Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!
SHARE:
CONCEPT – INDONESIA AND DUTCH COLONISATION
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- 18th century story : During the 18th century, the Dutch United East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) had established itself as the dominating power on Java after the crumbling Mataram empire. This Dutch trading company had been a major power in Asian trade since the early 1600s, but began interfering in indigenous politics on the island of Java in the 18th century.
- Britishers come in : Mismanagement, corruption and fierce competition from the English East India Company resulted in the slow demise of the VOC towards the end of the 18th century. In 1796 the VOC went bankrupt and was nationalized by the Dutch state. Its possessions in the archipelago passed into the hands of the Dutch crown in 1800. However, when the French occupied Holland between 1806 and 1815 these possessions were transferred to the British. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo it was decided that most parts of the archipelago would return to the Dutch.
- Architects of the Dutch Colonial State in Indonesia : Two names stand out -
- Herman Willem Daendels, Governor-General from 1808 to 1811 during the French occupation of Holland and,
- British Lieutenant Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor-General from 1811 to 1816 during the British occupation of Java. Daendels reorganized the central and regional colonial administration by dividing Java into districts (also known as residencies), each one headed by an European civil servant (the resident) who was directly subordinate to the Governor-General in Batavia.
- Raffles : He continued the reorganizations of his predecessor (Daendels) by reforming the judicial, police and administrative system of Java. He introduced the land-tax which meant that Javanese peasants had to pay tax, approximately two-fifths of their annual harvests. Raffles also had a sincere interest in the cultures and languages of Java. In 1817 he published his The History of Java, one of the first academic works on the topic of Java.
- Nature of Dutch rule : The Dutch system of rule in colonial Java was both direct and dualistic. Alongside the Dutch hierarchy, there existed an indigenous one which functioned as an intermediary between the Javanese peasants and the European civil service. The top of this indigenous structure consisted of the Javanese aristocracy, previously the officials that ran the Mataram administration. Now, however, they had to execute the will of the Dutch center.
- Local resistance : When the Dutch colonial authorities decided to build a road on the land of prince Diponegoro (who was appointed as guardian of the throne of Yogyakarta after the sudden death of his half-brother), he rebelled, supported by a majority of the Javanese population in Central Java and turned it into a jihad war. This war lasted from 1825 to 1830 and resulted in the deaths of approximately 215,000 people, mostly on Javanese side. However, when the Java War was over - and prince Diponegoro captured - the Dutch were more dominant.
- The Cultivation System in Java : Competing British traders, the Napoleonic wars in Europe and the Java War implied a big financial burden on the Dutch kingdom's budget. It was decided that Java should become a major source of revenue for the Dutch and therefore Governor-General Van den Bosch ushered in the era of the Cultivation System in 1830. This system meant a Dutch monopoly on the cultivation of export crops on Java. The Dutch decided what kind of crops (and in what quantity) had to be delivered by the Javanese peasants.
- The Liberal Period of Colonial Indonesia : More voices were heard in the Netherlands that rejected the Cultivation System and supported a more liberal approach for foreign enterprises. This rejection of the Cultivation System was both for humane and for economic motives. Around 1870 Dutch liberals had won their battle in Dutch parliament and successfully eliminated some of the characteristic features of the Cultivation System, such as the cultivation percentages and the compulsory use of land and labour for export crops. A new period in Indonesian history, known as the Liberal Period, existed from circa 1870 to 1900).
- Geographical expansion : The 19th century saw the Dutch make substantial geographical expansion in the archipelago. They wanted to prevent other European countries from taking parts of this region. The most famous and prolonged battle during this period of Dutch expansion was the Aceh War that started in 1873 and lasted until 1913, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,00,000 people. The Dutch would, however, never have full control over Aceh. But the political integration of Java and the Outer Islands into a single colonial polity had largely been achieved by the start of the 20th century.
- The Ethical Policy and Indonesian Nationalism : When the borderlines of the Dutch Indies began to take the shape of present-day Indonesia, Dutch Queen Wilhelmina made an announcement in her annual speech in 1901 informing that a new policy, the Ethical Policy, would be launched. The Ethical Policy (acknowledging that the Dutch had a debt of honour towards the Indonesians) was aimed at raising the living standards of the native population.
- Rise of nationalism through education : This Dutch Ethical Policy implied one profound and far-reaching side effect. Its educational component contributed significantly to the awakening of Pan-Indonesian nationalism by providing Indonesians the intellectual tools to organize and articulate their objections to colonial rule. The native people of the Archipelago began to develop a national consciousness as 'Indonesians'. In 1908 students in Batavia founded the association Budi Utomo, the first native political society. This event is often regarded as the birth of Indonesian nationalism. It established a political tradition in which cooperation between the young Indonesian elite and the Dutch colonial authorities was expected to lead to acquiring some degree of independence.
- Indonesian nationalism grows : The next step was the founding of the first mass-based political party, the Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union) in 1911. Initially, it was formed to support the indigenous entrepreneurs against the dominating Chinese in the local economy but it expanded its scope and developed a popular political consciousness with subversive tendencies. Other movements were the Muhammadiyah, an Islamic reformist socio-religious movement founded in 1912 and the Indonesian Association of Social Democrats, a communist movement founded in 1914 that spread Marxist ideas through the Dutch Indies.
- Repression : Initially, the Dutch colonial authorities permitted the establishment of indigenous political movements but when Indonesian ideologies radicalized in the 1920s (as seen in the communist uprisings in West Java and West Sumatra in 1926 and 1927) the Dutch authorities changed course. A relative tolerant regime was replaced by a repressive one in which every suspected act of subversive behaviour was suppressed.
- The 1928 pledge : An important occasion for Indonesian nationalism was the declaration of the Youth Pledge in 1928. At this congress of youth organizations three ideals were proclaimed, one motherland, one nation and one language. The main aim was to stimulate the feeling of unity between the young Indonesians. On this congress the future national anthem (Indonesia Raya) was played and the future national flag (merah-putih) was shown for the first time. Young national leaders, such as Sukarno (who would become Indonesia's first president in 1945) and Mohammad Hatta (Indonesia's first vice president) were arrested and exiled.
- Different Perceptions of Indonesia's Colonial Period : There exist three "histories", or more accurately, three versions of Indonesia's colonial period - 1) Indonesian version, 2) Dutch version, and 3) Academic version. For example, an Indonesian individual will say that Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch for three and a half centuries. What may be wrong with this statement? First of all, it supposes that Indonesia already was a unified nation in the late 1500s or early 1600s. However, in reality the country we now know as Indonesia was a patchwork of independent indigenous kingdoms that lacked a feeling of brotherhood or nationalist sentiment or any other sense of unity. In fact, wars between these kingdoms - either inter or intra island - were the rule rather than the exception. Secondly, the whole area we now know as Indonesia was not conquered by the Dutch around the same time and then possessed for 3.5 centuries. On the contrary, it took centuries of gradual political expansion before the region was under Dutch control.
- Post independence Indonesia : After Independence from the Dutch, the Indonesian government needed to keep the Indonesian nation unified. One smart strategy was by creating this common 3.5 century colonial history that was shared by all people in the Indonesian nation. People realise that it may be a manufactured narrative, but a useful one.
* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.
COMMENTS