MCQ Questions

Questions

Practice mode — a mixed feed of questions and articles for each subject. Prefer reading first? Browse the Articles index instead →

Articles

Study mode — the full article library for each subject, no practice questions mixed in. Want to practice instead? Browse Questions by subject →

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu

This Union Territory was actually two separate territories until 2020. Both were once Portuguese colonial enclaves, not British ones.

mcqquestion.com

General Knowledge · GK0072

Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu

Two former Portuguese enclaves, merged into one UT

26 Jan 2020

Merged into one Union Territory

603 km²

Total area, 3 districts

1954

Dadra & Nagar Haveli liberated

1961

Daman & Diu annexed with Goa

CapitalDaman

AdministratorPraful Khoda Patel

Colonial PowerPortugal

One Administrator, two territories

Praful Khoda Patel doubles as Administrator of Lakshadweep too — one official running two geographically distant Union Territories at once.

📑 Contents

Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu was formed on 26 January 2020, merging two separate Union Territories into one.
Daman serves as the territory’s administrative capital.
As of 2026, the Administrator is Praful Khoda Patel, in office since the merger on 26 January 2020.
Being a Union Territory without its own legislature, it has no Chief Minister. The Administrator, appointed by the central government, runs it directly.

The territory covers about 603 square kilometres, across three non-contiguous districts: Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman, and Diu.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu were both former Portuguese colonial enclaves. Local pro-independence forces overthrew Portuguese rule in Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1954, while India’s own forces annexed Daman, Diu, and Goa together in 1961. See ModHist0038 — Dadra and Nagar Haveli: The 1954 Liberation Before Goa for that 1954 episode.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli formally merged into the Indian Union and became a Union Territory in 1961. Daman and Diu were separated from Goa and made their own Union Territory in 1987.
Silvassa, the administrative headquarters of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli portion, is a hub for textile, plastic, engineering, and pharmaceutical manufacturing, aided by tax incentives.
See ModHist0044 — Goa’s Long Road to Statehood for the parallel story of India’s other former Portuguese territory.

Praful Khoda Patel also holds additional charge as Administrator of Lakshadweep, since 5 December 2020. The same official runs two separate, geographically distant Union Territories at once.
The 2020 merger simplified a governance structure that had kept two small, historically linked former Portuguese territories administratively separate for decades after independence.
Unlike most Indian states and UTs, whose boundaries trace pre-independence British administrative divisions, this territory’s identity comes entirely from its separate colonial and post-annexation history.