| Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts invites you to An Old Novel, A New Reading: Os Brahamanes - Revisiting Francisco Luiz Gomes in a Postcolonial Present, a lecture by Alexandre Moniz Barbosa on Friday, 20 November 2026 at 6.00 pm.
Published in 1866, Os Brahamanes is regarded as the first modern novel by a Goan writer. Written in Portuguese and set in the 1850s in Northern India against the backdrop of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the novel offers an early critique of caste hierarchies within the colonial framework.
The lecture commemorates the 160th anniversary of this publication by Francisco Luiz Gomes and will explore the novel's engagement with caste, religion, and colonialism, highlighting how Gomes used fiction as a vehicle for social critique and reform. It will also consider how the work is read and understood in the postcolonial era, amid changing perspectives and contemporary discourses.
Francisco Luiz Gomes (1829-1869) was born in Navelim Goa and in his short life rose to great
heights. He is known as a physician, economist, parliamentarian, and one of Goa’s foremost public intellectuals. He was elected to represent Goa in the Cortes, the Portuguese Parliament of that period, where he served in the opposition raising issues relevant to Goa. Gomes, a visionary far ahead of his times, is best remembered for expounding the concept of freedom for India long before the Indian National Congress was formed.
Open to all
Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts
63/C-8, Near Army House Altinho, Panaji - Goa 403 001
For more information, call us on +91 832-6750876 or email info@sgcfa.org
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