Serampore - the Danish corner of Bengal

The Kingdom of Denmark, one of the oldest existing monarchies in the world since the 10th century AD, had a rather interesting three-century-long colonial timeline. This existed during the era when Denmark was in a multi-lingual union with Norway, thus the kingdom's name was Denmark-Norway. It is also the only colonial power that technically started its overseas expansion from India, in the year 1620—almost a decade before the construction of the Taj Mahal began. This reference is important, as a Danish factory was also established in Agra, which witnessed the construction of this giant marble marvel in the early 1630s. Apart from India, Danish factories and colonies had a foothold in Canada, Norway, Iceland, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Morocco, Ghana, São Tomé & Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Iran, Yemen, China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Greenland was a colony between 1721 and 1953; thereafter, until 2009, it was treated as an integral part of Denmark. Post-2009, Greenland has run a self-government and holds a legal right to independence through a referendum.

But this post is not about Danish colonies in general; rather, it focuses on a very special district of present-day West Bengal that once witnessed a cosmopolitan amalgamation of European colonisation. The city of Bishnupur, in today’s Bankura district, once extended closer to the outer suburbs of colonial Calcutta and encompassed a town called Srirampur or Sitarampur. It was here that the oddest of European colonists established one of their several trade factories, thereby creating a quieter Danish presence while avoiding conflicts with the rising English and the Dutch. In fact, Denmark is also unique in being the only European coloniser that began in India before expanding into Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia. Returning to Srirampur, which was later christened Serampore or Frederiknagore, it became the only Danish base in Bengal and the last to be added to Danish India in 1755. It was here that a remarkable episode unfolded, one that unfortunately became submerged in the margins of history.

This period coincided with the early phase of the Industrial Revolution, when many important inventions were emerging across Europe. While most pioneers benefited from European patronage, one such invention had a direct connection to Serampore. During the pre-industrial phase, the English engineer Thomas Newcomen designed an atmospheric steam engine in 1712, a precursor to the improvements James Watt would introduce in 1765. At this time, England had yet to develop a factory system or railways, even as it focused on expanding overseas trade networks and consolidating a mercantile capitalist economy. Bengal, on the other hand, was collapsing politically, and an unstable Mughal administration found itself surrounded by a growing number of European trade factories along the Hooghly River. It was in this context that a paper mill established in Serampore in the 18th century witnessed a key milestone nearly five decades after James Watt’s invention. An Indian blacksmith from the Serampore region, Golak Chandra, without any English backing or support, invented another prototype of a steam engine in the 1820s. His idea was not patented, first because he did not formally apply for a patent, and second because the English dismissed it as an 'imitative skill,' reflecting the belief that Indians could merely learn European science without originality. This notion has been strongly challenged in post-independence scholarship, and the claim that Indians merely 'mimicked' European inventions is now recognised as a manifestation of racial prejudice rooted in white superiority.

The Danes, however, were different. There is no recorded war or even a significant conflict in India involving the Danes. They functioned primarily as traders and followed Mughal rules to acquire trade centres. In many ways, Danish colonies served as safe havens for Indians seeking to escape English rule, and local populations were not displaced, unlike in many English settlements. Although Serampore (Frederiknagore) and Tranquebar (Tharangambadi, in the Mayiladuthurai district of Tamil Nadu) were official Danish colonies, the Danes never intended to expand beyond their immediate surroundings. This does not absolve them of responsibility elsewhere, as Danish colonists created severe disruption in African and Caribbean colonies, in stark contrast to their conduct in India. In the competitive race of colonisation in India, the Danes lacked the ambition to dominate, ultimately leading them to sell their colonies and trade factories to the British in 1845.

Danish India did not significantly alter the course of Indian history and is therefore often viewed as a relatively mild colonial presence. Denmark arrived with a clear commercial agenda, which it pursued for nearly three centuries but ultimately failed to sustain. This is why modern historians do not portray Danish rule in India as harshly as other colonial regimes. Today, in Serampore, several Danish-era structures survive in restored or semi-restored conditions, including St. Olav’s Church (built between 1755 and 1845, when the town was known as Frederiknagore), the Danish Government House (built between 1755 and 1860 and under restoration since 2008), and the Denmark Tavern, a former colonial guesthouse converted into a luxury hotel in 2016–17 under the Park Hotels group. A ruined Danish cemetery also survives, which was used to bury other Europeans residing in the town. The most significant surviving institutional legacy, however, is Serampore College, established in 1818 and granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation in Copenhagen in 1827. At the time, it awarded degrees equivalent to those conferred by institutions in Copenhagen and imparted education in the arts and European sciences to Indians.

Today, although Denmark is not regarded as a major colonial power in Indian history, its presence in India for nearly three centuries remains undeniable—a phase that cannot be erased, even if its overall impact was more limited than that of other European powers.