There he was influenced by Mukhtiar Ramchandra Das, a teacher who was both a nationalist and a proponent of public service in aid of people in distress.

Becoming organising his fellow children in the spirit of co-operation, the inadequate response of authorities for the victims of an outbreak of cholera prompted him to start a voluntary corps called Puri Sava Samiti.

These extra-curricular activities, which also included helping the victims of flooding, impacted on his academic studies such that he failed his degree examination, although he gained his BA at the second attempt.

[5][a] Das progressed to Calcutta University, where he obtained an MA and LL.B while simultaneously devoting much of his energies in attempts to improve the education of Oriya people who were living in the city, for whom he opened night schools.

[5] Now aged 28, all of his three sons had died and he chose to give up care of his two daughters to an older brother, along with his share of property in Suando.

Das laid emphasis on co-curricular activities and wanted to generate nationalistic feelings in students through education and teach them the value of service to mankind.

This was something he had worked towards, having attended meetings of the All India Congress Committee at Calcutta and Nagpur to persuade Mahatma Gandhi to adopt the Utkal Sammilani's primary goal of organising states based on the language spoken.

[1][5] Das was arrested in 1921 for reporting the alleged molestation of a woman by police but was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

[5] In 1913[1] or 1915,[6] Das launched and acted as editor for a short-lived monthly literary magazine titled Satyabadi from the campus of his school.

Through this he was able to indulge his childhood aspirations to be a poet, while contributions also came from other members of the school's staff, including Nilakantha Das and Godabarish Mishra.

This was more successful than the literary journal and became a daily publication in 1927 and eventually a significant media presence for Indian nationalists.

[6] Das had been persuaded to join the Lok Sevak Mandal (Servants of the People Society) some time after meeting Lala Lajpat Rai at a session of Congress in 1920 and the newspaper became a means of promoting it, although operated independently.

[3] Brahmananda Satapathy, a professor of political science, has said of Das that "His crusade against untouchability, advocacy of widow remarriage, campaign for literacy, new model of education, stress on both rights and duties, emphasis on women education, particularly vocational training and above all a deep commitment and compassion for poor and destitutes have immortalised him in Orissa and India".