"Goa - Let the train take the strain " a Goa Travel Page by PeterVancouver

Goa started out as a hindu city and basically remained so up to 1510 when it was attacked and conquered by the Portuguese under Afonso de Albuquerque. The city surrendered without a struggle, and Albuquerque entered it in triumph. Goa became the capital of the whole Portuguese empire in the east. It was granted the same civic privileges as Lisbon, reaching the climax of its prosperity between 1575 and 1600. In 1759 the Goan capitol was moved from Marmagao to Panaji where it remains today.After Indian claims on Goa in 1948 and 1949, Portugal came under increasing pressure to cede Goa, with its other possessions in the subcontinent, to India. In mid-1954, Goan nationalists seized the Portuguese enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and established a pro-Indian administration. Another crisis occurred in 1955 when satyagrahis (nonviolent resisters) from India attempted to penetrate the territory of Goa. Tension between India and Portugal came to a head when on Dec. 18, 1961, Indian troops supported by naval and air forces invaded and occupied Goa, Daman, and Diu. Portuguese India was, by constitutional amendment, incorporated into the Indian Union in 1962.
After a ten hour train journey from Mumbai it was good to arrive in Goa. Karmali railway station (Old Goa) is some way out of Panaji and unusually for India, much of the nightime drive to our hotel was along well lit roads, in total contrast to most of the other parts we had visited.. Suspect that the International Film festival held there may well have something to do with this modernisation.