Short Biography of Radhanath Ratha

 Radhanath Ratha

Radhanath Rath was simultaneously a journalist, editor, writer, freedom fighter, politician and social activist.  He was born in 6 December 1896 in a poor family at the village of  radhanath pur District of Puri.

After graduating from Ravensa Collegiate School in 1916, he worked as a clerk in the forest department in Singhbhumi district.  Utkalmani came in contact with Gopbandhu Das and quit his job and joined the Satyabadi Press.  He entered journalism through the weekly 'Samaj Magazine'.  He later became its editor and popularized 'Samaj' in the villages of Odisha.  He joined the Quit India Movement and spent two years in prison.  In the 1946, he was elected MLA from the Aathgad constituency of the Congress party in the constituency of Nabakrishna Chowdhury, Minister of Finance and Education, and Harekrishna Mahatab as the Chief Minister of the Forest Department.  After leaving politics, Radhanath took over as editor of the Samaj and won the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award on the 1967 and the Padma Bhushan on the 1968.  He died on 11 February 1998, at the age of 101.