Diu, India

• 1. A Port Between Worlds

  ›

  In April 2018, Diu became India's first city to run entirely on renewable energy during the daytime. It was an unexpected headline for a place that most people have never visited. Diu is a fishing town on a small island off the Gujarat coast, covering 38.8 square kilometers at sea level. Its skyline is notably low, broken only by the profile of a centuries-old fort on a hillock by the sea. That fort is the key to understanding this town. Diu's position on the Arabian Sea trade routes made it one of the most fought-over positions in the region. Portuguese fleets, Ottoman warships, and eventually Indian military aircraft all arrived here with the same intent: to control the island. What drove so many powers to compete for a small fishing town, and what they left behind, is what this documentary traces. The contest began in 1509. A sea battle that year drew forces from across the Islamic world and from Europe to the same small stretch of water.

• 2. Trading Empires, Rival Fleets

  ›

  The Mamluk sultanate of Egypt sent ships to Diu's waters in 1509. Venice sent forces too, along with Ragusian merchants. The Zamorin of Calicut, from India's Malabar coast, also joined the coalition, as did Mahmud Begada, the Sultan of Gujarat. Each of these powers had reason to oppose Portugal's growing presence in the Indian Ocean. The overland routes that carried trade between Asia and Europe had sustained merchants across the region for generations. A Portuguese naval presence threatened that arrangement. Whoever controlled the ports of the Arabian Sea could dictate the terms on which goods moved between continents. The battle of 1509 did not give Portugal what it wanted. Three separate attempts to establish an outpost followed. Negotiations in 1513 ended without agreement. Diogo Lopes de Sequeira tried and failed to secure a base in 1521. Nuno da Cunha attempted the same in 1523, and tried again by outright conquest in 1531. Both failed. Twenty-two years of Portuguese effort had produced nothing permanent. What finally changed was not a fleet but a crisis in the politics of Gujarat.

• 3. Alliance and Siege

  ›

  Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat, made his decision in 1535. The Mughal emperor Humayun was pressing his territory from the north, and Bahadur Shah needed an alliance he could depend on. He turned to the Portuguese, concluding a defensive pact and allowing them to construct a fort on the island and maintain a garrison there. That decision reshaped Diu permanently. The arrangement unraveled quickly. Bahadur Shah eventually sought to reclaim the island, was defeated by the Portuguese, and died in the attempt. Open warfare between Portugal and the people of Gujarat followed. In 1538, Coja Sofar, the Lord of Cambay, arrived alongside the Ottoman commander Suleiman Pasha to lay siege to Diu. Portuguese defenders under Anthony Silveira broke the siege. Sofar returned in 1546 with a second assault. The fighting on land was led by João Mascarenhas on the Portuguese side; at sea, João de Castro commanded the fleet. The siege was repelled. Coja Sofar died in the struggle, as did Fernando de Castro, son of the Portuguese viceroy. The fortress that Dom João de Castro completed after the siege of 1545 still stands. After the second siege, Diu's defenses were considered so formidable that later attacks could not break them. The Arabs of Muscat and the Dutch both tested the walls in the late seventeenth century and failed.

• 4. Walls and Baroque

  ›

  St. Paul's Church, completed in 1610, is the only one of Diu's three surviving Portuguese Baroque churches still used for religious worship. The other two have been repurposed. The Church of St. Francis of Assisi, the first church built on the island, was constructed in 1593 and now serves as a hospital. St. Thomas' Church functions as a museum. Scattered across the town are several chapels, including the Mother of God Chapel and the Our Lady of Rosary Chapel. The Bastion Chapels are built into the city walls themselves. The fort is the district's most visited landmark. It was selected alongside the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa as one of two Indian entries in a list of seven wonders. That list was drawn from 27 monuments built across 16 countries during the era of Portuguese colonial rule. In the channel between Diu Island and the Gogolá peninsula sits the Fortim do Mar, a sea fort with an iconic ship-shaped structure. The fort on land maintained an active garrison until 1960, a single year before the era of Portuguese rule came to its end.

• 5. Operation Vijay

  ›

  From the eighteenth century onward, Diu's strategic importance declined. The development of Bombay drew trade away from the island, and Diu settled into a quieter role as a historical landmark. Portuguese sovereignty remained. On the 19th of December 1961, Indian military forces occupied the island. The operation was called Operation Vijay, India's campaign to absorb all of former Portuguese India. The operation brought overwhelming land, sea, and air power to bear on the enclave. The Portuguese garrison held out for 48 hours before surrendering. Diu was then declared part of a new union territory alongside Goa and Daman. Goa eventually gained separate statehood in 1987. Daman and Diu continued as a union territory until the 26th of January 2020, when it was merged with Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The current union territory, named Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, took shape from that merger. In the town's population today, the marks of those centuries of Portuguese rule are most visible in its languages.

• 6. The Island Today

  ›

  Diu is the tenth least populated district in India, a distinction that reflects both its small size and its location off the Gujarat coast. The 2011 Census recorded a literacy rate of 92 percent among its residents. Women slightly outnumber men, making up 51.6 percent of the population to men's 48.4 percent. Ten percent of the population is under six years of age. Four languages are spoken in the town: Gujarati, Hindi, English, and the Diu Indo-Portuguese Creole. The creole developed from centuries of contact between Portuguese settlers and local communities. The island is connected to mainland Gujarat by a bridge, and local road transport runs to the towns of Una, Rajula, and Mahuva. Diu Airport offers direct flights to Mumbai and Keshod via Alliance Air, and to Ahmedabad and Surat via IndiGo. North Goa is served by Star Air. Jet Airways once operated services to the island before the airline was declared bankrupt in 2019. Diu also entered the national Smart Cities Mission, competing for one of the last ten available spots against twenty cities from across India.