‘These celebrations of independence feel pro forma, almost statutory’

Libia Lobo Sardesai, 91

Libia Lobo Sardesai, 91, now lives in Goa, but in 1947 she was at university in Bombay studying English and French.

Her family consisted of seven children – five brothers and two sisters.

Her father was away working in Kenya on August 15.

“The place where we lived in Bombay, Dhobi Talao, was very central. It was where all the processions and protests used to take place. When the Second World War was going on, it was full of fortifications and air-raid bunkers. Those had been cleared away by August. When independence came there were three days of grand celebrations. It was like parrots had suddenly been let loose from their cages.

“Fireworks and street illuminations and bugles and whistles everywhere, and people handing out sweets. You saw the tricolour all over the place – not just the flag, but ribbons and balloons. We were a subjugated people, and now we had thrown off the yoke.

“I think emotions would have run high among the elders, who had been in the freedom movement. We were young, we did not have that experience. We were just enjoying ourselves.

“Our family always thought we belonged in Goa, not in Bombay, and we knew Goa was still being ruled by the Portuguese. Even if India was independent, Goa was not.

“But a freedom movement started there in 1946. Then India began to say it had claims over Goa. At that point the Portuguese tightened their grip. We had no civil liberties in Goa – no freedom of speech, of the press, of association. Even a wedding invitation had to be censored.

“I became a freedom fighter for Goa. On the day Goa was liberated [December 1961, after Indian troops took it by force], I was the one who made the announcement on radio. That day I moved back to Goa.

“In retrospect, I feel that Goa was more beautiful when it was undeveloped. I’m quite disillusioned with what has happened since then. They are destroying every hill in the name of development.

“Independence has become, not bitter, but we do not have so much happiness in India today.

“We are doing so much to ourselves that is not good. We are turning on each other.

“See the disruptions and confrontations in parliament. If there is so much discord, how can there be progress and peace?

“Today, the atmosphere is suffocating. So these celebrations of independence feel pro forma, almost statutory.”