A documentary revisits Libia Lobo Sardesai’s remarkable contribution to the Goa liberation struggle

Libby de Liberdade is a 79-minute documentary about Libia Lobo Sardesai, whose life combines anti-colonial resistance, law, civic action and institution-building. It matters because she helped Goa’s liberation movement while still young, then continued serving society for decades. The film offers a rare record of a remarkable woman who is now 102.

The documentary grew from the creation of a mural marking Lobo Sardesai’s birth centenary in 2024. Solomon Lobo painted it across from her home in Panaji. Directors Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar also interview her extensively. She recalls working at the British censor office, studying law, working at All India Radio and joining Voice of Freedom.

The film is a broad portrait, not a detailed investigation of every episode. It leaves gaps about her years running a secret radio mission, but her energy and memory carry the work. It was scheduled for screening at Mumbai’s Prithvi Theatre on October 30, giving audiences a starting point for learning more about her life.

Libia Lobo Sardesai was a pioneering female lawyer and a major participant in Goa’s struggle to end Portuguese rule. Her achievements extended far beyond the resistance. She helped found the Women’s Cooperative Bank in Goa and the Goa College of Home Science. Her later civic campaigns show that liberation, for her, also meant remaining useful and speaking against injustice.

Her central wartime role was at Voice of Freedom, an underground radio station. When the Goan liberation movement gathered strength in 1955, she joined the station and supplied news reports in English. The station operated secretly, moving between remote locations. She worked with other revolutionaries, including Nicolau Menezes and her future husband, Vaman Sardesai.

Lobo Sardesai’s role was especially significant because communication supported the wider movement. The documentary presents her as Voice of Freedom’s only surviving founder. It also shows her continuing public engagement after liberation, including her famous flight over Goa in December 1961, when she announced that Goa was free and united with India.

Lobo Sardesai worked with Voice of Freedom for roughly six years, from 1955 to 1961. This period began when Goa’s liberation movement gathered momentum and ended when Portuguese rule ended in December 1961. She provided English news reports, making her a direct participant in the station’s underground communication effort.

Voice of Freedom had to relocate several times between 1955 and 1961. The documentary refers to the difficulties of working in remote places. Lobo Sardesai also describes running the secret mission from a forest and later from a mountaintop cabin with other revolutionaries. These moves show how unstable and concealed the operation had to remain.

The source does not give an exact number of moves or a regular timetable. It says only that the station relocated several times. The documentary also does not fully explain the practical hardships of being a woman in her thirties managing this mission, leaving those details open for future filmmakers and researchers to explore.

Goa was seeking liberation in the 1950s and 1960s because Portugal still governed it as a colony. The movement aimed to end Portuguese rule and achieve a free, united Goa. When liberation came in December 1961, Lobo Sardesai announced that Goa was “now free and united with Mother India.”

The article connects this struggle to the wider anti-colonial climate that Lobo Sardesai witnessed in Mumbai. She recalls seeing the British crackdown on freedom fighters and being moved by it. In 1955, she joined Voice of Freedom as the Goan liberation movement gathered steam. The station broadcast news in English while operating secretly from changing locations.

The article does not provide a full political history of Portuguese rule, explain all the movement’s demands, or detail the events leading to December 1961. Those points require established historical context beyond the source. Within the article, the central fact is clear: Goan activists used resistance and communication to pursue liberation from Portugal.

Voice of Freedom helped the liberation movement by providing news reports in English. Communication mattered because it allowed the movement to present information beyond the immediate places where activists worked. The station became a way for the resistance to speak during the years before Goa’s liberation in 1961.

Lobo Sardesai joined the station in 1955 and worked with other revolutionaries. The operation was secret and had to relocate several times between 1955 and 1961. It functioned first in a forest and later from a mountaintop cabin. These details show the station’s key mechanism: concealed broadcasting from remote sites while avoiding easy discovery.

The article does not describe the station’s audience size, equipment or specific broadcasts beyond Lobo Sardesai’s English news reports. Still, its importance is evident from her role as a founder and the station’s connection to the liberation movement. It demonstrates how communication can support political resistance, preserve morale and challenge the control of colonial authorities.

Goa’s liberation arrived in December 1961, ending the period described in the article as the struggle against Portuguese rule. The moment was both political and deeply symbolic. It transformed the underground work of activists such as Lobo Sardesai into a public declaration of freedom and unity.

Lobo Sardesai took part in the occasion from the air. She boarded a plane that flew over Goa for two hours. During the flight, she announced, “Rejoice, brothers and sisters, our Goa is now free and united with Mother India.” Her broadcast turned liberation into a message addressed directly to people across Goa.

Her public service did not stop after that event. The documentary shows her continuing to participate in civic campaigns and raise her voice against injustice. She also helped establish the Women’s Cooperative Bank and the Goa College of Home Science. Her example links political liberation with the longer work of building institutions and serving the public.

A freer society can be pursued through several connected forms of work. Communication shares news and gives a movement a public voice. Law provides tools for defending rights. Civic action keeps public pressure alive. Schools and cooperative banks turn ideals into institutions that expand people’s opportunities. Lobo Sardesai’s career brings these strands together.

She supplied English news reports for the secret Voice of Freedom from 1955 to 1961. She had also studied law at Siddharth College and worked at All India Radio. After liberation, she continued civic campaigns and opposition to injustice. Her achievements included helping found the Women’s Cooperative Bank in Goa and the Goa College of Home Science.

The article presents these actions as parts of one long commitment to usefulness and freedom. Communication helped challenge colonial control, while education, finance and civic participation supported public life after liberation. It does not explain the institutions’ detailed operations or measure their impact, but it shows how resistance can continue through constructive, everyday institution-building.