Responding to the West: Essays on Colonial Domination and Asian Agency (AUP - ICAS Publications)

185 Pages·2009·1.68 MB·English

by  Hans Hagerdal

Essays on Colonial Essays on Colonial
Publications Series
Edited Volumes 5
Domination and Asian Domination and Asi-
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Hans Hägerdal is Senior Lecturer in History at the School e
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Essays on Colonial Domination
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In Responding to the West: Essays on Colonial Domination n
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and Asian Agency nine historians and social scientists H
ä and Asian Agency
present new perspectives on colonialism as a historical ge
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phenomenon in the Asian region. Ranging between d
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the eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, the essays l ( Edited by
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explore the diversity of human relationships that was .) Hans Hägerdal
forged by the colonial presence. This is done through
a fresh application of concepts, perspectives, theories
and methodologies, many of them taken from the fast
developing area of social science history and cultural
studies. Taken together, the essays reveal on one hand
the variety of ways of the colonials to wield and keep
physical and mental authority over the dominated
societies, but also the manifold ways that the latter
could use to respond to colonialism. For all its features
of structural oppression, colonialism was not a one-way
communicative process; its study requires an analysis
of the ever-shifting constituent roles of coloniser and
colonised.
9 789089 640901
www.aup.nl ISBN 978 90 8964 093 2
Responding to the West
Publications Series
GeneralEditor
PaulvanderVelde
PublicationsOfficer
MartinavandenHaak
EditorialBoard
WimBoot(LeidenUniversity);JenniferHoldaway(SocialScienceResearchCoun-
cil); Christopher A. Reed (Ohio State Faculty); Anand A. Yang (Director of the
HenryM.JacksonschoolofInternationalStudiesandChairofInternationalStu-
dies at the University of Washington); Guobin Yang (Barnard College, Columbia
University)
The ICAS Publications Series consists of Monographs and Edited Volumes. The
Series takes a multidisciplinary approach to issues of interregional and multilat-
eral importance for Asia in a global context. The Series aims to stimulate dialo-
gue amongst scholars and civil society groups at the local, regional and interna-
tionallevels.
The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) was founded in 1997. Its
maingoalsaretotranscendtheboundariesbetweendisciplines,betweennations
studied, and between the geographic origins of the Asia scholars involved. ICAS
hasgrownintothelargestbiennialAsiastudieseventcoveringallsubjectsofAsia
studies.SofarfiveeditionsofICAShavebeenheldrespectivelyinLeiden(1998),
Berlin (2001), Singapore (2003), Shanghai (2005) and Kuala Lumpur (2007).
ICAS6willbeheldinDaejeon(SouthKorea)from6-9August2009.
In2001theICASsecretariatwasfoundedwhichguarantees thecontinuityofthe
ICASprocess.In2004theICASBookPrize(IBP)wasestablishedinordertocre-
atebywayofaglobalcompetitionbothaninternationalfocusforpublicationson
Asia while at the same time increasing their visibility worldwide. Also in 2005
theICASPublicationsSerieswereestablished.
Formoreinformation:www.icassecretariat.org
Responding to the West
Essays on Colonial Domination
and Asian Agency
Edited by
Hans Ha¨gerdal
Publications Series
Edited Volumes 5
Cover design:JB&A raster grafisch ontwerp, Delft
Layout: The DocWorkers,Almere
ISBN 978 90 8964 093 2
e-ISBN 978 90 4850820 4
NUR 692
© ICAS / Amsterdam University Press,Amsterdam 2009
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright re-
served above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or in-
troduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the
authorof the book.
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables 7
Introduction: New Paths ofColonial History 9
Hans Hägerdal
The Future ofthe Past,the Past ofthe Future:
History in Southeast Asia 17
VincentHouben
European Adventurers and Changes in theIndianMilitary System 29
Ram Krishna Tandon
The Exile of theLiurai:
A HistoriographicalCase Study from Timor 45
Hans Hägerdal
Africansin Asia: TheDiscourse of ‘Negritos’ in Early Nineteenth-
centurySoutheast Asia 69
SandraKhor Manickam
Women’sEducation andEmpowerment in ColonialBengal 87
RachanaChakraborty
HerOld Ayah:TheTranscolonial Significance ofthe Indian
Domestic Worker in India and Australia 103
VictoriaHaskins
The Chinese, theIndiansand the FrenchExchange Control
duringthe French Indochinese Waror How to Endure,
Fight and Mock theColonial Power(1945-1954) 117
DanielLeplat
Living theColonial Lifestyle:AustralianWomen and Domestic
Labour in OccupiedJapan 1945-1952 137
Christine deMatos
6 TABLEOFCONTENTS
Decolonisation and theOrigin of Military Business in Indonesia 151
BambangPurwanto
Contributors 167
References 171
List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1 Historical map ofTimor.
Figure 2 Dick, aPapuan from New Guinea, illustrationtakenfrom
ThomasStamfordRaffles,History ofJava.
Figure 3 The PapuanDickand Katut, native of Bali, illustration
from John Crawfurd,History ofthe IndianArchipelago.
Figure 4 World-widetraffic: TCC’s network.
Figure 5 Dependents’ housing built for BCOFfamiliesby Japanese
labour in Nijimura, completewithwestern-stylegardens
and streets (Photo courtesyof MrLen Chapman,
originally appearing in apublication forsoldierscalled As
YouWere, published by theAustralian WarMemorial).
Figure 6 Ruth Warner-Bishop outside her Nijimurahome standing
over her three Japanese domestic workers (c. 1947)(photo
courtesy of Ruth Warner-Bishop).
Table 1 Number offraudscommitted by people ofthesame
name origin group /typeof fraud.
Table 2 Composition ofthe group oftraffickers described in the
files oftheFrench MinistryofJustice.
Table 3 Comparison between networks involving individuals of
only one nationality.

Introduction: New Paths of Colonial History
Hans Ha¨gerdal
On 26 February 1687, the Dutch yacht Negombo departed from the
roadstead of Batavia, the Asian hub of the still relatively vital and ex-
pansive Dutch East India Company, or VOC. On board was the Com-
pany official Arend Verhoeven, who had been appointed resident or
opperhoofd of the unprofitable trading post of Kupang in West Timor.
Verhoeven may have been less than enthusiastic about his promotion;
ofthelasteightresidents,sixhaddiedofillnessattheunhealthy place,
and one had been dismissed on complaints from the locals. With him
on the Negombo went Dasi, raja of the small princedom of Lamakera
on Solor, to the north of Timor. Dasi was an activist prince who did his
utmost with the limited resources at hand, forging a comprehensive
network on the easterly islands nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Ti-
mur. This was to become one of the cornerstones of his policy and was
to make him indispensable to the Dutch in their rather fragile outpost
in westernmost Timor, and he visited the Dutch authorities in Batavia
from time totime.
After a lengthy sea trip, delayed by the doldrums, the vessel finally
reached Solor in April. There Verhoeven found a snake’s nest, where
supposed allies of the Company turned violent, murdering a Dutch re-
presentative there and clashing with a group of somewhat more loyal
allies. Reaching the coastal village of Lamakera, Dasi asked if he could
take his goods ashore, which Verhoeven gladly agreed to do, ‘the more
so since we were salvaged from a great stench and filth.’ As he pre-
pared to go ashore, the irascible Verhoeven told him not to stay long,
since the Dutch intended to sail on towards Kupang as soon as the
wind was right. Dasi suggested to the resident that he should at least
show him the honour to let him spend five or six days with his wife
whom he had not seen for many months. Verhoeven retorted that Dasi
knew the orders given by Batavia all too well, and that the raja was or-
dered go to Kupang with the resident to assist in quelling the political
troubles on Rote, another island under VOC suzerainty. As the grum-
bling Dasi stepped back onto the barge that would take him ashore,
Verhoeven asked the raja pointedly whether he intended to provide the
Negombo with tugboats, and whether he intended to follow him to Ku-
pang or not. Contemptuously, Dasi snarled, ‘You are just a new resi-