India's armed forces launched Operation Vijay, invading the Portuguese enclaves of Goa, Daman, and Diu after years of failed diplomacy. Some 30,000 Indian troops overwhelmed a Portuguese garrison of roughly 3,300 men within 36 hours. Portugal's dictator António de Oliveira Salazar had refused to relinquish the colony despite India's independence in 1947, prompting Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to order the invasion, which drew international criticism but ended nearly 450 years of Portuguese rule.
Goa had been a Portuguese possession since 1510, predating British colonization of India by more than a century. When India won independence in 1947, Nehru expected Portugal to follow Britain's example and relinquish its colonies, but Lisbon's fascist ruler António de Oliveira Salazar considered Goa an integral part of Portugal itself, not a colony to be surrendered.
After fourteen years of failed negotiation, economic blockades, and growing domestic pressure, Nehru ordered a military operation. On December 18-19, 1961, Indian air, sea, and land forces converged on the territory; by December 19 the Portuguese governor surrendered. Some Western nations, including the United States, condemned the invasion as aggression, a charge Nehru rejected given Goa's location deep within Indian territory.
The swift, low-casualty campaign (about 22 Indian and 30 Portuguese soldiers died) ended the last major European colonial holding in South Asia. Goa was integrated into India as a union territory and later became a full state in 1987, retaining a distinct Portuguese-influenced culture, architecture, and cuisine that still sets it apart from the rest of India.