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Dutch Bengal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1627–1825 | |||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||
| Anthem: "Wilhelmus van Nassouwe" (Dutch) "'William of Nassau" | |||||||||
.png) Dutch Bengal (in green) within Dutch India | |||||||||
| Status | Factory | ||||||||
| Capital | Pipely (1627–1635) Hugli-Chuchura (1635–1825) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Bengali Dutch | ||||||||
| Director | |||||||||
• 1655–1658 | Pieter Sterthemius | ||||||||
• 1724–1727 | Abraham Patras | ||||||||
• 1785–1792 | Isaac Titsingh | ||||||||
• 1792–1795 | Cornelis van Citters Aarnoutszoon | ||||||||
• 1817–1825 | Daniel Anthony Overbeek | ||||||||
| Historical era | Imperialism | ||||||||
• Establishment of a trading post at Pipely | 1627 | ||||||||
| 1825 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Dutch Bengal,[1][2] was a directorate of theDutch East India Company inMughal Bengal between 1610 until the company's liquidation in 1800. It then became a colony of theKingdom of the Netherlands until 1825, when it was relinquished to the British according to theAnglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.[3] Dutch presence in the region started by the establishment of a trading post atPipili in the mouth of Subarnarekha River inOdisha. The former colony is part of what is today calledDutch India.[4] Bengal was the source of 50% of the textiles and 80% of the raw silk imported from Asia by the Dutch.[5]
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From 1615 onward, the Dutch East India Company traded in the eastern part of Mughal Province ofBengal,Bihar &Orissa.
In 1627, the first trading post with a factory was established in Pipely Port in the coast ofUtkal Plains. The port of Pipely (Pipilipattan inOdia) was situated on the confluence ofSubarnarekha river of modern dayBalasore district ofOdisha.
In 1635, a settlement was established in the properBengal atChinsurah adjacent toHooghly to trade in opium, salt, muslin, and spices.[6] In 1655, a separate organization, Directorate of Bengal, was created.[7] The factory was walled in 1687 to protect it against attacks and in 1740, during the directorship of Jan Albert Sichterman, rebuilt into a fort with four bastions. The fort was named Fort Gustavus in 1742, after governor-generalGustaaf Willem van Imhoff. Director Sichterman built a church tower in 1742, which was joined by a church building in 1765.[8] Dutch territorial property was confined to Chinsurah and Baranagore, which they received as a gift from the Nawab. It was for all purposes subordinate to the government atBatavia.[9]
Dutch factories were established not only at important centres likePatna,Fatuha,Dacca, andMalda but also at some interior villages like Kagaram, Motipur and Mowgrama.[10]
A famous Frenchman, General Perron who served as military advisor to theMahrattas, settled in this Dutch colony, and built a large house here.
Trade thrived inMughal Empire's most developed regionBengal Subah in the early eighteenth century, to such an extent that the administrators of the Dutch East India Company allowed Hooghly-Chinsura in 1734 to trade directly with theDutch Republic, instead of first delivering their goods to Batavia. The only other Dutch East India Company settlement to have this right wasDutch Ceylon.
Dutch control over Bengal was waning in the face of Anglo-French rivalry in India in the middle of the eighteenth century, and their status in Bengal was reduced to that of a minor power with the British victory in theBattle of Plassey in 1757. In 1759, the Dutch tried in vain to curb British power in Bengal in theBattle of Chinsurah.
Dutch Bengal was occupied by British forces in 1795, owing to theKew Letters written by Dutch stadtholderWilliam V, Prince of Orange, to prevent the colony from being occupied by France. TheAnglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 restored the colony to Dutch rule, but with the desire to divide the Indies into two separate spheres of influence, the Dutch ceded all their establishment on the Indian peninsula to the British with theAnglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.
Fort Gustavus has since been obliterated from the face of Chinsurah, but much of the Dutch heritage remains. These include theDutch cemetery, the old barracks (now Chinsurah Court), the Governor's residence, General Perron's house, now theChinsurah College known asHooghly Mohsin College and the old Factory Building, now the office of the Divisional Commissioner.Hugli-Chinsurah is now the district town of the Hooghly district in modernWest Bengal.
Cossimbazar still has a Dutch cemetery. The Dutch cemetery in Karinga near Chhapra features a mausoleum for Jacob van Hoorn, who died in 1712.[11]
The Dutch church of Chinsurah was demolished in 1988 by the West Bengal Public Works Department.[12] The memorial tablets of deceased Dutch people, which used to be displayed in the church, were donated by the bishop of Calcutta to theRijksmuseum Amsterdam in 1949.[13]
Dutch settlements in Bengal include:
