The book has tried to capture Cunha’s life,
focusing on the activities he undertook to spread nationalism in Goa. It gives
a background of his early years in Goa, his stay in Paris and the influence of
political events of that time on his thinking. It gives an idea of his years in
prison in Portugal, his escape from Portugal and the continuation of his
nationalist efforts to free Goa while living in Mumbai.
While speaking on what went into the
research of the subject, the author of the book, Dr Nishtha Desai, says, “The
major part of the research was done when I was working on my PhD on ‘Tristão de
Bragança Cunha (1891-1958) and the Rise of Nationalist Consciousness in Goa’.
However, in this book, it is the illustrations that help to bring history to
life. For this, Ved Prabhudesai, who has illustrated this book, visited Cunha’s
ancestral house and researched the costumes and the architecture of the places
that Cunha lived in during his life. He also went through the photo archives of
the T B Cunha Memorial Committee.
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After completing her PhD around nine years
ago, Dr Desai felt that more people, especially young people, should know about
Cunha. Dr Desai says, “Ved was keenly interested in bringing out a book in
graphic format and this collaborative effort was launched. The book took around
two-and-a-half years, as Ved was doing his degree in Fine Arts at
Shantiniketan, West Bengal, and I was working full-time with an NGO. A lot of
the communication took place over email. We proposed the idea to the
Directorate of Art and Culture which agreed to support it after we submitted a
detailed plan of the book.”
