Bigyan Prachar Samiti Compilation

Bigyan Prachar Samiti was launched in1949 with the aim of taking science in simple lucid language to the common people of Odisha. The initiation was done by nine interested persons – Dr. Gopala Chandra Patnaik, Dr. Gokulananda Mahapatra, Dr. Radhanatha Rath, Dr. Sukumara Aditya, Dr. Mahendra Chandra Misra, Dr. Raikrusna Mohanty, Dr. Sadasiba Misra, Dr. Syamananda Patnaik and Dr. Krusna Charana Das.

Dr. Sadasiba Misra presided over the launching session. Dr. Radhanatha Rath and Dr. Gokulananda Mahapatra both were elected as the joint secretaries. It was decided that sessions will be held every 15 days on a sunday, science article written in Odia will be read and discussed there. To increase closeness among the members, it was decided that the sessions will be held at the residences of members. Many college teachers criticized this organization. Their view was a difficult subject like science cannot be written in local language. But gradually many teachers got interested and became members of Bigyan Prachar Samiti. The famous scientist JBS Haldane was also a member of this Samiti.

Before Samiti was formed, only a few articles in science, mostly on agriculture, lifescience, health and hygiene, biography were being published. Published popular books were also small in number. The articles read at Samiti’s session were compiled and published as books. During writing, need for a glossary was felt and it was prepared by the members. Because the articles were in very simple language, it was well accepted by the people. Till now around 50 books are published. Besides this, many mambers have written books and published individually. Bigyan Prachar Samiti has encouraged the people to write science in Odia.

Popular science magazine Bigyana Prava published the articles from Bigyan Prachar Samiti in 1974. But after 5 years the Samiti started its own magazine – Bigyanaloka – in 1979 under. School science textbooks were also written by the Samiti members. Along with the book and magazine publication, Samiti was organizing many workshops for teachers. science writers, children, members were going to schools to interact with children etc. Bigyan Prachar Samiti has created many popular science writers, has made science palatable for the common people and has created interest towards science among children.

Digital versions of books published by Bigyan Prachar Samiti can be accessed via the table below which provides links for downloading these. Complete books in pdf format can be downloaded by clicking on the ‘image’ or ‘open/download’ links.