In this interdisciplinary thesis, I use history and anthropology to research the influence of migration history on the identity construct of Hindostani people in the Netherlands. The work is...Show moreIn this interdisciplinary thesis, I use history and anthropology to research the influence of migration history on the identity construct of Hindostani people in the Netherlands. The work is anthropological because I created data by interviewing 23 participants about their lives and experiences, and historical because I used a framework of scholars who have researched the complex fields of identity, colonialism, migration, and transnational history or have specifically researched Hindostani people and their history. Combining these datasets, I present a case study that goes in depth to find out what the influence of colonial migration is on Hindostani people in a ‘postcolonial’ society such as the Netherlands. The conclusion is a careful but meaningful one, as it offers insights into both the people I interviewed and the society in which they live. This study shows that identity is so complex and personal that migration history has divergent meaning and effect on the lives of individual Hindostanis, so that even pointers such as age and gender cannot indicate the importance of that history to a Hindostani person. The only exception to this was religion, as religious participants ascribed more meaning to their migration history. Their history played a large part in the constructing of their identity and in the raising of their children. Lastly, I argue that both interdisciplinary and microhistory, even though small-scale, are key to historical research, especially of colonial history, by creating data and writing with the people who are the embodiment of that history.Show less
Between 1943-65, James Puthucheary was caught up in a regional wave of anti-colonial politics. In 1943 he would join Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army before returning to Malaya in 1948...Show moreBetween 1943-65, James Puthucheary was caught up in a regional wave of anti-colonial politics. In 1943 he would join Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army before returning to Malaya in 1948 where he became involved in the Anti-British League, the University Socialist Club and the founding of the People's Action Party. He was detained for a second time between 1956-59 and after his release went on to work within the PAP government on issues of economic development, before leaving politics to turn to the study of Law. After his banishment from Singapore in 1963, he went on to support Malaysia through the Malaysian Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation. Puthucheary was an anti-colonialist, a socialist, a trade unionist, an economist, an intellectual and a figure who was linked to global anti-colonial networks. Drawing upon a greater focus on global networks of decolonisation and the intellectual history of decolonisation, this thesis uses Puthucheary's political and intellectual trajectory as a lens through which to highlight the more complex ways in which anti-colonialism was being thought out in Malaya. In particular it highlights Puthucheary, and others around him, at the intersection of the rise of Afro-Asianism and of debates on the national question in Malaya which drew upon broader communist and socialist thought. Here questions of decolonisation intersected with questions of class, communalism and economic development. This thesis goes on to highlight how debates on the national question came to shape engagement with Afro-Asian networks.Show less
How did racialized ideas about work and rest change in the Dutch East-Indies towards the end of the nineteenth century? In the Dutch colony, the idea that Javanese worker showed a natural tendency...Show moreHow did racialized ideas about work and rest change in the Dutch East-Indies towards the end of the nineteenth century? In the Dutch colony, the idea that Javanese worker showed a natural tendency for laziness and lacked the urge to improve their material condition was highly influential and repeatedly invoked to justify coercive labor practices. Whereas the Dutch used to consider Javanese’s alleged laziness as a stable and in-built feature of their inferior “race”, this study shows that they increasingly started to treat it as a by-product of their deplorable socio-economic circumstances by the turn of the century. Given that the Cultivation System (1830-1870) robbed the Javanese off the fruits of their own labor, the Dutch asserted that the natives had failed to develop the “natural” materialist urges they associated with industrial capitalism. In attempts to cure Javanese agricultural workers of their supposed indolence, the agents of capital therefore endeavored to inculcate work ethic from above via the so-called Ethical Policy of 1901. This study not only documents this discursive change, but also aims to understand and explain it. To this end, it places the historical transformation of the stereotype against the background of the racial capitalist regime change it emerged from: the shift from a system in which natives were excluded from the White economy to one in which they were demanded to assimilate. My findings fill up the empirical lacuna on the circulation of this racial-economic trope in the late nineteenth century and advances the historiography on the topic by thoroughly embedding it within Black Marxist theorizing.Show less
In de vroegmoderne tijd leefde een deel van de gehuwde vrouwen apart van hun echtgenoot omdat deze van huis was vanwege bijvoorbeeld werk, detentie of een opname in een beter-, gast- of dolhuis....Show moreIn de vroegmoderne tijd leefde een deel van de gehuwde vrouwen apart van hun echtgenoot omdat deze van huis was vanwege bijvoorbeeld werk, detentie of een opname in een beter-, gast- of dolhuis. Deze vrouwen worden ‘onbestorven weduwen’ genoemd. In deze masterscriptie wordt onderzocht met welke problemen Rotterdamse en Delfshavense onbestorven weduwen in de periode 1680-1765 te maken kregen, welke oplossingen hen hierbij uitkomst boden, en of hierin verschillen zijn waar te nemen tussen enerzijds zeemansvrouwen en anderzijds andere onbestorven weduwen.Show less
In this thesis, I examine the interaction between the business strategy of the Amsterdam banking house Hope & Co. from 1756-1780 and the credit crisis of 1772-1773. Hope & Co. played a...Show moreIn this thesis, I examine the interaction between the business strategy of the Amsterdam banking house Hope & Co. from 1756-1780 and the credit crisis of 1772-1773. Hope & Co. played a central role in the unfolding of this historical event, whereas on the other hand, the crisis had a decisive impact on the Hopes’ business strategy. Before the credit crisis, the Hopes operated prudently and consistently, and the firm acted as a market-regulating institution. However, in the runup to the crisis, Hope & Co. became increasingly involved in large-scale financial speculation in London and Amsterdam. Subsequently, in the aftermath of the crisis, the Hopes returned to a strategy of caution. They diversified their business portfolio by investing in the loan sector and gradually shifted from mercantile activities to financial services. Moreover, as the last major family firm in Amsterdam, Hope & Co. affirmed its market-regulating role, henceforth becoming the banker’s banker. This thesis emphasises the importance of credit governance structures for the resilience of markets and merchant communities. The fact that Hope & Co. established itself as a market-regulating institution poses a challenge to new institutional economics. It raises questions on the role of family firms in (the governance of) early modern credit structures.Show less
This thesis analyses missionary reactions to the sleeping sickness epidemic that haunted East and Central Africa in the early 20th century. Sleeping sickness was an inevitably fatal disease endemic...Show moreThis thesis analyses missionary reactions to the sleeping sickness epidemic that haunted East and Central Africa in the early 20th century. Sleeping sickness was an inevitably fatal disease endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. In focusing on the German protestant Bethel Mission and the French catholic White Fathers mission, this thesis argues that missionaries had distinct approaches towards sleeping sickness and that the disease was less prevalent in the African Great Lakes Region than previously assumed. Past scholarship on sleeping sickness has relied almost exclusively on the Belgian, German, and British colonial states’ archives. Sleeping sickness threatened these states’ claim to power and consequently induced profound colonial anxieties. Missionaries, instead, were less anxious in light of sleeping sickness. Missionary medicine and missionary mobility regimes aided the Bethel Mission and the White Fathers to cope better with the epidemic. Their archives offer an alternative to colonial archives that does not conflate the disease, and also acknowledges that vast areas in the African Great Lakes Region were free of sleeping sickness. The disease was one among many diseases the missionaries and their communities faced. The missionary sources this thesis relies on suggest that scholarship on sleeping sickness reflects a colonial imaginary rather than the lived reality of non-colonial individuals in the African Great Lakes Region.Show less
This thesis investigates the ‘colonial situation’ in which the Dutch anthropologist Sjoerd Hofstra (1898-1983) conducted his anthropological research on the Sierra Leonean Mende. During Hofstra’s...Show moreThis thesis investigates the ‘colonial situation’ in which the Dutch anthropologist Sjoerd Hofstra (1898-1983) conducted his anthropological research on the Sierra Leonean Mende. During Hofstra’s study (1934-1936), which took the form of two prolonged stays in the town of Panguma and its surroundings, he shared a space with numerous actors; notably, British colonial administrators, Methodist missionaries, and above all the Mende political authorities themselves. Characterized by a multitude of power dynamics, this interpersonal context of anthropological fieldwork influenced Hofstra’s process of knowledge production in profound ways. As will be argued, each of these groups of actors shaped ‘preconditions of access to knowledge’ which had to be met for Hofstra’s venture to be successful.Show less
During a great part of the twentieth century, the Lawa Railway connected Paramaribo with the interior of Suriname. This railway had been built by the Dutch to catalyse the emerging gold industry at...Show moreDuring a great part of the twentieth century, the Lawa Railway connected Paramaribo with the interior of Suriname. This railway had been built by the Dutch to catalyse the emerging gold industry at the turn of the twentieth century. However, gold finds soon dropped and the railway never became profitable. Therefore, the railway has often been described as a failure. This thesis trancends this failure rhetoric in terms of profit and instead looks at how the Lawa Railway functioned socio-economically. Through a paradigm of Alltagsgeschichte, I unraveled how the people of Suriname have used and repurposed the Lawa Railway. I argue that they primarily used the railway in three guises: to go to school, to recreate and to enhance their livelihoods. At the same time, the train was highly important for medical care. I found, for instance, that it functioned as a policlinic on wheels as well as an ambulance. This study shows how it is possible to transcend a colonial rhetoric of failure, by closely following the 'subject of failure'. Through a story of gold-mining, vending, recreating, illnesses and hardships in the jungle, I have in a holistic way exposed the socio-economics of life in Suriname in the twentieth century and presented a narrative in which the Lawa Railway is the main protagonist.Show less
In dit historische onderzoek wordt de Nederlandse militaire ethiek tijdens de Indonesische Dekolonisatieoorlog geanalyseerd. Met name de reflecties en beschrijvingen van soldaten ten aanzien van...Show moreIn dit historische onderzoek wordt de Nederlandse militaire ethiek tijdens de Indonesische Dekolonisatieoorlog geanalyseerd. Met name de reflecties en beschrijvingen van soldaten ten aanzien van extreem geweld staan centraal, en in hoeverre zij hier in moreel-juridische termen over schreven in egodocumenten. Op theoretisch niveau wordt dit verbonden met een rechtshistorische benadering, in concreto aandacht voor het ius ad bellum en ius in bello gedurende de Dekolonisatieoorlog. Zodoende wordt gedemonstreerd dat deze velden voor sommige soldaten samenhingen, waarbij de achtergrond van de Tweede Wereldoorlog op verschillende wijzen een rol kon spelen.Show less
After the conquest of Banda in 1621, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) introduced the perkeniersstelsel to ensure a monopoly on nutmeg and mace. Due to the commercial nature of the spices and the...Show moreAfter the conquest of Banda in 1621, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) introduced the perkeniersstelsel to ensure a monopoly on nutmeg and mace. Due to the commercial nature of the spices and the use of slave production, the perkeniersstelsel is often compared to the Atlantic plantation system. This study traces the development of the perkeniersstelsel between 1621 and 1640 and compares it to the Atlantic plantation system. This study argues that although the VOC was attempting to develop the perkeniersstelsel in the direction of the Atlantic mode, Banda’s unique environment and the VOC’s weaknesses in accessing terrestrial resources led the system down its own path. Furthermore, it proposes that Banda slavery should be regarded as the first expansion of slavery into rural areas in Southeast Asia, rather than the first penetration of European slavery into Southeast Asia.Show less
Een vergelijkend onderzoek naar de wijze waarop de VOC in Safawiedisch Perzië, Mughal India, en Manchu China betrekkingen onderhield met de centrale autoriteiten aan het hof en de lokale...Show moreEen vergelijkend onderzoek naar de wijze waarop de VOC in Safawiedisch Perzië, Mughal India, en Manchu China betrekkingen onderhield met de centrale autoriteiten aan het hof en de lokale autoriteiten in de havensteden.Show less
Even though the Dutch East India Company (VOC) came to Asia for Asian luxury products, in Java, their main drive was a bulk, rice, which was used as the operational cost for its empire in Asia....Show moreEven though the Dutch East India Company (VOC) came to Asia for Asian luxury products, in Java, their main drive was a bulk, rice, which was used as the operational cost for its empire in Asia. After a series of wars in the past century, in 1743, the VOC managed to establish control over the majority of rice producing area in Java. This responsibility oftentimes set the VOC as the ultimate cause of the deteriorating of the once flourishing rice economy of Java. However, the accusation experienced strong challenges from the established studies telling about prosperity in the second half of 18th century Java and VOC’s minimal intervention to the island’s rice economy. This thesis examined the contradiction through an exploration towards VOC’s trading document such as the general ledger, correspondence, and reports. In the end it argues that however thin was VOC’s influence to the system, the impact was devastating for Java’s rice economy. Since 1743, VOC asked for 5000 koyangs rice, which was more than a half of Java’s total surplus from a particular region named pasisir which made only 35% of the total rice producing area in Java. This thesis also argued that in the second half of 18th century, different parts of Java experienced different states of economy. The hinterland, under the ex-Mataram states was prosperous because they did not have to bear the 5000 koyangs annual obligatory delivery, while in pasisir, workload increased without proper compensation. This phenomenon in pasisir led to the rapid growth of population, rapid deforestation for constructing rice field, for a mere stagnant surplus. The obligatory delivery cut a considerable income of the pasisir’s rice farmer, left them with no relaxation on their budget that initially could make room for innovation and technological advancement, which were why, in the 18th century pasisir rice farmer re-practiced frugal extensification as what their ancestor did eight century ago.Show less
This thesis investigates the authority and the power of kingship under the Cirebon kings under the context of the alliance between the trifurcated sultanate of Cirebon with the Dutch East India...Show moreThis thesis investigates the authority and the power of kingship under the Cirebon kings under the context of the alliance between the trifurcated sultanate of Cirebon with the Dutch East India Company (or the VOC). Authority and power are two pillars of kingship that operated in different but intertwining realms. The former deals with the legitimacy that is either top-down descending on the king from a transcendent source and/or ascending from the bottom up by his “subjects.” By corroborating Cirebonese manuscripts and VOC archives, this study indicates that an ideal Cirebon sultan upheld spiritual commitments more than material achievements. When VOC’s interest to meddle in local politics grew, the company attempted to subjugate Cirebon through a series of treaties that detached the sultans from powers. However, the Cirebon sultans and the VOC had a different notion of power. Detachment from the material world allowed the Cirebon sultans to commit to spiritual endeavors. As shown by Cirebon’s founding father, Sunan Gunung Jati, an ideal king positioned Islam as the fulcrum of his universe. Thus, VOC’s entrenchment over Cirebon helped Sultan Sepuh I, Sultan Anom I, and Panembahan Kacirebonan to be ideal rulers. An idea which the company barely showed any interest in. This study accessed both Cirebonese chronicles and annals and documents produced by the VOC stored in The Hague and Jakarta. By delving into the sources, the present study presents a case study of the interaction between a local entity with the VOC as a colonial force that annuls the simplistic view of the anti-colonial history.Show less
