Dutch Cemeteries Across India: Reflecting Cross-Cultural Architectural Influences

Abstract

This chapter is an analysis of the Dutch cemetery in India as an important but under-researched category of colonial and cross-culturally produced architecture created during the era of the Dutch East India Company (VOC-Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie). Rather than focusing primarily upon forts and trading factories, this chapter examines funerary landscapes as material expressions of identity, authority, and cultural negotiation in coastal settlements. This chapter is an analysis of the Dutch cemetery in India as an important but under-researched category of colonial and cross-culturally produced architecture created during the era of the Dutch East India Company (VOC-Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie). Rather than focusing primarily upon forts and trading factories, this chapter examines funerary landscapes as material expressions of identity, authority, and cultural negotiation in coastal settlements. In addition, the study will show that Dutch burial architecture has transitioned from simple early graves to increasingly sophisticated monumental forms as a result of processes of settlement consolidation and social stratification. The cemetery at Bheemunipatnam, with its compact pyramidal and obelisk-shaped monuments, as well as its relatively low level of ornamentation, is presented here as an example of context-sensitive Indo-Dutch architectural hybridity, rather than a replication of European prototypes. Overall, this chapter argues that these cemeteries are key to understanding architectural evidence of trans-cultural exchange and the colonial inscription of space along the coasts of India.