nothing to eat
nothing to wear
boundless is the anguish
who indeed can bear to see such misery
among the world’s creatures
let my soul be condemned to hell
but let the Universe be redeemed.
The Orissa Famine of 1866 saw 1 million people die, a third of the state's population. Over the next two years the impact of the famine took another 4 million human lives. These immortal words of Bhima Bhoi record his anguish over the ravages of this famine. Food and relief aid could not reach across the flooding waters which had cut of Orissa into an island, a Noah's ark with the living creatures quickly starving and dying on it.
Source: Biswamoy Pati in Religion and social 'subversion', Re-examining colonial Orissa (EPW, July/2010)., Bidyut Mohanty in Orissa famine of 1866 Demographic and economic consequences (EPW, Jan/1993)., Siddhath Satpathy in Bhima Bhoi Prayers and Reflections.
Tags: Bhima Bhoi