Today the relationship is encrusted with trade in diamonds between Surat and Antwerp. From pioneering Jesuits to supplying Indian royalty with exquisite Saint Lambert glassware and chandeliers, Belgium’s Indian footprints extended from Malabar to Bengal, and from guns to linguistics.
their exploitation of the Central and East African nations is well known, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ruanda Urundi (present day Rwanda and Burundi) While the Belgians were late entrants in the imperialist conquest of the world. This prompted the world’s first major international human rights movement. Reacting to this news, the Viennese Court immediately empowered Marquis de Prie, who was a plenipotentiary of a prince in Austrian Netherlands, to select someone to negotiate similar conditions for establishing a factory with the nawab. Cobbe’s mission thus marked the beginning of a serious Austrian attempt to establish a commercial presence in Bengal through the Ostend Company. situated between the British settlement of Calcutta and the French settlement of Chandernagore, the company’s position remained precarious Although he secured permission to establish a settlement at Bankibazar. Its growing trade threatened the established interests of the English and Dutch East India Companies, both of which sought to limit Ostend commercial activity and attempted to persuade the Nawab to restrict its operations. The Ostenders also faced tensions with local authorities over their claims to commercial privileges and religious freedom. Despite these difficulties, the Ostend Company’s trade in Bengal and elsewhere in Asia showed considerable promise, particularly in textiles such as chintz and other valuable commodities, and its commercial success demonstrated the potential of Austrian participation in the Asian trade. Bankibazar aside, Wanner notes that the Ostend Company also “held smaller (colonies) in Kasimbazar and Dhaka and had agents spread in a range of Bengal localities. Very swiftly the company’s settlement was razed and its staff fled for their lives. The fort at Kovilam eventually became the foundation of the Taj hospitality group’s resort in the famous beach town.
Because they suspected the chief of the company Francois de Schonamille of aiding Maratha invaders, in 1744, Mir Jafar laid siege with over 10,000 troops after the ‘Germans’ (as Ostenders were then known locally) launched an attack on the Hoogly fort in response to the oppressive taxes laid by the Nawabs. King Leopold II’s fief-like rule over the Congo Free State saw an estimated 10 million Congolese perish (roughly half the population, as part of punishments for failing to meet quotas included beatings, mutilation (such as cutting off hands), and the destruction of villages. Lieutenant General Jacques Andre Cobbe was chosen for this, arriving in Bengal in 1723. Cobbe was killed in 1724 during fighting at Danemarnagore (Danemarksnagore near Chandannagar), after which Alexander Hume assumed a leading role and pursued the development of Bankibazar as a small but active trading settlement. In 1919, the British opened a gun factory and renamed the town to Ichapore or Ishapore, .303 rifles used by several state police forces still carry the insignia of RFI or Rifle Factory Ishapore.
He was to negotiate for “legal exterritoriality for the Ostend colony” as well as “the right to freely profess the Catholic religion”, writes Wanner.
