The book is a daring attempt to record the latest history of an Indian province
in the context of national political changes depicting the sordid drama of
steady alround degradation, the unhealthy nexus between greed and power and the
lonely crusade of a subaltern leader to redeem parliamentary democracy from
corruption and many other corrosive influence of contemporary society. The
economic backwardness of Orissa despite abundance of natural resources and a
relatively peaceful law and order situation has been an enigma baffling social
scientists since long. Natural calamities apart, the lack of political will and
able leadership are no mean impediments in the path of her progress.