INDIA- AMSTERDAMhistorical ties Contents Foreword ................................................5 Jan Huyghen van Linschoten .................6 Cochin ....................................................8 Jews of Cochin .....................................10 Coromandel ......................................... 12 Hougli ................................................... 14 Suratte .................................................. 16 Miniatures ............................................. 18 Hortus Indicus ......................................20 Joint heritage .......................................22 Jacob Haafner ......................................24 Transfer to British India ........................26 Tagore ..................................................28 Olympic champions .............................30 Lighthouse Cinema ..............................32 Gandhi ..................................................34 Bernard van Leer ..................................36 Indians in Amsterdam ..........................40 Indian Music .........................................42 Corporate Social Responsibility ..........44 Doing Business.....................................48 03 Rembrandt van Rijn. Great Mogul Jahangir. Drawing on Japanese paper, 1656-1658. Collection Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. 4 Foreword The special bond between India and Amsterdam goes back centuries as this publication will show. It is full of stories about the historical ties between India and Amsterdam. One remarkable example of this is the observations by Amsterdam citizen Jacob Haafner, who in the late eighteenth century spent more than twenty years in India. His written observations of the difference between his compatriots and Indians present a telling picture, one which did not show the westerners in a good light. In Haafner’s eyes, his compatriots were coarse and vulgar, while Hindus or Indians were mild-mannered and peaceful. The westerner, who would only drink wine and spirits and whose table would buckle under the weight of meat from all sorts of animals, contrasted sharply, according to Haafner, with the Indian, who would be satisfied with water, grain, milk and fruit. Haafner’s accounts and perceptions are unique in the age-old history of the contact between Amsterdam and India. A history that began with the establishment of the trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, in which Amsterdam had a huge share. As a result of various exchanges in the past, several cultural Amsterdam institutions have Indian heritage items in their collections. Indian miniatures, for instance, enjoyed immense popularity in seventeenth century Amsterdam. Amsterdam mayor Nicolaas Witsen (1641-1717) owned over 450 Indian portraits. The so-called Witsenalbum, which is housed in the Rijksmuseum, is a marvellous collection of original Indian miniatures. The painter Rembrandt van Rijn also had such an art book ‘full of curious miniature drawings’ from India and regularly used these colourful miniatures as inspiration for his work. There are currently more than eighty Indian companies located in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Several organisations in our region, including the amsterdam inbusiness India Desk, the Expat Centre in the Amsterdam Zuidas district, offer a warm welcome to companies and employees and help them with all aspects of living and working in Amsterdam. Amsterdam has the largest Indian community on the mainland Europe. Both the Annual India Cricket tournament as well as the Diwali Festival Amstelveen are popular events. The cultural and business exchanges between India and the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area continue to grow all the time. It is my ambition that in the near future even more Indian companies will seek to establish themselves in our region. This way, the ties between Amsterdam and India, which were forged in the past, will be strengthened further in the future. Eberhard van der Laan Mayor of Amsterdam 5 Jan Huyghen van Linschoten One of the first Dutch people in India was Jan Huyghen van Linschoten from Enkhuizen. Around 1579, at the age of about sixteen, archbishop, set sail for India. After a Jan Huyghen left the Netherlands for five-month journey via Madeira, Guinea, Seville in Spain, where two of his half- Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar and brothers were already working. Mozambique, he arrived in Goa on the The following year, he moved to the Indian west coast. Portuguese city of Lisbon. One of his brothers had got him a job there as Jan Huyghen van Linschoten stayed in clerk to the Dominican João Vicente Goa for five years. During this time, he da Fonseca. In 1582, João Vicente da acquired as much information as possible Fonseca was appointed to archbishop about the vast Portuguese empire in of Goa, which was part of the colonial Asia: about the Asians and Europeans empire the Portuguese had built up in who lived there, about the trade in Asian Asia, and on 8 April 1583, Jan Huyghen, products and about the sea routes the as secretary in the retinue of the new Portuguese used to travel from Europe “Die Coninck van Cochin op een elephant geseeten verselschapt met syn edelen die men Nairos noemt (The King of Cochin riding an elephant accompanied by his noblemen called Nairos)”. Print from Itinerario by Jan Huyghen van Linschoten. 6 to India and between the various ports Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, published in Asia. He copied secret Portuguese in 1596, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten sea charts and made notes about wrote about his own travel experiences coastlines and islands, sandbanks and and the different regions in Asia and currents —information sailors needed the products they produced. The books to be able to navigate safely. While in contained prints and accurate maps of Goa, Jan Huyghen also met another man Asia. In no time, Itinerario became a from Enkhuizen, Dirk Gerritsz Pomp, standard book and for decades, it was nicknamed Dirk China, who had travelled the most important source of information to Asia as early as 1568 in the service about trade in Asia. It went through many of Portugal and who was possibly the editions, and was soon published in first ever Dutchman to set other languages: in 1598, foot on Indian soil. He was in English and German. able to give Jan Huyghen In the following year, two all sorts of information different Latin versions about the different Asian were issued, and 1610 saw countries the Portuguese the publication of a French traded with. translation. In 1587, Archbishop Vicente Thanks to the directions da Fonseca died during of Jan Huyghen van a journey to Portugal. Linschoten, the Dutch After this, Jan Huyghen were able to sail to Asia van Linschoten returned themselves and build up to Europe. In 1592, he their own trade network was back in Enkhuizen. there. In 1595, right He sold his story to before the publication Amsterdam publisher Cornelisz Claesz of Itinerario, a number of Dutch people who specialised in travel accounts embarked on a first expedition to Asia. and publications about shipping and Trade with Asia proved so successful geography. that within a couple of years, it sparked He had two major works published. The a whole number of Dutch expeditions to Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der the East. In 1602, the Dutch joined forces Portugaloysers in Orienten described in the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the routes to Asia and also between with Amsterdam as its most important India, China and Japan. What’s more, in division, and the VOC gained a monopoly Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert, naer on trade with Asia. Title page of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten’s Itinerario. The book was published by the famous bookseller and publisher Cornelis Claesz at 't Water (present-day Damrak) near the Oude Brug. 1596. 7 Cochin The Portuguese had been in Malabar, the region on the southwest coast of India for over a century when Steven van der Hagen, the first admiral of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) attempted to take Goa with seven ships in 1604. On behalf of Prince Maurice of Orange- pepper in the hope of building up a Nassau, Van der Hagen made a treaty pepper monopoly. The long coastal strip, with the ruler of Calicut on 11 November however, proved hard to control. 1604 to join forces to oust the Portuguese. They promised each other The strategically located Fort Cochin ‘perpetual friendship as long as the sun was extremely important to the Dutch and the moon shall endure.’ It was the East India Company. It was surrounded first agreement between India and the by water and easily accessible to ships, Netherlands. At that time, however, with an area along the river which turned little came of their plans to get rid of the out to be perfect as a shipbuilding yard. Portuguese. What’s more, the wet lowlands around Cochin reminded the Dutch of their own In 1658, the VOC succeeded in seizing country. They named the seven bastions Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from the Portuguese. of Fort Cochin on the landward side the Malabar soon followed. If Malabar were Seven Provinces of the Dutch Republic. to have remained in the hands of the They claimed the Portuguese St Francis Portuguese, they would have continued Church as their church. There are still to be a threat to the Dutch on Ceylon. about twenty Dutch tombstones in this Moreover, Malabar produced a lot of church today. The rest of the Portuguese pepper, a much sought-after commodity. churches and cloisters were demolished In January 1663, after five expeditions, and the cathedral by the port was turned Malabar finally came into the hands of into a warehouse and flagpole.