Pre-1961 Goans were employed in all Government Departments in Goa, Over 90% of Goa's administration was in Goan hands,barring a handfulof top posts which were manned by the Portuguese.
Soon after the "Invasion of Goa" on December 1961 by India, the Indian Government decreed that all persons born in Goa (formerly Portuguese citizens) would automatically become Indian citizens by virtue of the take-over.
Native Goans were treated unfairly after the Indian Invasion of Goa. Many Goans lost their jobs and were replaced by Non-Goans. Leo Lawrence in his book “Nehru Seizes Goa” (1963) describes entire Government departments of hundreds of Goan Government employees which were dismissed and many replaced by non-Goans (no wonder this book was forbidden in India). Eventually Goans were forced to leave Goa and many Goans were heavily penalised when the Law of Evacuees was applied to them and they lost all their properties in their Motherland Goa and all their money which was confiscated by the Government of India (and remains confiscated). A law of evacuees which is a shameful violation of human rights, already abolished all over India except in our own dearest State of Goa.
Those who stayed in Goa Post-1961 were forced to take Indian citizenship. And those who chose to remain Portuguese citizens were forced to register, apply and pay for a visa renewable every so often. It would have been easy to give them permanent residency, given that they were born in Goa, but no, common sense did not prevail and they had to be subjected to humiliation and made to feel foreigners in their own motherland Goa. Those who refused to comply were arrested and subjected to abuse and eventually died as prisoners in their own motherland Goa despite India being a signatory of Geneva Convention!
It is Estimated 1,00,000 Goans left Goa after the Invasion of Goa.
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