The aim of this essay is to discuss Goan Brahmans' survival strategies under Portuguese dominion in the 17th and the 18th centuries. In the case of Goa, some Brahmans tried to reclaim their earlier religious identity, while living under a Christian power. The majority, however, refashioned themselves as Christians, while trying to keep, at the same time, their Brahman social status. Nevertheless, even after conversion, many of these Brahmans kept on referring to their connections beyond the context of the Portuguese imperial dominance. These two different attitudes towards their own identity and towards Brahman networks beyond the Portuguese empire allow us to ask several questions: What were Goan Brahman's survival strategies? What was the role played by Portuguese empire in shaping Brahman identity? What do these strategies reveal about Goan Brahman groups and their characteristics? And the way in which these experiences can be linked with other early modern experiences in Brahman identity formation, namely in what concerns their involvement in the scribal and clerical worlds of early modern India?
Brahman identity; Portuguese empire; social conflict; Índia; Goa