Dutch the Colonizers

There is a lot of noise about British rule and history being written and read about them. But have you heard about the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) or the Dutch East India Company, one of the first joint stock companies. They were the most profitable companies of their time 1602 to 1796 and sent more people and ships during that period. They were the leaders and even bigger than British East India company.

They had presence all over India including Calcutta and other parts of India. There are set of buildings the Patna Collectorate that was built by VOC. Dutch ruled Indonesia for a while and had a major presence in those areas. Almost 350 years ago Manhattan was called New Amsterdam and was owned by Dutch and was exchanged with British for a small Island called Banda which was  major cultivation for Nutmeg (In Hindi: Jayaphal). Important commodity in the world trade then and Dutch though that they had got a better deal than Manhattan. I read about this in a book The Nutmeg’s Curse by Amitava Ghosh and also wrote about it sometime back.

Dutch were ruthless colonizers and we will not get into that history. But all colonizers  exploit the locals men/women and the natural resources in a way that helps them to make money and they did the same.

Battle of Colachel

Dutch had Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in their control and they wanted to get into Malabar region of India which was then ruled by many small Indian kingdoms and there was presence of Portuguese as well. Dutch had colonial ambitions in this region and in 1741 they fought the Battle of Colachel with ruler of Travancore Marthanda Varma  who used to rule from the capital city of Padmanabhapuram (which is in Tamil Nadu). There is still a beautiful palace at Padmanabhapuram maintained by Kerala government.

Marthanda Varma along Nairs and Mukkuvars managed to defeat the Dutch and captured many of the top officials of the Dutch Army including the Admiral Eustachius Benedictus de Lannoy.

De Lennoy was asked by Marthanda to train few regiments and he did such a wonderful job that he rose up the ladder and became the Great General in Travancore army. He modernized the Army with European tactics and also introduced gun powder.

After this battle Dutch’s influence reduced in the region and they sold all their forts to De Lennoy and left the region. De Lennoy helped to fortify much of Travancore kingdom and also helped to fight with Tipu’s Army that were trained by French.

 How did I get interested?

For many years I wanted to visit Kanyakumari and fortunately stars aligned a month back. We took a overnight train journey to Kanyakumari. I didn’t really knew anything beyond the Swami Vivekananda Rock Memorial. Now when we were there I just thought to see what else can we see that is kind of historical. I had to force my taxi driver to take us to Vattakottai Fort and he kept on saying there is nothing there and was more than willing to take us to Wax Museum.

De Lannoy came to my notice then and I was reading up something on Vattakottai when it was said that the fort was made again under his supervision which was very interesting to me. They next day we had a plan to go to another Palace at Padmanabhapuram which was capital of Travancore Kingdom and while searching I found another fort called Udaygiri.

The next day the driver agreed to take us to both places. When we reached Udaygiri Fort we saw it was maintained by forest department and the jungle was so dense that we could not see the  walls of the fort. There was a mini zoo kind of stuff inside the fort. And while my five year old daughter was not willing to walk, I saw a board saying De Lannoy’s Tomb and I had to see that 🙂

When I started reading more about him, I found out that Marthanda Varma gave him Udaygiri fort to stay and he made this as a garrison and used to manufacture arms and ammunition. Local people called  the fort as  Dillanai Kottai. It was taking some time to walk and my daughter refused to walk and it was getting little difficult for me to walk carrying her. I saw a couple mostly still in the school and asked the boy how far is the De Lannoy’s Tomb and he was just unaware and he just told there is nothing just sitting places :). I guess it was my wrong to disturb these folks and probably eat into their privacy.

But after walking a little more distance we finally reached the tomb and it was a very simple structure, a chapel built by him for Christians inside the fort and it was used by the Europeans. This is where he is buried with his wife and son. There are other Europeans as well probably his dutch compatriots and their families who were captured in the battle of Colachel.

De Lannoy’s was from a French Noble family who joined Dutch VOC and was leading the war against Marthanda Varma, one of the most influential Travancore king, who defeated and captured him only to make him the Great General in his army. De Lannoy’s served for more than 37 years for Travancore and died at the age of 67 in 1777 in  and also worked for the Travancore kingdom after the death of Marthanda Varma for his son Rama Varma I. His only son Johnnes died at  young age  in 1765 having been fatally wounded in the storming of the Fort of Kalakkad. His wife Margerita died in the fort 1782

De Lannoy’s life is really an interesting one and here we can see how destiny can take you to places. All three of them lie buried the Chapel that is probably forgotten.

If you know anything interesting about Travancore or De Lannoy please let me know.