Evading Colonial Authority. Rebels and Outlaws in the Borderlands of Dutch West Borneo 1850s–1920s

Abstract

Borderlands in Southeast Asia are frequently portrayed as being outside state influence, as zones of anarchy where identities are flexible, loyalties ephemeral and state authority largely avoided. Depicted by shifting state administrators as rebels and outlaws roaming the border hills the populations inhabiting these edges of states further seem especially resistant towards officialdom through their engagement in law-bending practices and a heightened sense of autonomy. This paper examines these dynamics as they unravel on the island of Borneo during the Dutch colonial administration in the mid-19^th century and thus aims to contribute to the growing historiography of Southeast Asian borderlands and the more localized dynamics of state formation. By contrasting local Iban narratives and discourses with colonial records in the border regency of Boven-Kapoeas in Dutch West Borneo I show how renowned rebel leaders did their best to take advantage of the differing terms and conditions that colonial rule offered on either side of the border and thus openly challenged colonial state authority. The rebel defiance of colonial authority forced the colonial administrators to impose strict control along the Dutch and British border of Borneo. It is argued that the rebellions and consequent Dutch attempt to establish law and order, largely contributed to the territorial demarcation of the colonial state.

Acknowledgments

I am greatly indebted to the (late) Reed Wadley for granting me access to his compilation of colonial reports on West Borneo from the Dutch Colonial archives.

Notes

¹ Gallant (1999, 26–27) does not refer to the formal institution: “national army” when using the term “military entrepreneurs.” Instead, he wishes to stress the tendency, of these entrepreneurial men, to “take up arms” and apply the “threat of violence.”

² The Kapuas is the largest river in West Borneo, stretching approximately 1,145 km from its source at Gunung Cemaru in the Upper Kapuas Mountains to the coast at the provincial capital of Pontianak.

³ Many other ethnic groups in the area, like the less numerous Maloh, frequently paid tax and tribute to these rulers (Kater 1883).

⁴ The term Dayak is an umbrella term referring to all non-Muslim populations living in the interior of Kalimantan, with the Iban being just one of many ethnic groups named Dayak. The Dayaks living along the border were later referred to by the Dutch as “border Dayaks” (grens-Dajakhs) (Kater 1883).

⁵ “Serah” is a kind of forced trade/labour where the exchange rate was to the advantage of the Malay ruler.

⁶ Sarawak was, from 1841, governed by a self-ruling British colonialist named James Brooke. In 1839, Brooke first arrived in the area where he helped the Sultan of Brunei in putting down a local rebellion. For his help in ending this rebellion Brooke became the sovereign ruler of Sarawak. A few years later, in 1845, he was appointed British agent in Borneo (Irwin 1955, 103). Sarawak became a British protectorate in 1888 and the Brooke family administered the area for several generations until it was passed on to the British crown after the Second World War (Pringle 1970).

⁷ The Resident was the highest colonial authority on the provincial level.

⁸ The Kedang Range runs along the part of the border inhabited by the Iban.