Jan Albert Sichterman in Bengal

Not much personal information from Dutch life in Bengal or any other of Dutch settlements in India can be found in the VOC archives in the State Archives. The reason for that is that the VOC correspondence only covered official and business information, written by VOC employees and shared with the local head office and the central office in The Netherlands, The VOC also censored all letters. An exception can be made for Jan Albert Sichterman (1692-1764), who spent nearly 15 years in Bengal.

I translated this information from Dutch using selections mainly from a recent book written by a descendant and various other sources.

Jan Albert Sichterman (1692-1764)

My VOC in India bibliography

My annotated collection on VOC in India started in 1988 and comprises nearly 450 titles. I have grouped them on the various regions and on two interesting VOC employees. The last category gives interesting views from esteemed Indian historians about the Dutch presence. They include comparisons between the Portuguese, Dutch and British actions in India.

Bharoch/Surat/Gujarat
Chinsurah/ West Bengal
Cochin/Malabar
Coromandel (Sadras/Pulikat)
Ceylon
General
Haafner
Sichterman
Indian views