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Recent Dutch Contributions to Modern Indonesian History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

J. M. Pluvier
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Extract

The limitation of this essay seems obvious if we take modern Indonesian history to have started in 1870 and consider the word “recent” in the above title adequately covered by the years since 1940. The date 1870 is the starting-point of Western modern imperialism — a world-wide phenomenon — as well as of the so-called Liberal Period in the restricted Indonesian context. Thus the heyday of Dutch colonialism, the emergence of Indonesian nationalism, the downfall of the Netherlands Indies and the first decades of Indonesian independence fall within the scope of this survey. The choice of 1940, too, can be explained easily: it is the first year of the period which ultimately led not only to the political separation of the Indies and the Netherlands but also to a new approach in Dutch history-writing on Indonesia. This is not to sav that opinions critical of colonialism had not found their way into Dutch literature on Indonesia before 1940, or that opposition to the so-called Europe-centric attitude is to be noticed only after the Second World War: Stokvis and Van Leur, to mention only one for each case, are evidence that this was not so. Nor is it true that colonial apologists are extinct since 1940. But the Second World War nevertheless contributed to a significant change in the general trend of Dutch history-writing on Indonesia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , September 1967 , pp. 201 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1967

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References

1. Stokvis, J.E., Van Wingewest naar Zelfbestuur in Nederlandsch-Indie (From Colony to Self-rule in the Netherlands Indies), Amsterdam 1922Google Scholar; van Leur, J.C., Eenige beschouwingen betreffende den ouden Aziatischen handel, Middleburg 1934Google Scholar, translated into English under the title “On Early Asian Trade”, in J.(van Leur, J., Indonesian Trade and Society; Essays in Asian Social and Economic History, The Hague 1955.Google Scholar

2. Slauerhoff, J., Jan Pietersz Coen; in Verzamelde Werken (Collected Works), Rotterdam, 1944, Vol. V.Google Scholar See also: Romein, Annie, Jan Pieterszoon Coen; Couste que CousteGoogle Scholar; (J.P.C.; At Any Cost) in Jan, and Romein, Annie, Erflaters van Onze Beschaving (Exponents of Our Civilization), Amsterdam 1938, vol. II.Google ScholarGerretson, C., Coens Eerherstel (Coens Rehabilitation), Amsterdam 1944.Google Scholar

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4. As stated in the Preface to the revised edition. The Hague 1959.

5. As expressed, for example, in the final pages of Balans van Beleid.

6. By Koch, D. M. G., anonymously, in an official report, Mededeelingen omirent enkele onderwerpen van algemeen belang (Information about some subjects of general interest), Weltevreden 1922).Google Scholar

7. See note 1.

8. In Soetjadmoko, etc. (Eds.), An Introduction to Indonesian Historiography, Ithaca 1964Google Scholar, chapter 18; also in Wertheim, W. F., East-West Parallels, Sociological Approaches to Modern Asia, The Hague 1964, chapter 11.Google Scholar

9. Wertheim, , East-West Parallels, p.255.Google Scholar

10. Republished in two books: Wertheim, W. F., Indonesian Society in Transition; A Study of Social Change, The Hague 1956Google Scholar and Wertheim, W. F., East-West ParallelsGoogle Scholar, mentioned above.

11. Wertheim, , East-West Parallels, p.256.Google Scholar

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16. Blumberger, J. Th. Petrus, De Nationalistische Beweging in Nederlandsch Indie (The Nationalist Movement in the Netherlands Indies), Haarlem 1931Google Scholar; Pluvier, J. M., Ovenicht van de Ontwikkeling der Nationalistische Beweging in Indonesie in de jaren 1930 tot 1942 (Survey of the Development of the Nationalist Movement in Indonesia between 1930 and 1942).Google Scholar

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18. To be dealt with in Section IV.

19. e.g. Quispel, H. V., Nederlansch Indie in den Tweeden Wereldoorlog (The Netherlands Indies during the Second World War), London 1945Google Scholar; or the memoirs of C.E.L. Helfrich, see below.

20. cf. for the same socialist attitude: Last, H. van Galen's novel President Dramakutra, Amsterdam 1957Google Scholar and Goedhart, F. J.'s treatise on independent Indonesia: Een Revolutie op drift; Indonesisch reisjournaal (Revolution adrift; diary of an Indonesian journey), Amsterdam 1953.Google Scholar

21. Before finishing this section on the Indonesian revolution one book should be mentioned, although it does not fall in the categories of historical works: the novel Het laatste uur (The Last Hour) by Albert van der Hoogte. Set against the background, as the title indicates, of the “last hour” of the Dutch in Indonesia, it is a telling book, not so much because of the plot, but because of the description of the general circumstances which accompanied the downfall of the Dutch colonial system, in fact of a whole world for many thousands who were caught in the maelstrom of events: the feeling of inevitability, the eroding of moral standards, the decline in human values. The author gives some shocking details of beastliness, but more shocking is the realization that in a situation like this such abnormal things are taken for granted, that they are as commonly accepted as the equally abnormal reactions which they evoke and that any attempt to redress or to prevent them is either not made or doomed to fail from “the beginning. The most spine-chilling part of this book is not the lengthy medical report on a Eurasian girl, raped and murdered by six terrorists, nor the detailed description of the execution of the murderers after their trial, but the lines referring to the competition of some military units to have the firing squad for the killers drawn from their particular platoons. Het laatste uur is not a historical work, but as a novel it provides us with a historical source of the first order on this deplorable episode of Dutch-Indonesian, or in a wider sense, human relations.

22. Herleving; Oorsprong, streuen en geschiedenis der Nationalistische Beweging in Britsch-Indie (Renaissance; Origins, Aim and History of the Nationalist Movement in British India), Weltevreden 1922.Google Scholar See for Koch also notes 6 and 15.

23. Although he got his obituary by Stokvis, J.E., Van Limburg StirumGoogle Scholar; in Indonesie 1948–1949, pp. 19–38.Google Scholar

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25. Gobee, E. and Adriaanse, C., Ambtelijke adviezen van C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1889–1936 (Snouck Hurgronje's Official Advices), The Hague 1954–1965.Google Scholar