The Indian annexation of Goa was the process in which the Republic of India annexed the Portuguese State of India, the then Portuguese Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, starting with the armed action carried out by the Indian Armed Forces in December 1961. In India, this action is referred to as the "Liberation of Goa". In Portugal, it is referred to as the "Invasion of Goa". Jawaharlal Nehru had hoped that the popular movement in Goa and the pressure of world public opinion would force the Portuguese Goan authorities to grant it independence, but without success; consequently, Krishna Menon suggested taking Goa by force.
The operation was codenamed Operation Vijay (meaning "Victory" in Sanskrit) by the Indian Armed Forces. It involved air, sea and land strikes for over 36 hours, and was a decisive victory for India, ending 451 years of rule by Portugal over its remaining exclaves in India. The engagement lasted two days, and twenty-two Indians and thirty Portuguese were killed in the fighting. The brief conflict drew a mixture of worldwide praise and condemnation. In India, the action was seen as a liberation of historically Indian territory, while Portugal viewed it as an aggression against its national soil and citizens. Justifying the successful military action, Nehru remarked that the "Portuguese ultimately left no choice open to us."
Following the end of Portuguese rule in 1961, Goa was placed under military administration headed by Major General Kunhiraman Palat Candeth as lieutenant governor. On 8 June 1962, military rule was replaced by civilian government when the Lieutenant Governor nominated an informal Consultative Council of 29 nominated members to assist him in the administration of the territory.
Background After India's independence from the British Empire in August 1947, Portugal continued to hold a handful of exclaves on the Indian subcontinent—the districts of Goa, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli—collectively known as the State of India. Goa, Daman and Diu covered an area of around and held a population of 637,591.Numbers from 1955, thus excluding Dadra and Nagar-Haveli. The bulk (547,448) was in Goa (composed of the districts of Old and New Goa, Bardez, Mormugão and Salsete, and the offshore island of Anjediva), the remainder in Dammam (69,005) and Diu (21,138). See Kay (1970) Salazar and Modern Portugal, New York: Hawthorn, p. 295. The Goan diaspora was estimated at 175,000 (about 100,000 within the Indian Union, mainly in Bombay).H. Kay (1970) Salazar and Modern Portugal, New York: Hawthorn. Religious distribution was 61% Hindu, 37% Christian (mostly Catholic) and 2% Muslim. The economy was primarily based on agriculture, although the 1940s and 1950s saw a boom in mining—principally iron ore and some manganese.
Portuguese government
During this period, Portugal was governed by the Estado Novo regime. This government was a dictatorship and a strong proponent of colonialism. The Estado Novo viewed Portugal's overseas territories as extensions of Portugal itself. Under the Estado Novo, Portugal tried to perpetuate a vast, centuries-old empire with a total area of , while other former colonial powers had, by this time, largely acceded to global calls for self-determination and independence of their overseas colonies.
Local resistance to Portuguese rule
Resistance to Portuguese rule in Goa in the 20th century was pioneered by Tristão de Bragança Cunha, a French-educated Goan engineer who founded the Goa Congress Committee in Portuguese India in 1928. Cunha released a booklet called 'Four hundred years of Foreign Rule', and a pamphlet, 'Denationalisation of Goa', intended to sensitise Goans to the oppression of Portuguese rule. Messages of solidarity were received by the Goa Congress Committee from leading figures in the Indian independence movement including Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose. On 12 October 1938, Cunha with other members of the Goa Congress Committee met Subhas Chandra Bose, the President of the Indian National Congress, and on his advice, opened a Branch Office of the Goa Congress Committee at 21, Dalal Street, Bombay. The Goa Congress was also made affiliate to the Indian National Congress and Cunha was selected as its first President.Prof. Frank D'Souza, "Frankly Speaking, The Collected Writings of Prof. Frank D'Souza" Editor-in-chief Mgr. Benny Aguiar, published by the Prof. Frank D'Souza Memorial Committee, Bombay 1987.
In June 1946, Ram Manohar Lohia, an Indian Socialist leader, entered Goa on a visit to his friend, Juliao Menezes, a nationalist leader, who had founded the Gomantak Praja Mandal in Bombay and edited the weekly newspaper Gomantak. Cunha and other leaders were also with him. Ram Manohar Lohia advocated the use of non-violent Gandhian techniques to oppose the government.Goa's Freedom Movement By: Lambert Mascarenhas On 18 June 1946, now celebrated as Goa Revolution Day, the Portuguese government disrupted a protest against the suspension of civil liberties in Panaji (then spelt 'Panjim') organised by Lohia, Cunha and others including Purushottam Kakodkar and Laxmikant Bhembre in defiance of a ban on public gatherings, and arrested them. There were intermittent mass demonstrations from June to November.
In addition to non-violent protests, armed groups such as the Azad Gomantak Dal (Free Goa Party) and the United Front of Goans (UFG) conducted violent attacks aimed at weakening Portuguese rule in Goa. The Indian government supported the establishment of armed groups like the Azad Gomantak Dal, giving them full financial, logistic and armament support. The armed groups acted from bases situated in Indian territory and under cover of Indian police forces. The Indian government—through these armed groups—attempted to destroy economic targets, telegraph and telephone lines, road, water and rail transport, in order to impede economic activity and create conditions for a general uprising of the population.Francisco Monteiro, Chronology of Freedom Struggle Activities Unleashed by the Indian Union Against the Territories of Goa, Damão and Diu A Portuguese army officer stationed with the army in Goa, Captain Carlos Azaredo, stated in 2001 in the Portuguese newspaper Expresso: "To the contrary to what is being said, the most evolved guerrilla warfare which our Armed Forces encountered was in Goa. I know what I'm talking about, because I also fought in Angola and in Guinea (Portuguese Guinea). In 1961 alone, until December, around 80 policemen died. The major part of the freedom fighters of Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD) were not Goans. Many had fought in the British Army, under General Montgomery, against the Germans."
Diplomatic efforts to resolve Goa dispute
On 27 February 1950, the government of India asked the Portuguese government to open negotiations about the future of Portuguese colonies in India. Portugal asserted that its territory on the Indian subcontinent was not a colony but part of metropolitan Portugal and hence its transfer was non-negotiable, and that India had no rights to this territory because the Republic of India did not exist at the time when Goa came under Portuguese rule.Goa was first recognised as equal to the metropolis in the Royal Charter of 1518, and affirmed in subsequent legislation. The term 'province' was first used in 1576, and the term 'overseas provinces' used in virtually all legislation and constitutions thereafter, e.g. Art. 1–3 & Art. 162–64 of 1822 Constitution online , 1826 constitution online , Art. I & Title X of the constitution of 1838 online , Title V of the Republican constitution of 1911 online and the 1932 Constitution of the Estado Novo. When the Portuguese government refused to respond to subsequent aide-mémoires in this regard, the Indian government, on 11 June 1953, withdrew its diplomatic mission from Lisbon. Lambert Mascarenhas, "Goa's Freedom Movement," excerpted from Henry Scholberg, Archana Ashok Kakodkar and Carmo Azevedo, Bibliography of Goa and the Portuguese in India New Delhi, Promilla (1982)
By 1954, the Republic of India instituted visa restrictions on travel from Goa to India which paralysed transport between Goa and other exclaves like Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli. In the same year, India instituted sanctions on Portugal with the aim of the annexation of Goa into India; the sanction would remain until 1961. Meanwhile, the Indian Union of Dockers had, in 1954, instituted a boycott on shipping to Portuguese India.Sankar Ghose (1993) Jawaharlal Nehru: A biography. Mumbai: Allied. p. 283 Between 22 July and 2 August 1954, armed activists attacked and forced the surrender of Portuguese forces stationed in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.P.W. Prabhakar (2003) Wars, proxy-wars and terrorism: post independent India New Delhi: Mittal, p. 39
On 15 August 1955, 3,000–5,000 unarmed Indian activistsSankar Ghose (1993) Jawaharlal Nehru: A biography. Mumbai: Allied. p. 282 attempted to enter Goa at six locations and were violently repulsed by Portuguese police officers, resulting in the deaths of between 21"Indian Volunteers Invade Goa; 21 Die; Unarmed Indians March into Goa", New York Times, 15 August 1955 and 30Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India, Published by Columbia University Press, 1998 people. The news of the incident built public opinion in India against the presence of the Portuguese in Goa. On 1 September 1955, India shut its consul office in Goa.
In 1956, the Portuguese ambassador to France, Marcello Mathias, along with Portuguese Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, argued in favour of a referendum in Goa to determine its future. This proposal was however rejected by the Ministers for Defence and Foreign Affairs. The demand for a referendum was repeated by presidential candidate General Humberto Delgado in 1957.
Prime Minister Salazar, alarmed by India's hinted threats at armed action against Portugal's presence in Goa, first asked the United Kingdom to mediate, then protested through Brazil and eventually asked the United Nations Security Council to intervene. Mexico offered the Indian government its influence in Latin America to bring pressure on the Portuguese to relieve tensions. Meanwhile, Krishna Menon, India's defence minister and head of India's UN delegation, stated in no uncertain terms that India had not "abjured the use of force" in Goa. The US ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith, requested the Indian government on several occasions to resolve the issue peacefully through mediation and consensus rather than armed conflict.US Department of State, Central Files, 753D.00/12 – 1161 Document 68US Department of State, Central Files, 753D.00/12 – 1261 Document 69
On 24 November 1961, Sabarmati, a passenger boat passing between the Indian port of Kochi and the Portuguese-held island of Anjidiv, was fired upon by Portuguese ground troops, resulting in the death of a passenger and injuries to the chief engineer. The action was precipitated by Portuguese fears that the boat carried a military landing party intent on storming the island. The incidents lent themselves to fostering widespread public support in India for military action in Goa.
Eventually, on 10 December, nine days prior to the armed action, code named Operation Vijay, Nehru stated to the press: "Continuance of Goa under Portuguese rule is an impossibility". The American response was to warn India that if and when India's armed action in Goa was brought to the UN Security Council, it could expect no support from the US delegation.US Department of State, Central Files, 753D.00/12 – 1461 Document 72
Annexation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli
The hostilities between India and Portugal started seven years before the annexation of Goa, when Dadra and Nagar Haveli were invaded and occupied by pro-Indian forces with the support of the Indian authorities.