Bridging the Centuries: A Brief Biography of Wamanrao Varde Valaulikar

Abstract

The extant representations of the late nineteenth-century personality Wamanrao Varde Valaulikar (1877-1946), known as Shenoi Goembab to Konkani activists, are marked by a hagiographical character. The present article offers a biography of the man which eschews these nationalist hagiographies to place the man in the context of his times and to demonstrate his primary role as an activist in the creation of the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin caste. In so doing, the article demonstrates how the foundations for the contemporary Goan public sphere were laid in the nineteenth century.

Keywords

• activism
• Goa
• Konkani language
• Shenoi Goembab
• Wamanrao Varde Valaulikar (1877-1946)