While the British and French left their colonial possessions in India gracefully, the Portuguese continued to hold on to their territories of Goa, Daman and Diu on India's western coast. Despite polite albeit repeated political and diplomatic reminders that the concept of European powers holding on to their overseas colonies was antiquated, Portugal refused to yield for a full 14 years after independence.

After giving a final ultimatum to lay down arms and surrender to Indian authorities, and when this was not heeded to by the Portuguese, the Indian Government took recourse to limited military action. While Indian operations in Daman and Diu met with stiff resistance before these enclaves fell into Indian hands, the Goa operations were comparatively easier. The multi pronged Indian offensive launched by 17 Infantry Division, of Burma fame during World War-11, had a psychological impact on the defending forces, who realized the futility of offering prolonged resistance. The defenders soon surrendered and Goa, Daman and Diu came into the Indian fold, thus ending a 400 year old Portuguese hold on these enclaves on Indian shore.

However, negative fallout of this token action against European presence was that the Indian polity and its people took it for granted that the Indian Army was in very good shape, and ignored its cries for expansion and modernization, the end result of which was acutely felt the following year in the wake of the Chinese aggression.