August 15, 1947: How Portuguese Goa marked India’s Independence Day
The Portuguese government had permitted the hoisting of the Indian flag as long as the Portuguese flag was also full mast.
Goa, August, 1947. Even if you push your imagination to extremes, there’s no way you can limn a good likeness of Goa that existed 73 years ago. The now party-capital of the country was then a staid land. No electricity. No oomph. And no oompah beat of the drum. The Portuguese were still lording over this turf that sprawled 4,193 sure kilometres...
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with Daman & Diu, Dadar & Nagar Aveli marked on the map as Portuguese Estado da Índia (State of India). The population: roughly 6 lakh.
The currency was Rupia (equivalent to Indian Rupee): not-so-expensive wine was sold for Rupia 1.12 tangas (16 tangas made a Rupia), Scotch whisky was Rupia 5, small slab of Cadbury’s chocolate was priced 8 tangas. Salt export was a huge revenue churner and chillies (called Ghanti chillies) were imported from British India. Crude and powdered opium were imported only for medicinal purpose though stories abound about few traders in Daman & Diu relished crude opium mixed with jaggery (source: History of Trade & Commerce in Goa 1878-1961)
August 12, 1947. Barely three days away from independence, India was in the throes of nationalist fervour. That day Goa welcomed Fernando de Quintanilha Mendonca Dias as the new in-charge of the government of Portuguese India in an interim regime. Delhi and Lisbon did not have diplomatic ties and the British General Manager of the Port of Mormugao served as the Honorary British Consul in Goa. But as August 15 drew closer, India positioned M R A Baig as the Consul General of India in Goa.
Two days before India’s tryst with destiny, Baig issued an open invitation to the public to join the Independence Day festivities at the Consulate office in Altinho, Panjim. Hundreds gathered hours before the formal unfurling of the tricolour at 9.30 am by Baig who later also read a message from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The Portuguese government had permitted the hoisting of the Indian flag as long as the Portuguese flag was also full mast.
On August 14, 1947, O Heraldo, Goa’s oldest newspaper (founded in 1900), carried a one-column front page report about the Prime Minister of Indonesia sending a congratulatory telegram to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah from the Indonesian people on its independence. Another column reported that Independence Day will be observed in Simla with fireworks on the peaks of mountains and an aeroplane will shower natural flowers on the city. Other reports that day included the Mayor of Bombay throwing an austere banquet and news of the government releasing all political prisoners. In Transvaal (South Africa), all the primary and secondary schools will get a holiday on Indian Independence Day; in Shanghai, the day will be celebrated with the hoisting of Indian tri-colour.
The August 17 issue of O Heraldo reported the celebrations held on August 15 in Goa; it also carried Pandit Nehru’s message translated into Portuguese (O Heraldo was a Portuguese newspaper).
Several Goans had travelled to then-Bombay to participate in the Independence Day celebrations on August 15, 1947. Ishwar Chandra Nagvekar did not. He was only 6 years old. The now retired professor has pale memory of the historic day. For days preceding August 15, in his ancestral home in Madgoan (South Goa) Nagvekar had heard murmurs of nationalists who often gathered in his home to ideate about Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule. Men in white khadi walked in and out of his home talking of civil liberties and independence.
“I was only 6 years old and do not have vivid memory of the Independence Day celebration. What I remember is the freedom fighters who often slept the night in our house. India’s independence from the British prompted the freedom fighters to assume a broad perspective of the struggle and to resolve that Goans wished to become Indian citizens,” Prof Nagvekar told moneycontrol.com.
In her doctoral thesis (Goa’s struggle for freedom (1946-1961, The contribution of National Congress Goa and Azad Gomantak Dal) Seema Suresh Risbud talks of how the National Congress (Goa) met at Karmali and adopted a resolution for complete independence of Goa from the Portuguese rule and its subsequent union with India.
Tiburcio Remedios Ferrao, a resident of Velsao village in South Goa, was a strapping teenager in 1947. The 17-year old lived in a quiet village with his parents Jaoa Filipe and Maria Rosa Pereira. In the sleepy neighbourhood, August 15, 1947, went by as an ordinary day. No fireworks. No loud Jai Hinds. No patriotic songs. Even on a historic day, the village remained swathed in its habitual monotony.
“I don’t think anyone in my village was overtly excited about India’s independence. It was just another day on the calendar,” Ferrao told moneycontrol.com
On August 15, 1947, Goa was still tethered to Portugal. It took another 14 years for Goa to get liberated and become part of the Indian Union.
(All archival material including photographs courtesy of Krishnadas Shama Goa State Central Library (Patto). Website: click here
Newspaper Headlines on August 15, 1947
The New York Times: India and Pakistan become nations; clashes continue.
The Washington Post: The main news of the day was: Mercury hits 96 here, Some relief due today. The news about India’s independence was two-column report with the headline: India achieves sovereignty amid scenes of wild rejoicing.
Chicago Daily Tribune: Main headline was Population up 9 million. A single column report was titled: Mountbatten new Governor of Hindu India. Punjab riots rage on; 250 dead.
The Irish Times: India celebrates Britain hands over control. Next to the news article was a photograph of the Pakistan flag captioned: Flag of Pakistan.
The Daily Telegraph: India is now two dominions. Power transferred at night. Earldom conferred on Lord Mountbatten.

Preeti Verma Lal is a Goa-based freelance writer/photographer.

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