The VOC received complaints of corruption about its officials in Bengal. Accordingly, they sent a special committee to investigate its factories in this region in 1684. The committee’s reports... Show moreThe VOC received complaints of corruption about its officials in Bengal. Accordingly, they sent a special committee to investigate its factories in this region in 1684. The committee’s reports exposed several illegal practices of the officials and the growth of Dutch nabobs who lived elite lifestyles under the Mughal administration in Bengal. Consequently, a few officials were charged with corruption and put to trial at the Company’s court. But instances of corrupt behaviour were not reduced in the subsequent years. What was the purpose of sending the committee then and what was the conduct that the VOC directors expected of their officials, both in the Dutch Republic and its factories in Mughal Bengal? This dissertation answers such questions by studying the committee’s operations in Bengal, located at the interface of two very different political settings: the Dutch Republic and the Mughal Empire. It concludes that the socio-political developments in the Dutch Republic and the regional politics in Mughal Bengal affected the situation in the VOC and its policies against corruption of its officials. Show less
Studying the connections between the coasts and hinterlands is crucial to understanding histories of the early modern Indian Ocean empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals and Manchus. The Mughal... Show moreStudying the connections between the coasts and hinterlands is crucial to understanding histories of the early modern Indian Ocean empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals and Manchus. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns (1682-1707) were part of the Mughal project of integrating the coasts with the heartland of the empire. This dissertation studies the impact that Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns had on the economy of Coromandel, a major textile producing and exporting region of the erstwhile Indian Ocean where the VOC (Dutch East India Company) had extensive commercial stakes. Instead of causing a decline, Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns transformed Coromandel’s economy by reorienting economic centres. The impact of wars was different across Coromandel. In northern Coromandel, Masulipatnam lost its position of a regional entrepot in the Bay of Bengal, while better food security in southern Coromandel – thanks to good rice harvests in the Kaveri delta – helped the region remain immune to the destabilizing effects of wars and attracted textile weavers from the north. The biggest effect of Aurangzeb’s southern campaigns was the relative rise of the port cities of southern Coromandel. Show less
