ABSTRACT
The State of Goa, until 1961 the heart of the Portuguese ‘State of India’, lies midway along the western shore of the Indian peninsula, jutting down from its northern neighbour, Maharashtra, into Karnataka, which lies to the south and to the east. In 1987 Goa, hitherto a union territory with Daman and Diu, became the 25th state of the Union. It also became the smallest state, with an area of only 3,702 sq km (1,430 sq miles), which is only a little smaller than Rhode Island, the smallest state of the USA, and larger than Luxembourg, the smallest member nation of the European Union.
