^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Portuguese India (Goa)

Goa, Damão and Diu

Colonial-era municipal flag (pre-1962)
Colonial-era municipal flag (1962)
Portuguese India flag proposal

See also:

Colonial-era municipal flag (pre-1962)

image by Jens Pattke, 27 March 2016

The first colonial-era municipal flag of Goa, Portuguese India, is a typical Portuguese municipal flag with the coat of arms centered on a white and red background, gyronny of eight (city status for the municipality seat) by diagonals and apothems. Coat of arms is in a purple field a silver water wheel (also: chakra) evocative of the martyrdom of Santa Catarina. The mural crown is yellow. The motto ribbon below the shield is white with the inscription: CIDADE DE GOA.
Reference: Durán Rodríguez (1995), Banderas No. 54
Jens Pattke, 27 March 2016

Note that at the very beginning of §1 of this legal text it is stated that coats of arms are being "concedidos, confirmados ou
modificados" - that is, "granted, confirmed, or *modified*" (my emphasis). Therefore any discrepancy between the prescriptions of this law and other reports may be due not necessarily to an error in said report but indeed to the fact that an existing flag was changed by this law.

Concerning the coat of arms "in purple field a silver water wheel (also: chakra)" - while the choice of this charge was surely informed by a chakra or mandala similarity, with the goal of ingratiating the local population to Portuguese dominion, it should be noted that the official wording of the blazon does not mention it.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 27 March 2016

Colonial-era municipal flag (1962)

image by Jens Pattke, 27 March 2016

The decree (Portaria) n.º 19409 / October, 1 1962 (http://www.legislacao.org/primeira-serie/portaria-n-o-19409-prata-ouro-azul-listel-6778) described a other variant:

Estado da índia
Cidade de Goa - Em campo de púrpura a roda de navalhas evocadora do martírio de Santa Catarina, de prata, realçada de negro. Coroa mural de ouro de cinco torres. Listel dourado com os dizeres «Senhora de todo o Oriente», reproduzidos da estância LI do canto II de Os Lusíadas. Bandeira branca. Cordões e borlas de prata e ouro.
[snip]
The municipal flag is white with the coat of arms centered coat of arms is in purple field a silver water wheel (also: chakra) evocative of the martyrdom of Santa Catarina. The mural crown is yellow. The motto ribbon below the shield is yellow with the inscription "Senhora de todo o Oriente".
Jens Pattke, 27 March 2016

Portuguese India flag proposal 1967

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 6 July 2016

Heraldist F.P. de Almeida Langhans published in p. 67 of his Armorial do Ultramar Português (Lisbon, 1965) a general model for the overseas "provinces"' flags: The national flag defaced with the shield of the lesser arms of each province centered in the lower fly quarter of the red field. This proposal was approved in 1967, but never come to effect.

The colonial coats of arms, decreed on 8 May 1935, all had a shield of the same pattern, tierced in mantel, the dexter silver, five escutcheons, saltire, each charged with five bezants, gold, in cross; and the point silver, five waves green. The remaining sinister mantel had some local emblem, which in case of the State of Portuguese India (Goa, Damão and Diu) was Gold, a watermill wheel red and a tower of the same, per pale.

The 1961 annexation of Goa by Indian troops wasn't recognized by Portugal until 1975.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 8 July 1997

India invaded what was still a Portuguese colony at the time and there was no question of an independence interregnum or of Portugal withdrawing before the Indian annexation.
A.P. Burgers, 1 December 2005

There was no independence period, however brief (the period) or token (the independence). That doesn't mean there were no independentist forces, with their flags, just that I never heard of those, and that even if existing, they would not have been official in any capacity.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 February 2006