Now Online: Dutch Sources on South Asia

Research guides

'Dutch Sources on South Asia' (1600-1825) is a series dedicated to sources produced by (people connected to) the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and its successors. The main objective of this series is to make these rich and rare sources accessible to a wider English-reading public. The first three volumes (published in print between 2001-2015) by Jos Gommans, Lennart Bes and Gijs Kruijtzer (Leiden University), offer detailed research guides into two centuries of close Dutch relations with the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka. The volumes contain detailed descriptions of archival collections as well as other published and unpublished materials from universities, libraries, museums, and private owners in the Netherlands, Europe, South Asia, Indonesia and elsewhere.

Bird's eye view on sources

According to the authors, volume 1 provides starting researchers with a very good insight into the available sources, their relevance and relations. Volumes 2 and 3, on the other hand, are valuable for the disclosure of relatively unknown Dutch archives on South Asia and it offers many opportunities to researchers who are doing more in-depth work. By digitising these three archival guides within its Shared Cultural Heritage Programme, the National Archives of the Netherlands hopes to stimulate research about the shared history between the Netherlands and South Asia and to increase the visibility of the available sources.