In and out of history: how a Goan scholar in Bombay imagined a colonial Indian past and a future independent India (1870-1900)

In his book on Portuguese men that achieved some prominence abroad, published in 1879, Bernardes Branco confessed that he had not been sure if Gerson da Cunha was Portuguese or English, and that he had had to contact Cunha Rivara, the Portuguese secretary of the Governor in Goa and a scholar, to resolve his doubts: “Mr. Gerson da Cunha is a Portuguese subject, born in Goa, of indigenous race and of the Brahman caste. He is established in Bombay as a doctor” was Cunha Rivara’s answer.In fact, Gerson da Cunha studied medicine in Bombay, Edinburgh and London, before returning to Bombay in the 1870s and making medicine his profession. However, his historical, archaeological and numismatic interests, mainly in themes related to the Portuguese in India, increasingly occupied a large part of his time and resulted in numerous articles and books published in the last three decades of the 19th century.