As a six year old he would read in fascination as historical figures came alive in comic books, but for Prajal Sakhardande, it became a way of life. He relived his dream years later as Goa’s brave new breed of history conservators, who don’t just enlighten the masses about importance of heritage but actually fight for it
When he enters his class of Post Graduate students ofMedieval Indian History at Goa University, you could mistake him for a student.But when he steps on to the lecture podium, Prajal Sakhardande transforms intothe time traveler. Students and cynics alike look up at him wide eyed, as herecounts the history of how the Vijayanagar Kingdom first touched the shores ofthen Gopakapattanam. His age belies the years and ages in time that he coversin his historical discourse to students.
Prajal’s fascination with history started as a student ofClass three. “I watched with fascination the lovely pictures of Sarojini Naidu,Gandhiji, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Dadabhai Nauroji, Vivekanand reading volumesof Amar Chitra Katha. I would often wonder what it would have been like livingin those times” recollects the historian, whose inspiration is Sardar KarnailSingh Banipal, the 21yr old martyr who sacrificed his life for Goa'sliberation. His fascination soon transformed into a lifelong passion for placesand structures of heritage.
“Heritage should be preserved because it is what we haveinherited from our ancestors. It is the positive legacy of history. It is herewhere our roots lie and which needs to be preserved for posterity”, opinesPrajal recounting his numerous battles for preservation of thousands ofelements of Goa’s heritage. His turning point came with the establishment ofGoa Heritage Action Group on September 30, 2000. The GHAG came up in the faceof dozens of beautiful Portuguese era houses being razed to make way formultistoried complexes and stones from old fortifications being used forbuilding. The group had as its objective as its preamble suggests, “To conductstudies and promote awareness of the problems of environment, ecology,pollution, preservation, protection, and conservation of historic,architectural, archaeological and aesthetical buildings, precincts, artefactsand areas of scenic or natural beauty, lines of sights, roofscapes andstreetlines as well as buildings etc. of social, cultural value and thoseassociated with important persons or events”.
Prajal never looked back. His MPhil in Pre Portuguese GoanHeritage helped him take the cause of Goa’s history even prior to thePortuguese era whose legacy was presumably lost. Prajal actively involvedhimself in piecing that part of history. “I started involving myself infirefighting for preservation of Goa's natural, built and cultural heritage”,reminisces Prajal. His weekly column on history and heritage called 'Pages fromthe Past' became a turning point in sensitising Goans to the abundance ofhistorical monuments that was around Goa.
Currently pursuing his PhD in Post Liberation PoliticalHistory of Goa, Sakhardande believes that each generation has to preserve itsposterity for the future generations or as he quotes John Tosh from Why HistoryMatters, “How can what is not only dead and gone, but remote and sometimesalien, have any practical bearing on today's world? The answer is that,paradoxically, the value of the past lies precisely in what is different fromour world. By giving us another vantage point, it enables us to look at our owncircumstances with sharper vision, alert to the possibility that they mighthave been different, and that they will probably turn out differently in thefuture.”
