PANJIM: A solemn function was organized to mark the 66th Death Anniversary of late Dr. T.B. Cunha at his Memorial at Azad Maidan, Panjim, on Thursday. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and Chief Secretary Puneet Goel laid wreaths at the Memorial. Last post and national anthem was played by the police band.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant called TB Cunha the ‘Goan Father of the Nation’. T B Cunha was called the ‘Father of Goan Nationalism’.
T B Cunha was born on 2 April 1891 in the village Chandor in Goa. He first studied in Pondichery went to Sorbonne University and obtained a degree in electrical engineering.
After returning to Goa in 1926, Cunha established the Goa National Congress (GNC) in Margao in 1928.
The Goa National Congress was established after meeting with Subhash Chandra Bose, to mobilize Goans against Portuguese colonial rule. Cunha continued to publicize the Goan cause through numerous articles and books, denouncing Portuguese rule. Cunha was then arrested by the Portuguese authorities on 17 July.
He was kept in dark damp cell at Fort Aguada. He was the first civilian to be tried by a military tribunal. He was court martialed and sentenced to eight years imprisonment in the Peniche Fortress in Portugal.
When he was released Cunha was not allowed to go to Goa. He went to France and from there escaped to Bombay and then to Goa. Back home Cunha formed and headed the Goa Action Committee, to help co-ordinate the numerous Goan organisations that had emerged by this time.
He published a newspaper called Free Goa, along with his niece Berta de Menezes Bragança. Cunha died on 26 September 1958.