The manuscript written by Rashtraveer Pandurang Purushottam Shirodkar, a Goan freedom fighter, was lying unpublished for years until his family decided to put in their hard-earned money to publish a few copies of it.
Photo Credits: Anchor
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AUTHOR AND HIS WORK
* Written by late Pandurang Purushottam Shirodkar, a Goan freedom fighter
* Shirodkar was also the first speaker of Goa, Daman and Diu assembly
* The manuscript was lying unpublished for over 60 years
* Family puts in hard-earned money to publish a few copies of it
* The book is Portuguese translation of Srimad Bhagavad Gita Rahasya
* Translation written in mid 1950s when Shirodkar was exiled Angola jail
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However, even now, the book is not available for sale as the family could invest to publish only ten copies of the book. Rashtraveer Shirodkar was also the first speaker of Goa, Daman and Diu legislative assembly.
The book in question is the Portuguese translation of Srimad Bhagavad Gita Rahasya, which was originally written in Marathi by iconic freedom fighter of India, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, when he was imprisoned in Mandalay Jail in 1911 in the then Burma. In Srimad Bhagavad Gita Rahasya, Lokmanya Tilak had interpreted Bhagavad Gita as a text which teaches selfless action.
Such are the turns of fate that even the book’s Portuguese translation was written in mid 1950s by Rashtraveer Shirodkar when he was exiled in a jail in Angola, Africa by the then ruling Portuguese.
Asked if the family approached the state government to get the book published, Dr Praskashchander Shirodkar, son of Rashtraveer Shirodkar, said, “The state government has done nothing for my father, who was a great freedom fighter. The government is absolutely careless about a person, who sacrificed so much for the state. Even my mother and we, as kids, sacrificed so much due to my father’s involvement in freedom struggle.”
Rashtraveer Shirodkar was serving a 15 year sentence in a jail in Angola for Goa’s freedom struggle, when he translated the book. Even in Angola, he inspired its local population for the cause of freedom through his writings.
Dr Shirodkar continued, “We have been trying to get this book published for the last 60 years. But, we had no money. So, four of us siblings came together and invested Rs 1 lakh for publishing ten copies of it. Besides, our cousin brother from Chodankar Walke family also helped. One copy each will be kept at Xavier Centre of Historical Research and Central Library at Patto for people to read.”
But before the book got published, it had to be typed on a computer as till then it had only existed as a mammoth 1,500 pages long manuscript written on thin paper. Dr Shirodkar informed, “We spent Rs 35,000 for getting the book typed on a computer. I approached my friends for their assistance. One of them gave me Rs 25,000 and another gave me Rs 10,000.”
At last, with the efforts of family and well-wishers, the Portuguese translation of Srimad Bhagavad Gita Rahasya by Goa’s iconic freedom fighter is out for people to read.
