Purushottam Kesava Kakodkar (18 May 1913 Curchorem – 2 May 1998,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

) was a prominent politician and social worker from Goa. He served as a Member of Parliament in both the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

and

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

Freedom fighter

He took part in the

Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

and was imprisoned for it. He also took part in the Goa Liberation Movement and the

Civil Disobedience Movement The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a ...

launched by

Ram Manohar Lohia Ram Manohar Lohia ; (23 March 1910 – 12 October 1967) was an activist in the Indian independence movement and a socialist political leader. During the last phase of British rule in India, he worked with the Congress Radio which was broadcast ...

in Goa in 1946. The Portuguese colonial administration deported him and kept him in detention. After being released from detention in Portugal in 1956 , Kakodkar came back to India. After spending some time with his family in Mumbai, he came to Goa and set up an

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (<

Margao Margao or Madgaon is the commercial capital of the Indian state of Goa. It stands on banks of the Sal river and is the administrative headquarters of Salcete sub-district and South Goa district. It is Goa's second largest city by population ...

. The ashram was used to disguise the freedom movement and many freedom fighters took refuge in the ashram. The police soon discovered the true purpose of the ashram and closed it. He was among the vocal critics of the Salazar administration in Goa. In 1961, he pursued autonomy for Portuguese India but without success. After Goa's liberation Kakodkar was the head of the Goa unit of the Congress, which was set up in Panjim from the residence of his close confidant and advisor Advocate Rui Gomes Pereira. Gomes Pereira was considered to be Goa's foremost legal counsel and an astute politician. (Information By N.Pattihal)

Contribution to the Goa Opinion Poll

When the issue of Goa's merger with Maharashtra came up, Kakodkar was the chairperson of the Goa Pradesh Congress committee. He used his personal equations with the Nehru family to lobby hard for a referendum with the central leadership. According to one source, he reportedly ''"almost lost his sanity"'' trying to do so against the mighty Maharastra.

Political career

He served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

in the Lok Sabha (lower house), representing

Panaji Panaji (; also known as Panjim) is the capital of the Indian state of Goa and the headquarters of North Goa district. Previously, it was the territorial capital of the former Portuguese India. It lies on the banks of the Mandovi river estuary i ...

constituency in the former union territory of Goa, Daman and Diu from 1971 to 1977. He was a nominated member of the

from 1985 to 1991. During this term he was also a member of Committee on Petitions, Rajya Sabha during 1986-87.

Criticism

In his book ''Panthast'', Goan writer

Ravindra Kelekar Ravindra Kelekar (7 March 1925 – 27 August 2010) was a noted Indian author who wrote primarily in the Konkani language, though he also wrote in Marathi and Hindi. A Gandhian a 2010ctivist, freedom fighter and a pioneer in the modern Konk ...

blamed the failure of the non-violent Goa Freedom Movement, spearheaded by Lohia on the squabbles and ego-clashes between Kakodkar and Ram Hegde. Kelekar also stated that Kakodkar was once responsible for Mahatma Gandhi having to apologise to the Portuguese. While he was logged in Aguada jail, Kakodkar had begun a fast against the harassment meted out by the Portuguese authority to the freedom fighters. Gandhiji had made a note of this in his paper ''

Harijan Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

''. The Portuguese replied that Kakodkar was not fasting. Gandhiji is supposed to have sent a man, who was a relative of Kakodkar, to verify this. His relative verified that although Kakodkar was not taking any food from the jail, he was getting food from outside. A shocked Gandhi tendered an apology to the Portuguese through the ''Harijan''.

Other activities

Kakodkar was the president of the

Goa Konkani Akademi The Goa Konkani Akademi (Goa Academy of Letters for Konkani) is an organization set up by the Government of Goa in 1986 to promote the Konkani in Goa. Its stated aim is to accelerate the pace of development of Konkani by encouraging writers, res ...

from 1984-1996.

Death

Purushottam Kakodkar died on 2 May 1998 in Delhi at the age of 85.

Family

His son

Anil Kakodkar Anil Kakodkar (born 11 November 1943) is an Indian nuclear physicist and mechanical engineer. He was the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India and the Secretary to the Government of India, he was the Director of the Bhabha Atomic ...

is former chairman of the

Atomic Energy Commission of India The Atomic Energy Commission of India is the governing body of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India. The DAE is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister. The Indian Atomic Energy Commission was set up on 3 August 1948 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kakodkar, Purushottam 1913 births 1998 deaths Scholars from Goa India MPs 1971–1977 Goa liberation activists Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha Lok Sabha members from Goa People from Panaji United Goans Party politicians