The Portuguese Colonial Act was adopted in 1930, and affected

Portuguese India The State of India ( pt, Estado da Índia), also referred as the Portuguese State of India (''Estado Português da Índia'', EPI) or simply Portuguese India (), was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a se ...

, sanctioning legal discrimination and differentiating them from the metropolitan Portuguese people. Adopted at the behest of António de Oliveira Salazar , then the Minnister of Finance, this legal act caused Portuguese Indians to lose a number of benefits, including free trips to Portugal for rest and recreation, reduced allowances compared to white officials, and other facilities that the white Portuguese had overseas which were not made available to Portuguese Indians. The Act was repealed only in 1950, in part because of the contributions of Froilano de Mello, a

Goan Catholic Goan Catholics ( gom, Goenchem Katholik) are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians following the Roman Rite of worship from the Goa state, in the southern part of the Konkan region along the west coast of India. They are Konkani peo ...

doctor and an independent member of parliament in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. He represented Goa in the Assembly of the Republic. He fought for the rights of Portuguese Indians. De Mello was so successful that, from 1950, Goans regained their status and were treated in equal terms like other Portuguese citizens from the metropolis.

References

{{Authority control Portuguese Empire Portuguese India Former Portuguese colonies Portuguese people of colonial India Government of Portugal Repealed Portuguese legislation 1930 in law 1930 in Portugal 1930 in Portuguese India