“I am as happy as I was on the day Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule,” Goan freedom fighter Libia Lobo Sardesai (100) told The Indian Express as news travelled to her home in Panaji that she has been conferred with the Padma Shri. The day Goa was liberated, December 19, 1961, Libia and her colleague – and later husband – Vaman Sardesai had flown over Panaji and other parts of Goa in an Indian Air Force plane that had a radio transmitter on board and a loudspeaker fitted to it, making announcements in Portuguese and Konkani and dropping leaflets. Their message: the Portuguese had surrendered and Goa was free after 451 years of colonial rule. “Today, I feel a similar happiness. Such moments are very rare in one’s life. The award has come as a big and pleasant surprise. I never expected or aspired for it,” said Libia, who turned 100 on May 25 last year. As the “underground voice” of the movement for liberation, Libia played a pivotal role in the struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. For six years, from 1955 to 1961, in the backdrop of the suspension of all civil liberties in Goa under a Portuguese dictatorship, Libia and Vaman Sardesai set up an underground ‘secret’ radio station in the jungles on the outskirts of Goa to counter Portuguese propaganda, and broadcast news, speeches of Indian leaders in Parliament, and updates on the nationalist movement and anti-colonial struggle. The radio station – ‘Goenche Sodvonecho Awaz’ (Voice of Freedom of Goa) for Konkani broadcasts and ‘Voz de Liberdade’ for Portuguese – also supported the Indian Army in setting up a transmission centre to send messages to the Portuguese to surrender. On December 17, 1961, the station relayed a direct message from Union Defence Minister V K Krishna Menon, addressed to the Portuguese Governor General, asking him to surrender to prevent “unnecessary casualties”. ‘Libby’, as she is known, said she heard about the award when she started getting calls from friends and acquaintances in the evening. “I am yet to even see the news. Suddenly, everyone started calling. My phone has been bombarded with congratulatory messages. I am replying to all on WhatsApp and giving them blessings. I hope this award sets an example for others and inspires them too,” she said. During World War II, Libia worked as a “censor” and a translator, deciphering “cryptic” letters written by Italian prisoners of war. Later, she landed a job as a stenographer at All India Radio in Bombay, where she also worked as a librarian. Simultaneously, she pursued law. During her days in college, she was closely associated with the Goan nationalist movement. After liberation, Libia practised as a lawyer and also set up a women’s cooperative bank. She was the first Tourism Director, playing a crucial role in shaping the state’s tourism industry. Her husband, the late Vaman Sardesai, was also a diplomat and had been awarded the Padma Shri in 1992. “It is very funny that both of us have got the Padma Shri now… Though there is a big gap… He got it in the early 90s,” she said. On whether the recognition came a little late, she said, “No No. This was completely unexpected. You cannot forestall anything.” To commemorate her pivotal role in the liberation struggle, Israel-based street artist and painter Solomon Souza, the grandson of the pioneering modernist painter from Goa, Francis Newton Souza, had painted a mural of hers on a wall across the road from her house last year.
