Dadra and Nagar- Haveli constituted at one time part of the District of Daman and were administered from there. They were part of the old Estado Português de Índia, but which were enclaves within the Indian Union, without any direct road link to Daman and between themselves. In the two centuries preceeding the twentieth, they had been carved out in the 1700's after the fall, to the marathas, from what were known, in the Portuguese empire, as the Northern Territories, consisting of Bandra, Bassein, Chaul, Thana and others, presently classified largely under greater Bombay.
With the advent of the post world War II period and the restless movements for the liberation and freedom of erstwhile colonies, the clamour for freedom started becoming louder in both Asia and Africa. In the very centre of this turmoil was Portugal, headed by the old stubborn dictator Dr. António de Oliveira Salazar, who refused to negotiate with anyone a time-line to release or even loosen his iron grip on the colonies and allow them the right to claim independence or, at least, self-determination.
At the same time, mainland Portugal, was itself being cruelly subjugated by the regime with the help of organs of the State, the most notorious of which was the PIDE (the acronym for Polícia Interna para a Defesa do Estado). Into this cauldron, countries such as India and Indonesia, both active and important members of the Non-Aligned Movement, seeing their opportunity to acquire parcels of land under Portuguese control, jumped into the fray and became the leaders thereof. In India the situation, which is reminescent of what is happening in Kashmir at the present time, came to a head with the Indian Union encouraging and promoting, as an experiment, the entry of elements trained and financed by it (a la Mukti Bahini in Bangla Desh), into the smaller Portuguese territories, where the least resistance could be expected. In the words of the Goan raporteur of the time, Leo Lawrence : "In July 1954, this situation came to a head, with the Indian Union Government beginning for the first time to prevent Portugal from effectively exercising her centuries old right of passage to the enclaves of Dadrá and Nagar Aveli. On the 21st of the month, the Indian Union authorities severed all communications between the coastal territory of Damão and the two enclaves and from each of the enclaves to the other, thus encircling them completely and cutting them off from the outside world. It was the beginning of the conquest of Goa. To this end, they concentrated heavy armed forces around the enclaves and prevented all access to them, and the Governor of Damão himself could not go there when he wished to do so in the course of his duties. On the evening of the same day, Indian Union agents provocateurs, accompanied by half a dozen discredited Goans from Bombay, whom later the Indian Union authorities themselves felt compelled to arrest and detain and mingling with the force of some 500 irregulars recruited from amongst the defunct Indian National Army of Subhash Chandra Bose, took by assault the tiny village of Dadrá.
There was only a small police post there. Inspite of being heavily outnumbered the dozen guards that manned the isolated bastion rejected a demand to surrender made through a loud-speaker mounted on an army vehicle, and offered resistance. Fire was exchanged and the fighting lasted over an hour. The raiders swarmed over the gallant band of defenders, and police chief Aniceto do Rosario, though seriously wounded, continued to fight heroically till he was literally hacked to pieces by his attackers falling on him en masse from the roof. Atleast two other guards fell with him in defence..." (page 65-66 of "Nehru Seizes Goa" Pageant Press, New York, 1965. Both deceased were locals from Daman.
At the time, certain movements such as the Azad Gomantak Dal(AGD), supported by the RSS and the Indian Union and the Goan People's Party (Communist) sustained and supported by Russia, immersed themselves in the struggle. Very few Goans participated in the attacks.
On the 22nd of July, 2054, seventy years will have passed from that fateful day when local men from Daman, sacrificed their life in the defence of what was to be the beginning of the end of the Estado Português de Índia.