Goa liberation movement
The Goa liberation movement was a movement which fought to end Portuguese colonial rule in Goa, Portuguese India. The movement built on the small scale revolts and uprisings of the 19th century, and grew powerful during the period 1940–1961. The movement was conducted both inside and outside Goa, and was characterised by a range of tactics including nonviolent demonstrations, revolutionary methods and diplomatic efforts. However, Portuguese control of its Indian colonies ended only when India invaded and annexed Goa in 1961, causing a mixture of worldwide acclaim and condemnation, and incorporated the territories into India.
Portuguese possessions in India
The Portuguese colonised India in 1510, conquering many parts of the western coast and establishing several colonies in the east. By the end of the 19th century, Portuguese colonies in India were limited to Goa, Daman, Diu, Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Anjediva Island.Revolts against Portuguese rule
Some Goans resented Portuguese rule and wanted to lead Goa themselves. There were 14 local revolts against Portuguese rule, but none of these uprisings was successful. The failure of these uprisings was due to the lack of interest from the majority of Goans, who were comfortable with Portuguese rule and were not interested in change, especially since the Goa Inquisition had been abolished. In addition to that Goans were considered equal citizens under the laws of Portugal even if not completely in practice. The other option for them would have been British rule as part of British India, as stated by Francisco Luís Gomes an empire known to treat its subjects who did not have citizenship rights far worse.The independence movement
18th century
An early attempt to overthrow Portuguese rule was the Conspiracy of the Pintos in 1787. The cause of the revolt was racial discrimination by the Portuguese in the church and the administration. The Goan subjects were not given equal rights as their Portuguese counterparts. The conspirators unsuccessfully tried to replace Portuguese rule with self-rule under Ignacio Pinto, the head of the family of the Pintos with the support of Tipu Sultan.Early 20th century
The abolition of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910 raised hopes that the colonies would be granted self-determination; however, when Portuguese colonial policies remained unchanged, an organised and dedicated anti-colonial movement emerged. Luís de Menezes Bragança founded O Heraldo, the first Portuguese language newspaper in Goa, which was critical of Portuguese colonial rule. In 1917, the "Carta Organica" law was passed, overseeing all civil liberties in Goa.In reaction to growing dissent, the Portuguese government in Goa implemented policies which curtailed civil liberties, including censorship of the press. Strict censorship policies required any material containing printed words, including invitation cards, to be submitted to a censorship committee for screening. The Portuguese governor of Goa was empowered to suspend publication, close down printing presses and impose heavy fines on newspapers which refused to comply with these policies. Many Goans criticised the curtailing of press freedoms, stating that the only newspapers and periodicals the Portuguese permitted them to publish were pro-colonialist propaganda materials.
Menezes Bragança organised a rally in Margao denouncing the law and, for some time, the Goans received the same rights as mainland Portuguese. However, the Portuguese Catholic Church strongly supported pro-colonial policies and attempted to influence Goan Christians to oppose the independence movement. The Portuguese Patriarch of the Catholic Church in Goa issued over 60 official letters to the priests of the archdiocese, instructing them to preach to their congregations that salvation lay with the Portuguese and in dissociating themselves from cultural-political relationship with the rest of India.
1920–1940
In 1928, Tristão de Bragança Cunha founded the Goa National Congress. At the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress, the Goa Congress Committee received recognition and representation in the All-India Congress Committee.In May 1930, Portugal passed the "Acto Colonial", which restricted political rallies and meetings within all Portuguese colonies. The introduction of this act politically relegated Goa to the status of a colony. The Portuguese also introduced a policy of compulsory conscription in Portuguese India, which contributed significantly to growing resentment against the colonial government.
The Portuguese government pressured the Indian National Congress to disaffiliate the National Congress ; however, in 1938, Goans in Bombay city formed the Provisional Goa Congress.
1940s
By the 1940s, the Goan independence movement had gained momentum, inspired by the Indian independence movement, which had entered a crucial phase following the 1946 announcement by the British government to grant India independence. After this development, Indian leaders focused their attention on the movements in Portuguese India and French India that sought to join the newly independent Indian state.Ram Manohar Lohia emerged as an important leader of the freedom movement. Along with activist Juliao Menezes, he hosted a pro-independence gathering lohia maidan, margao in 1946 where the crowd responded by hailing India, Gandhi and the two men, leading to the duo's arrest by colonial authorities who feared civil unrest. By the end of the day, Menezes was released and Lohia was driven outside of Goa and released. Their arrest at the demonstration motivated people to hold large-scale protests in support of the independence movement, which resulted in large-scale arrests and the incarceration of over 1,500 people. Other leaders, including Bragança Cunha, Purushottam Kakodkar and Laxmikant Bhembre were deported to Portugal because of their participation in the independence protests.
During October and November 1946, a series of satyagrahas were held in Goa with many of the leaders of these actions being arrested. With the arrest of the leadership, much of the momentum of the movement was lost and, subsequently, the Goa Congress began to operate from Bombay.
During the mid-1940s, a number of new political parties emerged in Goa, each having a conflicting agenda and perspective in relation to achieving Goan independence and autonomy. These political parties advocated for vastly different policies including Goa's merger with Maharashtra state, Goa's merger with the southern Indian state of Karnataka, independent statehood for Goa and autonomy within Portuguese rule.
Mahatma Gandhi sensed that an independence movement with such disparate perspectives would be ineffective and could undermine the struggle for independence. So Gandhi suggested that the various independence factions should attempt to unite under the common objective of achieving civil liberties. In response to Gandhi's suggestion, the different Goan political factions met in Bombay in June 1947 to formally launch a campaign demanding that the Portuguese government "quit India". The Goan leadership believed that with the end of British colonial rule in India, an end to Portuguese colonial rule would logically follow. However, on 3 August 1947, Lohia announced that Goa's independence would not coincide with Indian independence and that the Goans would have to continue their struggle, "not just for civil liberties, but for freedom itself".
The failure of Goa to achieve independence as part of the national independence struggle, in conjunction with mixed signals from the new national Indian leadership in New Delhi and harsh repression by the Portuguese, led to a temporary lull in the Goan independence movement. Similarly, the partition of India and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 diverted the focus of the national Indian leadership from the anti-colonial struggles in the Portuguese and French colonies.
Following national Indian independence, a separate demand for independence was raised by Froilano de Mello, a prominent Goan microbiologist and MP in the Portuguese National Assembly. De Mello sought independence for Goa, Daman and Diu as autonomous state entities within the framework of a Portuguese commonwealth, similar to the British Commonwealth.
Demand for autonomy
Within Goa and Portugal, periodic demands for autonomy for Portuguese India continued. In July 1946, a public meeting was held which openly petitioned the Salazar administration to grant autonomy to the Estado da India. The meeting was facilitated by José Inácio de Loyola, and inspired the formation of a committee chaired by Uday Bhembre to pursue autonomy. Bhembre's committee failed to provoke a response from the Portuguese administration, and subsequently the last demand for autonomy was made by Purushottam Kakodkar in early 1961.Diplomatic efforts
In December 1947, independent India and Portugal established diplomatic ties. In January 1948, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru met the Portuguese consul and raised the issue of Goa's integration into the Indian Union. The Portuguese, who valued their strategic Indian colonial outposts, were unwilling to negotiate and by 1948, the Goan anti-colonial movement had virtually disbanded.In January 1953, the Indian delegation in Portugal, sought to negotiate with Portugal on the issue of its territories in India. The Indian government offered a direct transfer; however, the Portuguese refused and diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorated. On 11 June 1953, the Indian delegation in Lisbon was closed and diplomatic ties were formally severed. In July 1953, Nehru stated that the Indian government's position involved French and Portuguese colonies in India integrating into the Indian Union. Despite Nehru clearly stating India's policy in relation to colonial outposts, Portugal and France refused to cede their colonies. Subsequently, India launched a campaign through the UN in an attempt to persuade the Portuguese to leave India peacefully.