Dear John, You may have come across the following reference, but its worth putting it on Goanet. Once again must go to the Man to get some clarity on Nehru's relationship with Goa, and his meta-motivation to liberate Goa. I am not saying that Goa would not have achieved liberation, nor that the people did not wish for it. In this regard, its is worth looking at the various angles in that politik of 1961, real or otherwise. The following is from para 10 in the piece, The Church in Goa: Giving to Caesar what is Caesar's? http://www.goacom.com/culture/history/church.html The Man is historian Teotonio R. de Souza. I am sure there are others who have written written equally in depth in books. Below, I have have attached some links to material on the web.
The liberation of Goa would be impossible without direct intervention of the Indian armed forces. However, if Operation Vijay was effected at the close of 1961, its urgency was dictated more by the prospects of the ruling party in the national elections that were scheduled for February 1962, and even more by India's diplomatic stakes in the Non-Aligned Movement. At the Belgrade Conference in September 1961, India's leadership seemed questioned by the African bloc struggling against Portuguese colonialism. Though India had been the initiator of the anti-colonial revolution, she appeared to have lost militancy. The African bloc claimed that a strong action by Nehru in Goa would enhance and even make easier the African revolution, a claim that was confirmed by General Spinola in his Portugal e o Futuro (1974). There was also China working hard to undercut Nehru's leadership of the Afro-Asian States. It was to counter these trends and to refurbish his image that Nehru was compelled to sponsor a seminar on Portuguese colonialism in Delhi beginning October 20, 1961. Operation Vijay became an unavoidable next step. Other web references at varying degrees of focus: http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch24w.html excerpt: By 1961, Prime Minister Nehru had been receiving criticism from Africans hostile to Portugal's wars in Africa, these Africans accusing Nehru of waiting for Portugal's Goa to fall into his lap after Portugal's defeat in Africa. Portugal's ruler, Antonio Salazar was in no mood to negotiate a peaceful transfer of Goa to India. http://www.kamat.com/database/content/goa_freedom/ http://www.goacom.org/goatoday/98/jun/guest.html http://goacentral.com/Goahistory/Historyofgoa.htm#Liberation%20-%20Finally Here see, pg 240 onwards (Making of India's Foreign Policy), also go to page 220 (the Personality Factor). The Making of India's Foreign Policy, by J Bandyopadhyaya http://mail.google.com/mail/?auth=DQAAAH4AAABHEDt7UwdlQNyBk6koPKLJsrHVUud5Qd-_2QEhDlgEysZQZ7-IRX4mnl2HEWI9A3jHqX0LN68tav5XcQ773RYBIF3Zb89GTRRgw90E4kp4ReUg_-HuJdfPfKUBUq0F-g2jdFBotp8-cUgNJ2TARDuU0jh0q4xhbaGfu_j2sNuvow&gausr=venantius.pinto%40gmail.com venantius j pinto > From: JOHN MONTEIRO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> articulated: > Goa sought Independence in 1961, as far as I recall. There was a lot of > tooing and froing between the Portuguese goverment & the Indian Government > for quite some time but the but the Portuguese would not relinquish their > hold on Goa. Nehru sent in the troops around mid-Dec 1961 & liberated Goa.