Bishwanath Das

Bishwanath Das was an Indian politician, lawyer and philanthropist. He was the prime minister of Orissa Province of British India 1937–1939, the governor of Uttar Pradesh 1962–1967 and later Chief Minister of Odisha 1971–1972.

Early life

He was born on 8 March 1889 in a Kanyakubja Brahmin family at Belgan village in Ganjam district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency, which is in the state of Odisha. He graduated from Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. Married at an early age his only child Dr. Trinath Dash also followed on the steps of philanthropic legal practice for the poor.

Bishwanath Das supported the Indian independence movement from both Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. He was a member of the legislative council of Madras Province from 1921 to 1930. He was instrumental in the creation of a separate state for the Odia-speaking people. After the separation of Orissa/Odisha from Bihar and Orissa Province on 1 April 1936, he became its prime minister on 19 July 1937. He became a member of the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946 representing Orissa. He served as the governor of Uttar Pradesh from 16 April 1962 to 30 April 1967. In 1966, he was made the president of Servants of the People Society.
After the 1971 Odisha Legislative Assembly election, the Utkal Congress, Swatantra Party and Jharkhand Party formed a coalition. Das became Chief Minister of Odisha under the coalition government. He was in office from 3 April 1971 to 14 June 1972. He set up multiple trusts for providing free legal support, food and vedantic learning institutions for the poor in Orissa and Uttar Pradesh from his lifetime earnings and salary. The institutions include Veda Bhavan at Puri.