Meeting centenarian Libia Lobo Sardesai, who ran a successful underground radio service that aided Goa’s liberation movement, is like encountering the State’s past, in all its glory and a promise of a ‘Golden Goa’.
On her 100th birthday on May 25, she spoke about the dream shared by the freedom fighters of Goa.
“What we, as freedom fighters, expected when Goa was liberated is that whatever drawbacks were present would disappear, and Goa would go on to progress further as ‘Golden Goa’. However, there is a need for the younger generation of this state to retain Goa’s identity as a green and serene state through sustainable development and not destroy the land,” urged Libia.
“Freedom fighter Libia Lobo Sardesai and her late husband Vaman Sardesai are legends of the times. Libia is a woman of tremendous integrity who has never compromised the ideals she fought hard for all those years ago. There is so much for us Goans to still learn from her, especially with the current global conflicts taking place, as we have one of the great heroes of our colonial struggle among us to offer insights,” said writer and photographer Vivek Menezes, who was instrumental behind facilitating the mural painting on a building in the state capital.
Libia’s significant contribution to Goa’s freedom movement is documented extensively at the ‘Aguad Interactive Museum: Goa - The Land, The Struggle, The People’, Goa’s first interactive digital museum, at the Aguad Port and Jail Complex, Sinquerim.
She said it was up to the younger generations of Goans to ensure that the essence of Goa is retained by being more constructive rather than destructive.
Libia’s role as a freedom fighter was been recently immortalised on her 100th birthday through a mural painted in the heart of Panjim by artist Solomon Souza, the grandson of her close friend renowned artist late F N Souza.
People can access more insights into her contribution to the freedom struggle in the refurbished prison cell housing ‘The Struggle’ exhibit which gives insights into the liberation movement from the Portuguese.
She, along with her late husband, ran a resistance movement via an underground radio service called ‘Voz de Liberedade’ in Portuguese and ‘Goenche Sodovnecho Awaz’ in Konkani, both mean ‘Voice of Liberty’. The messages conveyed via the secret radio service aimed to inform and inspire the people of Goa by sharing with them the news that Goa’s freedom struggle was receiving support from across the world.
She, along with her late husband, ran a resistance movement via an underground radio service called ‘Voz de Liberedade’ in Portuguese and ‘Goenche Sodovnecho Awaz’ in Konkani, both mean ‘Voice of Liberty’.
Libia also revealed an interesting fact about herself that during the liberation movement, she took on an alias while participating in the resistance. She called herself ‘Vimal Nadkarni’ to avoid detection by Portuguese authorities who sent mercenaries after her and Vaman to eliminate them.
Today, Libia runs the Vedanta Institute in Panjim, launched in 1994 to honour the final wish of her late husband. Through it, she aims to help people become better versions of themselves.
We used to conduct classes regularly but the pandemic put a pause on them for two years. We will resume classes at the Vedanta Institute in the near futureLibia Lobo Sardesai, freedom figher
“We used to conduct classes regularly but the pandemic put a pause on them for two years. We will resume classes at the Vedanta Institute in the near future,” she revealed.
Libia called on every Goan to ensure that our current actions do not negatively impact the land further; “if our actions are harmful to the environment, it is harmful to the land, and we need to be better (person) for Goa.”