Vaibhu at 21:56, 9 April 2026

2026-04-09T21:56:13Z

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{{Short description|Indian journalist (1911–1993)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2024}}
{{Portuguese name|de Menezes|Bragança}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Berta de Menezes Bragança
| image = Berta de Menezes Bragança.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Maria Berta de Menezes Bragança
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|12|17|df=y}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1993|07|13|1911|12|17|df=y}}
| birth_place = Cuelim, [[Mormugao taluka]], [[Portuguese Goa]]
| death_place =
| resting_place = [[Chandor]] Church cemetery
| other_names =
| spouse = {{marriage|António Furtado|1947|1988|reason=died}}
| father = [[Luís de Menezes Bragança]]
| relatives = {{plainlist|
* [[Beatris de Menezes Bragança]] (sister)
* [[T. B. Cunha]] (uncle)
}}
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| movement = [[Goa Liberation Movement]]
| party = [[Communist Party of India]]
| otherparty = {{plainlist|
* [[Goan People's Party]]
* [[Frente Popular (Goa)|Frente Popular]]
}}
| notable_works = ''Tales of Goa'' (1990)
| awards =
}}
'''Maria Berta de Menezes Bragança'''{{efn|alternatively spelled as '''Berta de Menezes Braganza''' and '''Bertha Menezes Braganza'''}} (17 December 1911 – 13 July 1993) was an Indian freedom fighter, teacher, writer and journalist. She was a peace worker, teacher, youth activist and has been credited for being the person behind the ''Free Goa'' bulletin.

== Early and personal life ==
Maria Berta de Menezes Bragança<ref>{{cite report |last=Correia |first=Eric J. F. |date=2023-05-16 |title=Title Report |url=https://rera.goa.gov.in/reraApp/download?DOC_ID=xSAUL2K/If/MVl3hAMYNSA== |work= |location= |publisher=RERA Goa |docket= |access-date=2025-01-03 }}</ref> was born on 17 December 1911 in Cuelim village in [[Mormugao taluka]]. She was educated at home by her parents.<ref name="wwoff"> {{Cite book |title=Who's Who of Freedom Fighters: Goa, Daman & Diu. Volume 1 |date=1986 |publisher=Goa Gazetteer Department, Government of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu. |year=1986 |publication-date=December 1986 |pages=34}}</ref> She and her sister [[Beatris de Menezes Bragança|Beatris]] were daughters of [[Luís de Menezes Bragança]]<ref name="ShirodkarWho86">{{Cite book |last=Shirodkar |first=Pandurang Purushottam |author-link=Pandurang Purushottam Shirodkar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISScyAEACAAJ |title=Who's Who of Freedom Fighters, Goa, Daman, and Diu |date=1986 |publisher=Goa Gazetteer Department, Government of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman, and Diu |volume=1 |pages=34–35}}</ref> and Ana, the sister of Tristão de Bragança Cunha.<ref name="SushilaSisters24">{{Cite web |last=Sawant Mendes |first=Sushila |date=2024-02-24 |title=CELEBRATING THE THREE SISTERS… |url=https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/CELEBRATING-THE-THREE-SISTERS%E2%80%A6/218202 |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=Herald Goa |language=en}}</ref><ref name="BarretoToIBold18">{{Cite news |first=Mackelroy |last=Barreto |date=2018-06-28 |title=Bold and inspired: Goa's women freedom fighters |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/bold-and-inspired-goas-women-freedom-fighters/articleshow/64782957.cms |access-date=2024-09-16 |work=The Times of India |issn=0971-8257}}</ref> The family lived at the [[Menezes Braganza House]].<ref name="SushilaSisters24" />

Berta was also a teacher.<ref name="WilliamsCommon19">{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=C. |date=2019 |title='Vivências partilhadas': Finding common ground in the short stories of three Goan women writers |url=https://ora.ouls.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d2f60df5-6b92-4985-8f4a-9e3d02a9276d |journal=Journal of Romance Studies |language=English |volume=19 |issue=3 |doi=10.3828/jrs.2019.23 |issn=1473-3536 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=20 January 2025 |access-date=17 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250120044234/https://ora.ouls.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d2f60df5-6b92-4985-8f4a-9e3d02a9276d |url-status=dead }}</ref> She married António Furtado, a lawyer, in 1947.<ref name="LoboAnticolonial18">{{Cite journal |last=Lobo |first=Sandra Ataíde |date=2018-07-02 |title=Educating Opinion, Invigorating Intellectual Links, Promoting International Solidarity: T. B. Cunha's Anticolonial Nationalism |url=https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/ijpds/article/view/3273/2526 |journal=InterDISCIPLINARY Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies |language=en |volume=7 |pages=137–167 |issn=2165-2694}}</ref> He died in 1988.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S4JKAQAAIAAJ |title=Boletim Do Instituto Menezes Bragança |date=1988 |publisher=O Instituto |page=89}}</ref> The family lived at the [[Menezes Braganza House]].<ref name="SushilaSisters24" />

Her sister, Dr Beatriz de Menezes Bragança, born on November 6, 1916 who died on May 24, 1983, had done her M.Sc. and Ph.D. and took an active part in the anti-Portuguese campaigns, meetings and demonstrations in Bombay, in the run-up to the end of Portuguese rule in Goa. Beatriz was a youth leader who led a procession to the Portuguese Consulate in Bombay in 1946, to protest against the arrest of Tristão de Bragança Cunha.<ref name="wwoff"/>

== Goa liberation movement ==
"The Menezes Bragança sisters, Beatriz and Berta, were involved in the freedom struggle of Goa, which is not surprising given the fact that their father Luis de Menezes Bragança was a great Goan nationalist," writes historian Fátima da Silva Gracias.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silva Gracias |first=Fátima da |title=Trailblazers: Some Goan Women Achievers |publisher=Goa,1556 |year=2022 |isbn=978-81-949632-3-3 |location=Goa |pages=214}}</ref>

Since 1929, Menezes Bragança was part of the Goa committee of the Goa Congress Committee (GCC), briefly affiliated to the [[Indian National Congress]], and actively worked to enroll members. She later joined her uncle [[T.B. Cunha]]'s Goa Youth League (GYL) and in 1945, she was chosen as the Secretary of its Goa unit.<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" />

She was often seen at the side of Cunha at protests and speeches in South Goa.<ref name="BarretoToIBold18" /> Some of their meetings would be held at the [[Menezes Braganza House]] in Chandor.<ref>{{Cite magazine |first=Sarah |last=Hiddleston |date=2007-04-05 |title=House of Chandor |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/arts-and-culture/heritage/article30190762.ece |access-date=2024-09-17 |magazine=[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]]}}</ref> She and her sister, [[Beatris de Menezes Bragança|Beatris]], wore ''[[khadi]]'' [[sari]]s<ref name="SushilaSisters24" /> and promoted the adoption of khadi fabric.<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" />

Between 1940 and 1943, she contributed to the Panjim-based publication, ''O Académico''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Madeira |first=Viviane Souza |date=2019-11-28 |title=Women writing and writings on women in the goan magazine o acadêmico (1940 – 1943) |url=https://discovery.researcher.life/article/women-writing-and-writings-on-women-in-the-goan-magazine-o-acadmico-1940-1943/ff8db582845c35bebdfc029a0730edd7 |journal=Via Atlântica |issue=36 |pages=142–166 |language=en |doi=10.11606/va.v0i36.160336|doi-access=free }}</ref>

In her capacity as Secretary of the GYL, in response to [[Ram Manohar Lohia]]'s call to freedom on [[Goa Revolution Day]], she and Cunha attempted to offer ''[[satyagraha]]'' at [[Margao]] on 30 June 1946. However, the Portuguese police stopped them and beat her,<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" /> following which the police abandoned them on the roadside in [[Chandor]].<ref name="BarretoToIBold18" />

Between 1946 and 1950, she continued the distribution of nationalist [[Flyer (pamphlet)|pamphlet]]s and Indian newspapers in Goa. However, on 16 April 1950, she and her husband, António Furtado, were forced to escape to [[Belgaum]], after she was threatened with deportation to Africa.<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" /> This was because they both refused to sign an official declaration that condemned then [[Prime Minister of India]] [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]'s declaration that Goa was a part of India and must be returned to it.<ref name="FestinoFreedom21">{{Cite journal |last=Festino |first=Cielo G. |date=March 2021 |title=Goa's freedom struggle |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/jrs.2021.2 |journal=Journal of Romance Studies |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=31–48 |doi=10.3828/jrs.2021.2 |issn=1473-3536|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Menezes Bragança continued her distribution of nationalist propaganda from Belgaum. In 1952, she was chosen as the President of the Belgaum branch of the National Congress (Goa).<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" /> Later, in 1953, she and Furtado founded the fortnightly left-wing publication, ''Free Goa''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lobo |first1=Sandra Ataíde |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFfNEAAAQBAJ |title=The Colonial Periodical Press in the Indian and Pacific Ocean Regions |last2=Falconi |first2=Jessica |last3=Dias |first3=Remy |last4=Smith |first4=Dave A. |date=2023-09-22 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-429-51682-5 |page=343}}</ref> Subtitled as the "Organ of Portuguese India’s Liberation", Furtado was its first editor. With Cunha's escape to Bombay in 1956, she and Furtado moved there, continuing the publication from there. Cunha also contributed to ''Free Goa''. Menezes Bragança then became its editor in 1958, after the death of Cunha.<ref name="FestinoFreedom21" /> She continued editing it until it stopped publication in 1962.<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" />

In 1955, she participated in the mass ''[[satyagraha]]'' at [[Patradevi]] that was organised by [[Gerald Pereira]] and the Goa Vimochan Sahayak Samiti (GVSS).<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" /> While in Bombay, she joined the [[Goan People's Party]] (GPP).<ref name="FaleiroGoa1961">{{Cite book |last=Faleiro |first=Valmiki |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYLyEAAAQBAJ |title=Goa, 1961: The Complete Story of Nationalism and Integration |date=2023-07-24 |publisher=Penguin Random House India Private Limited |isbn=978-93-5708-175-7 |pages=368 |access-date=21 August 2024}}</ref>

She was chosen to represent India at the Afro-Asian Women's Conference in [[Cairo]], during which the problem of Goa's freedom was discussed in detail. The official biographies of freedom-fighters published by the post-1961 regime says she "was a member of the Indian delegation to the Afro-Asian Women's Conference in Cairo where the 'Goa Problem' evoked a special interest and importance".<ref name="wwoff"/> She was also part of a delegation to [[Moscow]] meant to attract attention to the same issue, along with the [[Goa liberation movement]]. In 1959, she was a member of the Goa Political Convention at the Afro-Asian Solidarity and All India Peace Council.<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" /> She was also a regular contributor to the ''Afro-Asian Bulletin''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sunderason |first1=Sanjukta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AMlQEAAAQBAJ |title=Forms of the Left in Postcolonial South Asia: Aesthetics, Networks and Connected Histories |last2=Hoek |first2=Lotte |date=2021-12-16 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-17918-9 |page=145}}</ref>

In December 1960, the third National Conference for Afro-Asian solidarity took place in Bombay, calling for the immediate freedom of Goa, Daman and Diu and forming a National Campaign Committee for this purpose. In 1961, Menezes Bragança joined this committee, which was led by [[George Vaz]]. In this capacity, she travelled across India, participating in conferences in major cities like [[Bombay]], [[Ahmedabad]], [[Calcutta]] and [[Delhi]], demanding military action for Goa's freedom.<ref name="ShirodkarWho86" />

== Post-Liberation of Goa ==
Menezes Bragança and other Goan Communists, like [[Gerald Pereira]] and [[George Vaz]], began working with the Goan peasants soon after the [[Liberation of Goa]], forming the ''Shetkari Paksh'' (Farmers' Party). In the [[1963 Goa, Daman and Diu Legislative Assembly election]], they did not contest with their Communist symbols but instead contested as a political front, the [[Frente Popular (Goa)|Frente Popular]]. This was done in an attempt to avoid the anti-Communist sentiment among the electorate in those times. Menezes Bragança contested from the [[Cortalim Assembly constituency]] but neither her nor the seven others were able to win any seats.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prabhudesai |first=Sandesh |author-link=Sandesh Prabhudesai |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SjoF0AEACAAJ |title=Ajeeb Goa's Gajab Politics |date=April 2023 |publisher=Qurate Books Private Limited |isbn=978-93-94600-690 |page=253}}</ref>

Menezes Bragança later became the President of the [[Communist Party of India]] in Goa.<ref name="SushilaSisters24" /> She was also a part of the [[Institute Menezes Braganza]], named after her father.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1983 |title=Back Matter |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40872603 |journal=Journal of South Asian Literature |volume=18 |issue=1 |jstor=40872603 |issn=0091-5637}}</ref>

In 1990, she published a book of fiction, titled ''Tales of Goa'', collecting 15 short stories that she had previously published in the 1930s in ''[[The Bombay Chronicle]]'' and ''[[Blitz (newspaper)|Blitz]]'' newspapers.<ref name="WilliamsCommon19" />

In 1992, she published, ''Landmarks in My Time: Selected Writings'', which has considerable writings about her uncle, [[T. B. Cunha]].<ref name="LoboAnticolonial18" />

She donated {{Convert|1000|m2|acre}} of land to the Chandor Sports Club, upon which the village's community centre was constructed.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mascarenhas |first=Clive |date=2016-07-28 |title=Chandor SC goes beyond football to keep the youth healthy |url=https://www.navhindtimes.in/2016/07/29/sports/chandor-sc-goes-beyond-football-to-keep-the-youth-healthy/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |work=[[The Navhind Times]]}}</ref>

== Death ==
Menezes Bragança died in 1993.<ref name="WilliamsCommon19" /> While she was cremated, her ashes are buried in the [[Chandor]] cemetery.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sawant Mendes |first=Sushila |date=2024-06-16 |title=18th June was born in a cradle of free thought |url=https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/18th-June-was-born-in-a-cradle-of-free-thought/222540 |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=[[Herald Goa]] |language=en}}</ref>

==Works==
* ''Tales of Goa'' (Bastora: Tipografia Rangel: 1991)
* ''Landmarks in My Time: Selected Writings'' (1992)

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menezes Bragança, Berta de}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian communist writers]]
[[Category:Indian communists]]
[[Category:Goa liberation activists]]
[[Category:People from Portuguese India]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India politicians from Goa]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]

Berta de Menezes Bragança - Revision history

Vaibhu at 21:56, 9 April 2026