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The Social World Of Batavia
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Social World of Batavia is a book written by Jean Taylor Gilman. This is probably one of the most complete literature of Dutch-Indonesian you could find. Written in readable language, this book contained valuable informations for any Dutch-Indonesians who are curious of their history.
The first Dutch people who came to Batavia were actually consisted of low-educated soldiers which made of different ethnicity. Many didn�t speak dutch fluently and took local women as their wife(s). As J. P. Coen assigned as Batavia�s governor general, he visioned that Batavia should be made a liveable, comfortable place so that its citizen wouldn�t need to return to Netherlands.
The Dutch made social caste to divide people according to their ethnicity: Dutch/European, Creole (Dutch/European born in Batavia), Asians (oriental people), Eurasian, and the bottom was Indigenous people.
The most interesting note was the culture adopted by people in Batavia. The dutch government had many times voiced their concern over the Creoles and Dutch people in Batavia of being too Asian. These European behave like Asians, and probably knew the local culture better instead of the Dutch ones.
Dutch language must compete with Malay and Portuguese, and it was not easy to replace them with dutch. The interaction between the diverse ethnicity in Batavia resulting unique Indsiche culture: Dutch culture that is influenced by Indonesian culture. It was also partially result of intense interaction between dutch woman and their Asian slaves.
The Dutch creoles and Eurasians were commonly uneducated, thus making their asian slaves as the source of moral ethic and behaviour. This resulting the Dutch society in batavia adopting the local culture, and probably know local mores better than their European counterpart. The pure european have issued various laws concerning this. They issued law to discourage the usage of Malay and Portuguese in hope to spread dutch language, or encouraging the creoles to adapt european culture and fashion instead the �impure� ones. But at the same, they also did virtually nothing to facilitate the Eurasians to educate themselves. Dutch only taught to Dutch schools, which associated with higher economy class, Eurasians� economy level was middle class, thus it was harder for them to afford Dutch education.
It�s also possible that the local natives actually have Dutch blood too, because the interracial marriage was high.
Dutch expats, soldiers often took local asian slaves as their wifes, making their children effectively eurasian. Due to constant exposure of eurasian toward local culture, they have higher possibility being more comfortable among asians and marry with asians instead Dutch/Creoles/Eurasians.
Even among Eurasians/Indo, many of them couldn�t speak Dutch and more fluent to Malay and portuguese. They were commonly called �Bule Item�. They were the lowest class among Eurasian caste, and had the highest resentment toward pure Dutch.
Have you been wondering why Dutch was not lingua franca in the Dutch East Indie? Why there are so few cities named in Dutch-sounding names such as Batavia (now Jakarta) or Buitenzorg (now Bogor)?
Compared to English and French, the distribution of Dutch language is small, but even during colonial time, Dutch was not lingua franca on its colonies. In case of Dutch East Indies, Malay was.
There were only fewer people who spoke Dutch compared to Malay, and that�s rarely subject of discussion in Indonesian history books. This was the result of failure of dutch government to replace Malay and Portuguese, because the presence of abundant speakers which might cause administration became more complicated than already it was. Speaking Dutch language was considered prestigious. It was language of educated people. If Dutch wanted to promote Dutch, it means they must build schools for natives, educating them in European manners, making them more educated. It�s logical to keep colonialized forever as lower subject. It was the main reason why Dutch kept their education exclusive to themselves.
It should also be noted that pure Dutch never thought Eurasian/Indo people as �Dutch�, but rather, second class citizen with Asian blood which they thought derogatory. Even today, Indonesians still commonly think Indo people as Dutch, which is not entirely true.
History has proven that Indo was ridiculed by Dutch, while local natives always think them as Dutch.There were highly-educated Indo during colonial period but the number was very small, many indo people were uneducated and their �not-so-European� behaviour made them target for ridicule among Dutch.
This book is highly recommended for these who want to know how Dutch-Indonesians lived in Batavia. This is a must-read for all Dutch-Indonesians out there.
Jean Gelman, Taylor - Personal Name
2nd ed.
303.4825980492 TAY Soc
9780299232146
Indonesia
Book - Paperback
English
University of Wisconsin Press
2009
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