SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
Vivek Menezes
History came crackling alive on 20th December earlier this week, when the great Libia “Libby” Lobo Sardesai delivered an unexpected up-close-and-personal account of the Voz de Liberdade underground radio station (aka The Voice of Freedom, or Sodvonecho Awaz) that she operated along with Vaman Sardesai in the crucial years of anti-colonial resistance leading up to 1961. At a dignified ceremony at the Central Library office at Patto, during which the formidable nonagenarian formally gave the state an entire copy of the copious archives she has safeguarded for over 60 years, she startled and delighted her small audience with this spell-binding synopsis.
“The radio was not just one of those things that happened as a matter of course,” said Lobo, “in fact it was the only peaceful alternative that was left to the Goans.” She recalled how the colonial military brutally attacked unarmed satyagrahis in 1954, so “to put sense into the Portuguese regime, the government of India declared the borders with Goa closed and also imposed an economic blockade, which meant preventing all free movement, traffic and trade between the two territories. All existing sea, road and rail links were snapped. Indian dock workers boycotted all ships touching Goa. From then on, therefore, any communication could only be clandestine and with great risk.”
Tensions kept mounting: “Instead of seeing reason, the Portuguese government displayed an arrogant attitude, increased their repression on the people and made their lives even more unbearable by house searches, raids, interrogations, arrests and physical brutalities on mere suspicion, strict vigilance and endless harassment. Their aim was to crush the nationalist movement and the aspirations of the people for freedom. This challenge had to be met. Under the aegis of the Goa Vimochan Samiti, an All India Satyagraha was started on 15th August 1955 to support the Goan people and to give a final warning to the Portuguese to Quit Goa, This was met with even worse brutalities on the patriots who were only marching peacefully. They fired point blank at them and mowed down scores. They dragged their bullet-ridden bodies and flung them like cattle across the border. World opinion and right-thinking people everywhere were shocked at such atrocities. To avoid further loss of lives, the Indian government ordered the Satyagraha to be immediately suspended.”
That is when Lobo (she would later marry her staunch comrade Vaman Sardesai on 19th December 1964) answered an unusual call. At the state library, she recalled in gripping detail how “in Goa censorship was in force. Not even an invitation card or a calendar could be printed or circulated without it carrying the Seal of the Censor. No civil liberties whatsoever, while people were kept totally in the dark. As no outside newspapers or printed matter could come in, the official Emmisora de Goa radio station and the couple of local newspapers were feeding the people only with lies and false propaganda, though the Liberation movement was steadily growing and gaining support both inside and outside. It became imperative to expose the lies of the Portuguese and raise the morale of the people by informing them of the reality. The answer came in the form of an underground radio station.”
All this is matter of fact, but the details are amazing. An unlikely trio of Goans set up in the Western Ghats jungle – for a short period Lobo and Sardesai were joined by Nicolau Menezes (who happens to be my grand-uncle) but the older man couldn’t cope with the isolated conditions – and they went on by themselves to broadcast the literal “voice of freedom” every day for six years. Lobo told us the “task was fourfold. To sustain the morale of the people by giving them correct information of the progress of the movement. To demoralize the Portuguese troops and officials by exposing their lies and atrocities. To counter their lies against India, and to show ours was not a solitary struggle but one with all the other anti-colonial struggles in Asia and Africa which were progressing with determination and support of one another.”
This is important: “All dates of national importance were observed. Every meeting, incident, supportive statement coming from any corner of the world and condemning Portugal was reported. Statements of the leaders in the Indian Parliament, even supportive articles appearing in foreign newspapers were broadcast verbatim. Happenings that closely affected us like the proceedings of the Hague Tribunal; the defence of the Indian Attorney General MC Setalvad and also the marathon speech of the then Indian Defence Minister VK Menon were broadcast verbatim. When the decision of the International Court of Justice in the Nagar Haveli case was announced, the Portuguese informed the Goan people through their channels that they had won the case and celebrated it with pomp and joy when the truth was contrary, and was then exposed by us through our radio.”
Every bit of all this, every scrap of information that was processed into hand-written scripts and broadcast with such unyielding passion, was meticulously – and we must acknowledge, near-miraculously – retained by Lobo in an archive of 132 files, some of which run into 300 pages. What is more, in another act of outright heroism and painstaking fidelity to her unwavering cause, she has ensured it has been scanned in entirety, and will now be permanently available to scholars from the Central Library premises at Patto. Here is cause for unstinting celebration, because justice is so very rarely served to our history and heritage, but it has certainly happened this once, thanks to one truly indomitable lady,
Earlier this week, she said it all most succinctly: “Major Felipe de Barros Rodrigues [a Portuguese military official] reported back to his superiors and the government in Portugal in these terms: ‘The Voice of Freedom has assumed the command of the entire propaganda, maintained its aggressiveness and militancy. It works with the most diverse material, threatens, criticizes, explains, changes colours, alters perspectives, but in everything it does, it carries a sharp stiletto. It is free from the preoccupation of any attack from our side. It has been, in fact, the only voice that has been continually hurting us at close range.’” Then my friend Libby looked up from her notes with her characteristic chuckle, and added, “I think we could not ask for more. We were happy that our purpose was fulfilled and even acknowledged by our main target, and that we also won our Freedom after 450 years.”
