The Portuguese poetry of Laxmanrao Sardessai (DA Smith)

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Frederick Noronha

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Jul 5, 2026, 9:38:02 AM (2 days ago) Jul 5

to The Third Thursday Goa Book Club

It's Goa Revolution Day, celebrating the civil disobedience campaign that built upon previous efforts to end 400+ years of Portuguese rule in the Estado da Índia. Socialist Ram Manohar Lohia and Goan anti-colonial activist Julião Menezes held a meeting in Margão, Goa, on June 18, 1946... 1/4

that set off a wave of support for the cause of Goan independence, culminating in the Indian army entering Goa, Damão, and Diu in December 1961 and expelling the Portuguese. In 2017 I published a translation of the collected Portuguese poetry of Laxmanrao Sardessai, a Goan freedom fighter. 2/4

He published not one, but two poems entitled "18 de Junho," one in 1965 and the other in 1966, both in A Vida, a Portuguese-language newspaper from Margão. The vast bulk of Sardessai's career was spent writing in Marathi, but he wrote in Portuguese during the run-up to the... 3/4

1967 Goa Opinion Poll, which would determine if Goa would merge with neighboring Maharashtra. Sardessai was firmly against the merger, as were, it turned out, ~55% of Goans. Anyway, enjoy this bit of Indo-Portuguese anti-colonial history! 4/4

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