Goa: History - Revision history

Jyoti: /* 1787-1955: Monuments */

2026-07-08T21:01:13Z

‎1787-1955: Monuments

Jyoti: /* The colonial era */

2023-07-23T06:15:35Z

‎The colonial era

Pdewan: /* An overview */

2023-07-11T09:46:40Z

‎An overview

Pdewan: /* 1961 */

2023-07-11T09:45:51Z

‎1961

Pdewan: /* Accession to India */

2023-07-11T09:45:17Z

‎Accession to India

Pdewan: /* Accession to India */

2023-07-11T09:44:40Z

‎Accession to India

Pdewan: /* =Accession to India */

2023-07-11T09:44:20Z

‎=Accession to India

Pdewan: /* An overview */

2023-07-11T09:44:05Z

‎An overview

Jyoti: /* The colonial era */

2022-02-27T22:35:12Z

‎The colonial era

Pdewan: /* 1583: Cuncolim Revolt */

2022-02-13T20:19:00Z

‎1583: Cuncolim Revolt

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 The site where Dr Ram Manohar Lohia broke the Portuguese ban on public meetings on June 18, 1946 in Margao is today the Lohia Maidan
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+==June 18, 1946: Lohia in Assolna==
-[[Category:India|G GOA: HISTORY
+===Rafael Viegas, an eye witness===
-GOA: HISTORY]]
+[https://epaper.indiatimes.com/article-share?article=18_06_2026_021_002_cap_TOI  Govind.Maad, June 21, 2026: ''The Times of India'']
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+The evening of June 10, 1946, was like any other in the quiet village of Assolna in south Goa’s Salcete. It was business as usual for the Portuguese colonial administration — enforcing its laws against public assembly and free speech with colonial impunity — but little did it know that nothing ever would be quite the same again in Goa, thanks to the man about to step out of a vehicle at the home of one Juliao Menezes.
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 =The colonial era=
 ==Football: 1883-1951==
 [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/for-portugal-football-was-not-a-sport-but-a-tool-to-daze-goa/articleshow/88366757.cms  Marcus Mergulhao, Dec 19, 2021: ''The Times of India'']
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-==An overview==
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 =1961=
 ==‘Voz de Liberdade’/ ‘Goenche Sadvonecho Awaz’ radio==
 [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/voice-of-freedom-from-the-jungles-to-the-skies/articleshow/88368722.cms  Newton Sequeira, Dec 19, 2021: ''The Times of India'']
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← Older revision		Revision as of 09:45, 11 July 2023
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	==An overview==		==An overview==
−	~~===Accession to India===~~
−	[https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-goa-politics-history-liberation-movement-7768271/?utm_source=newzmate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explained&utm_content=6386461&pnespid=VqJ3pFNb9iNAlEqftJeNERsT.AJpzulp_15OGb0HMIvKn8DMYPlfB6qtB5uTEcROD_Ah7bKv February 13, 2022: ''The Indian Express'']

−	Goa became a Portuguese colony in 1510, when Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the forces of the sultan of Bjiapur, Yusuf Adil Shah. The next four and a half centuries saw one of Asia’s longest colonial encounters — Goa found itself at the intersection of competing regional and global powers and religious and cultural ferment that would lead eventually to the germination of a distinct Goan identity that continues to be a source of contestation even today.
−
−	By the turn of the twentieth century, Goa had started to witness an upsurge of nationalist sentiment opposed to Portugal’s colonial rule, in sync with the anti-British nationalist movement in the rest of India. Stalwarts such Tristão de Bragança Cunha, celebrated as the father of Goan nationalism, founded the Goa National Congress at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1928. In 1946, the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia led a historic rally in Goa that gave a call for civil liberties and freedom, and eventual integration with India, which became a watershed moment in Goa’s freedom struggle.
−	At the same time, there was a thinking that civil liberties could not be won by peaceful methods, and a more aggressive armed struggle was needed. This was the view of the Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD), whose co-founder Prabhakar Sinari is one of the few freedom fighters still living today.
−
−	As India moved towards independence, however, it became clear that Goa would not be free any time soon, because of a variety of complex factors. The trauma of Partition and the massive rupture that followed, coupled with the war with Pakistan, kept the Government of India from opening another front in which the international community could get involved. Besides, it was Gandhi’s opinion that a lot of groundwork was still needed in Goa to raise the consciousness of the people, and the diverse political voices emerging within should be brought under a common umbrella first.
−
−	There were also questions with regard to the mode of protest to be followed. In her thesis ‘Goa’s Struggle for Freedom, 1946-61: The Contribution of National Congress Goa and Azad Gomantak Dal’, historian Dr Seema Risbud highlighted the dichotomies within the groups fighting for freedom in Goa, and argued that satyagraha had its limitations against a totalitarian regime. This point appears to have been validated by the success of the militant role played by the AGD in the liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, another Portuguese enclave (albeit with the covert support of Indian authorities, as some have suggested).
−
−	~~''' Nehruvian dilemma '''~~
−
−	It was apparent that Nehru was prepared for the long haul in Goa, perhaps trying to exhaust all options available to him given the circumstances that India was emerging from, and where he was headed in shaping India’s position in the comity of nations. Portugal had changed its constitution in 1951 to claim Goa not as a colonial possession, but as an overseas province. The move was apparently aimed at making Goa a part of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance — so the collective security clause of the treaty would be triggered in the event of an attack by India or any other nation — but this was not acceptable to other NATO member countries.
−
−	Nehru saw it prudent to pursue bilateral diplomatic measures with Portugal to negotiate a peaceful transfer while, at the same time, a more ‘overt’ indigenous push for liberation — one that would strengthen India’s moral argument — gathered momentum. His 1955 Independence Day speech — cited by Modi in Rajya Sabha — criticising the satyagrahis who were trying to cross the border did demoralise the diverse pan India group of liberation fighters comprising socialists, communists, and the R S S. But the firing incident also provoked a sharp response from the Government of India, which snapped diplomatic and consular ties with Portugal in 1955.
−
−	The obvious question that arises is, if things had reached such a stage in 1955, why did Nehru wait until December 1961 to launch a full-scale military offensive, even though India continued to raise the issue of Goa at various levels and fora?
−
−	D P Singhal, who was a political scientist at the University of Queensland at the time, provided a clue in his paper ‘Goa: End of An Epoch’, published in The Australian Quarterly in March 1962. With India firmly established as a leader of the Non Aligned World and Afro Asian Unity, with decolonisation and anti-imperialism as the pillars of its policy, it could no longer be seen to delay the liberation of Goa. An Indian Council of Africa seminar on Portuguese colonies organized in October 1961 heard strong views from African delegates who argued that India’s policy of going slow on the Goa question was hampering their own struggles against the ruthless Portuguese regime. The delegates were certain that the Portuguese empire would collapse the day Goa was liberated.
−
−	~~The rest, as they say, is history. Goa was liberated on December 19, 1961 by swift Indian military action that lasted less than two days.~~
−
−	~~''' The debate in 2022 '''~~
−
−	~~Politics needs to be charitable to history, because at some point it would be put to the same scrutiny and judgment as it becomes history itself.~~
−
−	Sinari, the lone surviving member of the AGD, whose sense of history and political instincts have not been blunted by age and failing health, says attempts at political point-scoring around incidents that took place in a certain historical context more than six decades ago, only diverts attention and focus from pressing current issues.
−
−	Goa has seen 60 years of eventful liberation and successful amalgamation in the Indian Union. It is more important for it to look ahead to its future than to rapidly receding, increasingly dim images in the rear-view mirror.
−
−	~~[[Category:History\|G GOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORY~~
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	[[Category:History\|G GOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORY		[[Category:History\|G GOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORY

@@ Line 68: / Line 68: @@
 ==An overview==
-==Accession to India==
+===Accession to India===
 [https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-goa-politics-history-liberation-movement-7768271/?utm_source=newzmate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explained&utm_content=6386461&pnespid=VqJ3pFNb9iNAlEqftJeNERsT.AJpzulp_15OGb0HMIvKn8DMYPlfB6qtB5uTEcROD_Ah7bKv   February 13, 2022: ''The Indian Express'']
@@ Line 99: / Line 99: @@
 Goa has seen 60 years of eventful liberation and successful amalgamation in the Indian Union. It is more important for it to look ahead to its future than to rapidly receding, increasingly dim images in the rear-view mirror.
 [[Category:History|G GOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORY

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:35, 27 February 2022
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	Instead, the Associacao Futebol de Goa (now Goa Football Association) was formed on December 22, 1959.		Instead, the Associacao Futebol de Goa (now Goa Football Association) was formed on December 22, 1959.
		+
		+
		+	==An overview==
		+	[https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-goa-politics-history-liberation-movement-7768271/?utm_source=newzmate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explained&utm_content=6386461&pnespid=VqJ3pFNb9iNAlEqftJeNERsT.AJpzulp_15OGb0HMIvKn8DMYPlfB6qtB5uTEcROD_Ah7bKv February 13, 2022: ''The Indian Express'']
		+
		+	Goa became a Portuguese colony in 1510, when Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the forces of the sultan of Bjiapur, Yusuf Adil Shah. The next four and a half centuries saw one of Asia’s longest colonial encounters — Goa found itself at the intersection of competing regional and global powers and religious and cultural ferment that would lead eventually to the germination of a distinct Goan identity that continues to be a source of contestation even today.
		+
		+	By the turn of the twentieth century, Goa had started to witness an upsurge of nationalist sentiment opposed to Portugal’s colonial rule, in sync with the anti-British nationalist movement in the rest of India. Stalwarts such Tristão de Bragança Cunha, celebrated as the father of Goan nationalism, founded the Goa National Congress at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1928. In 1946, the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia led a historic rally in Goa that gave a call for civil liberties and freedom, and eventual integration with India, which became a watershed moment in Goa’s freedom struggle.
		+	At the same time, there was a thinking that civil liberties could not be won by peaceful methods, and a more aggressive armed struggle was needed. This was the view of the Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD), whose co-founder Prabhakar Sinari is one of the few freedom fighters still living today.
		+
		+	As India moved towards independence, however, it became clear that Goa would not be free any time soon, because of a variety of complex factors. The trauma of Partition and the massive rupture that followed, coupled with the war with Pakistan, kept the Government of India from opening another front in which the international community could get involved. Besides, it was Gandhi’s opinion that a lot of groundwork was still needed in Goa to raise the consciousness of the people, and the diverse political voices emerging within should be brought under a common umbrella first.
		+
		+	There were also questions with regard to the mode of protest to be followed. In her thesis ‘Goa’s Struggle for Freedom, 1946-61: The Contribution of National Congress Goa and Azad Gomantak Dal’, historian Dr Seema Risbud highlighted the dichotomies within the groups fighting for freedom in Goa, and argued that satyagraha had its limitations against a totalitarian regime. This point appears to have been validated by the success of the militant role played by the AGD in the liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, another Portuguese enclave (albeit with the covert support of Indian authorities, as some have suggested).
		+
		+	''' Nehruvian dilemma '''
		+
		+	It was apparent that Nehru was prepared for the long haul in Goa, perhaps trying to exhaust all options available to him given the circumstances that India was emerging from, and where he was headed in shaping India’s position in the comity of nations. Portugal had changed its constitution in 1951 to claim Goa not as a colonial possession, but as an overseas province. The move was apparently aimed at making Goa a part of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance — so the collective security clause of the treaty would be triggered in the event of an attack by India or any other nation — but this was not acceptable to other NATO member countries.
		+
		+	Nehru saw it prudent to pursue bilateral diplomatic measures with Portugal to negotiate a peaceful transfer while, at the same time, a more ‘overt’ indigenous push for liberation — one that would strengthen India’s moral argument — gathered momentum. His 1955 Independence Day speech — cited by Modi in Rajya Sabha — criticising the satyagrahis who were trying to cross the border did demoralise the diverse pan India group of liberation fighters comprising socialists, communists, and the R S S. But the firing incident also provoked a sharp response from the Government of India, which snapped diplomatic and consular ties with Portugal in 1955.
		+
		+	The obvious question that arises is, if things had reached such a stage in 1955, why did Nehru wait until December 1961 to launch a full-scale military offensive, even though India continued to raise the issue of Goa at various levels and fora?
		+
		+	D P Singhal, who was a political scientist at the University of Queensland at the time, provided a clue in his paper ‘Goa: End of An Epoch’, published in The Australian Quarterly in March 1962. With India firmly established as a leader of the Non Aligned World and Afro Asian Unity, with decolonisation and anti-imperialism as the pillars of its policy, it could no longer be seen to delay the liberation of Goa. An Indian Council of Africa seminar on Portuguese colonies organized in October 1961 heard strong views from African delegates who argued that India’s policy of going slow on the Goa question was hampering their own struggles against the ruthless Portuguese regime. The delegates were certain that the Portuguese empire would collapse the day Goa was liberated.
		+
		+	The rest, as they say, is history. Goa was liberated on December 19, 1961 by swift Indian military action that lasted less than two days.
		+
		+	''' The debate in 2022 '''
		+
		+	Politics needs to be charitable to history, because at some point it would be put to the same scrutiny and judgment as it becomes history itself.
		+
		+	Sinari, the lone surviving member of the AGD, whose sense of history and political instincts have not been blunted by age and failing health, says attempts at political point-scoring around incidents that took place in a certain historical context more than six decades ago, only diverts attention and focus from pressing current issues.
		+
		+	Goa has seen 60 years of eventful liberation and successful amalgamation in the Indian Union. It is more important for it to look ahead to its future than to rapidly receding, increasingly dim images in the rear-view mirror.

	[[Category:History\|G GOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORY		[[Category:History\|G GOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORYGOA: HISTORY

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:19, 13 February 2022
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	“At Bardez in North Goa, about 300 Hindu temples were razed to the ground. In 1583, the Portuguese army destroyed several Hindu temples at Assolna and Cuncolim,” a historical account states. On July 25, 1583, five Jesuits accompanied by one European and 14 native converts went to Cuncolim to erect a cross and select ground for building a church. Hordes of villagers, armed with swords, daggers, spears and sticks, brutally killed the invading party.		“At Bardez in North Goa, about 300 Hindu temples were razed to the ground. In 1583, the Portuguese army destroyed several Hindu temples at Assolna and Cuncolim,” a historical account states. On July 25, 1583, five Jesuits accompanied by one European and 14 native converts went to Cuncolim to erect a cross and select ground for building a church. Hordes of villagers, armed with swords, daggers, spears and sticks, brutally killed the invading party.
		+	==Women freedom fighters: 1946 onw==
		+	[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/women-who-fought-the-portuguese-and-social-stigma/articleshow/88366759.cms Mackelroy Barreto, Dec 19, 2021: ''The Times of India'']


		+	PANAJI: Most recognised freedom fighters may be male, but the story of the other half is no less stirring, wrote Manohar Rai Sardesai.
		+
		+	“For young women to even stand up to those Portuguese officers and those ‘pakle’! Do you know how daring that was? Even 10 women were like a hundred of them. Look at those times, women couldn’t even step out,” says 89-year-old Naguesh Karmali.
		+
		+	And he would know, he was in the thick of things. Karmali was sentenced to 10 years in jail on September 15, 1954, serving five at Aguada and Reis Magos before being freed.
		+
		+	Surrounded by towering books at his Ribandar home, he talks of times when forest-dwellers between Quepem and Rivona sheltered a rag-tag group of freedom fighters who were criss-crossing villages, rallying for liberation.
		+
		+	The growing involvement of women in politics is linked to Goa’s liberation struggle. The Portuguese rule helped improve the status of women in society by abolishing Sati and polygamy. They could remarry and there was emphasis on education. Emboldened with their place in society, it wasn’t long before women turned the tables on the colonists.
		+
		+	Accounts suggest that Dr Ram Manohar Lohia’s meeting on June 18, 1946, demanding civil liberties spurred women to take up the liberation struggle. They turned up in large numbers at Margao and were then seen regularly at meetings, protests, satyagrahas, roused at times by the patriotic fervour brought on by fierce discussions expressed inside homes.
		+
		+	Any talk about Goa’s Liberation movement and you will find that the role played by women is rarely glorified. The fact is that there is a whole pantheon of women who faced unimaginable physical and mental torture in their quest for a free homeland.
		+
		+	Most of the freedom fighters were young women across caste and classes. They hated the Portuguese regime and were inspired to free Goa.
		+
		+	Consider young Vatsala Pandurang Kirtani who stood up to the Portuguese police commandant at the meet at Margao on June 18, 1946. He questioned her for raising the slogan ‘Jai Hind’ in defiance of his direct orders. The fearless lass turns around and says, “Just as the words ‘Viva Salazar’ fill you with pride, so does ‘Jai Hind’ galvanise my spirit.” She was promptly arrested.
		+	A testimony to the bravery of Goan women freedom fighters can be found in the codices of the infamous Tribunal Milatar Territorial — the military court established by the Portuguese in Panaji to prosecute those involved in the freedom struggle.
		+
		+	The military court manuscripts maintained by the archives department make for a most insightful reading, especially stirring accounts of women freedom fighters and the persecution they faced from the Portuguese. A woman freedom fighter went deaf in one ear from the beating she received, according to military accounts.
		+
		+	Among the more prominent is Sudha Madhav Joshi, popularly known as Sudhatai, from Mardol, Ponda. Sudhatai was arrested at the Mapusa garden square for carrying the Indian flag. She was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and slapped with a penalty of 20 escudos per day, with an additional suspension of all her political rights for 20 years, including internment for two years on grounds of security measures. The allegation-- attempting to entice the local population to commit crimes against the Portuguese government.
		+
		+	Prema Purab from Pissurlem, Sattari, helped to carry arms from Belgaum, through the forests, to Mohan Ranade in Goa. On one such mission she was fired at by the Portuguese police and a bullet hit her in the leg. The injured Purab escaped to a mining area belonging to Dayanand Bandodkar, from where she managed to get into a mining truck and made it across Goa’s border to Belgaum to receive treatment.
		+
		+	The Braganca sisters also feature in the annals of Goa’s struggle — Dr Beatriz and Berta de Menezes Braganca, daughters of late Luis de Menezes Braganca.
		+
		+	Berta was a leading figure in the struggle and had defied the ban on civil liberties by speaking publicly. She strode alongside her uncle T B Cunha at protest marches and speeches in South Goa.
		+	Berta also founded a fortnightly in 1958 in Bombay called ‘Free Goa’ and she toured India demanding military action against the colonists. She was also chief of the Goa wing of the Indian National Congress. At a meeting planned on June 30, 1946, in Margao, she and Cunha were prevented from speaking. She boldly took on the police and both were shoved into a car and abandoned by the roadside at Chandor.
		+
		+	Prabhakar Sinari, who was deeply involved with the militant struggle to free Goa, says, "The women contributed a lot to Goa's freedom movement. Despite women being suppressed in our society in those days, they came forward. Their participation was not negligible. Some of them were even manhandled by the Portuguese policemen, but this did not deter these women.”
		+	The Portuguese certainly did not hold back. Women were tortured, regularly imprisoned, subjected to humiliation, interrogation, intimidation and even to third-degree methods.
		+
		+	In the face of all political adversity and bullying by colonial forces they are known to have stood their ground.
		+
		+	Shashikala Hodarkar was arrested and sentenced by the military court for possessing ‘subversive literature’ while proceeding from Poinguinnim to Margao. She operated from across Goa’s border under the guidance of Peter Alvares, secretary of the National Congress Goa. This meant she would have had to frequently trek through forests to access border areas.
		+
		+	Inspired by Sindhu Deshpande, Hodarkar offered satyagraha on February 17, 1955, at Margao and was arrested for distributing pamphlets. She was shown physical torture that male political prisoners underwent (beating and laying on ice) to dissuade her campaigns, which only strengthened her resolve.
		+
		+	The quest for freedom meant women were also forced to live underground like their male counterparts. Sometimes they ended up being imprisoned at the same time as their husbands, which meant their children had to be looked after by extended families.
		+	Vatsala Kirtani, who was arrested on June 18, 1946, after she stood up to deliver a speech at the same meeting organised by Lohia, also finds mention in the manuscript. After she was arrested, a group of 40 women marched to the station demanding her release. The face-off came to a boil and the police relented since all the women wanted to be arrested along with Vatsala. Even though she was officially released, she refused to leave and had to be physically hauled out of prison by the same commandant.
		+
		+	Libia Lobo Sardesai invokes immediate connection with Goa’s Liberation struggle for running the underground radio station, ‘Voice of Freedom’. Libia is known to have made repeated announcements of the ultimatum to the last governor-general to surrender to the Indian Army.
		+
		+	Other names that feature in the struggle for Goa’s Liberation include women within and outside the state who actively participated to liberate Goa---Maria Joaquina Calista Araujo, Kishoribai Harmalkar, Srimati Divkar, Laxmibai Paingunkar and Suryakanti Faldesai from Canacona, Dr Laura D’Souza, Kumudini Paingunkar and Sindhu Deshpande from Poona, Shalini Lolienkar, Shanta Hede, Shashikala Almeida, Mitra Bir, Rajani Naik and Lalita Kantak.
		+
		+	Sharada Padmakar Savaikar was 16 when she was arrested by the feared police officer Casmiro Monteiro on suspicion of murdering a local from her village of Savoi-Verem. He was a known Salazar sympathiser. Her father and three brothers were imprisoned and continuously tortured. Savaikar spent two years in jail before being produced before the military court, where she called out Monteiro’s cruelty by showing the judge the scars she sustained from the beatings.
		+
		+	She lost her teeth in the beating but refused to buckle under Monteiro’s threats of “you’ll rot in prison for 14 years”, and instead told him she was ready for it. She maintained her innocence and did not betray any of her members.
		+
		+	In a strange twist, release orders for a Sharada Shirvaikar came through, and the Portuguese police confused the names and released her instead.
		+
		+	Celina Olga Moniz from Saligao was arrested on January 26, 1955, for carrying the Tricolour. At the Panaji jail she was severely tortured and released only in October.
		+
		+	She is known to have helped the underground nationalist movement in Goa and neighbouring states to provide support and financial assistance. Most of her associates, who were involved with the original planning of Goa’s freedom struggle at a meeting held at the residence of Dr Jose Francisco Martins in June 1954, were arrested and tried at the military court. Moniz is the recipient of Tamrapatra from the central government, one of the highest honours for political prisoners.
		+
		+	== 1947: the Azad Gomantak Dal==
		+	[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/revolutionaries-take-the-road-less-travelled/articleshow/88366797.cms Gauree Malkarnekar, Dec 19, 2021: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+	PANAJI: In the middle of the 20th century, Latin American revolutionaries like Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara attained cult-like status for their guerilla tactics and exploits against oppressive state machineries. But on the other side of the planet, in tiny Goa, there was no acclaim and adulation — only struggle — for the young guerillistas who, against all odds, battled the formidable, entrenched and brutal Portuguese State.
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		+	Not only were they fighting a woefully David and Goliath battle within the state’s borders, there was no support from the Indian government either. In fact, New Delhi only added to the revolutionaries’ problems.
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		+	Over the length and breadth of the subcontinent, Mahatma Gandhi’s ideology of non-violence had taken over the conscience of an entire people, and armed resistance was seen as anathema.
		+	“After India got its independence, the Indian government was too worried about the world’s opinion,” says Prabhakar Sinari, 93, who now resides in Caranzalem with his wife Vilasini. “They were worried what the US would think of it, and no support was given to us. In fact, the Indian government threw hurdles in our path. At the border, they would stop my colleagues and take away the ammunition they were trying to smuggle into Goa. There were people willing to give us donations, but Customs would block them.”
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		+	It was exactly a year after Ram Manohar Lohia’s civil disobedience movement in Margao that the militant Azad Gomantak Dal was formed, on June 18, 1947. Seven young men —Sinari, Dattatreya Deshpande, Betu Naik, Tukaram Kankonkar, Jaiwant Kunde, Narayan Naik, and leader Vishwanath Lawande — pledged their life to liberate Goa through guerilla tactics, at the Shree Shantadurga Temple at Kunkoliem, near Mardol, Ponda.
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		+	Azad Gomantak Dal, or AGD, was born after the youngsters witnessed the ruthlessness non-violent protestors were subjected to by the Portuguese. But the revolutionaries had to start from scratch, from learning to fire rusted pistols for the first time in the midst of a siege, to planning heists on the colonisers’ treasury to get funds for ammunition.
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		+	“Our first target on the night of July 21, 1947, was the treasury building of Fazenda at Mapusa, where we hoped to lay our hands on some cash for our activities,” said Sinari. However, the lone sentry at the Fazenda raised an alarm, and their attempt failed. But with one policeman badly injured, it sent shock waves through the rank and file of the Portuguese administration.
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		+	The botched attempt made AGD realise they required better training. Soon, a former Indian Navy officer, Mukund Dhakankar, trained the young revolutionaries in the use of firearms and explosives.
		+	Now far better equipped, the AGD set their next target — the Banco Nacional Ultramarino in Panaji, the Portuguese bank for overseas finance.
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		+	“The action was to take place at Porvorim,” Sinari recalls. “Unfortunately, in the bus, the bank officer who was carrying the cash bags saw us signalling to our friends and pushed the money bag under the seat of a young girl. We were only able to snatch the other bag, which was mostly filled with cheques and very little cash. After this raid, the police identified us one by one and at the age of just 14, when I was a minor, they pronounced a sentence of eight years.”
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		+	In prison at Aguada and later Reis Magos, AGD members were subjected to unspeakable torture. They were lashed with hippo skin whips, starved, kept in unhygienic conditions, put through solitary confinement, and crammed into a cell with not enough space for everyone to sleep at night.
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		+	Sinari managed to escape prison four years into his sentence, and returned to the movement to find many more young men had enrolled with AGD.
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		+	When the AGD made Pernem its base, Sinari said the region was as good as freed from Portuguese rule, as the colonisers’ officers were terrified to step there for fear of being attacked. The AGD was also actively involved in helping free Daman and Diu from Portuguese clutches.
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		+	“We received support from the Indian government only at the fag-end of the struggle for Goa’s freedom. We would lay road mines, traps and blow up roads and railways crucial to the Portuguese. We had learnt to conceal the land mines so well that the Portuguese officials could rarely tell where one was waiting for them,” he said.
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		+	When Liberation neared, Sinari recalled how the AGD came to the Indian Army’s aid by clicking photographs of Goa’s terrain and identifying land mines to help their advancement within the then Portuguese-occupied region.
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		+	“During those years with AGD, many of our young colleagues were martyred,” said Sinari, the only surviving member of the group. “Our families were harassed, my mother was left to starve with all three sons away in prison or working for the Dal underground. Some men lost their limbs or eyes. But when Goa was finally liberated, it was a proud moment. Many had said the Portuguese had been here for more than 400 years and that they would never leave. But we showed them that we had not gone to jail for nothing.”
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		+	Much later, Sinari served as Liberated Goa’s first Goan inspector general of police (IGP), and then as assistant director of India’s intelligence agency R&AW, looking after then PM Indira Gandhi’s security. But it was decades later, in the 1980s, that the AGD finally got official recognition from the state it helped free.
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