By 17th century, the Dutch (Holland) had taken over the control of the sea trade with India. This they achieved through Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) or simply, the Dutch East India Company. In fact the Company, established in 1602, was the first multinational corporation of the Planet.
Well funded & militarily mighty, VOC held monopoly of the global spice trade in most of the 17 & 18th century. For 2 centuries, it paid avg. 20% dividend to its share holders. Adjusted to inflation, in today’s money, it had a market capitalisation of USD 7 Trillion!
By the early 18th century, the Dutch economic and political power in southern India was at its peak. It threw the Portuguese out, defeated Zamorin of Calicut and even converted the kingdom of Kochi into a vassal state.
In spite of its might, the Dutch Company was brought down to its knees, thanks to the valour of the Travancore King of that time.
in 1739, the Dutch Governor Gustaaf Van Imhoff, during negotiations with Marthanda Varma, the ruler of Travancore, on the Dutch interests in Malabar, threatened the king that if he doesn’t heed, Dutch forces would destroy Travancore.
In his reply, the king quipped: "With all due respect to you sir, in that case, I will certainly invade Holland".
Miffed, the Governor walked off, determined to teach the king of a small kingdom, a lesson. Soon, a large contingent of Dutch forces landed in Colachel port (15 KM away from Padmanabhapuram, the then capital of Travancore) led by Captain Eustachius De Lannoy with intention to make a quick dash & capture the capital.
When the armies met, (‘Battle of Colachel’), the Dutch could not match the fighting spirit of the bare bodied Travancore army & suffered crushing defeat. Lannoy & his deputy got captured. The King forced the Dutch to sign a peace treaty, taking over most of the Dutch assets & spice trade .
Varma made Lannoy a trainer of his forces, to modernise the Army, which went on to be part of ‘Madras Regiment’ of Independent India.
Marthanda Varma indeed had his life moment in world history. But the latter day colonial & Indian historians didn’t think of his feat important enough to give a mention in the country’s history books.
It is often said that history is the biography of the victors. In the case of Marthana Varma, it wasn’t so. In fact same was the case of the Pallavas, Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, Chalukyas, Rastrakutas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagara & similar South Indian Kingdoms of yore. How many of you know that by 11th century CE, the Cholas were world’s first & largest thalassocracy (marine empire), expanding deep into far east?
The Indian history books have a definite north Indian taste. In my Social studies classes, I could only learn about the Maurya’s, Gupta’s, Khushana’s, the Turkish rulers (Lodhi etc.) & the Mughals.
What do you call it - conditioned learning?
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