AHMEDABAD: While the British eventually got the largest share of the trade pie – and reins of Indian administration – it was not a one-sided fight for the European powers of 17th Century to conquer the ‘
New World’
in the age of expansionism.
A recent
book
by Guido van Meersbergen, an assistant professor of history at
University of Warwick
, ‘Ethnography and Encounter: The Dutch and English in Seventeenth-Century South Asia’ gives a peek into the mechanisms used by the European powers on Indian shores including Gujarat. The book primarily focuses on British East India Company (EIC) (1600-1857) and Dutch Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) (1602–1799).
‘The dynamics of accommodation and conflict that came to characterise the Dutch and English presence in the Mughal Empire first took shape in the early decades following their arrival in Gujarat in north-western India. The extensive corpus of EIC and VOC writing produced in sites such as Cambay (Khambhat), Ahmedabad, Bharuch, and above all Surat provides details of harmonious ‘reciprocal visits’ and ‘mutual embracing’ between Company representatives and local elites,’ mentions the book.
However, all was not well, as the fight for supremacy had ensued between European forces. The book mentions that political disputes in Surat and other sites followed attempts by the companies to assert their maritime power.
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