LECTURES
Translating Territories:
The Novas Conquistas and
the Making of a Luso-Marathi State
Kaustubh Naik
Doctoral Candidate, Department of South Asia Studies,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Moderated by
Parag D Parobo
Associate Professor of History, Goa University, Taleigão, Goa
Friday, 12 June 2026 | 4 pm
Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Porvorim, Goa
Please join us for a Lecture on ‘Translating Territories: The Novas Conquistas and the Making of a Luso-Marathi State’ by Kaustubh Naik and moderated by Parag D Parobo on Friday, 12 June 2026 at 4 pm at the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Porvorim, Goa. The Lecture will conclude by 5:30 pm.
Please join us for tea at 3:30 pm.
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Translating Territories:
The Novas Conquistas and
the Making of a Luso-Marathi State
When the Portuguese empire expanded into the “New Conquests” of Goa during the eighteenth century, they faced a massive challenge: they could not govern their new lands without understanding the local language. This lecture explores how Marathi became an indispensable tool of survival and statecraft for the Portuguese empire, shifting from a language used for foreign diplomacy to the everyday engine of local government.
At the heart of this story is a network of native Hindu scribes and interpreters, particularly from the Shenvi community. For generations, families like the Kamat Waghs held a near-monopoly on the role of língua do estado (State Interpreter). These multilingual scribes bridged the gap between European rulers and local chieftains, transforming traditional concepts of administration into legal Portuguese frameworks.
By the nineteenth century, this reliance on Marathi forced the colonial state to formally teach the language at the prestigious Portuguese Lyceum. Ultimately, this talk reveals how an empire’s need to understand its subjects inadvertently empowered a sophisticated class of Hindu elites. By mastering the language of the state and safeguarding their own vernacular archives, these native intermediaries turned colonial dependency into a powerful tool for social mobility and political resistance.
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Kaustubh Naik
Kaustubh Naik is a doctoral candidate in the Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. He holds previous degrees from Ambedkar University and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. His doctoral research maps the administrative integration of the Novas Conquistas (New Conquests) into the Estado da Índia between the 18th and 20th centuries. By focusing on three distinct yet interconnected domains — land, law, and language — his project offers a new history of state formation within the Portuguese empire in Goa.
Kaustubh was the Geo Harrison Graduate Fellow (2021–22) at the University of Pennsylvania and a recipient of the D.D. Kosambi Junior Research Fellowship from the Government of Goa. In addition to his academic work, he occasionally writes on culture and politics for the English and Marathi popular press, and is an award-winning playwright.
Parag D Parobo
Parag D Parobo is Associate Professor of History at the D D Kosambi School of Social Sciences and Behavioural Studies, Goa University. He holds a PhD in History from Goa University. His research interests include the comparative history of empires, with particular reference to South Asia and the cultural history of Portuguese colonialism in India. His work engages with postcolonial approaches to historical writing, seeking to recover the voices and agency of people at the margins of society. Among his other publications is India’s First Democratic Revolution: Dayanand Bandodkar and the Rise of Bahujan in Goa (Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2015).
Xavier Centre of Historical Research
B B Borkar Road, Porvorim, Goa 403521, India
xchr.in | in...@xchr.in
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