Tranquebar – Whose History - Transnational Cultural Heritage in a Former Danish Trading Colony in India

Ph.D. project by Helle Jørgensen, Institute of History and Area Studies, University of Aarhus

• The project has received financial support from the National Museum of Denmark and the Farumgaard Foundation

Tranquebar is currently under development as a Heritage Area. Local authorities in Tranquebar and Tamil Nadu aim to develop the area as a destination for heritage tourism. An important background for this process is to be found in Tranquebar’s joint Indo-Danish history as a trading colony in the years 1620-1845. The historical traces of this period are clearly visible today, as Tranquebar remains the most well preserved former European trading colony on the Indian coast. Within recent years, a number of the historical buildings in Tranquebar have been restored on the initiative both of Danish and Indian NGOs, authorities and private interests. The material remains from the Indo-Danish colonial period have thus attracted wide contemporary interest, and Tranquebar is highlighted as an expression of heritage. But what is actually conceptualised as heritage in this intercultural context, and whose heritage is being protected by the restoration of the buildings from the Indo-Danish colonial period?

Many different interest groups are involved in the contemporary development of the heritage of Tranquebar. The historical buildings in Tranquebar and their use are of interest both to the local population of Tranquebar, to the tourist industry, to Indian and Danish authorities and organisations, as well as to academic researchers. Multiple interests are at play in this process, ranging from social and economic development to historical and cultural identity and awareness. The project aims to explore the use and significance of concepts of heritage in this intercultural context, by use of ethnographic fieldwork in Tranquebar. The negotiation of various contemporary understandings of the meanings and uses of the historical buildings in Tranquebar will be investigated, along with the very idea of preserving this part of the history of Tranquebar.

The duration of the project is three years.

The supervisors are: Niels Brimnes, Institute of History and Area Studies, University of Aarhus. Vyjayanthi Rao, Department of Anthropology, New School. Esther Fihl, Institute of Regional and Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen.

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