Daman and Diu (; ) was a former union territory in northwestern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. With an area of , it was the smallest administrative subdivision of India on the mainland. The territory comprised two districts,

Damaon Daman is one of the three districts of the Indian union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu on the western coast of India, surrounded by Valsad district of Gujarat state on the north, east and south and the Arabian Sea to the ...

and

Dio island Diu Island, ''Ilha de Dio'' in Indo-Portuguese, is an island off the southern coast of Gujarat's Kathiawar peninsula, separated from the mainland by a tidal creek. It has an area of 40 km², and a population of 44,110 (2001 census). Adminis ...

, geographically separated by the Gulf of Khambat. The state of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

bordered the territory. A

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

colony since the 1500s, the territories were taken by India with the

Annexation of Goa The Annexation of Goa was the process in which the Republic of India annexed ', the then Portuguese Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, starting with the armed action carried out by the Indian Armed Forces in December 1961. In India, ...

in 1961. Daman and Diu were administered as part of the union territory of

Goa, Daman and Diu Goa, Daman and Diu (, ) was a union territory of the Republic of India established in 1961 following the annexation of Portuguese India, with Maj Gen K P Candeth as its first Military Governor. The Goa portion of the territory was granted fu ...

between 1961 and 1987, after the

Goa Opinion Poll The 1967 Goa status referendum popularly known as the Goa Opinion Poll was a referendum held in newly annexed union territory of Goa and Damaon in India, on 16 January 1967, to deal with the Konkani language agitation and to decide the future ...

they became a separate union territory. In 2019, legislation was passed to merge the union territory of Daman and Diu with its neighbouring union territory,

Dadra and Nagar Haveli Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a district of the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in western India. It is composed of two separate geographical entities: Nagar Haveli, wedged in between Maharashtra and Gujarat states t ...

, to form the new union territory of

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is a union territory in India. The territory was constituted through the merger of the former territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. Plans for the proposed merger were announced by t ...

with effect from 26 January 2020.

History

For over 450 years, the coastal enclaves of Daman (

: Damão) and Diu on the Arabian Sea coast were part of Portuguese India, along with

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

and

were incorporated into the Republic of India on 19 December 1961, by military conquest.

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

did not recognise the Indian annexation of these territories until the Carnation Revolution of 1974. The territory has also been ruled by

Kolis The Koli is an Indian caste found in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir states in India. Koli is an agriculturist caste of Gujarat but in coastal areas the ...

. The territory of Goa, Daman and Diu was administered as a single union territory until 30 May 1987, when Goa was granted statehood, leaving Daman and Diu as a separate union territory. Each enclave constituted one of the union territory's two

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

s. Daman and Diu are approximately 650 kilometres away from each other by road. On 3 November 2019, Daman Collector Rakesh Minhas issued a

Section 144 Unlawful assembly is a legal term to describe a group of people with the mutual intent of deliberate disturbance of the peace. If the group is about to start an act of disturbance, it is termed a rout; if the disturbance is commenced, it is then ter ...

order banning peaceful assembly of four or more persons, slogan-shouting and the use of loudspeakers across the entire district and ordered the conversion of Government High School, Bhimpore and the Government Sarvottam High School, Moti Daman into 'temporary jails'. This was in response to a land ownership dispute between the local indigenous fishing community and the

local administration Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

that had confiscated their land and bulldozed their homes. The ensuing 2019 Daman Indigenous Land Clearing Protests resulted with the detention of 70 protesters in the 'temporary jails' and another 8 arrests. Few of the

adivasi The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term ...

fisherfolk were rehoused whilst most languished traumatised and homeless on the streets near the rubble of their razed homes. In December 2019, the Parliament of India passed legislation to merge Daman and Diu with the nearby union territory of

to create a new union territory to be known as

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Daman and Diu had a literacy rate of 87.1%, higher than the national average of 74.04%. Male and female literacy rates are 91.5 and 79.5 per cent respectively. The lowest female-to-male ratio in India (618 females per thousand males) was recorded in Daman and Diu. The Daman district, with a sex ratio of 533:1000 (F:M), is among the lowest of all the districts.

Religion

Hinduism is the most common religion in Daman and Diu. Muslims are also now the second-largest religious group in the territory, followed by the indigenous Christians. The Catholic Christians of Daman and Diu are pastorally served by the Metropolitan

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa and Daman ( la, Archidioecesis Goanae et Damanensis, gom, Gõy ani Damanv Mha-Dhormprant, pt, Arquidiocese de Goa e Damão) encompasses the Goa state and the Damaon territory in the Konkan ...

, which has its see in Goa, the

primatial see Primate () is a title or rank bestowed on some important archbishops in certain Christian churches. Depending on the particular tradition, it can denote either jurisdictional authority ( title of authority) or (usually) ceremonial precedence (t ...

of India.

Languages

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

was the mother tongue of most of the territory's population, as they belong to the Gujarati-speaking Damaniya sub-caste. Along with Gujarati,

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

are also widely used. Daman and Diu were once part of a combined union territory along with

(a Konkani-speaking region) before Goa became a state in 1987. The use of Portuguese, which was the territory's official language during the colonial period, is in decline and relegated to home use. It is also used as a liturgical language by the territory's Catholics. Standard Portuguese exists in a

post-creole continuum A post-creole continuum (or simply creole continuum) is a dialect continuum of varieties of a creole language between those most and least similar to the superstrate language (that is, a closely related language whose speakers assert or asserted d ...

while

Daman and Diu Portuguese The Daman and Diu Portuguese Creole, pt, língua crioula de Damão e Diu and by its native speakers as meaning "home language", refers to variety of Indo-Portuguese creole spoken in the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu union territo ...

is spoken by about 10,000–12,000 people in Daman. The languages taught in schools in Daman and Diu under the

three-language formula The three-language formula is a language learning policy first formulated in 1968 by the Ministry of Education of the Government of India in consultation with the states. History The first recommendation for a three-language policy was made by the ...

were: *First language: Gujarati *Second language: Hindi *Third language: English

Administration

According to the Constitution of India, the administration of Daman and Diu was carried out by an Administrator, appointed by the President of India as an agent of the President, not a head of state/government or a governor. He was assisted by several other officers in carrying out his duty.

Districts

The union territory of Daman and Diu had two districts: *

Diu District Diu district (Indo-Portuguese; ''Distrito de Dio'') is one of the three districts of the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu of India. The district is made up of Diu Island and two small enclaves on the Indian mainlan ...

, an area of . The main settlement is the town of Diu. * Daman District, an area of . The main settlement is the city of Daman.

References

External links

Daman Administration's official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daman And Diu 1987 establishments in India Arabian Sea City-states Diu, India English-speaking countries and territories Former Portuguese colonies Gulf of Khambhat Portuguese India States and territories established in 1987 Former union territories of India 2019 disestablishments in India Former states and territories of India India–Portugal relations Enclaves and exclaves