The 77th anniversary of Goa Revolution Day is a time of introspection and reflection of an event that took place in 1946. Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, the great Socialist leader, had fearlessly lit the spark for our freedom struggle against the much feared Salazar. His protest was primarily to demand civil liberties, as an inalienable right of the people of Goa which had been denied to them in the over 436 years of Portuguese Colonial rule. He demanded on this day, the right to speak freely, think freely and write freely and the civil society of that period backed him wholeheartedly, at the risk of their own life and liberty.
The Portuguese declared the 18th June Movement, a movimento da rua (a movement of the roads).
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A few days back, on 12th June, a leading daily, carried a front page news, that Navi Mumbai police detained a 29-year-old Trombay resident for allegedly uploading Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s image as his profile picture, based on a compliant by a VHP office bearer. On 15th June, that the “SC refuses to entertain plea of U’khand hate speech,” was again front page news. In the midst of communal tensions, a Muslim advocacy group, Association for Protection of Civil Rights, sought the SC’s urgent intervention in directing the State to act against hate speech mongers. The SC advised the petitioners to seek relief in the High Court. Recently the SC had passed an order directing the States and their police to suo moto register FIRs against any one giving hate speeches and had even warned that contempt proceedings would be initiated against police officers who do not register such crimes.
The NGO said that the Uttarakhand police are not registering FIRs against those who are threatening the “Muslims to leave the State”. It is indeed a co-incidence that on the occasion of Goa Revolution Day, the Muslim religious leaders have called for a Mahapanchayat at Dehradun today to protest against the targeting of their community members. These news items are already in the public space as much as the use and abuse of history is! Why should any citizen of this great nation, irrespective of his religion, be forced to go to a court when his own government has sworn constitutional allegiance to protect him!
In contrast to the above, the election manifesto, in 1967 of the Samyukta Socialist Party, under Lohia’s leadership had in clear cut terms expressed the poor performance of the then Congress government. “This government is a nation breaker fomenting strife and separatism, based on region, language, caste and religion and thus causing disintegration. This government fires its bullets almost every day on the people in the name of law and order and has become so dependent on coercive power, that arbitrariness, indiscipline, corruption of law and murders are fast increasing under it. The people are crying out in disgust and desire the end if this government”. This manifesto went on to dethrone the Congress government in nine States in India that year!
Political parties across the spectrum, down the ages, need to be accountable to ensure fair and good governance! The above are post- independence times, while 1946, was in the period of Salazar’s fascist rule, both in Portugal and Goa. Lohia was never afraid of being imprisoned. He was arrested and imprisoned on almost twenty occasions by the governments of Britain, Portugal, India and Nepal. Gandhiji wrote in the Harijan on 11 th August 1946, “Though the politics of Dr Lohia probably differs from mine, he has commanded my admiration for having gone to Goa”. Soon in November 1946, he accompanied Gandhi’s Satyagraha to Noakhali, West Bengal, for the cause of Hindu Muslim unity.
In ‘Dr Lohia’s Call to Gomantak’, he wrote, “I had known how an alien rule had tried to tempt and force you into a soulless culture and had heard that you were deprived of your civil liberties—You cannot form organisations, not to talk of political organisations like the Indian National Congress but even organisations for study, sports or village up-liftment, require the permission of the government and have to work under police watch. You cannot even hold meetings…”
Thousands of Goans came on the streets and an almost equal number were arrested, imprisoned and deported to prisons on islands like Peniche and Azores. A cursory glance at the then Gomantak (edited by Julião Menezes and later by Luis Mendes) show the lists of young men and women arrested and also the number of years that they were sentenced by the Military Tribunal. Names like T B Cunha, Laxmikant Bhembre, Evagrio George, Prof Bhaskar Bandari, Upendra Talavalikar, Purshottam Kakodkar were some of the many brave hearts that rose to the Lohia’s Call. Portuguese intellectuals who did not toe the line of Salazar were also imprisoned. Liberals and citizens are always victims of any repressive regime. No authoritarian establishment tolerates dissent in any form. It was not only the people of Goa but also of Portugal that were imprisoned.
T B Cunha called his prison experience as a, “university of learning”. He had first-hand experience of those Portuguese incarcerated by Salazar.
It was a collective love for freedom that made possible in 48 hours what could not be achieved in so many years. This was because the defiant call for Civil liberties resonated in the spirit of the men and women of Goa. In our country civil liberties were trampled upon during the Emergency–thousands of Indian citizens were put in jail as political prisoners, not because they were criminals–men like J P Narayan, Moraji Dessai amongst others. It was the people that decided the fate of Indira Gandhi post Emergency. The freedoms enshrined in our constitution are sacrosanct and need to be protected by all political parties across the board as civil liberties are the fulcrum on which the edifice of democracy stands and the very existence of government’s depend.
On 2nd May 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the Delhi police, against the Delhi High Court’s 15th June 2021 Order granting bail to Pingra Todd activists Devagana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha in the 2020 Delhi riots case. All three had participated in the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests of 2019 in Delhi as students. Kalita and Natasha were arrested 3 times in 10 days, with each new FIR, citing more serious charges, even that of sedition. All three had already completed more than a year in prison. They were charged under the non-bailable, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) today construed as an anti-terror law. Lohia was critical of colonial regimes be it the British or the Portuguese and even Pandit Nehru’s government in Free India. His dissent added flavour to the emerging democracy of a new nation. 18th June is a reminder to every Goan of the right to speak freely, think freely and write freely! The right to civil liberties needs to live forever, as the death of civil liberties in any society will toll in the very death of democracy. This is the lesson of history down the ages all over the world. The moral of this day 77 years back is therefore that when civil society comes together it is the strongest of the strong positive wave that protects the citadel of democracy.
(Prof (Dr) Sushila Sawant Mendes is an Author and Professor in History,
Govt College of Arts, Science & Commerce, Quepem)
