REDEMPTION SonG FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA

He was condemned, celebrated and copied. Exploring the life and legacy of India's most controversial artist a century after his birth.

- VIVEK MENEZES

ON 12 APRIL, exactly one hundred years from the day he was born in his mother's family home in the tiny North Goa village of Saligao, in what was then still the Estado da Índia of Portugal, an unlikely spontaneous gathering of relatives, friends, and fans of the late great Francis Newton Souza gathered in the 90-year-old Saligao Institute clubhouse. It was an unexpectedly joyous event, replete with laughter and music, and a wonderful cake decorated by Keren Souza-Kohn and Solomon Souza, the artist's daughter and grandson-gifted artists themselves-who had flown in from Jerusalem because "how could we miss out being here today?" Libia "Libby" Lobo Sardesai-the renowned anti-colonial freedom fighter who grew up with Souza at Crawford Market in Mumbai, and herself turned 100 in May-was a lively, luminous presence, as was Dayanita Singh, who has achieved greater international renown than any other living Indian artist, and has her own deep-rooted creative connection with Saligao. I was there, too, to honour my friend and mentor from New York in the 1990s-we had bonded deep across our age differences-and couldn't help but marvel at the contrast with Souza's funeral at Sewri in 2002, where he was laid to rest without any family present, amidst a handful of hangers-on the artist had conspicuously loathed.