Goa Glorious
PANAJI:
Vishnupant Dattatraya Chitale was a prominent freedom fighter and intellectual leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI), whose legacy is preserved at the ‘Aguad Interactive Museum: Goa - The Land, The Struggle, The People’ in Sinquerim. Born on January 4, 1906, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, he played a key role in organising various movements, including the Simon Commission boycott in 1929 and the massive Kisan Morcha in 1936. In 1955, Chitale led a batch of 642 Satyagrahis to Patradevi, in Portuguese-led Goa, during the Liberation movement, where he was severely wounded in Portuguese police firing. He was later elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1957 and served on the CPI National Council. Chitale passed away on May 20, 1961.
