Diakronika

Gisting as a Colonial Agrarian Frontier: Indo-European Settlement and Social Engineering, 1926–1942

Ajeng Diah Kinanti — 2026-02-23

Indo-Europeans, as a marginalised group, fought for their rights to education and fair wages through the moderate IEV organisation, which supported Dutch colonial government policies. This study examines Indo-European agricultural colonisation in Gisting as an instrument of the colonial government for social and agrarian control. The method used is historical, with four stages: heuristic process, verification, interpretation, and historiography. The results of the study show that (1) The success of Gisting's agricultural colonization as a tool to strengthen colonial domination over the region and agrarian resources and to form an independent community loyal to colonial power (2) The colonization of Gisting tested Indo-European solidarity not only in terms of social experimentation but also in terms of the stake of Indo-European dignity amid the ambitions of the colonial government. (3) The transformation of the Gisting landscape not only turned forests into coffee plantations but also led to economic competition and the emergence of Javanese coolies, which made the Indo-Europeans in Gisting small landlords. For the colonial government, the colonisation of Java was a strategic way to manage Indo-European conflicts in Java while opening up economic opportunities with shared financial burdens. Still, the physical risks and dignity were entirely borne by the Indo-Europeans, so that the colonisation of Gisting can be described as an unequal mutualistic symbiosis.

Making Land Leaseable: Woeste Gronden and the Genealogy of Colonial Agrarian Governance in Priangan (1830–1870)

Muhamad Rio Novandana — 2026-03-03

Studies of colonial agrarian history often place the Agrarische Wet 1870 as the starting point for land liberalization in the Dutch East Indies. This article argues that key infrastructures for privatized access to land were assembled earlier through the leasing of woeste gronden (uncultivated ‘waste’ lands), with focus on Priangan. Using critical historical methods, the study operationalizes Foucault’s analytics by reading colonial archives as instruments of knowledge production: Koloniaal Verslag tables and Staatsblad regulations are analyzed as techniques of calculation and legibility (governmentality), while the language and evidentiary rules that defined which land could be leased are examines as a ‘regime of truth’. Sources include Koloniaal Verslag reports and statistical appendices (mid-1850s-1880), Staatsblad 1856 No. 64 and related reglations, lease contracts and dispute correspondence, and the 1857 Priangan residency map. The study finds: (1) a marked growth of leased parcels and rental revenues before 1870, indicating the conversion of land into fiscal assets; (2) woeste gronden was operationalized through exclusions of cultivated and desa lands, allowing customary tenure to be treated as administratively ‘unproven’; (3) implementation relied on hybrid state-capital-local-elite arrangements to secure labour and boundaries; and (4) maps and contracts stabilized claims through survey, boundary-making, and documentary inscription. The article reframes 1870 as a legal consolidation of earlier classificatory and leasing practices, and cautions that ‘empy land’ labels can enable agrarian dispossession when documentary legibility overrides lived tenure relations

Beyond Racial Boundaries: The Liminal Intellectuality and Authenticity of Jacobus Rudolph Razoux Kühr (1911–1918)

Muhammad Miqdad Rojab Munigar — 2026-03-27

This article examines the authenticity and intellectual capacity of Jacobus Rudolph Razoux Kühr (1882–1958) within the sociopolitical context of the Dutch East Indies from 1911 to 1918. It analyses his writings across four newspapers: Sin Po, Pertimbangan, De Indiër, and Perniagaan. Grounded in the premise that the colonial press functioned as a platform for ideological contestation rather than a neutral conduit, the study conceptualizes authenticity as Razoux Kühr’s reflexive awareness of his positionality as an Indo-European intellectual situated between colonial authority and Indonesian society. Furthermore, intellectuality is defined as his capacity to articulate rational critiques of colonial power relations through journalistic discourse. Methodologically, the research integrates historical methods with Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis to explore the interaction between micro-level textual strategies, social cognition, and macro-level colonial structures. The findings demonstrate that Razoux Kühr consistently advocated a liberal ideological stance that was adaptable to various editorial and sociopolitical contexts, including pluralistic engagement with Chinese nationalism, public moral critiques of colonial legitimacy, and intra-press polemics. This article contributes to Indonesian colonial historiography by illustrating how discourse analysis of the press can reveal the dynamic development of intellectual agency within the liminal social position of Indo-European actors in late-colonial society.

Arabization Without Arabness: Cultural Hybridization and Islamic Identity in Post-New Order Indonesia

Ahmad Mujib — 2026-05-18

Since 1998, puritanical transnational Islamic movements have promoted “Arabized” practices in Indonesia, including Arab-style clothing, beards, veils, and Arabic greetings. These developments have prompted resistance from Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which champions Islam Nusantara to preserve local cultural expressions of Islam. Existing studies remain focused on elite-level ideological oppositions, framing Arabization primarily as a homogenising threat to be countered by “local Islam” or on discursive constructions of “Arabness.” This article examines how “Arab” religious markers have infiltrated and become naturalised in local contexts during the Reformasi era, even in NU strongholds, despite opposition. It adopts a historical sociological approach that analyses long-term religious change, paying particular attention to everyday practices, power relations, and identity negotiation at the grassroots level. The study argues that Arab culture enriches local identities through selective indigenisation, thereby challenging binary threat-resistance narratives. Additionally, this research contributes to the historiography of Indonesian Islam beyond hegemonic binary discourses that contrast Islam Nusantara with Arabization or puritanical transnational influences. Instead, it traces how religious change and identity formation unfold through selective indigenisation and everyday hybridisation.

Forest Zoning as a Pedagogical System: Intergenerational Transmission of Ecological Knowledge in the Dukuh Indigenous Community

Romy Faisal Mustofa — 2026-05-25

Amidst global environmental change, the erosion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) poses a critical threat to biodiversity conservation and sustainable governance. While TEK is widely recognized, the mechanisms of its intergenerational transmission, particularly how it is embedded within spatial governance, remain a significant gap in cultural ecology and Indigenous studies. This study examines how the forest zoning system of the Dukuh Indigenous community in West Java, Indonesia, functions as a pedagogical infrastructure. Using a qualitative instrumental case study design, data were collected over eight months through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and documentary analysis with customary leaders, elders, adults, and youth, followed by thematic analysis. Findings reveal that the zoning system, comprising five zones including leuweung tutupan (protected forest) and leuweung larangan (sacred forest), operates not merely as a resource management tool but as a spatial curriculum. Knowledge is transmitted through experiential learning mediated by the spatial logic of the zones, where each zone dictates distinct pedagogical encounters encoding values of restraint, reciprocity, and ecological guardianship. This mechanism, termed spatial pedagogy, differs from transmission patterns in comparable Indigenous communities by embedding normative ecological lessons within the physical act of navigating the landscape, without reliance on formal instruction. This article contributes to cultural ecology by challenging static views of environmental governance and demonstrating how spatial structures function as dynamic socio-cultural learning infrastructures. It extends scholarship on Indigenous ecological knowledge by specifying spatial pedagogy as a mechanism through which governance systems inherently reproduce the ecological ethics they are designed to enforce.

From Smallholder Rubber Income to the Schoolfonds: Fiscal Mechanisms and the Development of Schooling in Kuantan, Riau (1916-1932)

Sabrina Sabrina — 2026-05-25

This article examines the relationship between smallholder rubber cultivation, the schoolfonds (a locally administered education fund financed through compulsory contributions), and education in Kuantan during 1916–1932, highlighting the local economy as a key factor in shaping educational development. It aims to analyze and reconstruct the trajectory of educational development and sustainability in Kuantan through the schoolfonds taxation mechanism. The study employs the historical method, including heuristics, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The findings show that the economic opening of Kuantan through smallholder rubber plantations generated complex administrative demands, which contributed to the establishment of the schoolfonds in 1916. The schoolfonds was created to finance the overall provision of education in the Onderafdeeling Kuantan (an administrative division under afdeeling, headed by a controleur). However, the global economic crisis of the early 1930s led to a sharp decline in rubber prices and exports, directly reducing local incomes and schoolfonds revenues. This downturn resulted in the contraction of educational facilities and funding, necessitating austerity in the allocation of schoolfonds. This study argues that, structurally, the expansion and sustainability of education in Kuantan rested upon the material foundation of rubber-generated surplus, converted into public funding through a fiscal mechanism (schoolfonds). More importantly, this study contributes to a rethinking of the history of educational financing outside Java by demonstrating that educational development in Kuantan was not solely the result of colonial state intervention (top-down), but was also shaped by the stability of the smallholder rubber economy and the operation of local fiscal mechanisms.