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Journalism of Courage
On December 19, 1961, India annexed Goa in a quick military operation, after years of diplomatic efforts to secure its independence from Portugal failed.
How was Operation Vijay conducted, and what was Operation Chutney? Why did India wait for 14 years before sending troops to Goa? Why has PM Modi blamed former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for not supporting Goa’s satyagrahis? We explain.
Goa under the Portuguese
Goa became a Portuguese colony in 1510, when Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the Sultan of Bjiapur, Yusuf Adil Shah. In 1947, when the rest of India became independent from the British, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu continued as Estado da Índia, or the Portuguese states of India.
However, an independence movement had been gaining ground here, in step with the liberation movement in the rest of the country. Tristão de Bragança Cunha, known as the father of Goan nationalism, founded the Goa National Congress at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress in 1928. In 1946, socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia led a historic rally in Goa. Alongside these were groups, such as the Azad Gomantak Dal, who thought an armed resistance was the only way forward.
After India’s independence
The independence of India was accompanied with the trauma of Partition and the war in Kashmir. These two issues dominated the fledgling nation’s resources and its leadership’s attention for quite some time. Nehru, thus, was reluctant to start another confrontation in the west that would attract international attention, and preferred to secure Goa’s independence through negotiations and diplomacy.
However, the dictator of Portugal, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, refused to play ball. In fact, he went a step ahead to declare the India territories as not colonies, but overseas provinces, integral parts of ‘metropolitan Portugal’. Portugal by this time had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and Salazar demanded that any military action by India be met with a NATO response.
The government of India persisted with efforts at negotiations, through a diplomatic office it had established in Lisbon.
In July-August 1954, Indian activists took over Dadra and Nagar Haveli, meeting with little resistance. This encouraged freedom fighters in Goa. A flashpoint came in August 1955, when thousands of satyagrahis tried to enter Goa but were fired upon by the Portuguese, resulting in 25 deaths.
Ahead of the Goa elections last year, PM Modi had slammed Nehru for this. “Pandit Nehru felt that if he launched a military operation to oust the colonial rulers from Goa, his image as a global leader of peace would be impacted,” Modi said in Rajya Sabha on February 8, 2022. He also quoted from Nehru’s 1955 Independence Day speech, accusing him of not supporting satyagrahis.
It is true that Nehru in his speech had warned satyagrahis against violent action.
“Goa is a part of India and nobody can separate it…We have exercised great self-control because we want that this issue should be solved peacefully… Let no one be under a misconception that we are going to take military action… Those who are going into Goa are welcome to do so, but if they call themselves satyagrahis, let them remember the principles of satyagraha—and behave accordingly. Armies do not march behind satyagrahis,” Nehru said.
However, after the firing on satyagrahis, India did break off diplomatic relations with Portugal.
Military action
If Nehru was so firm on not sending in troops, what changed his mind in a matter of six years? First, because there had been no forward movement from Portugal’s side despite years of consistent Indian efforts. Second was the fact that African nations also under Portuguese colonial rule wanted India to expedite the liberation of Goa.
Finally, in 1961, preparations for an armed attack on Goa began in full swing.
Venkataraghavan and Subha Srinivasan, in their book ‘The Origin Story of India’s States’, write that the final trigger for military action was the Portuguese firing on an Indian steamer from Anjadip.
“On 1 December, India began a surveillance and reconnaissance exercise called Operation Chutney. Two frigates began to patrol the coast of Goa, and the Indian Navy mobilised sixteen ships, divided into four task groups. The Indian Air Force (IAF) began flights to lure any Portuguese fighter jets to reveal their positions. The Indian Army stationed troops around the borders of Goa, Daman and Diu. The army would lead Operation Vijay to liberate Goa, and the navy and the air force would support it.”
Military action began on December 17, and victory was swift. On the evening of December 19, Governor-General Vassalo e Silva surrendered — Goa and Daman and Diu had been liberated. Over 400 years of Portuguese rule in India had finally ended.
