A new book by Prajal Sakhardande revisits the lives of 75 lesser-known martyrs from Goa’s freedom struggle
RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT BUZZ
The search for Goa’s forgotten martyrs took historian and author Prajal Sakhardande from family homes and personal archives to memorials, border villages, and places associated with their final moments. These journeys have culminated in ‘Unsung Heroes of History: Martyrs in Goa’s Struggle for Freedom (1583–1961)’, which documents 75 individuals from Goa’s freedom struggle against Portuguese rule.
“The idea was to bring the unsung martyrs of Goa’s freedom struggle into the public domain, as they are not widely known, especially among students and young people,” says Sakhardande, who has been working on the subject since his master’s in history in 1992. He adds that there is no comprehensive English book on these martyrs.
The book draws on field research, family archives, oral narratives and a literature survey of works by Manohar Hirba Sardesai and Vishwanath Lawande. He also interviewed several freedom fighters for corroboration.
He says, “I don’t believe in armchair research. Real research is going into the field, meeting people, corroborating sources, verifying and testing. Today, even translation of Portuguese archival records into English is often considered research but to me that alone is not enough.”.
Sakhardande visited sites linked to the martyrs, including Torxem on the Goa border where Karnail Singh was killed, the Chandel memorial and Halli village, associated with Bapu Gawas and Bala Desai, and other memorials across the region. He also met families, including those of Karnail Singh, the Gawas family of Chandel, the family of martyr Suresh Kerkar in Keri, Ponda, the Mapari and Anvekar families and others connected to the struggle. During a visit to Mopa, information on Babla Parab, a local martyr, was gathered from residents.
However, he says challenges come in plenty when working on a subject like this. Many families, he notes, still prefer to stay away from public attention.
“Reaching out to Shaheed Karnail Singh Benipal’s family in Punjab was not easy,” he says. After establishing contact, he met Gurbinder Singh Benipal and Mohinder Singh Benipal, senior members of the family, in Goa. He later invited them to his college, where they interacted with history students and spoke about the 21-year-old martyr. One story that stood out was in fact of Karnail Singh, whose cousin recalled that before leaving, he left behind his bicycle and key, saying, “Mein Goa azad karke aoonga aur meri cycle ki chabi loonga.”
He also met the family of Rohidas Mapari, described as an unsung cousin of Goa’s first martyr Bala Raya Mapari as well as the son and nephew of Yeshwant Agarwadekar.
In fact, Sakhardande refers to Yeshwant Agarwadekar as “the Chandrashekhar Azad of Goa”. He says, “Like Azad, he too shot himself with the last bullet left in his revolver while fighting the Portuguese who had besieged his hideout in the jungles of Anjuna.”
The book also includes martyrs such as Dulba Pawar, Bapu Gawas, Balkrishna Bhonsle, Soma Malik, Raghunath Shirodkar, Amrut Chodankar, Vinayak Sapte and
Babulal Hotelwala.
Sakhardande believes many of these martyrs are outside mainstream narratives due to lack of awareness. “Even teachers are not familiar with these names,” he says, adding that he hopes the work will inspire younger generations. “They came from the grassroots, burning with patriotism. They died so that we may live. They should not be forgotten,” he says. “The book is meant for schools, colleges and for posterity.”
The book is his sixth publication and the third in his ‘Purple Goa’ series, known for its purple-coloured covers. He plans to continue writing on Goa’s history and heritage.
