The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Funerary and religious monuments provide eloquent testimony to interactions between contrasting cultural traditions. European colonialism brought Western architectural traditions to many regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas, along with religious and social practices. In many of these encounters, Europeans were the dominant parmers virtually from the outser. It is nOt surprising in such a context that the Aztec temples at the centre of Mexico City were demolished and replaced by a Christian cathedral within ten years of the Spanish conquest. In India, however, the first European contacts were more varied in character, and the interaction between Europeans and indigenous populations and rulers was more complex. The Portuguese established a chain of fortified coastal towns which formed the ESlodo do II/dia under the control of a Viceroy, based at Goa, who was appointed by the Portuguese Crown.' \Xfhen British and Dutch merchants arrived in western India a century later, however, they adopted a very different policy. Their objective was trade, and though backed by their respecti\·e governments these were not colonialisl ventures aiming to control sectors of the Indian coast. and white-painted Christian churches in dominant positions; whereas the British and Dutch in Indian cities espoused local architectural forms (albeit in sometimes novel ways) and were only individual elements in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic setting. The espousal of local architectural forms is nowhere more clearly seen than in the tombs built by Dutch and British merchants at the cities from which they operated. In the north-west Indian state of Gujarat, there are significant Dutch cemeteries at Broach (Bharuch) and Ahmedabad (the regional capital), and a smaller British cemetery at Cambay (Kharnbhat). The most impressive groups of tombs arc, however, those of the Dutch and British ('English') cemeteries of SuraL These pre-date the foundation of the famous South Park Street Cemetery in Calcutta (1767) by 120 years.The English Cemetery at Surat is indeed the earliest of the cemeteries founded by the lraders of the East India Company in South Asia. Along with famous cemeteries at Calcutta, Agra and Madras, and the now destroyed tombs at Bombay, it provides onc of the most visible reminders of the early British presence in the subcontinent. \Xlhere it differs from the others, however, is in its early date and the specific cultural and political circumstances under which it was founded.The cit)' of Surat was the le...