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Tranquebar: A forgotten Danish colony?

Danes constitute a large part of the international tourists in Tranquebar. Here a group of Danish tourists admire the Town Gate. Photo: Helle Jørgensen, 2008. National Museum of Denmark
Danes constitute a large part of the international tourists in Tranquebar. Here a group of Danish tourists admire the Town Gate. Photo: Helle Jørgensen, 2008. National Museum of Denmark

The paper focuses on the present day encounters in Tharangampadi between various Danish actors and members of the fishermen community. Through three significant notes of convergence between the different versions of the past the question of cultural encounters are studied as encounters between different historico-political horizons and mnemonic modes of remembrance that are described in phenomenological terms.  The main argument of the article claims that these preliminary differences result in difficulties of understanding the motives and acts of the other, and also result in new narratives influenced by the new encounters in Tharangampadi between local inhabitants and Danish visitors.

Andersen, Astrid N. (2009). “Tranquebar: A forgotten Danish colony?”, in Esther Fihl and A.R. Venkatachalapathy (eds.), Cultural Encounters in Tranquebar: Past and Present. Special issue of Review of Development and Change: Vol. XIV no. 1-2.