Professor of English, School of Languages, Centre of Excellence for Translation & Life Writing, Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar, e-mail address: madhusmitapati@rdwu.ac.in 

Professor Emeritus, KISS Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, e-mail address: nayak.jatin@gmail.com.

SOCIOLOGY AND MERITOCRACY

ABSTRACT THE MERITOCRATIC TURN: PERSPECTIVES ON TWO ODIA AUTOBIOGRAPHIES

Meritocracy as a term refers to the idea that whatever our social position is at birth, the society ought to facilitate the means for ‘talent’ to ‘rise to the top.’ This paper explores how meritocracy was transplanted to the Indian circumstances and how the history of autobiographical writings bears an eloquent testimony to it. Through a reading of autobiographies by Nilakantha Das (1884–1967) and Godavarish Mishra (1886–1956), whose lives were deeply intertwined, this paper will examine how these two individuals looked upon the trajectory of their lives. We will also try to establish how Odia autobiographies took a meritocratic turn.

Keywords: merit, meritocracy, autobiography, social ladder, Satyabadi School.

DOI: 10.59277/RJSoc.2026.1-2.04 

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