The city is one of the hundred Indian cities competing in a national-level competition to get funds under Narendra Modi's flagship Smart Cities Mission. Diu will be competing for one of the last 10 spots against 20 cities from across India. In April 2018, it was reported that the Diu Smart City has already become India's first city to run on 100 percent renewable energy during the daytime.[5]
History
The town and district were historically part of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat state and an important port on trade routes of the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean.
In 1535 Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat, concluded a defensive alliance with the Portuguese against the Mughal emperor Humayun and allowed the Portuguese to construct the Diu Fort and maintain a garrison on the island.
The alliance quickly unravelled and attempts by the Sultans to oust the Portuguese from Diu between 1537 and 1546 failed. Bahadur Shah sought to recover Diu but was defeated and killed by the Portuguese, followed by a period of war between them and the people of Gujarat. In 1538, Coja Sofar, Lord of Cambay, together with the Ottoman Suleiman Pasha, came to lay siege to Diu and were defeated by Portuguese resistance led by Anthony Silveira. A second siege was imposed by the same Coja Sofar in 1546. It was repelled by the Portuguese conquerors, led on land by João Mascarenhas and at sea by João de Castro. Coja Sofar and Fernando de Castro, son of the Portuguese viceroy, perished in the struggle. The fortress, completed by Dom João de Castro after the siege of 1545, still stands.
After this second siege, Diu was so fortified that it could withstand later attacks of the Arabs of Muscat and the Dutch in the late 17th century. From the 18th century, Diu declined in strategic importance (due to the development of Bombay) and was reduced to a museum or historical landmark as a commercial and strategic bulwark in the struggle between the forces of the Islamic East and Christian West.
Diu remained a possession of the Portuguese from 1535 until 1961, when it fell to troops of the Indian Union, who conquered all of former Portuguese India under Operation Vijay. The island was occupied by the Indian military on 19 December 1961. The Battle of Diu involved overwhelming land, sea and air strikes on the enclave for 48 hours until the Portuguese garrison there surrendered. It was declared a union territory of India, Goa, Daman, and Diu. Goa separated as a state in 1987; the remainder became union territory of Daman and Diu. On 26 January 2020, the union territory of Daman and Diu was merged with Dadra and Nagar Haveli to form the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Diu in the late 16th century (in Braun et Hogenberg, 1582)
As of the 2011 Census of India, Diu had a population of 23,991 spread over 5,249 households. Males constituted 48.4% of the population and females 51.6%. Diu had an average literacy rate of 92%, In Diu, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.[6][needs update]
The island is at sea level and covers an area of 38.8 square kilometres or 15.0 square miles. Diu has a tropical savannah (KöppenAw), with an average annual rainfall of 848 millimetres or 33 inches, of which all but 25 millimetres (1.0in) falls between June and September.
Climate data for Diu (1991-2020, extremes 1967-2020)
Diu Fort was built in 1535 and maintained an active garrison until 1960.
The Diu fort is the most visited landmark in the district. The fort and the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa were chosen as the two wonders from India, among the seven from across the world, out of a list of 27 monuments built in 16 countries during the Portuguese rule. The fort is built on a hillock next to the sea.[13]
Fortim do Mar is a sea fort in the Diu channel between the island of Diu and the Gogolá peninsula. It has an iconic ship-shaped structure. [14]
Churches
There are three surviving Portuguese Baroque church buildings, with St. Paul’s Church, completed in 1610, being the only one still in use for its intended purpose.
The Church of St. Francis of Assisi (the first church built in Diu, in 1593) is now used as a hospital.
St. Thomas' Church is used as a museum.
Diu is linked to the mainland Gujarat by a bridge. Local transport is available by road from Una, Rajula and Mahuva in Gujarat. Diu Airport has direct flights to Mumbai and Keshod operated by Alliance Air, Ahmedabad and Surat operated by IndiGo and North Goa operated by Star Air. Jet Airways, also used to have services here until it was bankrupted in 2019.[15]
Andrada (undated). The Life of Dom John de Castro: The Fourth Vice Roy of India. Jacinto Freire de Andrada. Translated into English by Peter Wyche. (1664). Henry Herrington, New Exchange, London. Facsimile edition (1994) AES Reprint, New Delhi. ISBN81-206-0900-X.
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