Portugal lost Goa 60 years ago and previous rungs of refugees
ANDn three days, from the 17th to the 19th of December, the capture of Goa was consummated, followed by Damão and Diu, putting an end to 451 years of Portuguese sovereignty in those territories.
Portuguese newspapers publish extensive lists with the names of refugees who arrived in Lisbon via Karachi, through the air bridge set up from Pakistan, where many reported from the first refuge.
The removal operation was also carried out by sea, on the ship “India”, belonging to the Companhia Nacional de Navegação.
Despite the regime guaranteeing to the end that Goa would resist the advances of Indian Union troops, on December 16, Diário de Notícias reported the arrival in the capital of a group of 250 women and children evacuated from that territory, according to an already-existing plan. established.
Many others followed the same path, between natives of Goa or the metropolis in the days before and after the conflict, family members of the military and civilians.
The film of the events is shown in newspapers of the time, consulted by the Lusa agency at the Hemeroteca Municipal de Lisboa and through the digital archive of the Fundação Mário Soares, in the case of Diário de Lisboa, which came out with five editions on December 18th.
This is the day that the vaies mark as the consummation of the taking of Goa, “invasion” for Portugal, “liberation” for India.
Portugal was preparing for Christmas, discussing the State Budget for 1962 and discovering the Italian actress Sophia Loren, when Nehru appears in the eyes of the nation as “a false pacifist”, one of the milder terms used in the national press for the first -Indian minister from 1947 to 1964.
“Nehru’s intentions to attack Portuguese India condemned by the Daily Mail”, headlined the Diário de Lisboa on December 6, which the following day reported a worsening of the situation in Goa and the passage of Indian military planes over Damão and Diu, while ships were sighted off Mormugão.
After several reports of sporadic border clashes, on December 16, the newspaper O Século reported – “The zero hour is approaching when Indian forces launched their offensive against the lands of Indonesia.”
Spain supported, like England, which had already lost its grip on India, the sending of independent international observers, and Brazil offered itself for medium talks.
In Bombay, the weekly Blitz, written in English, wrote that the Indian frames would march on Goa at the weekend, which came to be confirmed.
The Portuguese press reported on December 18 (Monday) the invasion of Goa, Damão and Diu and released an unofficial note from the Presidency of the Council, in which the Government expressed its confidence that everyone would know “to fulfill their duty”.
Three days earlier, the then UN Secretary General, Burmese U. Thant, had sent a telegram to Salazar about the “serious situation” on the Indian-Goa border: “I come urgently and respectfully to appeal to you and your Government to ensure that the situation does not deteriorate to the point where it could pose a threat to peace and security.”
The UN official suggested “immediate”, with a view to finding “a quick solution to the problem” and informed that he had addressed the same appeal to the Prime Minister of India.
Salazar responded the same day, saying that the Portuguese government was “very sensitive to the appeal” and accepting where and how the New Delhi government wished.
In a speech, on January 3, at the National Assembly, where it was published in ovation, Salazar presents himself with voice problems and delivers the text to be read by the mayor.
“I don’t usually write for History and I’m sorry to do it today”, he begins by saying, assuming that the nation was “deprived of the Portuguese State of India”, Goa, Portuguese for 450 years.
In Salazar’s words, an “invasion of Goa” was “one of the greatest disasters” in the history of Portugal, a “very profound blow to the moral life of the nation”.
Over an hour and a half of communication, documented in RTP archive images, Salazar accuses Nehru of being racist and rejects negotiating “the ceding of national territories”.
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