When fellow activists told Jose Bismarque Dias that his activism could put his life in danger, he would reply calmly, “A hundred more Bismarques will rise if I die,” his sister-in-law Maria Monteiro E Dias recalled.
On November 7, 2015 — a decade ago — former priest and activist Bismarque Dias’s body was found floating in a tributary of the Mandovi River.
According to the police file, he had gone for a swim near the Babal sluice gate near Goa’s St Estevam with two boys on November 5. In their statement, the boys said he went for a swim alone in the night. His death was initially recorded as a case of drowning. After family and friends approached the High Court alleging “foul play”, citing a video that Dias shot days before his death, in which he alleged that he was threatened by a lobby of builders and local politicians, the death was registered as a murder case on the directions of the court.
In 2018, the Crime Branch of the Goa Police ruled out any foul play in the incident. Three years after his death, his body was brought back to his village in St Estevam for burial.
“He used to say I am a happy priest,” Maria told The Indian Express at her home in St Estevam. “We did not get justice. We believe he was murdered as part of a conspiracy since he was opposing several real estate projects and was quite vocal in his activism. He would get very upset when he saw any illegal hill cutting or illegal construction and was perturbed about the ecological destruction of Goa.”
“He was a good swimmer. He could not have drowned,” she said.
Residents said Dias, when he was a priest, had raised his voice against the Church and protested the sale of Church land to a private builder. He later left priesthood and subsequently devoted his time to activism, protesting against several commercial, mass tourism projects and real estate lobbies that threatened the state’s ecology.
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He joined a group called Musical Warriors, which organised protests and raised awareness against environmental degradation.
“They would sing a song ‘Arre bala sarke’, which was about Goa’s nature and spoke about returning to the fields and farming,” said Maria.
On his 10th death anniversary on Thursday, Father Eiusico Pereira, who officiated the memorial Mass at St Stephen’s Church for his late friend, appealed to people to be like Father Bismarque, as he was referred to, and learn from his activism and fight to save Goa.
“He fought against injustice and helped anyone who approached him. He was a man of action. People should learn from his actions and become activists like him. I said in the Mass that he will be at peace if we continue to fight like him,” he said.
