Located near the Southern end of Gujarat, Diu is a small island which was earlier a Portuguese colony, and is now guarded by beaches all around. Diu takes up most popularity given the ample number of beaches, along southern coast such as the Nagoa beach, but has a lot more to offer too.
Between the 14th and 16th centuries Diu was an important trading post and naval base from which the Ottomans controlled the northern Arabian Sea shipping routes.
Portugal made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the island in 1531, during which Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat, was assisted by the Turkish navy. The Portuguese finally secured control in 1535 by taking advantage of a quarrel between the sultan and the Mughal emperor, Humayun.
Under pressure from the Portuguese and the Mughals, Bahadur signed a peace treaty with the Portuguese, giving them control over Diu Port. The treaty was soon ignored and, although both Bahadur Shah and his successor, Sultan Mahmud III, attempted to contest the issue, the peace treaty that was eventually signed in 1539 ceded the island of Diu and the mainland enclave of Ghoghla to Portugal.
Diu remained in the possession of the Portuguese from 1535 until 1961, when it fell in the possession of the troops of the Indian Union, which invaded all of former Portuguese India under Operation Vijay. The island was occupied by the Indian military on 19 December 1961, this day was declared as Liberation Day.
