Lambert Mascarenhas is a journalist, freedom activist and writer from Goa. His family hails from the Goan Catholic community, a Christian community in Goa.
Personal life
Mascarenhas was born in Goa, but his early education was in Pune and later at the St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He is married to Dr. Jolly Mascarenhas. He has four children. He had taken a vow that he would marry only after Liberation of Goa from the colonial Portuguese rule. Hence, he married on 29 December 1961, exactly ten days after Goa's liberation on 19 December 1961. As of late 2015, Mascarenhas was still alive, and living in Dona Paula, Goa.
Journalism
He started his career as a journalist in the Morning Standard at Mumbai. He worked as a sub-editor at the Bombay Sentinel, under editor B. G. Horniman. Mascarenhas later joined the Onlooker as an assistant-editor. He later edited the Goan Tribune, which espoused the cause of Goa's liberation. Upon his return to liberated Goa in 1961, he joined as the editor of The Navhind Times and later established and edited Goa Today.
Lambert Mascarenhas also contributed to India's freedom movement. He authored the Goan Tribune, which was dedicated to the cause of Goa's liberation. While at the Goan Tribune, he wrote numerous articles against the Portuguese colonial regime in Goa and caught the attention of both Indian leaders as well as the Portuguese regime. While on a visit to Goa, he was arrested and jailed by the Portuguese for his articles. He was later released on bail and expelled from Goa.
Books
He has authored several books, including Sorrowing Lies My Land, published in 1955. It recalls the Rammanohar Lohia-led anti-colonial movement launched in Margao in 1946. It was characterised by Ben Antao thus:
The novel covers the time span from roughly 1910 to about 1950. It is a political novel whose message is that the people of Goa under the Portuguese rule were denied basic civil rights such as freedom of speech and assembly, and those who protested were quickly punished or imprisoned. The limitations of the first person narrative, especially from the point of view of a young boy, dilute the dramatic impact of the action in the second half. Although the reader is aware that it is the author speaking in the guise of the boy, the conflict is rendered less acute nonetheless.
His other works include The First City, In The Womb of Saudade, The Greater Tragedy and Heartbreak Passage.
Awards
Lambert has been awarded the Laxmidas Borkar Memorial Award for journalism for 2004. He has also been awarded Goa's highest civilian award, the Gomant Vibhushan. He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, in the year 2015.
