indians against the British Raj.
On the occasion of the 156th anniversary of this ‘Great Odisha Famine’, the Cuttack Chapter of Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) in collaboration with the Cuttack Club is organising a two-day exhibition of photographs, sketches and facsimiles of newspapers’ reportage of the famine published by the overseas Press.
Chief Justice of Orissa High Court Justice S Muralidhar would inaugurate the exhibition at the Cuttack Club annex on June 18, informed INTACH convener Gopal Krishna Behera here on Thursday.
The Cuttack Club has a special relevance to the famine as it was the place where the famine commissioners had stayed for about four months to write the report.
Behera further informed that the exhibition would showcase never-before-seen photographs, sketches and newspaper reports collected from English Press of Britain, America, Canada, Australia and South Africa from the period between 1865 and 1868.
