Seven years before Krishna Menon, India’s defence at the time, advised Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to annex the Portuguese colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu by force after Portugal had rejected all peaceful negotiations, a number of independent groups of armed resistance activists had eased India’s path by liberating two other lesser-known exclaves, Dadra and Nagar Haveli. This little-known armed struggle is what the author puts before us in detail in his engrossing book. In the backdrop of the massive struggle for freedom across the entire subcontinent, this brave act seems to have taken a backseat, but Neelesh Kulkarni’s research-based narrative puts it back on record, though one may harbour doubts over certain political assumptions.
One has to start from the premise that the two exclaves Dadra and Nagar Haveli were landlocked (surrounded by Indian territory) and had no presence of any Portuguese military garrison. They only had their police forces, yet, taking over the areas just by agitating groups wasn’t easy, especially with the Indian government realising that diplomacy should precede any such effort and that the Nato should not get involved, Portugal being a member. The Portuguese, having receded from Bombay to be owners of only Goa, Daman and Diu, also added the 72 villages of Dadra and Nagar Haveli between 1776 and 1783, most of them from the weakening Marathas.
It was a sort of compensation from Maratha ruler Peshwa (Prime Minister) Madhav Rao I for Santan.