GOA 1961: LIBERATED OR CONQUERED? On 18 December 1961, India’s armed forces marched into Goa, Daman and Diu and, in a virtually bloodless operation lasting some 36 hours, ended the Portuguese rule of 451 years.
Was Goa ‘liberated’ or was it ‘conquered’? The question still befuddles many. The subject is, generally speaking, sparsely understood at best and misunderstood at worst. Being the 60th anniversary of the event, I decided to share, in about 60 easily readable installments, one every Sunday beginning the next, the full story – the background, diplomacy, arguments, the run up, the buildup, the actual military operation, and its aftermath in Goa, within India and internationally. This 1961 event is serialised from a revised (and as yet unpublished) chapter called ‘The Wars’ from my book, ‘Patriotism In Action: Goans in India’s Defence Services’ first published in 2010 and now being readied for a final edition. The chapter on wars seeks to bring out the little known fact that Goan Officers were there in practically every military op in post-1947 India – 1947/48 J&K Ops, 1961 Goa Ops (there were 14 Goan Officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force in Vijay-1), 1962 China Conflict, 1965 Indo-Pak War, 1971 Indo-Pak (Bangladesh) War, 1999 Vijay-2 (Kargil), besides a host of other ops like defending Siachen, IPKF Sri Lanka, UN Peacekeeping, counter insurgency and cross border terrorism – Goans were there in each and every one of them, some laying down their lives. Beginning next Sunday, 22 August 2021, the story of Goa 1961 will appear weekly in the local Marathi language daily newspaper ‘Gomantak’ and simultaneously, in English, at Facebook, Goa-centric mail lists and Whatsapp. (Please do remember that formatting is lost at FB and WA, and reformatting would be a bore!) Feel free to share. But, since this is as yet unpublished work, please do NOT delete the attribution that appears at the foot of every instalment. In case of any comments/queries that you would like me to read, please email me at, valmikif at gmail dot com. Hope you will enjoy reading the 1961 story as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it! 15 August 2021 -Valmiki Faleiro