The nation’s most beloved voice also helped a nationalist cause. On her 86th birthday, The Quint presents to you a lesser known anecdote about Lata Mangeshkar, or Lataji as she is fondly called. As Goa, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Diu and Daman were languishing under the rule of the Portuguese, the patriot in her yearned to do something about it, and so, she agreed to sing, free of cost, at a concert that was organised on May 2, 1954 at Hirabaug in Pune to raise funds to procure arms for the fight against the Portuguese. This, she did at the behest of music composer and revolutionary fighter Sudhir Phadke.
The Patriotic Lata
My father was from Goa, and the atmosphere at home was rife with nationalist and patriotic feelings. My father owned a drama company and was also friends with Veer Savarkar. Our family would visit Savarkar’s and vice versa. That I guess helped our patriotism blossom.
— Lata Mangeshkar
Veer Savarkar was a freedom fighter as well as a poet, writer and playwright. He later emerged as a controversial figure, being accused in connection with the killing of Mahatma Gandhi but was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Portuguese forces had occupied Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Goa, Diu and Daman and left the Indian soil only in 1961. But Nagar Haveli was liberated by a joint band of Azad Gomantak Dal and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) revolutionaries who marched into Silvassa on the night of 1 August 1954.
(Video edited by Purnendu Pritam)
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