Colonial encounters between India and Indonesia

Abstract

Three different factors accounted for colonial encounters between Indians and Indonesians in the first half of the twentieth century: (1) desire to profit from the colonial plantation industry in North Sumatra, (2) scholarly imaginaries of an ancient Indian colonialization of the archipelago and (3) common interest in socio-cultural reform on the basis of alternative education integrating the best from East and West. It was the last two factors that led to real exchange and more enduring relations between Indian and Indonesian as well as Western intellectuals, particularly in the wake of Rabindranath Tagore's visit to Java and Bali in 1927.

Keywords:

• colonialism
• nationalism
• Greater India
• Netherlands Indies

Notes

1. Cf. e.g. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Admin istrateurswoning_van_rubberonderneming_Malomboe_aan_de_oostkust_van_Sumatra_TMnr _10012798.jpg (accessed January 2010); http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COLLEC TIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Het_tappen_van_rubber_op_de_Boenisari-Lendra_Estate_van_cul tuuronderneming_Pirelli_West-Java_TMnr_60011584.jpg (accessed January 2010); http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Latex_tanks_en _tankwagens_met_sprayed_rubber_in_de_rubberfabriek_van_de_United_States_Rubber_Plan tations_Inc._te_Boenoet_Oost-Sumatra_ca._1925._TMnr_60014074.jpg (accessed January 2010); Furnival, Netherlands India; Buiskool, ‘Medan’.

2. ‘Coolie’ was the derogatory colonial term for an unskilled labourer contracted to plantation work.

3. Buiskool, ‘Medan’.

4. Dutt, Open Letters to Lord Curzon; Breman, Koelies, planter en koloniale politiek; Tollenaere, Politics of Divine Wisdom; Vignato, Au nom de l'Hindouisme, 45–6, 69; Gordon, ‘Contract Labour in Rubber Plantations’; Ramstedt, ‘South Asians in Southeast Asia’; Buiskool, ‘Medan’; Ramstedt, ‘Hindu Bonds at Work’.

5. Breman, Koelies, planter en koloniale politiek; Gordon, ‘Contract Labour in Rubber Plantations’.

6. Breman, Koelies, planter en koloniale politiek.

7. Ibid.

8. Cf. e.g. http://www.volkskrant.nl/archief_gratis/article788820.ece/MEDAN_koestert_zijn_ erfstukken (accessed February 2010); Vignato, Au nom de l'Hindouisme; Buiskool, ‘Medan’.

9. Vignato, Au nom de l'Hindouisme; Buiskool, ‘Medan’.

10. Vignato, Au nom de l'Hindouisme; interview with a Medan-born Tamil-Indonesian Buddhist official at the Vihara Buddhayana, Sunset Road, Kuta, Bali, in March 2009.

11. Cf. Hooykaas, Balinese bauddha brahmans; Ramstedt, Weltbild, Heilspragmatik und Herrschaftslegitimation; Ramstedt, ‘Indonesia’.

12. Bax, Het web der schepping; Tollenaere, Politics of Divine Wisdom; Brown, ‘Buddhist Revival’.

13. Prothero, White Buddhist; Murphet, Yankee Beacon of Buddhist Light; Ray, ‘Narratives of Faith’; Tollenaere, Politics of Divine Wisdom.

14. Ray, ‘Narratives of Faith’.

15. Furnival, Netherlands India; Bloembergen, Colonial Spectacles.

16. Cf. e.g. also Veur, Lion and the Gadfly.

17. Bax, Het web der schepping; Tollenaere, Politics of Divine Wisdom.

18. Malkiel-Jirmounsky, ‘Study of the Artistic Antiquities’.

19. The Archaeological Service had been founded in 1885 in Yogyakarta; Bloembergen, Colonial Spectacles.

20. Pigeaud, ‘In memoriam Professor Poerbatjaraka’.

21. Brown, ‘Buddhist Revival in Modern Indonesia’.

22. Juangari, Menabur Benih Dharma di Nusantara; Brown, ‘Buddhist Revival in Modern Indonesia’; Lembaga Litbang Majelis Buddhayana Indonesia, Perkembangan Agama Buddha di Indonesia; Prothero, White Buddhist.

23. Arp, Kālāpāni.

24. Dhar, ‘Bengal Renaissance’; cf. also Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

25. Steadman, ‘Asiatick Society of Bengal’.

26. Ibid.; Frank, Sanftes Gefühl; Figueira, Translating the Orient; Tzoref-Ashkenazi, Der romantische Mythos; Delbrück, ‘Einleitung’.

27. Krom, Baraboedoer.

28. Jong, De Waaier van het Fortuin; Wilson, Regents, Reformers, and Revolutionaries.

29. Raffles, History of Java, vol. 1.

30. Leitzmann, Wilhelm von Humboldts Werke; Buchholz, Das Kawi-Werk Wilhelm von Humboldts.

31. Raffles, History of Java, vol. 1.

32. Raffles, History of Java, vol. 1 & 2; Bastin, ‘Colonel Colin Mackenzie and Javanese Antiquities’; Ray, ‘Narratives of Faith’.

33. Raffles, History of Java, vol. 2.

34. Ibid.; for further details cf. Carey, ‘Sepoy Conspiracy’.

35. Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

36. Basa, ‘Indian Writings on Early History and Archaeology of Southeast Asia’; Banerjee, India as Known to the Ancient World.

37. Sastri, South India and South-East Asia.

38. Ray, ‘Narratives of Faith’.

39. Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

40. Cf. e.g. the cable from Rabindranath Tagore to Arnold Bake from May 29, 1927. There are altogether 17 letters of Tagore in possession of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology (KITLV) in Leiden, the Netherlands (signature DH 1214, second file). They were translated into Dutch from Bangla and English by Arnold Bake.

41. Letter from June 17, 1927, written by Tagore's son and signed by the poet himself; it was addressed to a Mr de Boer.

42. Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

43. Cf. letter from June 17, 1927, written by Tagore's son and signed by the poet.

44. Ibid.

45. Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

46. Goris, Bijdragen tot de kennis der Oud-Javaansche en Balineesche theologie; Swellengrebel, ‘In memoriam Dr. Roelof Goris’.

47. Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

48. Ramstedt, ‘Indonesian Cultural Policy’.

49. From the aforementioned collection translated by Arnold Bake.

50. Heine-Geldern, ‘Obituary’.

51. See also Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

52. Majumdar, Ancient Indian Colonies.

53. See also Malkiel-Jirmounsky, ‘Study of the Artistic Antiquities’.

54. Majumdar, Ancient Indian Colonies.

55. Kumar, Glimpses of Early Indo-Indonesian Culture.

56. Cf. e.g. Vira, India and Asia.

57. Basa, ‘Indian Writings on Early History and Archaeology of Southeast Asia’.

58. Published in 1934.

59. Basa, ‘Indian Writings on Early History and Archaeology of Southeast Asia’; see also Tagore, Greater India.

60. Cf. Bloembergen, Colonial Spectacles.

61. Karels, Mijn aardse leven vol moeite en strijd.

62. Verslag Congres Budyatama; Nagazumi, Dawn of Indonesian Nationalism; Miert, ‘Rebuilding Majapahit’; Karels, Mijn aardse leven vol moeite en strijd; Scherer, ‘Harmony and Dissonance’.

63. Larson, Prelude to Revolution.

64. Dutch original by Soeriokoesoemo in Wederopbouw 3 (1920), translated by Miert in Miert, ‘Rebuilding Majapahit’.

65. Soeriokoesoemo, Sabdo-Panditto-Ratoe; Shiraishi, ‘Disputes’.

66. Larson, Prelude to Revolution; Djajadiningrat-Nieuwenhuis, ‘Noto Soeroto’; Miert, ‘Rebuilding Majapahit’.

67. Pont, ‘De Historische Rol van Majapahit’.

68. Angkasaputra, ‘Prophecy of Jayabaya’.

69. Dutch original by Soeriokoesoemo in Wederopbouw 3 (1920), translated by Miert in Miert, ‘Rebuilding Majapahit’.

70. Larson, Prelude to Revolution; Scherer, ‘Harmony and Dissonance’; Karya K.H. Dewantara.

71. Wilson, Regents, Reformers, and Revolutionaries; Larson, Prelude to Revolution; Miert, ‘Rebuilding Majapahit’.

72. Cf. the report in the quarterly of the Java Institute, Djawa 1.

73. See also Tricht, Over de Tagore-Vertalingen.

74. Poeze, ‘Indonesians at Leiden University’.

75. Djajadiningrat-Nieuwenhuis, ‘Noto Soeroto’; Djajadiningrat-Nieuwenhuis, ‘Mangkunegoro VII and Rabindranath Tagore’; Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’; Soeroto, Rabindranath Tagore; Karels, Mijn aardse leven vol moeite en strijd; Fontein, Trots verbrijzeld.

76. Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’; Soeroto, ‘Een Indische dichter-wijsgeer over Java's kunsten’; Bloembergen, Colonial Spectacles; Djajadiningrat-Nieuwenhuis, ‘Mangkunegoro VII and Rabindranath Tagore’; Tollenaere, Politics of Wisdom.

77. Das Gupta, ‘Rabindranath Tagore in Indonesia’.

78. Kraemer, De Strijd over Bali en de Zending.

79. Ramstedt, ‘Hindu Bonds at Work’.

80. Cf. e.g. Picard, ‘What's in a Name?’.

81. Cf. e.g. Surya Kanta, 1: Singaradja: s.n. (October 1925): 1–2.

82. Surya Kanta, 6–7: Singaradja: s.n. (June–July 1926): 83–4.

83. Surya Kanta, 2: Singaradja: s.n. (November 1925): 10–12; Surya Kanta, 3: Singaradja: s.n. (December 1925): 16; Surya Kanta, 1: Singaradja: s.n. (January 1926): 5.

84. In Surya Kanta, 6–7: Singaradja: s.n. (June–July 1926): 82; Surya Kanta, 8: Singaradja: s.n. (August 1926): 112–13.

85. Bali Adnjana, 25: Singaradja: I.G. Tjakratanaja (September 1, 1927): 2–4; Bali Adnjana, 26: Singaradja: I.G. Tjakratanaja (September 10, 1927): 3–4.

86. Djatajoe, 8: Singaradja: s.n. (March 25, 1937): 218.

87. Bhawanagara, 11: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (April 1933): 171.

88. Bhawanagara, 6: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (November 1931): 83.

89. Bhawanagara, 6: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (November 1931): 84; Bhawanagara, 2: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (July 1934): 17–20.

90. Bhawanagara, 3: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (August 1934): 33–5; Bhawanagara, 4–5: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (September–October 1934): 54–7; Bhawanagara, 6: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (November 1934): 89–92.

91. Bhawanagara, 1: Singaradja: Kirtya Liefrinck-van der Tuuk (June 1932): 2–4.

92. Djatajoe, 12: Singaradja: s.n. (July 25, 1940): 337–56.

93. Djatajoe, 12: Singaradja: s.n. (July 25, 1938): 363–5.

94. Djatajoe, 3–4: Singaradja: s.n. (November 25, 1939): 95–102.

95. Ramstedt, ‘Hindu Bonds at Work’.