List of people from Goa

This is a list of famous and notable people from Goa, India. This list aims to include persons who are known to a large number of people, and is not based on the extent of their popularity. Neither is the list viewed from the context of the present. Their fame could be brief; what matters is that they were well known during the peak of their popularity.

Sports personalities

• Seraphino Antao, represented Kenya in sprinting in the Commonwealth Games during the 1950s and early 60s; won two gold medals
• Swapnil Asnodkar, opening batsman for Goa and Rajasthan Royals; played a key role in helping his team win the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League
• Bruno Coutinho, Indian footballer and Arjuna awardee
• Antao D'Souza, represented Pakistan cricket team in Tests in the 1950s and early 60s
• Mary Dsouza (Sequeira), winner of the Dhyan Chand Award as First Double International; Asian Games winner first and second Asian Games for track and field; World Cup Field Hockey in England and Australia
• Brahmanand Sankhwalkar, soccer player and former Goa captain; one of Goa's best goalkeepers; Arjuna awardee for his achievements in sports
• Dilip Sardesai, former cricketer

Olympians

• Jack Britto, field hockey, 1952, representing Pakistan
• J.M. Carvalho, field hockey, 1976, representing India
• Mary Dsouza (Sequeira), 1952, Helsinki, track and field
• Leo Pinto, field hockey, 1948, representing India

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Musicians

• Jitendra Abhisheki, Indian musician
• Kishori Amonkar, classical vocalist
• Lorna Cordeiro, Konkani language singer
• Ian D'Sa, UK-born, of Goan descent; former guitarist of Canadian band Billy Talent
• António Fortunato de Figueiredo (1903–1981), conductor, violinist; founder-director of the Academia de Música (now Dept of Western Classical Music, Kala Academy); founder-director of the Orquestra Sinfónica de Goa (Goa Symphony Orchestra)
• Remo Fernandes, musician and Bollywood playback singer
• Anthony Gonsalves (1927–2012), violinist; taught R.D. Burman and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma (a member of the Laxmikant Pyarelal team) and worked with most of the legendary composers of the 1950s and 1960s
• Suresh Haldonkar, classical vocalist, actor
• Kesarbai Kerkar (1892–1977)
• Mogubai Kurdikar, classical vocalist
• Anjanibai Malpekar (1883–1974), Hindustani classical singer of Bhendibazaar gharana, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (1958)
• Dinanath Mangeshkar, dramatist and classical vocalist
• Datta Naik, Hindi film music director
• Khaprumama Parvatkar (1879–1953), ghumot and tabla player
• Chris Perry, the king of Goan music
• Hema Sardesai, playback singer
• Oliver Sean, singer/songwriter

Indologists and archeologists

• José Gerson da Cunha (1844–1900), historian and Orientalist; wrote the first book on history of Bombay, The Origin of Bombay (1900), published by the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society^[1][2]
• Mahadevshastri Joshi
• Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi (1907–1966), Indologist
• Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi (1876–1947), studied Pali; Buddhist scholar
• Prakashchandra Pandurang Shirodkar

Political campaigners

• Dayanand Bandodkar, first Chief Minister of Goa
• Narana Coissoró, left his motherland of Goa to serve the Portuguese people and became a member of the Portuguese Parliament
• António Costa, Portuguese Prime Minister (since 26 November 2015) and former Mayor of Lisbon (2007–2015)
• Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, formerly a Portuguese military officer, was the chief strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon; was born in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo); Mozambique of some Goan ancestry
• Luís de Menezes Bragança, journalist, writer and anti-colonial activist
• Erasmo de Sequeira, head of United Goans Party; former member of the Indian Parliament at New Delhi
• Dr. Jack de Sequeira, prominent campaigner for the opinion poll that retained Goa as an independent state
• Eduardo Faleiro, politician and former central minister
• Abbé Faria, priest, key participant in the Conspiracy Of The Pintos; became a famous hypnotist and revolutionary in France
• Shamrao Madkaikar
• Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister of Union of India and ex-Chief Minister of Goa^[3]
• Pio Gama Pinto, Kenyan freedom fighters and politician; director of the Pan African Press
• Pratapsingh Raoji Rane, former Chief Minister of Goa
• Pandurang Purushottam Shirodkar, first speaker of the Goa Assembly^[4]

Judges and lawyers

• Luís da Cunha Gonçalves (1875–1956), wrote as many as 14 volumes on his studies of civil law^[5]
• Fitz R S de Souza, barrister-at-law and PhD from London; important figure in African politics; participated in Kenya's struggle for freedom

Professors and educationists

• Rui de Figueiredo, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mathematics, University of California, Irvine
• J. Anthony Gomes, MD, FACC, FAHA, Professor of Medicine (cardiology), the Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Icahn School of Medicine, New York, US
• Armando Menezes, Head of the Department of English St Xavier's College Bombay; Principal of Karnataka College Dharwad; Under-Secretary Education, Government of Maharashtra

Artists

• Antonio Piedade da Cruz, twentieth-century painter and sculptor^[6]
• Angelo da Fonseca, noted for presenting Christian themes in an Indian style
• Mario de Miranda (1926–2011), famous for his cartoons in The Illustrated Weekly of India; Padma Vibushan awardee
• Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (1924–2001), regarded as India's foremost abstract artist; received Padma Shri Award in 1971; born in Nagpur of Goan parents
• Kimi Katkar, film actress
• Subodh Kerkar, artist
• Kartika Rane, film and television actress
• Francis Newton Souza (1924–2003), artist
• Varsha Usgaonkar, film and television actress

Scientists

• Garcia de Orta (1523–1580), physician, druggist, and botanist; wrote and published the first major book on Indian drugs and remedies; a Portuguese/Spanish Jew who lived some time in Goa
• Froilano de Mello, Indo-Portuguese microbiologist, medical scientist, professor, author and independent MP in the Portuguese parliament
• Raghunath Mashelkar, eminent scientist and head of the prestigious Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Religious leaders

• Joseph Cordeiro, Cardinal in Pakistan (Karachi/Goa)
• Matheus de Castro (c. 1594–1677), first Indian Bishop of the Catholic Church
• Moreno de Souza, translated the Bible into Konkani language
• Ivan Dias, Cardinal Prefect, Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Rome (Mumbai/Goa)
• Filipe Neri Ferrão, from Aldona, current Archbishop of Goa and Damao
• Oswald Gracias, from Carmona, Archbishop of Mumbai
• Valerian Gracias, Cardinal in Bombay (Mumbai/Goa)
• Anthony Theodore Lobo, Bishop of Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Pakistan (Karachi/Goa)
• Evarist Pinto, from Aldona, Archbishop of Karachi, Pakistan
• Joseph Vaz, missionary in Sri Lanka (Ceylon); patron of Goan Archdiocese

Writers, editors, journalists

• Maria Aurora Couto, writer, academic and literary critic with books including Graham Greene: On the Frontier, Politics and Religion in the Novels, and Goa: A Daughter's Story
• Orlando da Costa (1929–2006), Communist Portuguese poet and writer of Goan descent, born in the capital of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, Maputo
• Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado (1855–1922), of Assagao, linguist; knew Malayalam, Sinhala, Bengali, Kannada, Marathi, and Sanskrit; in 1892, he produced a Konkani-Portuguese dictionary and later a grammar
• Armand de Souza (1877–1922), founding editor of the Morning Leader in Ceylon; early freedom fighter; gaoled by the British colonial government for advocating democracy, but was released following public protests; author of Hundred days in Ceylon under martial law in 1915;^[7] father of Senator Doric de Souza (Professor of English) and the late editor of the Times of Ceylon, Tory de Souza
• Teotonio R. de Souza, historian, founder-director of Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa (1979–1994); Fellow of the Portuguese Academy of History; author of Medieval Goa (1979), Goa to Me (1994), Goa outgrowing postcolonialism (2014) and several other publications on Goan history and culture
• Francisco Luís Gomes (1829–1869), Indo-Portuguese physician, politician, writer, historian, and economist
• Ravindra Kelekar (born 1925), freedom fighter, writer and revivalist of the Konkani language
• Chandrakant Keni, retired editor of Marathi daily Rashtramat and Konkani daily Sunaparant; former freelance journalist; was associated with the development of Konkani language; won Sahitya Academy Award for his book Ashadh Pawali
• Lambert Mascarenhas, author of the classic novel Sorrowing Lies My Land (1955), which was reprinted thrice and has been translated into Marathi, Telugu and Konkani; editor of the Goan Tribune; founder editor of Goa Today, former editor of The Navhind Times; won the State Cultural award
• Dom Moraes (born 1938), won the American Press Club Citation for Excellence in Reporting, for some 20 articles he wrote for the New York Times Sunday Magazine; poet; died earlier this decade
• Frank Moraes, editor of many prominent newspapers in post-independence India, including The Indian Express
• B. D. Satoskar, author, ex-editor of Gomantak daily
• Frank Simoes, passionate Goan advertising person; author of Glad Season in Goa

Governors

• Bernardo Peres da Silva, of Neurá; appointed Prefect of Estado da Índia Portuguesa in 1835, the only Goan to hold a post equivalent to a Governor-General

References

External links

• Goans All Over the World are Doing Great Things
• Goans on the International Sporting Stage
• Great Men of Goa