This article covers cultural links between India and the Netherlands, the Indian community and Indian students in the Netherlands, and cooperation between universities and research bodies. It is based on the MEA brief of May 2026. Community and student numbers are those given in that brief and describe the position as of May 2026; they may have changed since.

Yoga

According to the MEA brief of May 2026, Yoga is very popular in the Netherlands. International Day of Yoga celebrations are organised every year in various cities in the Netherlands in collaboration with yoga institutions.

The Gandhi Centre in The Hague

An ICCR Cultural Centre, "The Gandhi Centre", has been functional in The Hague since 2011. The brief describes an active calendar of programmes, including classes in:

  • Yoga
  • Bharatnatyam
  • Tabla
  • Kathak
  • Hindi language

The Centre also holds programmes related to Indian culture, including music, dance, workshops and movies. It runs an outreach programme for various Hindu (Surinami-Hindustani) schools in The Hague, which links its work with the Surinami Hindustani community described below.

Floriade 2022

India participated in Floriade 2022, an international exhibition and garden festival held every 10 years in the Netherlands. The brief records this participation as part of agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

The Indian community

The brief states that the Netherlands has the largest population of people of Indian origin in mainland Europe. As of the brief, it is home to approximately 300,000 members of the Indian diaspora. This includes around 200,000 members of the Surinami Hindustani community, whom the brief describes as now completely integrated in Dutch society.

Indian students

The brief describes the Netherlands as a popular education destination for Indian students, particularly in the field of science and technology. The brief states that the number of Indian students has been growing over the years, and that more than 3500 Indian students are studying in the Netherlands at present.

Many Dutch universities have long standing collaboration with Indian universities. The brief names TU Delft, Leiden University and Maastricht University as examples.

Research cooperation

The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) collaborates with major national funders of research in India, such as the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).

India and the Netherlands held the 9th Meeting of the JWG on Science & Technology in New Delhi in February 2025.

In space research, ISRO has long standing cooperation with the European Space Agency, whose European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is based in Noordwijk, in the Netherlands.