What can Portugal do to defend Goa?

[Gukpard]

In OTL the Portuguese army was ordered to fight to the death during the indian invasion of Goa, but since their situation was absolutely hopeless (about 4 thousand portuguese garrison troops) against over 40 thousand indians, they surrendered after the minimal combat possible.

What kind of resistence can portugal make on this situation? What if they adopt a stance of "bringing the enemy with them" by holding position and causing as much damage possible before being overrun?

 

[Remitonov]

Really, there is no option available where Portugal could win in this situation. Hell, even the situation with Hong Kong had a better chance of Britain retaining the colony, albeit one which requires China to glow in the dark and its demographics bumped down by a few hundred million accordingly. Portugal? Against India? Only a fool would fight to the death in this situation thinking it'll change anything. Nehru can and will give them pain, regardless of how much damage the Portuguese could deal to the Indian army. A better option would be to 'lease' the colony to someone who's better suited to bug the Indians, like Pakistan, do as the British did and try to negotiate for better privileges for the Goans under Indian rule, or just hand it over as France did after a plebiscite in French India.

 

[damein fisher]

@Remitonov is right, the best they can do is to diplomatically negotiate an independent Goa, but even that is unlikely and will eventually result in annexation like Sikkim

 

[Agra]

Honestly I don't really see what they could of done to even further delay Indian forces without an earlier POD. A few thousand poorly trained soldiers, no military aircraft, and no tanks aren't gonna be able to last more than a few days against what India was deploying. There were orders to use scorch earth tactics that were ignored but doing so would probably have turned the international community against Portugal and lead to little more than dead civilians and Portuguese soldiers.

 

[Gukpard]

Honestly I don't really see what they could of done to even further delay Indian forces without an earlier POD. A few thousand poorly trained soldiers, no military aircraft, and no tanks aren't gonna be able to last more than a few days against what India was deploying. There were orders to use scorch earth tactics that were ignored but doing so would probably have turned the international community against Portugal and lead to little more than dead civilians and Portuguese soldiers.

AFAIK the UN wanted to sanction India for invading Goa, but the soviet union blocked the proposal.

@Lusitania knows about the portuguese military, what can you say?

 

[Petros >Peter Fergus<]

The best option is some kind of Hong Kong style deal.

The offer is that Portugal keeps Goa for another fifty years in exchange for paying a rent of some kind - and the incentive is that they'd make it bloody expensive to take it by force. Still very low chance of it working out.

@Remitonov is right, the best they can do is to diplomatically negotiate an independent Goa, but even that is unlikely and will eventually result in annexation like Sikkim

Something along these lines.

If they do get a deal that convinces India not to invade Goa, I'd say it lasts a decade or two, not half a century. It could get a boost from tourism during the era of the Hippy Trail, and India might decide it's more useful semi-independent.

 

[Khanzeer]

Successfully paint nehru as a communist and get the west to put sanctions on India to cripple their economy
China US relations are formed earlier than OTL and India becomes an international pariah

 

[haider najib]

A better option would be to 'lease' the colony to someone who's better suited to bug the Indians, like Pakistan

Pakistanis do enjoying annoying indians but we can assure you we aren't that mad to do that, honestly there a better chance we immediately hand to india for a deal in the Kashmir.

 

[Khanzeer]

Pakistanis do enjoying annoying indians but we can assure you we that mad to do that, honestly there a better chance we immediately hand to india for a deal in the Kashmir.

?

 

[haider najib]

?

Pakistan wouldn't want Goa to christian impossible to defend. Pakistan would try and use it as a bargaining chip to try and gain parts of the Kashmir from India in exchange.

 

[Catsmate]

Bugger all.

 

[Lisowczycy]

They could sent more troops and equipment. Maybe raise some native units for the defense of the colony. But that might require removing needed men from the African colonies.

If not dig in and give them a fight to remember.

 

[Kaiser Frank]

Just conquer India /s

But yeah, Portugal has no chance unless India gets invaded by all of its neighbors for an unrelated reason

 

[KillerT]

Short of Skippy the ASB transforming the 4000 into Imperial Codex Astartes not much. Although that could make for an entertaining storyline someone?

 

[Gukpard]

They could sent more troops and equipment. Maybe raise some native units for the defense of the colony. But that might require removing needed men from the African colonies.

If not dig in and give them a fight to remember.

This was before the start of the colonial war, so the garrison on Angola and Mozambique was... almost non existent.

 

[damein fisher]

Best case scenario for the Portuguese IOTL is that they manage to convince India to accept an independent Goa (like I said, already unlikey) then when India tries to refferendum annex them, they vote no; if the tourism industry is big enough, we might be able to see Goa as a satellite state of India, maybe even holding other Portuguese areas of India.

 

[Byzantion]

In OTL the Portuguese army was ordered to fight to the death during the indian invasion of Goa, but since their situation was absolutely hopeless (about 4 thousand portuguese garrison troops) against over 40 thousand indians, they surrendered after the minimal combat possible.

What kind of resistence can portugal make on this situation? What if they adopt a stance of "bringing the enemy with them" by holding position and causing as much damage possible before being overrun?

The only non Western country condemming Indians Anti colonialist action was Pakistan. Maybe Salazar allies with Pakistan ?

 

[Gukpard]

The only non Western country condemming Indians Anti colonialist action was Pakistan. Maybe Salazar allies with Pakistan ?

Is that possible? Salazar was a hardline catholic and Pakistan has a muslim majority.

 

[haider najib]

Is that possible? Salazar was a hardline catholic and Pakistan has a muslim majority.

No Pakistani dislike imperialism just as much as the indians. Also pakistan cannot wage a offensive strong enough to get that far.

 

[GermanDjinn]

Nothing, portugal in the later half of the 20th century was in it's death throes as it attempted to keep a grip on what remained of it's colonial empire. Goa was going to become part of India at some point in the 20th century whether portugal wanted it or not.