The Portuguese Colonial Act was adopted in 1930, and affected

Portuguese India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

, sanctioning legal discrimination and differentiating them from the metropolitan

Portuguese people The Portuguese people ( – masculine – or ''Portuguesas'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation Ethnic groups in Europe, indigenous to Portugal, a country that occupies the west side of the Iberian Peninsula in ...

. Adopted at the behest of

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese statesman, academic, and economist who served as Portugal's President of the Council of Ministers of Portugal, President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1 ...

, then the Minister of Finance, this legal act caused Portuguese Indians to lose a number of benefits, including free trips to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

for rest and recreation, reduced allowances compared to white officials, and other facilities that the white Portuguese had overseas which were not made available to Portuguese Indians. The Act was repealed only in 1950, in part because of the contributions of Froilano de Mello, a

Goan Catholic Goan Catholics () are an ethno-religious community adhering to the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church from the Goa state, in the southern part of the Konkan region along the west coast of India. They are Konkani people and speak the Konkani l ...

doctor and an independent member of parliament in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. He represented Goa in the Assembly of the Republic. He fought for the rights of Portuguese Indians. De Mello was so successful that, from 1950, Goans regained their status and were treated in equal terms like other Portuguese citizens from the metropolis.

References

{{Authority control Portuguese Empire Portuguese India Former Portuguese colonies Portuguese expatriates in Portuguese India Government of Portugal Repealed Portuguese legislation 1930 in law 1930 in Portugal 1930 in Portuguese India António de Oliveira Salazar