Hi Bernado
What do we know about this man – Tristao de Braganca Cunha? And why do
we only blame the Hindus in Goa for the so called “Liberation of Goa”?
Best
Oscar C. Lobo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goan_Catholics#Notable_Goan_Catholics
Tristão de Bragança Cunha
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Tristão de Bragança Cunha
Tristão de Bragança Cunha (sometimes spelled as Tristao de Braganza
Cunha) (1891 -1958) was a prominent nationalist and anti-colonial
activist from Goa (then part of Portuguese India, now modern India).
He is popularly known as the "Father of Goan nationalism", and organizer
of the first movement to liberate Goa from Portuguese rule.
[edit] Biography
Cunha was born on April 2, 1891 in the village Chandor in Goa. He
complete his school education in Panjim and then went to Pondicherry to
French College for his B.A. and then to Paris. There he studied at the
Sorbonne University and obtained a degree in electrical engineering. In
Paris, Cunha entered the circle of Romain Rolland and helped publicize
the Indian independence movement generally, and the case of Portuguese
India in particular, in the French-language press.
Cunha returned to Goa in 1926 and he set up the Comissão do Congresso de
Goa (Goa Congress Committee) in Goa in 1928 to organize the Goan
intelligentsia against Portuguese colonial rule. Pressured by Portuguese
authorities, Cunha transferred operations to Bombay and in 1938,
affiliated his organization with the Indian National Congress. He
continued publicizing the Goan case in a stream of articles and books,
denouncing Portuguese rule. Among his publications were booklets Four
Hundred Years of Foreign Rule and The Denationalization of Goans (1944).
Cunha was an advocate of Goan identification, political as well as
cultural, with greater India.
In 1946, Cunha helped organize the famous assembly in Margão, inviting
the INC speaker Ram Manohar Lohia to address what was arguably the first
and largest mass gathering yet, setting in motion the Goa liberation
movement. Along with the other organizers, Cunha was arrested by the
Portuguese authorities in 1946. He was kept in dark damp cell at Fort
Aguada. He was the first civilian to be tried by a military tribunal. He
was court-martialed and sentenced to eight years imprisonment. He was
deported to the Peniche prison in Portugal.
After his release from Portugal in 1954, Cunha returned to Bombay. Cunha
formed and headed the Goa Action Committee, to help coordinate the
numerous Goan liberation organizations that had emerged by this time. He
published a newspaper called "Free Goa".
He died on September 28, 1958, Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan was one of
the pallbearers. The Government of India issued a postage stamp in his
honour.
[edit] References
[1]
[2]
[edit] External References
[3] Glória ao Herói no Quarto Aniversário da Morte de Tristão de
Brangança Cunha - Poem by Visnum Porobo Sincró commemorating the fourth
anniversary of Cunha Bragança's death (Portuguese)
Persondata
Name
Cunha, Tristao De Braganza
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
1891
Place of birth
Date of death
1958
Place of death
