Goa Liberation Day

• Context (PIB I IE): On December 19, 1961, India annexed Goa in a quick military operation after years of diplomatic efforts to secure its independence from Portugal failed.
• Swift Indian military action that lasted less than two days.

History of Goa’s Freedom Movement

• Goa became a Portuguese colony in 1510 under Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque.
• Goa started to witness an upsurge of nationalist sentiment opposed to Portugal’s colonial rule, in sync with the anti-British nationalist movement in the rest of India.
• Tristão de Bragança Cunha, the father of Goan nationalism, founded the Goa National Congress at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1928.
• In 1946, the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia led a historic rally in Goa that called for civil liberties, freedom, and eventual integration with India.
• Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD): More aggressive armed struggle was needed, and peaceful methods could not win civil liberties.

What led to the delay in the liberation of Goa?

• GoI did not want to open another front in which the international community could get involved because of the following factors:
  1. Trauma of Partition
  2. Experience of War with Pakistan
  3. India wanted to showcase itself as a peace-abiding nation.
  4. Portugal being a member of NATO.
• The dichotomies within the groups fighting (Satyagraha vs Military Action) for freedom in Goa.
• Mahatma Gandhi: A lot of groundwork was still needed in Goa to raise the people’s consciousness, and the diverse political voices emerging within should be brought under a common umbrella first.

Integration of Goa into the Indian Union

• Relations between India and Portugal began amicably in 1947 after India’s independence, and diplomatic relations were established in 1949.
• Bilateral relations declined after 1950 over Portugal’s refusal to surrender its Goa, Daman and Diu enclaves and Dadra and Nagar Haveli on India’s west coast.
• Portugal changed its constitution in 1951 to claim Goa not as a colonial possession but as an overseas province.
  • The move aimed to make Goa part of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) military alliance.
  • The dictator of Portugal, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, demanded that any military action by India be met with a NATO response.
• In 1955, the two nations had cut off diplomatic relations when thousands of satyagrahis tried to enter Goa but were fired upon by the Portuguese, resulting in 25 deaths.

In July-August 1954, Indian activists took over Dadra and Nagar Haveli, meeting with little resistance. This encouraged freedom fighters in Goa.

Operation Chutney

• It was a surveillance and reconnaissance exercise.

Frigates began to patrol the coast of Goa, and the Indian Navy mobilised ships. The Indian Air Force (IAF) began flights to lure Portuguese fighter jets to reveal their positions.

Operation Vijay

• The Indian Army stationed troops around the borders of Goa, Daman and Diu.
• Military action began on December 17, and on the evening of December 19, Goa, Daman and Diu were liberated.

What made India take Military action? There had been no forward movement from Portugal despite years of consistent Indian efforts. African nations also under Portuguese colonial rule wanted India to expedite the liberation of Goa. The final trigger for military action was the Portuguese firing on an Indian steamer from Anjadip.