Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a Union Territory in western India. Nagar Haveli is wedged between Maharashtra and Gujarat, whereas Dadra is an enclave lying a few kilometers north of Nagar Haveli in Gujarat. Its capital is Silvassa. The territory lies some ten to thirty kilometers up-river from the city of Daman.
Dadra and Nagar Haveli (DNH) are in the watershed of the Daman Ganga River, which flows through the territory. The towns of Dadra and Silvassa lie on the north bank of the river. The Western Ghats range rises to the east, and the foothills of the range occupy the eastern portion of the district. The territory is landlocked, although the Arabian Sea coast lies just to the west in Gujarat.
The major spoken languages in the territory are Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi.
To keep the English at bay and to enlist their support against the Moghals, the Marathas made friends with the Portuguese and signed with them a treaty in 1779. According to this historic treaty of friendship, the Maratha-Peshwa agreed that the Portuguese will be allowed to collect revenues from Dadra and Nagar Haveli which consisted of 72 villages (then known as parganas, now referred to as district places). These territories were earlier ruled by the Koli chiefs who were defeated by the Hindu kings of Jawhar and Ramnagar. The Marathas conquered and annexed these territories to their kingdom.
By and large, this treaty was signed only to the extent that the Portuguese will only collect the revenue in compensation for their loss of a warship called Santana which had earlier been captured by the Marathas but not surrendered to the Portuguese in spite of their many entreaties.
The area of Dadra and Nagar Haveli is spread over 491 km, landlocked between Gujarat to the north and Maharashtra to the south. It was liberated from its Portuguese rulers on 2 August 1954. The people of the territory established free administration of
