Summary
The United East India Company is often associated with Indonesia, China and Japan. But in India, the VOC covered an area, larger than all other VOC regions in Asia combined. The Company was active in India from 1604 to 1795. The Dutch trade relationship with India is therefore much older than that with, for example, Australia or the USA. However, it is not known to everyone that there are dutch remains from 17th and 18th centuries around the entire coastline, from Surat to Calcutta.
In this richly illustrated edition, researcher and India specialist Bauke van der Pol brings together all this VOC heritage in India for the first time. As a guide, he leads the reader past fortresses, country houses, warehouses, facto rows and beautiful cemeteries with unique grave monuments. Using old images and contemporary photographs, he shows what the Dutch fortresses looked like and what can still be found in the Indian landscape today. He explains how the Dutch ended up in the different regions of India and explains how their relationship was with maharajahs and other Indian rulers. He describes the precious merchandise that the Dutch brought so far from home and shows how contemporary Indians deal with the traces that these strangers left in their country.
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