Francisco António de Jesus Braz Antonio Correia Afonso, (Prof.)

Prof. Correia-Afonso was born in Goa, in the lovely village of Benaulim, on 17th October, 1893. He was proud of being an Indian and deeply felt the ignominy of Portuguese rule in Goa. He could love the Portuguese language and Portuguese literature, but he wanted Portugal to quit Goa. He spearheaded the movement for the liberation of Goa and by his writings and speeches sought to make his countrymen aware that there was still a part of India that was not free. It was because of this that he could not, during the last ten years, visit his beloved birth place. Chopin carried with him, in his exile, an urn with the mud of his beloved Poland; Prof. Correia-Afonso carried with him the memories of a land of music and gaiety. His Eminence Valerian Cardinal Gracias, in his funeral oration, declared: "He did not go to jail. But there is a pain and sacrifice deeper and more poignant than that of being in jail. It is to be a political exile. To be deprived of the pleasure of visiting his home in Goa and re-living the scenes of his childhood, in a setting congenial to prose and poetry, is needed a sacrifice, which cannot go unrewarded. Some must sow in tears that others may reap in joy; some must journey laboriously, almost in the thick of gloom, that others may enter joyously the 'Promised Land'.

Coming to Bombay, Prof. Correia-Afonso soon made his mark. He crowned a fine career at St. Mary's High School by standing first at the Matriculation Examination. He joined St. Xavier's College and captured every prize within his ken. He secured the coveted Ellis Scholarship at the B.A. and the Chancellor's Gold Medal at the M.A. For a short time he lectured in the College and then joined the Bombay Educational Service. Strangely enough he had not yet made his mark as a speaker. It was when he was asked to deliver a farewell address when Lord Willingdon was leaving Bombay, that he suddenly shone forth as an orator of the first rank. From that time, as the saying goes, he never looked back.

The Bombay Educational Service saw him as a professor of English at the Elphinstone College, the Gujarat College, Ahmedabad, and the Karnatak College, Dharwar. His lectures on English Literature showed his profound knowledge of his subject, and while he could inspire his students he never failed to entertain them with anecdotes, both apt and enlightening. In 1945, he became Principal of the Karnatak College. On retiring from the Bombay Educational Service he was successively Principal of the Rani Parvati College, Belgaum, and Bhavan's College, Andheri. In 1956, he came back to his Alma Mater as Head of the Department of Portuguese. While at St. Xavier's he had the unique pleasure of having as his colleagues his two sons, Roque and John, who after completing their studies at St. Xavier's, joined the Society of Jesus. It was while he was a professor of English at Ahmedabad that he went on study leave at Oxford. He imbibed, as few do, the "Spirit of Oxford", of which he never tired of speaking. Prof. Correia-Afonso was the first Indian to be appointed Librarian of the Oxford Union, and he also became President of the Indian Majlis. Many were the glorious debates in which he participated and on two occasions he spoke on the same platform as G.K. Chesterton, for whom he had a profound admiration. The Englishman and the Indian had many affinities - they were both deeply religious, witty, fond of paradoxes and stout.

Prof. Correia-Afonso spoke more than he wrote. But his writings have a value of their own. "The Spirit of Xavier" and "Plain Living and Plain Thinking", while they reveal his "valiant advocacy of the tenets of Christian truth and the principles Christian morality," show also a sovereign sanity. He never rushed in where angels fear to tread and his attitudes and opinions, moulded by his deep Christian faith, reflected his love of sobriety, of plain living and high thinking. He had the gift of the fine phrase and in many of his sentences we catch echoes of the Chestertonian twists that want a man to stand on his head if he is to see the world rightly. The writings won him a place in "The Gallery of Living Catholic Authors" (U.S.A.) and his valiant defence of the Church, a Knighthood of St. Gregory. For many years he was President of the Catholic Students' Union in Bombay, and at the end, of the Newman Association of India; and even in old age he showed a keen interest, and eagerly participated in the activities of both students and young graduates.

But it was as a speaker that he left an indelible impression. Blessed with a fine physique and a sonorous voice, he could hypnotise an audience as much by the logic of argument as by his sparkling wit. As a raconteur he was peerless; whether it was a large audience or a small group, he held the attention of everyone, anecdotes and jokes bubbling up from his lips as from some living fountain. He could laugh at himself with the same gusto with which he laughed at the world. He could over the radio have a dig at his wife: "Twenty years ago I gave you the whole of my heart; today let me give you a piece of my mind."

Now, that voice is stilled for ever. Echoes still linger in our memories. If there is one line that could serve as his epitaph, it is a line from Chaucer: "He was a perfect, gentle knight."

Source: St. Xavier's College Magazine, Mumbai (1961, Vol. XLVII, No. 1)