Goa, Sikkim and the edges of the Union

Not all of India's territory came with independence or the princely states. Two European colonial enclaves and one Himalayan kingdom joined the Union later, through different routes, and their stories show how the Constitution absorbed new territories. Goa, Daman and Diu were Portuguese possessions; the French territories — Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam — were transferred de facto in 1954 and formally incorporated by the 14th Constitutional Amendment in 1962; and Sikkim was a Himalayan kingdom under India's protection until it became a state in 1975.

Goa's liberation came by force. After years of negotiation failed, Indian forces launched Operation Vijay in December 1961 and took control of Goa, Daman and Diu within days. The 12th Constitutional Amendment, 1962, constituted them as a single union territory. Goa remained a union territory for 25 years, during which a distinct Goan identity — shaped by Portuguese law, Catholic and Hindu communities, and the Konkani language — asserted itself, including in the 1967 opinion poll that rejected merger with Maharashtra. Goa became a state in 1987, with Daman and Diu remaining a separate union territory, later merged with Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 2020.

Sikkim's path was different. Ruled by the Chogyal dynasty, Sikkim was an Indian protectorate after 1950, with India controlling its defence, external affairs and communications. In 1974, after political agitation against the Chogyal, the 35th Constitutional Amendment made Sikkim an associate state of India — a status with no precedent. In a referendum in 1975, voters chose to abolish the monarchy and join India, and the 36th Constitutional Amendment, 1975, made Sikkim the 22nd state of the Union, with special provisions, including for its old laws, preserved in Article 371F.

These cases matter for the law of territory. Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution let Parliament admit new states and reorganise existing ones, and the Goa and Sikkim experiences show that admission can follow military action, negotiation, or referendum, with constitutional amendments ratifying each outcome. They also show the Union's flexibility: Goa's distinct civil law, including its uniform civil code inherited from Portuguese rule, and Sikkim's Article 371F protections, were preserved rather than erased, a pattern repeated in other special provisions for border and hill states.