Harekrushna Mahtab — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

Subhas Chandra Bose, then Congress President, nominated Mahtab to the Working Committee in 1938. He served on it until 1946 and again from 1946 to 1950.

Mahtab was Union Minister of Commerce and Industry from 1950 to 1952 and Governor of Bombay from 1955 to 1956. He resigned in 1956 and became Chief Minister again.

Mahtab won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for “Gaon Majlis,” alongside other writing including the historical work “History of Orissa.”

Mahtab drew direct inspiration from Gandhi’s Dandi March and spearheaded a Salt Satyagraha in Orissa in 1930, for which he was jailed again.

Mahtab worked closely with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to integrate Odisha’s princely states, including Nilgiri, the first to see open revolt against its ruler.

Many of Odisha’s princely rulers resisted merger by forming their own Eastern States Union in opposition to Mahtab’s circulars seeking their cooperation.

Mahtab sat on the Bihar and Odisha Council from 1924 to 1928, alongside chairing the Balasore District Congress Committee.

He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 for “Gaon Majlis,” alongside his earlier historical work “History of Orissa.”

In 1934, he opened his ancestral family temple to all, regardless of caste, a first for the state.

He pushed for the merger of Odisha’s 26 Oriya-speaking princely states into Orissa province, facing resistance from rulers who formed the Eastern States Union.