Most Indian leaders like Krishna Menon, who fought the freedom struggle while living abroad, called Goa a ‘pimple’ on India’s face. He often told Nehru to ‘bring Goa home’.
Nehru had a kind of ‘mental block’ about Goa. He had assured the West that he would not try to forcibly annex Goa to India, but Krishna Menon was able to convince them that they could not adopt double standards regarding this Portuguese colony.
On the one hand, they are criticizing the pro-apartheid countries and on the other hand, they are completely silent about the Portuguese occupation of Goa, which is adjacent to India.
When all efforts to oust the Portuguese from Goa peacefully failed, Nehru sent in troops and gave the go-ahead to the plan to liberate Goa.
Valmiki Flero, author of the recently published book ‘Goa, 1961 The Complete Story of Nationalism and Integration’, writes: ‘The movement of Indian troops began on December 2, 1961. The 50th Parachute Brigade was brought to Belgaon from Agra, Hyderabad and Madras.
More than 100 passenger trains in North, West and South India were diverted to reach Belgaon. Apart from passenger trains, several freight vehicles were also used to transport military equipment to Belgaon. Due to which many mills in Ahmedabad were damaged as they had to be closed due to shortage of coal.
Portugal sent its war fleet to Goa
Portugal also started preparations to deal with the Indian action. He sent one of his ships ‘India’ to Goa to transport the gold of the Portuguese citizens in the ‘Baco National Ultramarino’ and their wives and children to Lisbon.
PN Kheda writes in his book ‘Operation Vijay, The Liberation of Goa and Other Portuguese Colonies in India’ that ‘on December 9, 1961, the Portuguese ship reached Mormogaon from Lisbon. The ship began its return voyage to Lisbon on 12 December. The plane had a seating capacity of 380 people but 700 women and children were sent on it, there were so many people in the plane that some people were even sitting in the toilet.
In December 1961, John Kenneth Galbraith, the US ambassador to India, met with Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru several times to pressure him to postpone the decision to take military action in Goa.
The earlier date of military action in Goa was December 14, which was further extended to December 16. On 15 December, Galbraith met Nehru along with his Finance Minister Murarji Desai.
Adela Gaitonde writes in her book ‘In Search of Tomorrow’: ‘Mrarji was against the use of violence in Goa because he personally favored the use of non-violence to solve colonial problems.’
“The Portuguese were so confident of the success of America’s final diplomacy that on the night of December 16, the Portuguese governor-general and commander-in-chief of his army attended a wedding banquet for a friend’s daughter.”
On December 17, the American ambassador met Nehru and proposed that India postpone military action against Goa for six months. Krishna Menon, present at the meeting, told Nehru and Galbraith that it was too late. Indian troops have entered Goa and cannot be recalled.
Years later, Krishna Menon admitted in an interview that that was not true. Indian troops had not crossed the Goa border till then.
That same night, Krishna Menon arrived at the border of Goa and inspected the Indian troops. Before Menon told Nehru the time for military action, the Indian army had already entered Goa.
The Indian Army faced little resistance
The Indian Army crossed the Goa border on the intervening night of 17-18 December. The Times of India published a banner headline in its December 19, 1961 paper, ‘Our Troops Between Goa, Daman and Diu at Last.’
The Indian Army faced little resistance to enter Goa. The responsibility of capturing Goa was given to 17 Infantry Division under Major General Kendth.
Historian Ramchandra Guha writes in his book ‘India After Gandhi’: ‘On the morning of December 18, Indian troops entered Goa from Sawantwadi in the north, Karwar in the south and Belgaon in the east.’
Meanwhile, Indian planes dropped leaflets all over Goa asking Goans to be calm and courageous. The booklet said to rejoice in your freedom and to strengthen it. By the evening of 18 December, the capital city of Panaji was surrounded, with the locals helping the Indian troops. And telling them about the places where the Portuguese had laid mines.
Within 36 hours of the start of the operation, the Portuguese Governor-General signed the document of unconditional surrender.
When the soldiers of the Punjab Regiment entered Panji, they found the Portuguese officers and their soldiers in only their underwear.
When asked why, he said that he had been told that the Indian soldiers were so brutal that if they saw a Portuguese soldier in uniform, they would shoot him instantly.
Major role of Brigadier Sagat Singh
The 50th Parachute Brigade, led by Brigadier Sagat Singh, rose above the call of duty and reached Panji so quickly that everyone was stunned.
General VK Singh, who wrote the biography of Brigadier Sagat Singh, says that his battalion reached Panji within twenty-four hours. There Sagat Singh halted his battalion saying that it was night. Panji is a densely populated area. A nighttime attack can kill civilians. In the morning they crossed the river. The Portuguese government broke the bridges to stop the Indian soldiers. Sagat Singh’s soldiers somehow swam across the river.
By June 1962, Indian troops had returned to Agra after completing their operations in Goa.
An interesting incident took place at the famous Clark Shiraz Hotel in Agra. Major General VK Singh says: ‘Brigadier Sagat Singh went there in civilian dress. There were also some American tourists who were watching him very carefully. After some time, one of them came and asked, “Are you Brigadier Sigat Singh?”
He said why are you asking this? The man said we are just coming from Portugal. There are posters of you everywhere, it is written on them that whoever catches you will get ten thousand dollars. Brigadier Sigat Singh laughed and said, “If you say, I will go with you.” “We’re not going back to Portugal now,” laughed the American tourist.
Portugal censored the news of the occupation of Goa
On the other hand, the censored press in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, was giving the people there news of the fierce resistance of the Portuguese troops in Goa and the war with the Indian troops.
False news was also being published that Portuguese soldiers had captured Indian soldiers.
The people of Portugal were not told that there were very few Portuguese soldiers in Goa. They have neither combat experience nor training for such operations.
Even if they wanted to protest symbolically, they did not have enough means to do so. When Portugal raised the matter in the Security Council, till that day the Portuguese press was exaggerating and claiming that 1500 Indian soldiers had been killed so far.
Throughout the day on December 18, Goa Radio played war music but did not report any Indian troops entering Goa.
As soon as Indian planes began bombing the Dibulm airport, school children were told to return to their homes.
Bombing of Dibulum airstrip by Hunter planes
At seven o’clock in the morning on 18 December, six fighter jets led by Squadron Leader Jaywant Singh took off from Pune Air Force Base. They attacked the radio station at Bombulam with rockets and cannons and destroyed it within 10 minutes.
Goa lost contact with the outside world. Goa Radio’s famous announcement ‘This is Portugal, you are listening to Radio Goa’ has stopped forever.
Meanwhile, 12 Canberra and 4 Hunter aircraft left Pune for Goa. It dropped 63 1,000-pound bombs on Goa’s Dibulum runway.
Valmiki Flero writes: ‘Despite dropping 63 pounds of bombs in the first round, the Indian Air Force did not sit still. About half an hour later they attacked there again, this time dropping a total of 48,000 pounds of bombs.
Half an hour later, Flight Lieutenant Vivian Goodwin was sent to photograph the bombing damage at Dibulm airstrip. Photos show that the airstrip was relatively undamaged. After that, the third attack was carried out at 11:40.
Women and children were sent to Lisbon
Despite heavy bombardment by the Indian Air Force, only a few craters could be formed on the Dibulm airstrip. The Portuguese officers in Goa decided to send their wives and children to Portugal by air.
Only two aircraft were available at Dibulum at the time, as the craters on the darkened Dibulum airstrip were quickly repaired. Despite the crater, Governor General Salwa allowed these planes to fly.
Valmiki Flairo writes: ‘The wives and children of the Portuguese officers were loaded into two planes and important official documents were also kept. These planes took off from a runway of only 700 meters long without turning on the lights, taking a huge risk in the dark.
Indian warships stationed at sea also fired at these planes, but they managed to escape, flying very low and landing at Pakistan’s Karachi airport.
Meanwhile, Governor General of Goa Major General Silva Vasco da Gama arrived.
Soldiers of the Sikh Regiment led by Major Bill Carvillo were the first to arrive.
Brigadier Ravi Mehta told Valmiki Flero in an interview that ‘Major Bill Carvillo, Captain RS Bali and I arrived at the gate of the building where General Silva was present. We reached the table in the mess where General Silva was sitting. By then it was known that the Indian Army had surrounded them from all sides and they had no option of resistance. Bill saluted the governor, the governor stood up and responded to his salute.
Bill said you order your soldiers to surrender and go inside the barracks.
He asked the Governor to go to his residence where some Indian Army soldiers have been posted to keep an eye on him.
Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Nanda decided that the surrender ceremony would take place at night.
General Silva surrendered
The surrender ceremony took place on 19 December 1961 at 9.15 pm. There were very few people there at that time. One of them was Dr. Suresh Kanekar who participated in the freedom struggle of Goa.
Later he wrote in his book ‘Goa Liberation and After’ published in 2011 that ‘the surrender ceremony was held in an open field. Brigadier Dhillon was sitting in a jeep. They arranged the cars there in the formation of the English letter ‘C’. Their headlights were on and focused on the spot where General Silva was about to surrender.
At about 8:45 General Silva was brought there. He was accompanied by his Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Marque D’Andrade. They were made to wait for about half an hour. Indian soldiers were standing in rows on both sides of them.
Dr. Kannekar further writes: Brigadier Dhillon was told that all the arrangements had been made, so he got down from his jeep and stood in front of General Silva. Addressing Brigadier Dhillon, Lt. Col. Nanda said that the Governor Generals of Goa, Daman and Diu are surrendering to him.
On Nanda’s order, General Silva advanced. He saluted Dhillon. Dhillon did not return the salute. This surprised me because Silva was a Major General and held a higher position than the Dhals. He gave the surrender papers to Dhillon.
Indian Army Commander General Candace Vasco da Gama was not present so he could not participate in the surrender ceremony. At the time of the surrender, Kennedy did not know that the Indian army had reached Vasco de Goma. He got complete information about this on telephone at 11 pm.
There are no photographs of this surrender ceremony. Dr. Suresh Kanekar writes, “Lt. Col. Nanda had arranged for a photographer to photograph the ceremony, but the photographer’s camera did not have a flash.” Nanda had told the photographer that he would take the picture when he indicated but at the last moment Nanda forgot to indicate, so the photographer did not click the picture.
3307 soldiers of Portugal were made prisoners of war
Silva’s wife, Fernanda Silva, was not treated well, despite General Chowdhury’s promise.
Valmiki Flairo writes: ‘He was forcibly evicted from his official residence at Doña Paula. He was seen roaming the streets of Panji. Former Chief Secretary Abel Colaso sheltered him in his official residence.
When the matter was raised in Parliament, Nehru praised Colasu for treating the distressed woman like a decent human being. On December 29, Fernanda Silva was flown to Bombay by an Indian Air Force plane and boarded a flight from Jahan to Lisbon.
Her husband General Silva was able to go to his country after five months. In this entire operation, 22 Indian soldiers were killed while 54 other soldiers were injured. Arjun Subramaniam writes in his book ‘India’s Wars 1947-71’ that 30 Portuguese soldiers were killed and 57 wounded in this campaign.
Valmiki Flairo writes: ‘On arrival in Lisbon the Portuguese warriors were taken into custody at gunpoint by the military police like common criminals. His family was supposed to meet him at the airport but they were not allowed to meet him and he was sent to an undisclosed location. They insulted him by calling him a coward and a traitor.
About a dozen officers, including Governor General Salva, were dismissed from the army.
Not only that, he was banned from holding any public office for life. When there was a change of power in 1974, those dismissed were reinstated and Major General Silva was reinstated to his old position in the army.
India granted Indian citizenship to all the people living in Goa. India has not set any condition for them to give up their Portuguese citizenship.