Reflections on
GOA LIBERATION DAY

From the earliest time in the 16th century, when Goa lost her independence to the Portuguese, Goans rebelled and received ready response from the people, who valued freedom and were prepared to pay the price for it. Dr Rammanohar Lohia sounded the clarion call on June 16, 1946, exhorting the people of Panjim, Goa's capital, to resist and defy the inhuman repressive law.

DR Juliao Menezes came in contact with Dr Rammanohar Lohia when he was a student of medicine at the Berlin University. Lohia helped inspire nationalism and desire to study Indology in the young Goan studying there. Lohia was studying Economics at the same University and was the secretary of the Indian Students' Asociation in Berlin. Dr Menezes recomanised the Association and turned it into a powerful institution, which came to be known as the unofficial Indian embassy in Berlin during the regime of German National Socialism.

In 1930, Lohia and Menezes went to Geneva, where the League of Nations was in session. The Maharaja Bikaner was representing India at the Session. Lohia conceived the brilliant, original idea of holding a demonstration within the hall of the League itself. With his captivating guile, Lohia managed to secure two tickets of admission to the visitors's gallery.

When the Maharaja of Bikaner rose to address the session and Lohia him voicing the ridiculous parrot cry of the British, he gave out two piercing whistles from his seat in the gallery. Shocked and scandalised, the President, ordered the guard to remove the visitor, who dared to boo the diplomat and hence both Lohia and Menezes were removed from the gallery.

Lohia plunged himself into a life of political activity during the '42 movement in Bombay. On June 10, 1946, Lohia visited Menezes, who was on a vaccation in Goa. News of the stormy petrel of Indian politics spread like wild fire and nearly 150 young and fiery nationalists visited him to seek his advice. The immense response inspired Lohia to launch a direct action attacking the Portuguese government's ban on civil liberties, as the first step to fire the national consciousness of Goans.

Sometime in 1938, Menezes made a speech on the nutritional values of rice, vegetables and ghee at a party, but the eyes and ears of the colonial rulers reported the matter to the respective bosses. While in Goa, he was called "Communist" by the Church, in Bombay he was called a "Nazi". On his part, Lohia wrote on this occasion, "Goa is a part for us. We cannot allow her movement for freedom and unity to be suppressed with such wanton ferocity."

When all reparations were made for direct action as envisaged by Rammanohar Lohia, Purshottam Kakodkar was put in charge of comanising and keeping in touch with the leders of the various Goan groups…the groups of Tristao Braganza de Cunha and Datta Pai Raikar. On June 15, 1946, the headquarters were shifted from Assolna to Mormugao.

In Panjim

On the suggestion of Juliao Menezes, Lohia spoke for two hours at a demonstration in Panjim on June 15. Menezes also addressed the meet. Baffled by the news of the daring leaders holding a demonstration virtually on his doorstep, without taking the permission from the Portuguese authorities, even the then Governor Dr Jose Bossa motored down the meeting place thrice to eyewitness the unthinkable "act of sedition".

At Margao

On June 15, they proceeded to Margao from Mormugao, greeted by joyous shouts of Jai Hind. Profusely garlanded, Lohia was taken by car from the railway station to the Hotel Republica. Since the taxi driver wasd scared away by the colonial cops, Lohia and Menezes travelled by a victoria to the Municipal building, to challenge the ban imposed by the Portuguese on the Goan people's unquestionable right of free speech.

But before the duo could alight, Capt Miranda was beside the carriage. He bade them not to get down but return back to the vehicle. Unmindful of the order, they got down and walked past the Captain to address the large number of people who had gathered to hear them. When a Goan stepped forward to garland Lohia, the already incensed Capt Miranda pulled out his revolver and threatened to shoot the man. Lohia caught hold of his hand, calmed him down and then addressed the people.

Dr Rammanohar Lohia and Dr Juliao Menezes were promptly put under arrest and whisked away to the police station. The news of the arrest had thousands of slogan-shouting people gathering in Margao. Scared by the unprecedented upsurge, the Police Commandant asked Dr Lohia to persuade the people to return home. Banking on this half-chance, Lohia spoke to the people in Hindusthani and English, advising the people to carry on boldly with the struggle.

Realising that he had been taken for a round, the Commandant arrested Lohia and Menezes. Others too courted arrested, among them being a girl, Vatsala Pandurang Kirtani. When questioned why she had shouted "Jai Hind", Vatsala replied that if "Viva Salazar" brought pride to the heart of the Commandant, "Jai Hind" gave her the spirit to fight for her freedom. A group of around 40 women took out a procession protesting against Vatsala's arrest. Embarassed, the police released the girl but she refused to move out and had to be thrown out bodily by the Commandant himself.

The arrests provoked a complete and first hartal in Goa, when even tea shops were closed down, and people flocked menacingly outside the prison at Margao. Hence, in the dead of the night, Lohia and Menezes were shifted to Panjim. During the interogation of Lohia, Dr Juliao Menezes acted as the translator. He translated to the police in Portuguese and spoke to Lohia in German.

Visvanath Lavande, Evagrio Jcome, Tiru Vaidya, Venkatesh Verenkar, Nilkanth Karapurkar, Das Borkar, Mahimkar and Vatsala Kirtani too were arrested and released.

On June 19 at 4 o'clock, Lohia was taken out of the Panjim jail and soon large crowds gathered outside the jail to greet him. He was to be taken to the frontier railway station of Colem. The police had to resort to a larthi charge to disperse the bugeoning crowd, which refused to budge. There was a women's procession led by Shrimati Shah. Two girls, Shashi Bandolkar and Ratan Khanwate were by the cops for shouting "Jai Hind"

On June 20, for the third day in succession, a big crowd assembled at the Margao Municipal Square to demand civil liberties. T B Cunha condemned the Portuguese government's callous and unjustifiable inaction in the face of the serious food crisis and demanded freedom of thought, speech and association for the people. Sanches De Souza too addressed the people. Evagrio Jcome read out a message left by Dr Juliao Menezes, in Konkani, exhorting the people to continue the struggle.

Lohia Maidan

On June 21, prabhatferis were taken out in Margao in the early hours, carrying the Indian national flag. The meetings were addressed by Purshottam Kakodkar, Enio Pimenta, Upendra Talavlikar, Umbai Shirali and others. The people decided to name the Maidan as Lohia Maidan, where the national tricolour was hoisted on June 23 in utter disregard of the government's ban on the flag. On the previous day, there was a mass meeting in Ponda, where Laxmanrao Sardesai, Dr Sukhthankar, Carlos Pires, Sanches de Souza and Evagrio Jcome advised the people to hold meetings in every village.

The movement continued. On June 30, a public meeting was addressed by Berta de Menezes Braganza. Berta arrived at the Lohia Maidan at 4 o'clock accompanied by her uncle T B Cunha and four other relatives. En route, she was halted by the Comandante to ask whether she had any authorisation to hold the meeting. Bertha spiritedly told them that she need no authorisation to address the meeting.

Expressing her sincere regrets for not being able to speak in Konkni, Bertha de Menezes Braganza said, "The present Civil Disobedience movement is like a whiff of fresh air blowing into a dark, suffocating dungeon which is just what our country has been reduced to during all these centuries of imperialist oppression and exploitation."

When the meeting ended with the shouts of "Jai Hind", the police went berserk and attacked the crowd. They assaulted T B Cunha with rifle butts and ordered him to shout "Viva Portugal" but he refused to do it. Turning red with rage, the Police chief shoved Berta de Braganza Menezes and her uncle in a car and took them to Chandor and abandoned them on the roadside…

Meetings were comanised in several parts of Goa. And the freedom movement moved on despite repressive measures taken by the Portuguese police.

[Extract from the book GOA'S FREEDOM STRUGGLE (1947) by Dr Juliao Menezes].