Honouring Peter Alvares's Role in Goa's Liberation and Beyond

This article is part of a series by The Wire titled ‘The Early Parliamentarians’, exploring the lives and work of post-independence MPs who have largely been forgotten. The series looks at the institutions they helped create, the enduring ideas they left behind and the contributions they made to nation building.

Peter Augustus Alvares was a freedom fighter, trade unionist, parliamentarian and champion of the socialist movement in India. Alvares played a key role in Goa’s liberation movement from Portuguese rule and was later elected Goa’s first MP to the Lok Sabha.

Alvares was born on March 31, 1908 in Parra, Bardez, Goa. He had actively participated in India’s freedom struggle. His tryst with politics began in 1930 during the civil disobedience movement, and he was jailed from August 1942 to April 1944. After his release, he joined the Socialist Party and became secretary of the Bombay chapter. He often attended the National Congress (Goa)’s sessions in Bombay and Pune, and voiced his firm belief that Goa was an integral part of India and should be liberated from Portuguese rule.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

Right from Rammanohar Lohia, the leader of the June 18, 1946 movement for civil liberties in Goa, to Alvares, the leader of NC(G), Goa's liberation struggle was in the hands of socialists. Besides them, Asoka Mehta, a socialist, had presided over the meeting on August 17-18, 1946 at Londa, located on the border with Goa, which had concluded in the formation of the NC(G). It is also believed that Nath Pai, a socialist leader, was supervising the work of Goa's liberation struggle in the mid 1950s

From 1953 onwards, Alvares was the president of the NC(G). He helped organise the Goan satyagraha on August 15, 1954, assembling three groups of about 15 satyagrahis each, who marched to three different parts on the border of Goa. He also launched a drive for enlisting volunteers for the Goa liberation satyagraha and organised an underground movement on Goa’s borders. He led a batch of satyagrahis who protested at Castlerock on January 26, 1955, and later galvanised the masses and drew about 5,000 satyagrahis from all over the country to participate in the satyagraha on August 15, 1955. The protest failed, but it did not deter Alvares.

A Catholic, Alvares would often dress as a Hindu when visiting the homes of local Hindus to enlist them in Goa’s liberation movement. Aware of these activities, the Portuguese police chargesheeted and convicted him in absentia for 18 years of rigorous imprisonment.

In June 1957, Alvares was part of a delegation of 11 Goans chosen for consultation by then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Others included Armando Menezes and his brother Nicolau Menezes, along with Luis Gracias, J.N. Heredia, Evágrio Jorge, Vishwanath Lawande, Gerald Pereira, Rama Hegde, Pundalik Gaitonde and Purushottam Kakodkar.

Alvares was first elected as a member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly during the years 1949-52. He became the first trade union leader to be elected to the Bombay Legislative Assembly. While he was an MLA, Alvares encouraged many volunteers in Bombay to work in hiding from Goa for its freedom.

As parliamentarian

After liberation in 1961, the first election in Goa was held in December 1963, when both Lok Sabha seats were won by Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party (MGP) and its allies led by then chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar. Alvares, a candidate of the Praja Socialist Party supported by MGP, defeated Surlakar of the United Goans Party in the Panaji parliamentary constituency by securing 67,275 votes against 36,550 votes polled by his opponent. Alvares garnered 52.8% of the total votes. He thus became the first elected MP to represent the North Goa Lok Sabha constituency (then Panjim), after the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule in 1962 and integration of Goa with India.

During his stint as a Lok Sabha member, Alvares raised various questions and vociferously pleaded for ‘investment incentives as well as development in technology’ and talked of how big companies like ESSO, Union Carbide, ITI and Firestone that were already in India “want to see the investment climate develop. They have been here for a number of years and they would like to see India develop quickly, and they are interested in seeing if there is some way of moving ahead more quickly.”

On November 30, 1966, then deputy home minister V.C. Shukla moved for consideration the Goa, Daman and Diu Bill, providing for an opinion poll in these three areas to decide their future status – whether the status quo should be continued or they should merge with the adjoining states of Maharashtra and Gujarat as the case may be. A number of constitutional issues were raised by members before discussions began. H.V. Kamath (PSP) contended that parliament was not competent to go ahead with this Bill since under the Constitution, there was no provision for an opinion poll. He also questioned the constitutional propriety of entrusting the Election Commission with the work of opinion poll in these areas. He was supported by N. Dandekar (Swatantra Party) who argued that the chief election commissioner could not be entrusted with the work which was statutorily mentioned. Hiren Mukerjee argued that it was wrong to look upon the Election Commission as a limb of the government and make it undertake jobs not constitutionally provided. The members from Goa, Alvares and Mukund Shinkre, did not see anything wrong in introducing the Bill and parliament considering it.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty

Finally, the Speaker ruled that the House was competent to go ahead with the Bill. He said the Constitution only provided that all election work should be entrusted to the Election Commission to the exclusion of any other agency by the government. It did not mean that the Election Commission should not do any other work if it was prepared to do so.

In the 1967 election, Bandodkar and the MGP withdrew their support. Alvares contested on the PSP ticket but lost, pushed down to the sixth position with only 4% of the votes.

Alvares relentlessly fought for the rights of the working class and gave immense momentum to the trade union movement in India. Alvares was the founder of then GIP Railway Panchayat (later renamed National Railway Mazdoor Union) and a number of other unions of the Indian Railways. He was elected assistant general secretary of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) in its Nagpur Convention in 1946 and thereafter was elected its president. He served as president of the All India Railwaymen's Federation from 1968 to 1973 and was its general secretary from 1957 to 1968, and also championed the cause of the Union government employees.

Later, inspired by Jayaprakash Narayan's Janata movement, Alvares, despite his failing health. worked tirelessly in Bihar for democracy.

A prolific writer, Alvares wrote frequently on economic issues and contributed to Janata, a socialist weekly in Bombay.

Alvares passed away suddenly during his journey towards Bombay on May 6, 1975 at the age of 67. The Government of Goa, Daman and Diu honoured him after his death.

Qurban Ali is a trilingual journalist who has covered some of modern India’s major political, social and economic developments. He has a keen interest in India’s freedom struggle and is now documenting the history of the socialist movement in the country.

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