DAMAN AND DIU

union territory of India, comprising two widely separated districts on the country's western coast. Daman, with an area of 28 square miles (72 square kilometres), is an enclave on the state of Gujarat's southern coast, situated 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Bombay. Diu, an island 15 square miles (40 square kilometres) in area, lies off the southern coast of Gujarat's Kathiawar Peninsula, 40 miles southeast of Veraval. union territory of western coastal India. Its capital is the town of Daman. The union territory consists of two widely separated districts. (Goa, once a constituent member of the union territory of Goa, Daman, and Diu, was made a state in 1987.) The district of Daman is located on the Gujarat coast to the north of Bombay. The other district, composed of the island of Diu, lies off the southern coast of Gujarat's Kathiawar Peninsula. Formerly Portuguese possessions, Daman and Diu (along with Goa) were annexed by India in 1962. The population of Daman and Diu is predominantly Hindu; the most widely spoken language is Gujarati. Agriculture and fishing are the major economic activities. Crops include rice, corn (maize), sugarcane, peanuts (groundnuts), bananas, and coconuts. Area 43 square miles (112 square km). Pop. (1991 prelim.) 101,439. Additional reading Works dealing specifically with the west and west-central area prior to its annexation by India are mainly in Portuguese; see Henry Scholberg, Archana Ashok Kakodker, and Carmo Azevedo, Bibliography of Goa and the Portuguese in India (1982). See also M.N. Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat: The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century (1976); and K.S. Mathew, Portuguese and the Sultanate of Gujarat, 15001573 (1986). The territory of Daman and Diu as well as that of Goa are described in V.T. Gune (ed.), Gazetteer of the Union Territory Goa, Daman and Diu, 3 vol. in 2 (1979). S.S. Desai, Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1976), is a study of the three union territories. Deryck O. Lodrick Sudhir Vyankatesh Wanmali History The name Daman probably is derived from the Damanganga River, while Diu is from the Sanskrit word dvipa, meaning island. Since Mauryan times (3rd century BC), both have been subject to various local and regional powers ruling in western India. In the 13th century, Daman formed part of the Ramnagar state, which then became a tributary of the Gujarat sultans. Similarly, numerous dynasties in Kathiawar (Saurashtra) ruled Diu until it fell to the sultan of Gujarat in the early 15th century. The Portuguese acquired both Daman and Diu as part of their grand design to control the trade of the Indian Ocean. In 1535, under treaty with Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, the Portuguese built a fort at Diu, an important port on the flourishing commercial and pilgrimage routes between India and the Middle East. By the mid-1550s, all Gujarati ships entering and leaving the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) ports were required to call at Diu to pay Portuguese duties. Renowned for its docks and shipbuilding yards, Daman (known in Portuguese as Damo) was conquered by the Portuguese in 1559. Both areas were subject to the governor-general of Goa as part of the Portuguese overseas province Estado da India (State of India). They remained under Portuguese rule for more than four centuries, though the decline of the Portuguese empire in Asia greatly diminished their strategic significance. Daman and Diu survived as outposts of Portuguese overseas territory until 1961, when they were occupied by India. Deryck O. Lodrick