STRUCTURAL CHANGES
IN JAVANESE SOCIETY:
THE SUPRA-VILLAGE SPHERE
D. H. BURGER
(authorized translation by Leslie H. Palmier)
TRANSLATION SERIES
MODERN INDONESIA PROJECT
Southeast Asia Program
Department of Far Eastern Studies
Cornell University
Ithaca, New YorkSTRUCTURAL CHANGES
IN JAVANESE SOCIETY:
THE SUPRA-VILLAGE SPHERE
Professor D, H. Burger
being Part III; "De bovendorpse sfeer" of Structuuryeranderingen
in de Javaanse samenlevlng, published in Indonesia, 3rd year,
1949-50, pp. 1-18 and 101-123
(authorized translation by Leslie H. Palmier)
TRANSLATION SERIES
Modern Indonesia Project
Southeast Asia Program
Department of Far Eastern Studies
Cornell University
Ithaca, N. V.
1956Footnotes are as given In the original
article, with the exception of those
marked ”T.N.’’ (Translator's Note) which
like the insertions in square brackets,
have been added to clarify possibly un-
familiar terms and references.1
The old Java of about the year 1800 was a feudal land par
excellence. Javanese society consisted of princes, nobles and
peasants, of masters and serfs, of a hierarchic class society. The
feudal structure of this society, unlike that of the European middle
ages, did not depend on a fief system and large landownership.
Whilst in Europe nobility was hereditary, in Java nobility depended
on kinship to the prince up to the fourth degree of relationship.
Unlike European medieval society, the Java of about 1800 knew no
urban middle-class group of artisans and traders v/ith independent
political power.
Javanese culture was closely bound up with this feudal struc-
ture. It was a knightly culture in the sense that the ideal of life
consisted of a knightly ideal, that of the satrija, This culture
held in high regard the a.ristocratlc style of life; and it is this
which I shall deal with in particular.
This Javanese way of life was rooted in the fund of culture
which is implied in classical Javanese literature and the wajang
(the shadow play to music, and the dance). The wajang had a reli-
gious significance. Wajang performances were given on occasions of
great importance in life, such as birth, marriage, and circumcision,
as well as for the warding off of calamity or in the exorcism of the
sick and other harmful influences. Ah old-fashioned wajang perfor-
mance was a sacred spectacle, at which the deified forefathers
appeared on the scene. Especially the nobility saw their fore-
fathers in the heroes of the waj ang.
The classical literature and the wajang - according to
Stutterheim a "museum of the old values of life" - have given to
the Javanese people a guide to life, a world— and life-view, a
lesson in character formation and inner civilization, an insight
into the human heart with its good and its evil. "The play strength-
ens life, it teaches standards and the right attitude to life, it
also shows the way to the good, it initiates into the mystery of
life" (Gonda). Knowledge of literature and wajang was‘indispensable
for a good Javanese education, since olden days required the full
development of the personality. The development of the art of liv-
ing was thereby of central importance.
This cultural possession offered a great richness in types of
personality and of attitudes to life, of examples with which men
inspired their cultural life and which they tried to follow. In the
centre stood the beautiful, elegant ideal of the knight without fear
and without reproach, of loyalty to the prince, of simplicity and
absolute self-control. This ideal was strongly held in the kratons
and dalems, (1) and thus by princes and nobles; but the wajang
(1) kraton; princely residence (complex of buildings,
Javanese monarch with his family, etc.)
dalem: house of eminent person, e.g. a Regent
occupied by2
spoke to everyone, to high and low, to old and young, to man and
woman. This world of ideas united the whole people, the feudal
sphere with the village sphere.
The dance was even more important for the dancers themselves
than for the spectators, because the dancers underwent the influ-
ence of it in their body and spirit. The wajang also contained
examples of, and lessons about, facial expressions and the posture
and gestures of the body, the head, and the limbs, and the way in
which to move them. Thus, for example, the oppressor was typically
depicted as more or less straddle-legged. The noble t3rpe placed his
feet closer to one another. The head was held rather erect, the
glance was generally up- or downwards. The wajang was, so said
Stutterheim, ”an arsenal of forms of politeness and ways of life”.
P. A. Soerjodiningrat declared that the good dancer could be recog-
nised up to an advanced age by his body posture, his appearance and
his speech in daily and public life. (2) Probably in this way the
dance especially has contributed to the so typical Javanese styliza-
tion of the expressions of living.
This whole culture was thus par excellence directed to the art
of living in private and social life, in order that men should live
in harmony with their daily surroundings, with society, with the
social order, and with cosmic events. Javanese culture thus knew a
highly cultivated, very refined and stylized aristocratic way of
life which was very closely interwoven with a view of life and the
world, of which it formed an integrating part.
This Javanese world exhibited externally much similarity to
European medieval culture as Huizinga depicted it in his The Waning
of the Middle Ages. (3) According to Huizinga, men, dissatisfied
with everyday reality, everywhere and at all times have dreamed of
a higher, more beautiful life. This dream may take three forms;
First of all, men can escape from reality; but since I am here con-
cerned with social phenomena, I shall leave this out of considera-
tion. The second way is that of the perfecting of reality, thus
of a conscious struggle for the reformation of social or political
institutions. This method is typical for the modern West but was
hardly known to the European middle ages. Only in the 18th Century
did there arise in Europe in broader circles a new concept of life
that gave courage and hope that society couJd be improved.
The third path Huizinga called the dream. ”It is the easiest
way, but one which always falls to reach its goal.” Here life be-
comes coloured with the beautiful apparition of the ideal. A simple
(2)	Handellngen en Geschriften van het Indiscb Genootschap te 's
Gravenhage /Transactions and Communications of the Indies
Society at The Hague/, 18th June, 1926. (In subsequent
references this is abbreviated to ”Ind. Gen.” T.N.)
(3)	J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, 1924. (T.N.)3
theme is sufficient, for example, the heroic dream, the theme of
wisdom, or of life in and according to nature. Since antiquity,
according to Huizinga, all literary culture has been built on these few
themes. This flight from reality into a beautiful pretence is not
only a characteristic of literature but also affects man and society,
is "the art of living", and is stronger the more primitive the cul-
ture. In this way the forms of life were transformed into forms of
art. This is true not only works of art as such, but also of life
Itself. Society is filled with play and forms. The highest demands
were made on the personal art of life. Huizinga saw the French-^
Burgundian culture of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in this
light; here the "heroic dream" was the ideal.
From the twelfth century, French knightly culture experienced
an intensive cultivation of the old ideal of chivalry as the noble
way of life. It was the period of the "waving plumes". In the
court-centered State this aesthetics of the forms of life could
fully develop. The Burgundian dukes attached the greatest weight to
all that concerned the pomp and ceremony of the court. There was
even a quasi-liturgical element in the school of court etiquette.
This quasl-rellgious sphere explained the extraordinary importance
of questions of precedence and politeness.
The sense of power in this feudal and hierarchic world did not
yet repose primarily on wealth. It was more personal: "power must,
to be recognised, manifest itself in a great display of large
retinues of followers, in costly ornaments, and in the impressive
appearance of the one holding power. The feeling of being more than
another man was continually given a living form by the feudal and
hierarchic concept: kneeling homage and servitude, solemn marks of
honour, and awe-inspiring pomp, which all together make the masses
feel as something very essential and rightful".
More important even than etiquette and politeness was the
chivalric code. The sphere of court and nobility was "soaked in
the knightly ideal". The knightly code was hero-worship; the
imitation of heroes from the Court of Arthur or from antiquity.
The virtue of the knight was the set of qualities that made him fit
to fight and to command. This idea of virtue obtained another con-
tent as the culture developed itself. It raised itself to the level
of the ethical and the religious. This knighthood myth was drama-
tised in the tournament and in the chivalric orders. Both had,
according to Huizinga, their deepest roots in the sacred customs of
a long distant past. The accolade was, in his opinion, an ethi-
cally and socially elaborated puberty rite; the orders of knight-
hood could not be divorced from the men's associations among primi-
tive peoples. The chivalric idea is, as an ideal and a way of life,
linked par excellence to a feudally organised society. That this
ideal lived on for centuries shows, according to Huizinga, that it
contained very high social, ethical and aesthetic values. In
practice this high ideal naturally fell pitiably short, and the
beautiful dream was often a nightmare of chronic war and brigandage,
misgovernment and extortion.4
The period of true feudalism ended in the thirteenth century.
After this came the period of the urban princes, in which the power
of the nobility gave way to the commercial power of the urban
bourgeoisie and the money-power of the princes based on it. The
nobility then "had its wings clipped". Long thereafter, however,
the noble style of life maintained its mastery over society. The
wealthy bourgeoisie also adopted it.
By the end of the Middle Ages the knightly vows had become
mere adornments of court feasts, and chivalry was little more than
a higher mode of life and a social game. From the nobility itself
emanated fatigue and dissatisfaction with the ideal. With each
renovation of the culture, the outer shell of the knightly idea was
broken off. The knight became the French gentilhomme of the
seventeenth century and the English gentleman. The original chival-
ric type passed over into the soldier of the nation-state. From
chivalry, according to Huizinga, a rich harvest of cultural values
came forth; epics, lyrics, the art of adornment, ceremony and con-
vention. All the higher forms of bourgeois life are based on an
imitation of aristocratic ways of life.
Much that has here been said about the European Middle Ages
applies also to the traditional Javanese civilization. Javanese
culture also followed Huizinga’s third way, namely that of the art
of living and not the second way of the improvement of society. Old
Java also knew the "embellishment of the aristocratic lif-e with
knightly romance" and the old chivalric ideal as the "noble way of
life". Java also knew hero-worship, tournaments and the raising of
the knightly idea to the level of the ethical and religious. In
Java, too, the forms of life were adorned with colour and pomp, the
very greatest weight was attached to coxirt ceremony, exceptional
importance was attached to questions of protocol and etiquette, of
precedence and ceremonial. Huizinga’s observation about the sense
of power could be applied to Java.aliaost literally. Here, too,
there was great display of large retinues of followers and solemn
demonstration of homage and servitude, marks of honour and ceremony.
Here also was a strict hierarchy of cloths and colours: the
Javanese ceremonial attire, the right to the bearing of certain
parasols, batik patterns, kris forms and pamor (4) motifs. In Java,
too, the aristocratic ways of life ruled over society. Even though
the flesh of the Javanese satrija was naturally often weaker than
his willing spirit, yet here too this art of living bore a'rich
harvest in cultural values.
Apart from such points of agreement there are, however, radical
differences. In the first place, for example, the Euj'opean knightly
character existed in an Mediaeval-Christian, European culture.
Javanese knighthood stood in an old-Indonesian culture, influenced
(4) A sort of white steel welded to the steel of kris (Javanese
dagger) pike, etc. Pigeaud, Dr. T. H. - Javaans-Nederlands
Handwoordenboek, 1938.	(T.N.)5
by Hinduism and Islam, therefore have to deal here with com-
pletely different cultural backgrounds; this implies the warning
that the identity of both these cultural complexes may not be assum-
ed on the grounds of their external similarity. These different
cultural backgrounds probably also gave different contents to both
knightly ideals, but for my purpose I need not go into that.
Moreover, as I see it, it must be recognised that the feudal
structure took up a much largei’ place in Javanese society than in
Europe. In Europe the knightly ideal was only one cultural element,
to a certain degree independent, but always subject to criticism
and more or less in conflict with other conceptions of life which
existed alongside it or opposed to it. In„Javanese culture, however,
the chivalric idea was no more or less independent cultural element
but, on the contrary, was woven into a greater harmonic relation
with a social order, which itself corresponded to the cosmic order.
The Javanese chivalric idea thus formed an integrating part of the
total life- and world-view, without there being any question of a
sharp contradiction with other cultural elements. The court cere-
mony in Burgundy, for example, had only a quasi-liturgical character,
while Javanese court ceremony, on account of the divinity of the
princes, was of a wholly sacred nature.
In considering the question of how deeply rooted in the Javan-
ese people was this feudal structure with the aristocratic style of
life belonging to it, it is advisable to enquire how old this cul-
tural complex was and in particular how old was the form in which
all this existed about the year 1800.
Pigeaud observed on this subject that what at present is known
as Javanese art and culture has gone through a process of growth
through various centuries and has been exposed to many influences.
Shortage of data all too often does not permit us to follow the
development closely, ’’There is, however, enough information avail-
able to be able to establish on good grounds that it is an error to
consider the form and the content of present-day Javanese culture as
faithfully handed down from ancient times, unchanged by outside in-
fluences or by internal growth.” (5)
Much therefore still lies in the dark, but certain points can
be clarified.
The centre of Javanese culture of about 1800 was formed by the
Central Javanese kingdoms, whose tradition began with the kingdom of
Mataram, which arose at the end of the sixteenth century. This
Central Javanese culture was preceded by the East Javanese cultural
period, which obtained its greatest expansion under the empire of
Modjopahit. This empire experienced its golden age in the four-
teenth century and was based on what were probably highly
(5) Pigeaud, Dr. T. H. Javaanse Volksvertoningen /Javanese pop-
ular theatr^, 1938, p.6.6
self-sufficient village economies, which it subjected to forced
deliveries and service. Besides this, however, ModjOpahit carried
on a sea trade and shipping, which went together with naval power.
The East Java states preceding Modjopahit had spread their authority
from the archipelago out over great parts of the East. ModjOpahit
commanded the sea and the coastal stretches over an area which
corresponded pretty well with that of present-day Indonesia. Fur-
ther ModjOpahit possessed a court culture which, thanks to overseas
connections.extending to the Straits of Malacca and Further India,
stood open to cultural influences from outside. (6)
This Javanese sea trade was already very old. It formed a
subdivision of the old Asian trading pattern which has been describ-
ed by B. Schrieke and Van Leur. Sea trade moved along the coasts of
East and South Asia, bringing Aslan products to the West, where, via
the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, they even reached Europe. Indone-
sian spices were already known in Europe in the first centuries of
our era. This whole trade consisted principally of costly goods in
small quantities; in brief, therefore, of luxury goods. We have
data on Javanese shipping from as early as the eleventh century and
before; at this time it was driven out of Tuban and, as later, was
largely controlled by East Javanese harbours. Like the other old
Asian trading systems, Javanese trade was conducted by merchants who
travelled with their goods; ’’pedlars”. Van Leur calls them, though
from his description it appears that these are not to be considered
mere petty traders. Above this group, according to Van Leur, there
stood the ’’merchant princes”, the large traders and financiers, who
often also held posts as officials; they made no voyages themselves
but had others make voyages for them. The influence of the princes,
the local rulers and the nobility on this trade was very great. This
Javanese commerce served two functions. In the first place, it con-
sisted of the transport of goods from east to west and vice versa
within the Indonesian sea territory. The second function was the
export of rice from Java to the Moluccas and to the harbours along
the Strait of Macassar, later also to Batavia. Java in the seven-
teenth century was called the granary of Indonesia.
ModjOpahit grew weak in the fifteenth century, and shortly
after 1500 it quietly succumbed. Its culture was continued by the
harbour principalities of the north coast, the ’’Pasisir”, which
(6) Schrieke, Dr. B. : ”De Javanen als zee- en handelsvolk” /The
Javanese as seamen and traders/. "fTijdschrift voor Indische
Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde uTtgegeven door het Kohinklijk
Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen /Journal
of Indonesian Philology, Geography, and Ethnology pubTished by
the Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences), Vol. LVIII,
1919, p. 424/, and "The Shifts in Political and Economic Power
in the Indonesian Archipelago in the 16th and 17th century”
in his Indonesian Sociological Studie.s, Part I, The Hague,
1955; Van Leur", J. "'<3. , - Indonesian 'Trade ax^ Society, The Hague,
1955; p.l "On early Asian Trade”; p.157 ’’The World of South-
east Asia; 1500-1650”; p,268: "On the 18th century as a
category in Indonesian History".7
flourished in the sixteenth century. In the begiiming of the
sixteenth century, Oeinak acquired hegemony over them. In the
course of this century the centre of gravity shifted more to the
eastern coastal states, among which Surabaja especially came to the
fore. This Pasisir-culture remained internationally oriented.
The southern part of Central Java, where the state of Mataram
arose, had had little or no part in this development. This terri-
tory remained ba.ckward and rural. According to Pigeaud it was,
about 1600, ’’warlike and peasant-crude” in comparison with East
Java and the Paslsir. A direct connection of South-Central Java
with Modjopahit is, according to Pigeaud, unproved and improbable.
This South Central Java was also politically less highly organised.
Until the sixteenth century there existed here ’’many small estates
or tribal principalities”, which, after an unsuccessful attempt by
the Empire of Padjang, were not fused into a greater political
unity until the sixteenth century under: Mataram. (7) Young Mataram
strove for the domination of the whole of Java, was not recognised
by the coastal states, and finally extorted this recognition
through fire and the sword in a series of wars, occuring princi-
pally in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In this
period the coastal towns were repeatedly beleaguered and laid waste,
Demak in 1604, Lasem and Pasuruan in 1616, Tuban in 1619, Gresik
in 1613 and 1622, Madura in 1624 and Surabaja in 1625. Surabaja
was besieged several times and finally fell thanks to the cutting
off of the supply of drinking water, the same trick by which the
extremists in 1946 hoped to bring the town to its knees. This
continuing state of war had a destructive influence on trade. After
the conquest and the laying waste of the coastal areas, the traders
retreated on a large scale to Makassar and Bandjarmasin. The war
thus dealt the death blow to Javanese transit trade, at the same
time being the cause of the flowering of Makassar, which subse-
quently experienced its golden period.
In addition to this, the overseas rice-trade of Java was
destroyed as a consequence of the policy of Mataram. There are
reports from 1641 and 1656 that the ruler of Mataram had forbidden
the sea-trade to his subjects. The Sunan reserved foreign trade
for himself. None of his subjects might obtain advantage therefrom.
A royal rice monopoly was set up. The death penalty was instituted
for the export of rice by private individuals. (8)
There were probably various motives for these measures.
In the first place, this monopoly was a measure against
(7)	Pigeaud, p.347, 398, 478, 515.
(8)	On this subject see: Schrieke, Indonesian Sociological Studies
’’The Shifts in Political and Economic Power in the Indonesian
Archipelago in the 16th and 17th century”.8
Batavia, which, was dependent on Mataram for its food supply and
therefore very vulnerable. In earlier years this was indeed obvi-
ous, when Batavia had sometimes to obtain rice from Further India,
Siam and Japan. Mataram could obtain political and financial advan-
tages frOTi this.
In addition, there was perhaps still another reason. The Sunan
sacrificed private sea-trade and shipping to his monopoly, and it is
a question whether this was merely indifferent to him or whether it
was indeed his plan. Sunan Amangkurat (1646-1677) declared to
Rijcklof van Goens that his people had no right to welfare, that he
did not need to consider their welfare, and that great welfare of
his people would bring his power into danger. It is also reported
of his predecessor, Sultan Agung, that he intentionally kept his
subjects poor the better to be able to rule over them. The danger
for their dynasty or for the state which these rulers thus dreaded
from the people’s welfare could not come from the peasants, who were
yielding up their rice in forced deliveries and for whom a rice
monopoly made little difference. Neither did danger threaten from
the side of the traders, because they were not organised in guilds
or towns and possessed no political or military power. Even in the
trading towns along the coast political power rested with the
nobility.
The danger came rather from the nobility, in particular the
high nobility of the coast. Preceding history had continuously
been witness to the desire of the coastal nobility for independence.
Mataram had won the last round in the struggle of the interior
against the coast but even now must at all costs take care to main^
tain its position, in the interest both of the dynasty and of the
unity of the state. Fdr this the nobles must be kept weak; and they
derived their wealth from trade.
The ban on sea-trade and shipping and the institution of the
rice monopoly had thus perhaps the intention of depriving the
coastal nobility of their most important sources of income, (9)
This would fit into a policy which is apparent from other measures.
Sunan Agung after the capture of Madxira in 1624 had forty thousand
of its inhabitants brought to the coast of Java to break the man-
power of Madura. The princes, the pangeran’s, who earlier ruled
over the provinces and thus had been real holders of power, were in
the period of Mataram turned into courtiers, in order that they
should thus offer less danger.
The result of the measures against sea-trade was that in 1657
the Javanese themselves could no longer undertake the shipment of
(9) Schrieke showed in his already quoted article the influence of
Mataram’s policy on Javanese sea trade. B.H.M. Vlekke in his
Nusantara, A History of the East Indian Archipelago, 1944, laid
very strong emphasis on the crippling ofthe vassal states by
Mataram (pp., 156, 200, 202).9
^ice, and that in 1677 the Javanese’ great ignorance of the sea
Was commented on.
The sea-trade had for centuries brought Java into close contact
With the outei* world. This trade had, according to Van Leur, even
greater cultural than economic meaning. Cultural influences from
‘Outside came in along the trade routes, as had last happened with
Islam. The loss of the sea-trade thus meant a cultural impoverish-
ment and a high degree of cultural isolation.
However much the East India Company has on its conscience, it
is for* me still doubtful whether the policy of the Company was of
great influence on the decline of Javanese trade. In this period
there was indeed still no mention of monopolies in Java; the mon-
opolies elsewhere did not prevent that in the same period in which
Javanese trade declined that of Makassar rose and Makassar and
Bantam experienced their golden ages. For the decline of Javanese
trade causes other than the monopoly policy of the Company must be
Sought.	■ ■■--
Later, aftei* Mataram in 1677 had become a protectorate of the
Company, the princely absolutism of the first Mataram period weaken-
ed. The sea-trade was, however, lost for good. The rice export in
1705 became a forced delivery from Mataram to the Company.
This history is also of importance in considering the dualism
in Javanese society. About 1600 there was no important difference
in level between Javanese society and that of Western economic
activity. The difference was at least not great enough to be able
to speak of an economic dualism, which in Boeke's sense refers to
two different social-economic systems of far differing character.
Javanese society, with its feudal-agrarian interior and an interna-
tional trade on the coast, stood on a level which, in the spirit of
Werner Sombart, can be denoted as early capitalism. This concept,
borrowed from Europe and especially from Germany, is not tailored
to the Java of the time, but this can here be neglected. European
Sea-trade and shipping were at the time also early capitalist. In
the sense of Henri See, who classified capitalism into trade, finan-
cial, and industrial capitalism, it may be said that there existed
both on the side of the East and of the West trade capitalism and
Some financial capitalism. (10)
Just after 1600 the dualism between the Eastern and the West-
ern element in Indonesian society began to develop, for both levels
Jttoved apart; the Eastern fell and the Western rose.
Javanese society lost its sea-trade in the seventeenth century
and thereafter had left almost exclusively feudal-agrarian forms of
organisation in the interior. The villages were almost without
Bioney and without barter, closed and self-sufficient economies.
(10) Henri See: Modern Capitalism; its origin and evolution, 1928.10
Everything which concerned social life and social organisation
above village level was dominated by feudal forms, but this was
almost wholly in Indonesian hands. This applied both to cultural
life in the narrower sense and to the state administration, mili-
tary organisation and economic life. This was still the position
about the year 1800. Chinese business life, too, was at that time
for the greater part adapted to the feudal framework.
In the nineteenth century, after the end of the Java war, a
period of internal peace began which lasted over a hundred years.
The military function of the nobility was lost. The higher, supra-
village . economic life of corvee and forced deliveries was wholly
transferred to contractual organisations under the leadership of
Western entrepreneurs. The nobility then also lost its economic
function. The economic activity of the Indonesian population it-
self was limited in the main to that in the village.
On the other hand, the level of the Western element rose.
Next to trade capitalism it produced a steadily developing finan-
cial and industrial capitalism (in the sense of See) or> in the
phraseology of Sombart, it moved from early to high and late
capitalism.
The end result of this development was, at the beginning of
the twentieth century, a sharp dualism with on the Western side a
very modern trade, financial and industrial capitalism and on the
Eastern side little more than the humble, non-capitalist village
economy. This dualism, therefore, did not originate until after
1600.
The ’development’ of Javanese society in the seventeenth cen-
tury was thus opposed to that in Europe, where next to the nobility
an urban middle class arose which gradually increased in financial
and political power, linked itself with the rulers against the
nobility, wrested power from the nobility, and thereafter increas-
ingly expanded. In Java on the contrary there had existed for
centuries not unimportant but politically immature trading groups,
which however came to nothing and perhaps were sacrificed to the
interests of dynasty and state.
By the loss of shipping and foreign trade Java obtained a
very one-sided feudal structure.
In the fourteenth century Mo jopahit had possessed self-
sufficient iMllages, a sea trade and an internationally oriented
court culture. Apart from court towns it also counted trading
towns along the coast.
In the subsequent fifteenth- and sixteenth-cenifa^ Pasisix" -
cultxire, which continued that of Mojopabit, the emphasis fell on
sea trade. This coastal culture was itself centralised in the
trading towns.
The Mataram period, which began about 1600, knew in addition11
to the self-sufficient villages only a court culture. The only
towns were the kraton towns, which were exclusively consumption
centres and were placed much deeper in the interior than the court
towns of the Pasisir and of East Java. Apart from village life
there remained thus only a very isolated court life, practically
cut off from all international relations.
This course of events has probably been of great significance
for Javanese culture. It is true that the backward South-Central
Javanese regions borrowed much in the subsequent period, especially
after 1700, from the richer and earlier Pasisir culture (11), but
Javanese culture from the seventeenth century on turned itself away
from the outside world. It directed itself inwards and addressed
itself very one-sidely to the ennoblement and refinement of court
life. The concentration of the nobility at the court no doubt play-
ed a part in this.
It is true that aristocratic character of Javanese culture did
not arise at this time; but it was brought to a high degree of
development. The Kartasura period (1688-1744) was, according to
Rouffaer,a '‘Byzantine time, during which the modern Javanese court-
etiquette and the modern Javanese court language obtained their per-
fection and polish". (12)
The Javanese language underwent a new development. The use of
language categories in Javanese—in popular terminology, the use of
'high' and 'low' Javanese—did not exist in its present extent of
form before the Mataram period, that is before 1600. The Javanese
language of that time was similar to present-day Sundanese, which
has gone much less far in the formation of language categories. This
meant that the Javanese of the time contained many fewer 'high-Java-
nese' words and forms, and that the use of them was less obligatory
and less common. Thus, 'high-Javanese' was then much more variable
and more limited; and the language expressed less class distinction.
The etiquette expressed in the language was less regulated, develop-
ed and stylized. Only later did the language divide itself into
various categories, whereby the distinction between familiar, polite,
and respectful words was driven to extremes and carried further than,
according to Rouffaer, has been done in 'any other language'. (13)
There arose a new literature. Pigeaud sets the first begin-
nings of the South-Central Javanese court literature and court art
(11)	Pigeaud, p.52
(12)	G. P. Rouffaer and H. H. Juynboll; "De Batikkunst in Ned.
Indie en haar geschiedenis" , (The art of batik in Nether-
lands Indies and its history) Vol, 1, p.3O6.
(13)	Brandes in Tijdschr. Bat. Gen., Vol. XXXII (1889), p.98
and 339 and Rouffaer-Juynboll, p.3.12
in the period 1726-1749, the rise of the Surakarta court art and
pudjangga literature (14) in the period of 1788-1820, its flowering
in 1830-1858 and its revival in 1853-1881. (15)
Many of the elements connected with the wajang, such as the
highly developed composition and the structure of the lakons /plays/
the diversity of the music, the form of the puppets and masks/ were
brought to their present-day development only in the Kartasura peri-
od, and perhaps not until the eighteenth century. The wajang wong
(16)	probably originates from the eighteenth century* (17) The art
of batik, the refined home industry of women in the highest classes,
did not acquire its later splendour of colour and richness of de-
sign until after 1500. It was especially in the Kartasura period,
according to Rouffaer, that the colour school of the Principalities
came into existence with its great originality, ’stately warmth’
and ’glowing nobility’. (18)
Above all, the development of the language, with the cultiva-
tion of courtliness, class distinction, politeness and submissive-
ness, leads us to suppose that the aristocratic style of life, even
though presumably for a great part of older date, probably did not
obtain its high development and beautiful stylization until after
1600. To European taste this indeed became a hypertrophic develop-
ment, an oyer-stylization and over—refinement or even artificial-
ity, which took place at the cost of the spontaneous element and
therefore carried in the danger of paralysis and petrification. (19)
It is still impossible to give accurately the ages of the
various components of the Javanese culture of about 1800,
One part is very old* The division of the society into
princes, nobles and peasants, and thus also the feudal, hierarchic
class society, is immeasurably older than the Mataram period. The
basic element of the wajang comes from the Hindu period. As for
literature, we know of writings dating from the eighth century. The
eqxiation of rulers with gods goes together with the Indian dogma of
(14)	Court literature (the classical literature revolving around,
by and for, the court). (T.N.)
(15)	Plgeaud, p.29-30„
(16)	Javanese theatre performance, with dancing and gamelan music.
(Pigeaud; Javaans-Nederlands Handwoordenboek). (T.N.)
(17)	Pigeaud, p*75 and 358*
(18)	Rouffaer-Juynboll, p.3O7 and 503.
(19)	Rouffaer-Juynboll, p*306 and Brandes in Tijd.schr. Bat. Gen. ,
Vol. XXXII, p.134.13
the Incarnation of god>s in the kings. Great priests and lesser
princely persons could also be incarnations of gods. The concept
of caste and the knightly (satrija) idea are Hindu. The influence
of this upon class differences "is thus very old. The princely house
of ModJopahiaccording to Plgeaud, very probably laid claim to
the highest sacred veneration. Both the knightly culture and at
least an important part of the aristocratic way of life are there-
fore presumably vpry old.
According to Stutterheim, the cultural treasures of the
Hindus, which were previously accessible only to the few Sanskrit
scholars, were made available to the people since the end of
the tenth century through being translated into the vernacular; and
after that the real conversion to Hinduism Of the Javanese people
began. "We can form an idea of the results of this if we realise
that, even at present, the ideals of higher Javanese life and
thought are the same as those which were brought to life by the
heroes of the Mahabharata, which was diffused everywhere by the
wajang.In connection with the Kediri period, Stutterheim speaks
of the penetration of Hindu influence into the village and of the
great cultural unity which obtained in both village and palace, (20)
More recent, from the Mataram period or later, as we have seen,
is the refinement of court life to a high degree, the splitting of
the language into ’high* and ’low’, the exaltation of etiquette, the
refining and stylization of the aristocratic way of life. In this
period the aristocratic style of life obtained a greater monopoly of
the good life than ever before, as a result of the decline of the
sea trade. This aristocratic way of life dominated the whole elite
and set the direction of the entire Javanese people.
In Europe the ai’istocratic style of life remained limited main-
ly to the knightly classes, which, however, quickly faded into the
background; whilst the urban groups, which all arose early, though
they endeavoured to imitate the nobility on the other hand brought
forth their own Ideals and principles of living. In Java such
groups, which formed a social and political counterweight to the
nobility, were lacking. The classes in Java were probably also
much more rigorously hierarchically ordered than in Medieval Europe,
where freedom from feudal villeinage could be obtained in the towns.
Furthermore, the clergy—which knew no sacraments—was less inde-
pendent in Java than in Medieval Europe. (21) Unlike in Europe,
Where the nobility itself became tired of the chivalric ideal, the
Javanese princely and aristocratic world did not of itself tire of
(20)	Dr. W.F.Stutterheim; ’Het Hinduisme in den Archipel* (Hinduism
in the Archipelago), 1932, p.36, 45, and 46.
(21)	G.Gonggrijp,'Schets eener economische geschiedenis van Ned.
Indie , (Sketch for an economic history of Netherlands India),
2nd editiong 1938, pp.3 and 14.14
the old ideal. It remained to the end of the nineteenth century
a living and inspiring concept; and only under Western influence did
a dissatisfaction with the old way of life arise.
To sum up, in comparison with Europe the aristocratic way of
life in Java was probably much more deeply rooted and harmoniously
fitted into the whole culture, and much more closely related to that
culture’s life- and world-view. Presumably the feudal structiire
had existed much longer, the nobility had longer occupied a central
and all-dominating position, the class divisions coincided more with
the feudal hierarchy and the distance between high and low was great-
er. The aristocratic way of life was probably more highly cultivat-
ed and more refined and stylized than in Europe, had more of a mon-
opoly. as a style of life, and was more generally accepted by the whole
people as its guide. Almost certainly the aristocratic art of life,
as it was developed in the Javanese courts, was an unchallenged
ideal for the whole people for much longer and penetrated much more
deeply into all layers of the population.
What has been said above does not hold for all the peoples of
the island of Java to an equal degree, but is true in particular for
the Javanese and in lesser degree for the Sundanese and the Madurese.
Pigeaud observes that though their languages may differ from
Javanese, the Sundanese and Madurese are, strictly speaking,
•Javanised’ in so far as concerns their higher culture and art. The
nobility, the prijaji class, is presumably partly Javanese in origin
and certainly to theend of the last century continued to be strong-
ly Javanese-influenced. For the Madurese this holds, in his opinion,
to a yet higher degree than for the Sundanese.
As regards West Java, the coastrl regions of Cheribon, Indramayu,
Krawang (also Djakarta, Batavia) and Bantam, which at present are
Javanese, were probably conquered from the old Sundanese people in
the fifteenth century by Central Javanese sea-farers and colonists
who came by sea. The Sundanese were thereby excluded from the sea
and the main stream of trade. They had previously, even as late as
in the fourteenth century, engaged in sea trade; but thereafter
they had to limit themselves to the interior. The Sundanese found
little other connection with Javanese culture than via Cheribon,
which itself, however, became more and more out of contact with the
centre of Javanese life in South-Central Java.
Pigeaud assumes that Javanese influence affected Madura much
earlier and more strongly, also as a result of the many points of
contact in the coastal places. Iforeover the influence on Madura
started from another area, namely East Java and the Pasisir. The
Madurese regions, at least the coastal towns with sea trade, in his
opinion became economically developed earlier than the Sundanese
highlands. The Madurese princes after the conquest would also
originally have been of Javanese origin. Furthermore, unlike the
Sundanese, the Madurese in the course of more recent history have
remained in close contact with the Javanese.15
According to Pigeaud the difference in Javanisation appears,
for example, from the fact that the Javanese literary language was
so popular with the Madurese that it kept them for a long time from
using their own language for literary work; this, however, occurred
among the Sundanese to a lesser extent.
In the popular art of the Sundanese and Madurese there are, in
his opinion, still many indigenous features to be seen; and it is
precisely thisi popular art which appears in the recent times among
both peoples to be developing into a modern popular comic theatre.
The transplanted Javanese art, which whs especially cultivated under
the patronage and at the expense of princes, and regents shows on the
other hand a tendency to deterioration. ’’Here can be seen”, accord-
ing to Pigeaud, ”in the first place the opposition of a newer,
’’modern” trend in popular amusements towards the older one of the
wajang and its kind. Perhaps it may be established that in the
Sundanese and Madurese regions,; the newer, popular art has gained
more on the old wajang art in this struggle between old and new
than is the case in Javanese territory. If this is so, then this
head start in the ^’modernisation” of the Sundanese over the Java-
nese is certainly due among other things to the fact that the oppo-
sition between old and new is strengthened by that between Javanese
and indigenous. The old Javanism with its ’wajang-culture* has not
been able to strike such deep roots among the Sundanese and Madur-
ese as among the Central Javanese.” (22)
It may be added here, that since the development of categories
of language in Javanese has gone much further than in Sundanese and
in Madurese, it can also be accepted as very probable that the
aristocratic way of life in strictly Javanese territory reached a
much higher development and that the Javanese people have been
more deeply influenced by it than the Sundanese and Madurese people.
After 1800 Western influence penetrated deeper into Javanese
society, and first of all into the feudal sphere. The consequen-
ces of this were disintegration and reconstruction; de-feudali-
sation and renovation.
The de-feudalisation was connected first with the institution
of a European Civil Service, which had as its task the bringing of
legal security and the freedom of person and goods to the popula-
tion. The old, despotic nobility was placed under the new Civil
Service, which broke the absolute power of the nobility and took
action against abuse of power to protect the village people. The
ceremonial processions of the feudal chiefs were simplified. At
the end of the eighteenth century, for example, the regents were
followed by retinues of hundreds of people, which gave expression
to their high social prestige. These retinues had already been
reduced by Daendels, and after him were diminished still more, so
(22) Pigeaud, p.109-110, 147, 148, 412.16	"
that in twenty years they were brought down to about a tenth -of
their former size.
In 1820 (Staatsblad No. 22) and 1824 (Staatsblad No. 13) the
ranks, titles, parasols, processions and retinues of the regents
and a number of th© lower chiefs were regulated. The detailed way
in which this was done shows what great importance was attached to
it in the Javanese world. In later years these external signs of
the position and prestige of the chiefs were still more reduced.
The forced labour which the people performed for the retinue of
the chiefs, the so-called ’pantjendiensten', were in 1885 wholly
abolished.
Bijblad No. 1531 of the year 1864 contained a government
decision on the request of the widow: of a regent to be allowed to
continue after the death of her husband to bear the pajung /parasol/
and other distinctions, consisting of a cortege of three piFes and”
four men, prescribed for the wife of a Raden Tumenggung. The Govern-
ment had no objection to the bearing of the title and the pajung,
but it objected to the cortege because this was related to the power
to dispose of people. A large cortege, according to the government,
could not well be reconciled with the ’’present principles of govern-
ment”. The government considered that gradually much of what had
been permitted by the regulation of 1820 had of itself become obso-
lete and that a further regulation would revive much of it, which
was thought undesirable.
The tournaments (the seton’s in the Vorstenlanden /Trincely
States/ where they fell on Saturday, and the senenan/s elsewhere,
where”they were held on Monday ’to set them apart* (23), were
according to Rouffaer still in vogue in most of the Regency capitals
outside the Vorstenlanden until after 1860. Pangaran Achmad
Djajadiningrat himself remembered such tournaments in his youth,
in which his father as district head had to take part. He gave a
description of the tournaments, but saw in them little more than a
means for the Indonesian officials ’’for the sake of the greatness
of the regent...to provide a subject of amusement for the people”.
(24)
In 1876 (Bijblad No, 4043) the government instructed the
European Civil Service to oppose the inclination of the regents to
hold feasts. The giving of feasts on the occasion of appointments,
promotions, awards of titles of nobility, marriages and circumsis-
ions had as its result that most regents were burdened with debts.
At the same time, the burden of each feast came to rest for a large
part on the people, whose custom it was to give presents in the
form of foodsti’ffs and other articles. The European Civil Service,
therefore, had to limit this ’feast-giving’.
(23)	J. W. Winter: ’Beknopte beschrljving van het hof Soerakarta
in 1824’(Brief description of fho Court of Surakarta in 1824).
(24)	’Her inner ingen’, (Reminiscen.ses) 1936, p.ll.17
By similar measures the pomp and circumstance of the feudal
'’^orld was significantly diminished. For the beautiful feudal play
there thus remained in the long run little room for expression. Be-
cause of the abuses which were connected to the old type of adminis-
tration, de*feudalisation was rightly begun; but in the last century
this also destroyed a piece of court-culture which possessed poetry
and a colourful way of life.
In the twentieth century the colonial administration went still
further by also taking action against the Javanese pattern of
etiquette, the hormat. The customs of etiquette and homage had,
According to the ^‘hormat circular" of the year 1904 (Bijblad No, 6113),
a number of "peculiarities" which would have to disappear with more
Social intercourse, just as in the larger centres of communication
they had already been considerably modified or diminished. The
faithful observance of stricter adat ^ustom/ regarding homage gave
occasion for much waste of time and was humTliating for those in
^hom an idea of self-respect had awoken. The government spoke about
’’the forms of hormat, which belonged to an earlier period of politi-
cal and social life". It desired, however, to take into account a
class of Indonesian government officials who were still far from
I’ealizing the superfluity of these forms and would consider the
abolition by higher authority of the traditional forms of respect as
a diminution of their prestige.
According to the government, the adat must therefore be toler-
ated by the European administration, but not protected or encouraged.
P.Ai Djajadiningrat relates that though in 1900 much had al-
i*eady been changed, the pajung custom was still "in full glory",
^hen the regents saw that the European government officials after
ihe hormat circular of 1904 no longer walked with a parasol, they
too left this at home. The "old period" quickly drew to an end
^fter 1900- The new "Sarikat Islam" set itself against the perfor-
mance of the sembah. (25)
More government circulars followed later, whereby the use of
^tch was also encouraged. Dutch only began to come into greater
^se in the twentieth century; according to P. Djajadiningrat there
^ere in the whole of Java in 1900 only four regents who spoke Diiqh.
A government circular of 1913 (Bijblad No. 7937) said that
there still were complaints about the treatment of the Indonesian
people. The European Civil Service did not behave correctly towards
the Indonesian service; the latter did not do so towards Indonesian
’Officials in other branches of service, such as physicians, teachers,
9-nd irrigation personnel; European and Indonesian officials did not
(25) Expression of respect (hands extended and placed together
before the nose or forehead). Pigeaud, Dr. T.H. Javaans-
Nederlands Handwoordenboek. (T.N.)'■I
18
do so towards the non-official Indonesian public. The government
pointed out the influence of the nationalist movement. Hitherto
it had consisted almost solely of the Indonesian official world, in
which a certain emancipation could gradually be observed. However,
there was now an increasing number of ’’ordinary" Indonesians who
were conscious that they could be something more than they had
formerly suspected, and who thus began to make claims to another
valuation and treatment, not only from Europeans, but also from
their own superiors. The government saw in this "awakening of
self-confidence" the first result of its long-standing attempts to
elevate the people.
The first action against the feudal structure of Javanese
society was taken by the Netherlands Colonial Government, and this
cost it the Java War (1825-1830). From the above it also appears
that later, especially after 1900, an aversion to the feudal struc-
ture arose among the Indonesian people, who particularly objected
to the great social differences which resulted from it and to the
submissiveness which the old etiquette ordained. This resistance
began in the towns and among the officials who had obtained a West-
ern education. These Indonesians, oriented to the modern world, lost
the old-fashioned religious respect for their superiors; they could
no longer practice homage as a cult, but felt it to be humiliating.
They considered their old culture no longer as courtly and refined
but as too courtly and decadent.
The de-feudalisation, which was set in motion artificially
and from above by the Europeans, was afterwards continued spontane-
ously by Indonsians. The nationalist movements of this century were
nearly all anti-feudal. The de-feudalisation of the nobility was
coupled with their education on Western lines. De-feudalisation,
which caused the beauty and gaity of the old culture to vanish,
must have cut the old-fashioned Javanese to the heart. Later, how-
ever, they opened themselves to Western ideas, and eventually they
eagerly asked for Western education for their children. Gradually,
the nobility took over more and more Western ideas and principles.
The external forms of social intercourse also changed. Typical
of this development is that a regent who formerly included in his
retinue his horse, a sitting mat and a betel set, came in the years
before the war to prefer a motor car , a leather armchair and a
cigarette-case. And a well trained Controleur district Officer/
of the Civil Service, once had to be able to dance in the Indone-
sian fashion; but in the years just before the war a Wedana /Sistrict
Head/ applied himself to tennis, billiards and Western dancTng.
The“contact between both bodies of administrators took place
earlier in a more Eastern ant- later in a more Western fashion.
Fifty years ago at government conferences the Regents and European
officians were almost the only ones who sat on chairs, the
Indonesian prijaji /noble^/ and village heads sitting on mats on
the ground. Thirty~years ago the prijaji had come to sit on chairs
and in the last pre-war years the village heads did so, too.
A number of Western ideas and institutions concerning the State19
9-ncl society penetrated into Plastern community. People thought
a-bout ideas such as "the common interest", "democracy”, "progress",
the equality of men, nationalism. The Western-educated especially
Were the bearers and transmitters of these new concepts. The direc-
tion in which these ideas moved was Western: there was a desire to
Co-operate for the development and betterment of society.
In general the ideal of what has been denoted above as the
third way of Huizinga was discarded for that of his second way—»
the medieval, feudal, ideal made way for the modern Western ideal.
The performance and ennoblement of personal and social life-expres-
sions, the ideal of life itself, made way for the goal of knowledge,
cl the domination and betterment of society. The art of living was
supplemented by the art of government; the ideal of the satrija was
Supplemented by that of the social engineer; emphasis was transferred
from Javanese self-sufficiency and repetition of the traditional
Pattern to a struggle for the future modernisation of the country.
This de-feudalisation and modernisation had the consequence
that Western cultural influence was no longer seen by the Indonesian
hpper class as Western, foreign, and alien to them; and it was
Acknowledged by many that there were also things of universal value
fh Western culture. Because Indonesians began to take part in the
Western influence, which initially was exclusively in the hands of
^ropeans, it is better now to speak not of a ’Western’, but of a
‘modernising’ Influence, or the modernisation of the country. As a
Result of these changes, the nobility underwent a renovation. In
Comparison with the medieval tyrannical potentates, the aristocrats
cf 1941 were modern administrators.
These new phenomena affected not only the nobility but the whole
®upra-village sphere, in which important changes had occurred after
1800.
Formerly, the supra-village sphere consisted almost exclusively
princes and nobility, with some exception for Chinese tax—farmers
^bo had leased public revenues and adapted themselves to the feudal
structure. In the course of the nineteenth century, new social
groups were added. The first of them was the European Civil Ser-
'^ice, which was Instituted shortly after 1800. It was in the eyes
the people a sort of Western nobility set in Eastern society,
^Qd it retained that character to the Second World War. The
European administration received a share of the popular respect for
Ibe bearers of authority. When Pangeran A. A. Djajadiningrat as a
S^oung boy was receiving a lesson in Javanese etiquette he was taught
that "the basis of chivalry” consisted in "respect and loving care
lor one’s parents’* and "real affection for the Prince" (the Ratu);
Ahd that under "Prince" must also be included his representatives,
Including the Resident and Assistant Resident. (26)
(26) "Herinneringen" p.71.20
Many new groups of Indonesian officials were added. The
regulation of 1824 prescribed titles, ranks and ceremonial for the
’’heads of forestry and the senior heads of the water works, vaccina-
tion service, salt works and warehouses”, in addition to those al-
ready in existence for officials of the administration and the
judiciary. Later, teachers and others were so distinguished. With
each new group there arose the then very important problem of how
they were to be adapted to the hierarchical structure of Javanese
society and into which place on the social ladder they were to be
included. For that purpose, the newcomers were made identical in
rank with certain already existing senior officials, this determin-
ing their titles, ranks, and ceremonial were defined. They thus
initially also obtainedj on behalf of their retinue, a right to
the pantjendienat /corvee/of the population.
---------------- — . < .
Thus, for example, in 1865 a mantri-guru /elementary school
headmaster/was made identical in rank with cerTain ’’heads of the
water worEs”. In 1874 this happened to the cashiers and tellers
in the State Treasury. In 1879 state school teachers were
assimilated, head teachers being equated in rank with the senior
forestry chiefs, teachers of the first, second and third rank with
senior heads of water works and senior officials of that level,
teachers of the fourth class with second-rank forestry officials,
and the assistant teachers with the "minor clerks”. At the same
time, two uniforms were prescribed for the teachers: a dress
uniform for official occasions and a ’’pradjurit^ /warrior/ uniform”
to wear on horseback on official occasions as they rode Fy right
and duty in the retinue of the Resident or the Regent.
In 1893 similar prescriptions were given for veterinary
surgeons, in 1896 for the clerks of the Post, Telegraph and
Telephone Service and for the clerks and draughtsmen of the State
Railways. In 1906, as the last measiire of this nature, the cere-
monial, retinue and pajung of the personnel of the pawnshop service
were laid down. In this way it was necessary every time to fit the
new groups of officials into the hierarchic structure of Javanese
society. In other words modern public services, every time they
were confronted with Javanese feudalism, had to be feudalised.
After 1906, these assimilations became obviously out of date.
The hormat circulars appeared, the government declared its opposi-
tion to the old customs, and popular opinion underwent great
changes.	'
A third group which emerged into the feudal sphere in the
nineteenth century was that of the European entrepreneurs. In
order to be accepted by Indonesian society and to command respect
and obtain authority there, they perforce sought esteem and, thus,
a high position In the social hierarchy—a feudal or serai-feudal
position. They did this through the organisation of their
businesses, employing the services of the native leaders, at first
openly and with official toleration and later, after 1863,
clandestinely. At times they sought to obtain a more general power21
position at the local level, whereby they sometimes nearly
developed into independent barons and fought to shove aside the
assistant residents in a lialf opeii and half -underground struggle.
In their public and private lives, too, by the display of great
state, the building of imposing houses, laying out of large grounds
with stately carriage-drives, the giving of great feasts, the
planters bore themselves as grand seigneurs, and the tea barons,
the sugar lords and sugar ladies strove for a quasi-feudal position.
Later all this was less necessary; and the houses of the modern
administrators were quite a bit smaller and more modest than those
which were built earlier.
A fourth, still younger group which made its entry into feudal
sphere consisted of the Indonesian intellectuals, the lawyers, the
physicians, Ph.D.’s, the engineers. They originated principally
from the higher class of officials, the only group which could
finance the costly studies from its own means and which often made
the greatest efforts and heaviest sacrifices for it. The people in
general have indeed shown that they are capable of saving, not only
for the pilgrimage to Mecca, but also for the education of their
children. According to a novel by S. Takdir Alisjahbaha the
expenditure for one child was often greater than for a whole
family. (27) Professor C. Hooykaas points out ’’how parents, elder
brothers, whole families have put up with very great sacrifices for
the schooling of the family’s pride and joy.” (28)
Academic degrees were very much desired by the nobility. This
was first of all for financial reasons, because an academic educa-
tion gave entry to various situations in the administration which
were considerably better paid than those in the Indonesian civil
service. In the second place academic titles enjoyed a high regard
in the Indonesian world. In the beginning, especially, they were
over-estimated. Just as in old Europe the doctor’s graduation stood
on approximately the same level as the accolade, so also in Indo-
nesian society an academic degree stood in high honour. Academics
married girls of higher social standing. Typical is an anecdote,
told of one of the Central Javanese courts, where the son of one
of the nobles said in answer to the question what he would later
become ”a lawyer-doctor-engineer”. On account of its origin and
culture the group was thus considered by the nobility to be, in
general, its equal. After the earlier, nineteenth century aversion
to western education had been overcome, academic studies in the
twentieth century were thus promoted by the feudal aspiration for
esteem.
(27)	Prof. dr. J. Gonda: ’’Letterkunde van de Indische Archipel”,
(Literature of the Indian archipelago), 1947.
(28)	’’Voldoet de A.M.S.nog?” (Do the High Schools still satisfy),
Koloniale Studien (Colonial Studies), Feb. 1940, p.24.
22
A fifth, largely new group in the supra-village sphere is the
Indonesian middle class. By this middle claSs I understand the
group of Indonesian entrepreneurs who are running a business in
either trade and industry which is organised exclusively on a
contractual basis, and who stand head and shoulders above the
village sphere. We are thus concerned principally with traders
and industrialists. This middle class exists within the area of
money exchange. It is small, but Increasing in numbers. In 1928,
when P. A. A. Djajadiningrat was Invited to give a lecture on the
Indonesian middle class, he did not find it simple, for ”it was
not even then certain that among the Indonesian people in our
country there was such a middle class”. Now it need no longer be
doubted.
The middle class originated not from the aristocracy but from
the villagers, and was thus of lower origin and enjoyed a lesser
regard than the nobility. Even when the bourgeoisie stood on the
same financial level as the aristocracy, they were not considered
as equals or fully accepted by these. In general, the nobility
had little regard for the middle class. This went together with the
lordly style of life of the aristocracy, which involved a highly de-
veloped class consciousness and a contempt for trade and manual
labour. The nobility, as the bearer of a higher and finer culture,
saw in the middle class in general only ill-bred or uncultured
parvenus. The nobility therefore treated the middle class as a
rule as ”wong tjilik”, as the little man, the villager and the
peasant. When a regent gave a feast, for example, the officials,
down to the lowest clerks, would be seated in the pendopo,/pavilion/
and thus take part in the feast; but the middle class were~left to~
stand outside with the common people as spectators. This treatment
has important consequences, for the children of the middle class
noted the higher distinction which accrued to those fathers of their
friends who were officials, and consequently they themselves desired
to become officials. This formed an obstacle to the growth of the
middle class, which to begin with was sown very sparsely and was
thus disunited. In this respect, the feudal structure formed a
brake against the economic moderization of Javanese society.
This is also the case in another respect, in that the Javanese
nobleman would not take part in economic life, a factor which was
connected with the aristocratic style of life. It is true that the
nobleman had earlier played a great role in the old Javanese over-
seas trade, but then matters had been different. At the time the
nobleman could intervene in trade as financier and holder of ad-
ministrative power and thus take part in trade without falling in
rank or respect. Now, however, the noble would have to begin from
the bottom, something which the aristocratic style of life rejected
because it would mean a loss of esteem.
In Europe entrepreneurs emerged from the ranks of the trades-
men and manual labourers; the nobility mostly assimilated itself
with the world of high finance. In Florence this took place in
the fifteenth century and earlier. 'The nobility adapted itself
to the new social relations, moved to the towns, took part in
commercial life, and allied itself with the patricians. On the
other hand, commoners who had become rich sought prestige and23
security in landed property. This adaptation to the middle
class way of life by the nobility and the feudalisation of the
entreprsneui's furthered the fusion of the upper class to a new
trading aristocracy, in which the middle element modified the style
of life of the whole. (29)
Approximately the same thing happened later in France and in
England, Here each step forward oh the road of economic develop-
ment was the work of new men, of ’’self-made men" and "nouveaux-
riches", because those who had risen to the top in a previous wave
chose to remain above the risks of trade and sought admission into
the old, aristocratic circles, (30) Even in Japan, where the mer-
chant was despised by the nobility, there nevertheless came into
existence a trading class on which many noblemen became financially
dependent. Rich merchants were then often connected to samurai’s
by marriage or adoption, (31)
In both Europe and Japan, therefore, the entrepreneurs did not
originate from the nobles, but :;;rom groups which sprang up next to
the nobility and with which the nobility amalgamated. There the
nobility could move into big business, and participation in commer-
cial life meant little or no loss of esteem.
In Java, earlier, before the seventeenth century, rich traders
often married into noble or princely families. Also, according to
Pigeaud, there was in the harbour towns of the North Coast (Lasem,
Tuban, Gresik, Surabaya, Cheribon) a "mixing and consolidation of
the numerous Indonesian-Chinese communities with the Javanese people,
both of the middle and the upper classes", by marriage as well as
the conversion of Indonesian-Chinese families to Islam. It is
known that distinguished families in East Java have Chinese among
their forefathers. A strong Chinese influence is also discernible
in the plastic arts, woodcarving, and so on. Later, too, the
Chinese, including the very well-to-do, continued to participate
in Javanese artistic and cultural life. In modern times, with the
development of world communications, the Chinese have almost all
associated themselves with Western culture or sought support from
modern China. This mixing with the Javanese people has therefore
been arrested. (32)
In the period just before the war contact between the Indo-
nesian people and the Chinese and European groups was almost solely
limited to the economic and business level. There was little social
intercourse; few personal ties were created, and there was conse-
quently no fusion by inter-marriage, which for that matter was not
looked on with favour by any of the three groups concerned.
(29)	A.V.Martin: "Kultursoziologie des Mittelalters" /Cultural
Sociology of the Middle Age^/ in_Vierkandt, AlfreH
"Handworterbuch der Soziologie’’/Encyclopaedia of Sociology^lSSl
(30)	H. See, p. 179.
(31)	E. Herbert Norman: Japan’s emergence as a modern state,1940,Ch.11.
I (32) Pigeaud, p. 114 and 141.-3
24
The Indonesian middle class was too small to be expected to
bring about a renovation and commercialisation of the nobility,
As far as the tendencies which were active in Europe and Japan
are concerned, it thus appears, to begin with, that in Java too the
new business classes valued esteem and security above the risks of
trade, that here too the rising entrepreneurs underwent a process
of ’’feudalisation’’. Moreover, that there is little question in
Java of the assimilation of the nobility into the middle class,
because the influence of the Indonesian businessmen is quantitative-
ly too small for that and the nobility were separated from the non-
Indonesian business group by social barriers. The economic develop-
ment of the Javanese people must therefore come exclusively from
the village people.
The new Indonesian middle class developed, in spite of its
scanty prestige, a new self-consciousness. According to an
anecdote which was told both of wealthy Indonesian merchants in
Kudus and in Jogja, the middle class men whose daughters had de-
served a reprimand threatened them with the punishment of marriage
to a prijaji. In this, of course, they were referring scornfully
to the nobleman as a ’’poor official”. The middle-class thus came
to realize the value of its social function; its members felt
themselves too high to be treated as villagers. They had outgrown
the village and were often well off, but they found no satisfactory
place in the supra-village sphere. They would pay no hormat and
would rather, so to speak, have received hormat themselves. This
gave rise to difficulties, and it is said that one of the Central
Javanese kratons set up a commission, consisting of representatives
of the kraton and of merchants, which tried to evolve new forms of
etiquette. Certain regents did meet objections of this nature;
for example, at formal ceremonies members of the bourgeoisie would
also be invited into the pavilion and there would be offered a
chair. Also, in the last pre-war years, attempts were made within
the Javanese linguistic area to unify the language and to abolish
or to soften the gradations of high and low in Javanese. Post-
war developments, which are strengthening the tendencies towards a
diminution of social differences and towards a furtherance of
equality, will perhaps help to lighten the difficulties mentioned
here, although the language remains a stumbling-block. The success
of the Indonesian language in this sphere is due in part to a desire
to avoid the difficulties which Javanese presents in this respect.
However, the signs of a new style of life and a new group
consciousness are still not strong. Pigeaud argues that the rising
or semi-urban labourers and petit bourgeoisie have loosened them-
selves from the old Javanese patterns of life and art more than the
older classes, the peasants and the higher and lower prijaji’s.
Pigeaud understands here not only the entrepreneurs whom I mention-
ed above, but also the smaller merchants and the labourers. These
groups have in common with the businessmen that they stand outside
agriculture and outside the old desa context. According to Pigeaud,
these new classes are less content with old Javanese art, which was
to a high degree static and without much action. This old art was25
one of the expressions of the old Javanese world view, shaped by
a "cosmic community feeling". An understanding of it diminishes
in modern times, most of all among the new class. In Pigeaud’s
judgment the Javanese urban middle class does not yet possess its
own new, in the Western sense established, bourgeois pattern of
life and art. In this middle class there develops, according to
him, "little by little, here and there, a modest centre of an
established middle class with its own group feeling, mostly having
as its centre a somewhat r.odernised kaum-group". Where the new
middle class and the lower classes which depend on it are still in
their early period, they apparently seek satisfaction in the
modernisation of the more dynamic aspects of the old theatre. In
this way the modern farce or the folk theatre is developing; here—
more than with the old wajang—action takes place, subjects from
daily life are discussed, and the vernacular language is used. (33)
That this renewal, modernisation and dynamizing are still
incomplete appears from the character of this new popular art. This
according to Pigeaud, is all too clearly reminiscent of the old
types of theatre and wajang. The birth of a new bourgeois theatre
that does not copy the past" and which is genuine and originally
Javanese, is still awaited. "The great influence of Western culture
especially on the modernisation of life patterns and art, has led to
and will probably eventually compel the adoption of the modern
dynamicism of the West without much criticism or transformation.
Under these conditions there is little chance that the slowly in-
creasing stimulation of Javanese spiritual life will quickly result
in an original,completely rejuvenated higher art." (34)
However, this opinion of Pigeaud’s dates from the year 1938.
Probably the time that has elapsed since, especially the post-war
period, has not remained without influence, although it is not yet
possible to say to what extent this is the case. I must in this
matter content myself with noting that after the war Indonesians
at one time expressed the opinion that the gamelan was opium for the
people (35), and that, further, in Madiun and Solo a new wajang
theatre has emerged, which with its leather puppets corresponds to
the old wajang kullt but which differs from it in that the stories,
persons, and subjects of the present day are brought on the scene.
This so-called "wajang suluh" portrays, for example, Indonesian
(33)	Pigeaud, p. 34
(34)	Pigeaud, p. 34, 35
(35)	D. de Vries; Culturele aspecten in de verhouding Nederland-
Indonesie, /Culturalaspects of Netherlands-
Indonesian relations/, 1947, p. 90.26
National Army soldiers, members of the Hizbullah (36),
Republican ministers, Sukarno, Hatta, Van Mook, aircraft and tanks.
The stories concern, for instance, the proclamation of the Republic,
the Japanese capitulation, the Police Actions and the negotiations
of the Netherlands with the Republic. (37)
On the question of how far there is a difference between West,
Central and East Java with respect to the problem of the bourgeoisie,
there are few facts of any use. Important, however, is Pigeaud’s
report in the following passage on the esteem for the middle class
in various parts of Java, where apparently under the term "middle
class" the entrepreneurs are understood: "In both the Sundanese
and Madurese areas, as a result of social development the generally
strongly Muslem middle class enjoyed a very high esteem next to
the more or less Javanised prijaji classes and the modern intellec-4
tuals. In Central Java, on the other hand, the prijaji’s pride
in their kinship with the princes, their nobility, together with
the ever more numerous Western-oriented intellectuals, committed
the petit bourgeoisie and the orthodox Muslims to the shadows," (38)
This leads one to assume that the situation of the middle class is
not everywhere the same in other matters, either.
It is also probably not the same in another respect. There
is, you see, a remarkable difference in recent economic develop-
ment among the various parts of Java. We are concerned here with
impressions which are not recorded in figures, but which are so
accepted by the experts on this territory, that in my opinion they
can be relied on. This impression is, to wit, that the modern
business activity of the Indonesians in recent years, and even
before the war, has awakened most clearly in the Sundanese regions,
in West Java. In Central Java this is the case to a much lesser
degree; while in East Java it has taken place somewhat more than
in Central Java but less than in the west of the island. A differ-
ence is at present to be observed in the attitude of Indonesians
in comparison with their attitude before the war. The Indonesian
now is considered more frank, self-assured and independent; he feels
able to undertake more, even in the commercial field which again
is to be observed especially in West Java among the Sundanese.
According to these impressions, therefore, the order in which a
revival seems to have taken place goes, now as in pre-wai’ times,
from West to East and Central Java. Central Java thus shows the
least growth of modern business activity in general.
(36)	A Muslim armed organisation, existing at the time of the
Indonesian struggle for independence. (T.N.)
(37)	"Indonesle Cultureel" Cultural Indonesia/, Sep. 1948.
(38)	Pigeaud, p. 149.27
It may be asked whether this phenomenon is connected to
the differences previously indicated in the cultural pattern of
the three peoples of Java,(39) Their cultural pattern is on the
whole defined by the nobility's aristocratic style of life and the
communal form of life of the village, inasmuch as the modern middle
class way of life is still very weak and limited to small groups.
Now it has been shown above that Javanisation has pervaded the
Sundanese and Madurese regions much less than Central Java, that
the differences of language point to a stronger, feudal, hierarchy
there and that the aristocratic pattern of life in the Javanese
regions is more developed and has deeply pervaded all classes of
the population. The scanty esteem for the middle class in Central
Java shows a greater class differentiation, a higher pedestal for
the nobility, a more humble position for the villager. The
aristocratic style of life, which entails a low regard for trade
and manual labour thus imprints an exceptionally strong stamp on
the whole population of Central Java.
Moreover, the village form of life has a stronger communal
character than in West and East Java. As is known, the right of the
village to dispose of its inhabitant's land is stronger among the
Javanese than among both the other population groups. This has had
the consequence that in the Sundanese regions the right of the
peasant to his land has from olden times been less impaired by the
princes and nobility than elsewhere. Also, later attacks on the
property rights of the peasant were rejected by public opinion.
When Daendels directed that the cavalry he had founded be rewarded
with land, this proved, in contrast with the Javanese regions, to be
impossible in Preanger, where it was opposed to the popular land
rights. Under the "cultur^ system’’ the government in the Javanese
regions intervened very greatly in village domestic affairs, with
the consequence that land ownership and the class structure in the
villages underwent modifications. In the Madurese and Sundanese
regions, such intervention proved impossible, being frustrated by
the uncooperativeness of the people. (40)
Among the Javanese the individual thus stands in a weaker posi-
tion against the society than elsewhere. They are weaker with re-
gard to the nobility, which stand on its lofty pedestal and demands
more respect and humility of the villagers, and to the village
community, which asks for more compliance and adaptation.
There was in other respects a connection between the old-fash-
ioned feudal structure which earlier led to despotism and the
communalism of the villages. In the traditional desa, profits from
possessions or windfalls were shared to a very high degree. The
(39)	Ruth Benedict; Patterns of Culture, 4th edn., 1948.
(40)	See my dissertation, p. 43, 45, 148.28
rich man shared his from a feeling of obligation. To refuse
was generally most unseemly, although this by no means made for
complete levelling of economic distinctions. One man profited
from another without shame. In the villages, a man was as open-
handed with his own property for the sake of another as he was
close-fisted with regard to another’s possessions for his own
benefit. The traditional despotic potentates made use of these
relations. Their despotism may be considered as an extreme ex-
ample of the village community’s demandingness. The now vanish-
ing meekness of the villagers may be seen as a highly developed
generosity which excluded almost all resistance or refusal with
regard to the exactions of prince and noble.
In the same order--Javanese, Madurese and Sundanese—in which
Javanisation decreases, business activity thus apparently Increases.
The Outer Territories are probably also connected in this series.
In these outer territories, the leaders of the people and their
relatives generally take a greater part in trade than is the case
in Java. The opposition of the nobility to the middle class is
here apparently not a problem worth mentioning. Now the Outer
Territories are in general less Javanised than Java itself. The
aristocratic style of life with its class consciousness, refinement
and dislike of trade and manual labour, is in the Outer Territories
apparently much less developed than in Java. These territories are
thus connected with the range of regions where Javanisation de-
creases and modern business activity increases.
These facts give rise to the impression that there does indeed
exist a connection between the backwardness of Central Java in
economic development and the cultural pattern of this territory as
it is expressed in the aristocratic style of life and the communal
living pattern. The reverse side of the high development of Java-
nese culture is therefore perhaps that, with a renovation of the old
pattern which lies so much deeper, more of the culture must ba over-
turned, that the loss of old values is greater and the transition
harder and lengthier than elsewhere. For the other Indonesian
peoples, whose own culture was less developed in the Javanese dir-
ection, the acceptance of new values meant a smaller loss and, to
the extent, modernisation had to overcome less resistance there.
Another important new social phenomenon in the supra-village
sphere arose from the co-operatives and other associations. These
associations are of importance not only on account of the content of
their aims and the degree wherein they exercise political, economic,
social or cultural influence, but also because of their organisation.
Like the Indonesian entrepreneurs, the associations are a phenome-
non of the money economy whxch exists in the supra-village sphere
and which the Indonesians no longer permitted to be organised for
them—as was the case with wage labour—-but which they organised
themselves. 1 shall deal here only with certain features of this
development. The viability of the associations, particularly of
the political associations, was closely connected with the modern
structure of Indonesian society, especially with the economy intro-
duced there, and the legal order which went with it. The associa-
tions borrowed from the West the association as a form of29
organisation. They utilised the circulation of money, so
strongly stimulated by Western business life, in the collection
of contributions and in their own financial managment. They profit-
ed from the modern means of communication, which made possible the
transport of their members oyer great distances and opened up oppor-
tunities for rural organisations. They utilised the limited, but
democratic, rights of free speech, assembly, association, and freedom
of the press. They adopted Western social ideals and dedicated
their lives and property to them.
The political associations of the pre-war years were in gen-
eral nationalistic, in favour of more social equality and against
feudalism. This last can be seen, for example, in their opposition
to the inheritance of the post of Regent. The Netherlands colonial
government In recent decades had therefore to consider the wishes of
Indonesians who wished to go further with de-feudalisation than the
Government, which was keeping in mind the point of view of the
masses, considered advisable. Just like other features of the money
economy, the associational life did not escape growing pains in its
early beginnings. New associations, for example, did not understand
the novel character of the associational idea. Local associations
in the 'twenties and ’thirties of this century sometimes tried to de-
cide matters over which only the village was competent, such as the
allotment of shares in communal lands, the leasing of these lands to
sugar factories, etc. These associations then tried to make their
associational decision pass as a village decision, identified the
associational tie with the village tie, and confused their associa-
tion with the village. They thus mistook the new social tie for
the old one.
As I have already mentioned elsewhere, co-operative associations
borrowed various characteristics from the traditional, communal ties.
However much the left-oriented political associations furthered
social equality and replaced the noble titles of ’’Raden’’ and ’’Mas”
by the brotherly "bung”, prominent leaders from the major cities
were sometimes greeted by their followers from the interior with a
veneration and a show of respect which awoke memories of the old
feudal homage. However anti-traditional the associations, espe-
cially the political ones, were, they were thus confronted with the
traditional restrictions (feudalism and the village ties), in which
at first they sometimes lost their way, and from which they borrow-
ed certain characteristics.
Among the new associations J would expecially mention the Taman
Siswo movement, which was established in 1921 and which set itself
the target of providing education. The association ran entirely on
its own momentum. In 1930 it owned 30 schools in Java and Sumatra;
in 1937 it managed 225: schools distributed over Java, Sumatra,
Borneo, the Celebes, Madura and Bali. Among them were one High
School, 26 Secondary Trade Schools, and 7 Teacher Training Colleges.
700 teachers were employed in these schools, which taught 16,000
children.
According to the articles of S. Mangoensarkoro in30
"Koloniale Studien" of 1937 and 1938, the Taman Siswo Movement
fought for social progress. In this task it is to maintain itself
as an Eastern organisation, but be open to the most modern cultural
expressions of the West. It tested these according to their worth
and adopted what could serve for the enrichment of its own culture.
It did not want to cling timorously to the indigenous. Expressions
or values from the native culture, which no longer fitted present-
day situations or had lost their worth, were considered as played-
out and inappropriate. This applied especially to the field of
hormat, therefore etiquette. The movement desired ’’progress", but
no imitation of Europeans, no rash adoption of Western cultural
elements, no one-sided Europeanisation. It aimed on the other hand
at "the enrichment of its own culture by nationalising foreign cul-
tural elements". It thus sought to adopt Western cultural elements
but to assimilate them to its own spirit.
Taman Siswo’s objection to the official education system was
that it was Imbued with foreign culture, resulted in a neglect of
one’s own culture and in self-contempt, placed intellectual forma-
tion too much in the foreground, neglected the inner life and,
moreover, gave instruction in a foreign tongue. The Taman Siswo
therefore gave instruction in the vernacular. It strove for the
development of the full personality, of the art of living, in which
the emphasis fell on character-formation, on ethical and religious
values.
The movement wished to co-operate in the "building of the
future society", and it was conscious of performing a "missionary
labour", which once more brings to mind Huizinga’s second way. By
accepting Western cultural elements and assimilating them to its
own spirit, it was representative of broad cirtjles of the upper
classes, which desired no Europeanisation but a similar accultura-
tion. The Taman Siswo was a conscious and organised effort to that
end.
At present there are, besides this, strongly Western-oriented
Indonesian groups which desire a still more radical adaptation in
the building up of an Indonesian national cultxu’e, reject the Taman
Siswo as Javanism, and lay more emphasis on Western elements. (41)
Apart from these six new groups, which came into being in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries or increased in size and impor-
tance, mention can further be made of a social—or better an
unsocial—group, which lost importance during the same period,
namely that of wanderers and vagabonds. This group stood not so
much above as out of the village.
In Pigeaud’s work on the Javanese popular theatre, mention is
repeatedly made of strolling players. The popular masque was, for
example, originally a spectaole for the village people, performed
mainly by wandering players. Plgeaud supposes that these stroll-
ing players formed a part of the large group of the wanderers and
tramps, who earlier must have been an important factoi' in society.
(41) D. de Vries, p. 82 ff.31
Apart from players this group consisted of yet other people 5
^^traders or pedlars, santri's (servants or pupils, who sought for
a master in order to acquire while working for him instruction in
holy knowledge, or, what is not very different, in one of the noble
trades such as armouring) and sometimes also wandering nobles
(satrija lelana) with their retinue, declared outlaws and exiles,
or searchers for adventure, hardly distinguishable from robbers and
bands of soldiers. Various facts and situations in Javanese history,
various stories in Javanese literature are only tc be fully under-
stood when one remembers the existence of this group of wanderers
and vagabonds throughout the princely lands, who, not tied to the
land and not living in relationship with the village or the family,
easily came to acknowledge no authority of lords or regents, sub-
mitting themselves only to the all too often powerless majesty of
the ruler in the capital, and not always to that. It is known that
in other countries also, even in Europe, in earlier times this
group of wanderers and vagabonds, the "fahrende Leute”, have played
an important role, especially where trade was not yet conducted
within regulated channels and written communication was still little
developed”. (42)
As an example of the existence of such a group of wanderers
Pigeaud gives the history of Ki Oentoeg, a Balinese slave run away
from Batavia, who was able to form a band in the environs of Batavia
with which after 1685 he went eastwards through the country, took
up service with the Prince of Kartasura as bandit leader or condott-
iere under the name of Surapati, and eventually erected a princedom
for himself as Adipati Wiranegara in Pasuruan. In addition, the
overflow of the Chinese troubles of Batavia to Central Java in
1740-41, which led to the fall of the kraton of Kartasura, is,
according to Pigeaud, only to be understood when it is remembered
that the wanderers and vagabonds were spread over the whole of
Java and that many Chinese-Indonesians were apparently included
among them even then, as were other people originating from outside
Java, such as Madurese and Balinese. Concerning the Preanger
Regencies, we know of many early reports from Dutchmen of the time
concerning wandering saatri*s, often called "Javanese priests or
vagabonds”.
P. J. F. Louw observes in "De Java-oorlog 1825-1830", that at
the time of the outbreak of this war many "bad people’*—the so-called
"wanderers"—took shelter in the villages, wandered from one kampong
to another, and brought public seciirity into danger. This class of
the population mostly consisted of propertyless and younger people.
"Among them," according to Louw, "much dissoluteness ruled: buaja’s
(sharpers) were to be found everywhere, in the markets, at the
ronggengs (dances) and the cock-fights. They possessed an adventur-
ous spirit which was cultivated and maintained by a host of legends
and folk tales and by histories oJ adventurers who in their forays
and wanderings had acquired a name for heroism. These legends were
(42) Pigeaud, p. 35-36.32
brought to and maintained among the people by wajang actors.
The wonderful adventures of Surapati, who was able to raise himself
from slave to prince, made Javanese youth ready to join with anyone
who with some chance of actual success set himself against the
existing powers.’’ (43) When later, under the Culture System, free
labour on the sygar plantations was instituted, work was performed
to an important extent by the wanderers. In 1853 it was said that
they consisted of ’’all sorts of people who came from other Residengies
where they not infrequently had had trouble with the police.” They
could not be relied on; their numbers were changeable and uncertain.
In 1866 a great part of the plantation labour force still consisted
of wanderers. Dr. Levert in his thesis cites various facts concern-
ing this: at that time most of these wanderers probably worked as
cutting coolies, and even before the war ’’badjingangs”, the wander-
ers, formed the largest group among these workers. (54)
Wandering santri’s were also still known in recent times.. The
strolling players, too, have survived. Whilst earlier they toured
in small troupes or alone and in a limited area, modern communica-
tions have made possible the existence of larger troupes, which
travel over the whole of Java and beyond. These are, for example,
the troupes of actors of wajang wong, stambul, and ketoprak. (45)
Though the group of wanderers was thus not yet extinct before
the war, they nevertheless no longer formed a conspicious, separate,
class of people. A? Pigeaud observes, these wanderers and vaga-
bonds belonged to an earlier stage of society with other conditions.
In modern society there was less room for them. On the one hand
by reason of the great degree of legal security there was less
room for adventure and lawlessness which went at the cost of others,
although before the war the police sometimes did have to take local
action against gangs of robbers, as, for example, about 1920 in
Meester Gornelis. (46) On the other hand the modern exchange
economy, which was introduced in the nineteenth and twentieth
century, and to which increased trade, communications and urbanisa-
tion are due, created new possibilities for regular work which still
offered variety. Thereby the wanderlust and adventurousness of
many was led into new paths and canalised. The new opportunities
for the wandering troupes of players which Pigeaud observed are
therefore probably only one example out of many. It may, for exam-
ple, be asked how many of the present-day chauffeurs earlier would
have formed part of the group of wanderers. Also the group of Mecca
pilgrims, whose total at the beginning of the last century was
(43)	Vol. 1, p. 16
(44)	’’Inheemsche arbeid in de Java-suikerIndustrie”, (Native labour
in the Java sugar industry) p,88 and 129.
See also my thesis, p. 139.
(45)	Types of Javanese theatre. (T.N.)
(46)	A Djakarta suburb, now called Djatinegara.(T.N.)33
insignificant, has profited from modern communications.
The wanderers and vagabonds have thus not altogether vanished,
but tire significantly reduced in numbers. At least this was the
case before the war; in the post-war period the old desire for
adventure was revived in various forms.
Further, this unsocial group of wanderers is of importance
because it points up the relativity of the old Javanese ways of
life. Modern social anthropology and sociology lay emphasis on
the great importance of the cultural pattern of a society. Above
all, social anthropology teaches what enormous differences exist
between the various "patterns of culture". ,Social anthropology at
the same time reminds us that, in connection with this difference
In patterns, behaviour which is social in one culture may be un-
social in another culture with other norms and standards. Social
anthropology also shows that each culture has its unsocial people
and that therefore no one culture apparently succeeds in canalising
all expressions of life into regular forms, without leaving a
residue of unsatisfied wishes or aspirations and without certain
possibilities of development remaining unused, (47)
As said earlier, important factors in the Javanese way of life
were, firstly, the aristocratic style of living which originated in
the court culture, and, secondly, the village way of life, which
was, however, influenced by the aristocratic style. It is there-
fore of importance to observe that neither the aristocratic style
of living nor the communal way of life were successful in fully
developing Javanese talent and organising and canalising without
exception into specified patterns of life. This is perhaps also of
importance for the future, because it shows that there are in the
Javanese world more possibilities than the old, aristocratic and
communal forms. The migration of the villagers to the towns need
not be seen, considered in this light, merely as an impoverish-
ment of the villages. Many have probably found more satisfaction
in the towns than they could in the narrow confines of the desa.
For the future this may be said: however difficult it is to
change the way of life -of a-peoplo, preservation of the old is
not the only ideal that is worth aiming at.
Mentioned above as new social groups were the Europenan
administration, Indonesian officials of the government services,
! Western businessmen, Indonesian scholars and bourgeoisie,and the
I private Indonesian associations.
t (47) R. Benedict: Patterns of culture and e.g., W. F. Ogburn and
I	M. F. Nimkoff; A Handbook of sociology, 1947 and Kimball
k	Young: Handbook of social psychology, 1946. Critique of
R. Benedict and the school to which she belongs, by Pitirim
A. Sorokin: Society, Culture and Personality, 1947, p. 339,
note 1; Sorokin lays strong emphasis on the non-integrated
fc	parts of culture.34
Both European groups came from outside Indonesian society.
The group of the new Indonesian officials was called into life by
the government. The group of scholars arose in a spontaneous
fashion, partially as an answer to the new opportunities to study
offered by the government. The bourgeoisie and the associations
came forth in a completely spontaneous way. The older phenomena
thus showed an artificial growth and were called into being from
without or from above; the more recent show a spontaneous growth
from below.
The structure of all new groups consisted of Eastern and
Western elements, but among them there is a gradual shift in a
Western direction. The oldest groups oriented themselves wholly
to the then still predominant feudal hierarchy of Javanese society.
Later this no longer occurred and they stood in the other camp,
as critics or opponents. In the oldest group of Indonesian officials
the Western element is but weak; the more recent feel Western in-
fluence much more strongly. The scholars drank from Western knowl-
edge. The associations and businessmen made full use of the modern
economy. Taman Siswo aimed at the taking over and Independent
assimilation of Western cultural elements. The most modern go very
far in the rejection of their own inherited culture.
The way of life of the older groups was initially wholly adapt-
ed to the Eastern model. Later this changed. The European Civil
Service, the Western entrepreneurs and the Indonesian Civil Service
were de-feudalised and brought up to date.
As the society changed, new groups were fitted in to a more
modern plan, and the older underwent a renovation. In this process,
the Eastern elements weakened and the Western became stronger.
Looking back on the past, it is self-evident that the loss of
national independence and later the de-feudalisation of the Java-
nese world must have caused a feeling of malaise. The Javanese
popular consciousness at first sought a reconciliation with the
national bankruptcy in a traditional, mythological way through the
well-known legend about the supernatural descent of the Dutchmen
from a princess of Padjadjaran, the medieval empire of West Java.
This story, which saw in the Netherlands administration the continu-
ation of a native dynasty, very clearly shows, according to Dr.
Hoesein Djajadiningrat, the intention to justify the foreign
domination to the native conscience. By this lineage, the Nether-
lands colonial government could be seen as a legitimate inheritance
in the female line and thus a legitimate,.divine decision, to which
one could willingly bow. (48)
(48) Hoesein Djajadiningrat: ’’Critiscbe beschouwing van de
Sedjarah Banten". /Critical consideration of the Banten
History/, dissertaTion at Leiden, 19.13, p. 285. Rassers
mentions more cases where the factual domination over Java
was legitimised in mystic ways (De Pandjjroman, 1922, p, 335).35
This legend shows not only the attempt to achieve a moral
legitimation of foreign domination, but also the internal, moral
conflict th3.t underlay it.
The de-feudalisation, which was begun by the colonial author-
ities in about 1800, must Inevitably, as has already been mentioned,
have meant a loss for the culture bearers of the period. The
diminution of the retinue of followers, of splendour and pomp, were
a loss to social esteem, to poetry and to the content of life, to a
number of things which made life worth living. The banning of the
’’feasts” meant—because it affected wajang performances—both the
repression of pleasure and of ethical and religious values. The
limitation of the hormat forms made worthless a great part of the
etiquette, which had been raised to a cult. All this meant cultural
loss and cultural destruction, a spiritual impoverishment, which
must have placed a damper on Javanese culture.
In the main, one can only guess as to what psychological conse-
quences this has had. There must have been a feeling of desecration
and tarnishing of the world and a despondency, as the idea penetrat-
ed that the old cultural pattern was a lost cause, which no longer
gave satisfactory support in the modern world. Gradually doubt of
the old must have arisen, without, at first, a new ideal standing
clearly before their eyes. Dr. Radjiman complained in rhe Indisch
Genootschap in 1920 about the spirit of apathy, the ’’demoralisation”
and the lack of the "motive to progress” among the Javanese people.
He missed in Javanese society ’’ideals” and their ’’propelling force.”
(49)
The twentieth-century Western education often resulted in an
internal conflict in the pupils, who at home were raised in the old
world of ideas, but who in the Western schools came into a complete-
ly different cultural atmosphere and by the attitude to life formed
there came into collision with the sphere of their parental home.
W. F. Stutterheim (50) and C. Hooykaas (51) have given a descrip-
tion thereof. Miss B. H. Lans spoke in the Indisch Genootschap in
1920 of the ’’chaos of ideas and desires” in the heads of the
Indpnians and some of their leaders, in which ’’the greatest
(49)	Dr. Radjiman: "De maatschappelijke loop van de Javaanse
bevolking”, /Bbcial progress of the Javanese people/,
(Ind. Gen., ^7 Feb. 1920); see also his: ”Het psy^isch
leven van het Javaanse volk”, /^e psychic life of the
Javanese people/ (Ind. Gen. 14 Feb. 1911),
(50)	Dr. W. F. Stutterheim: ’’lets over de cultuurbasis onzer
leerlingen”, the cultural basis of our pupils/.
(Mededeelingen /Communication/ VI from the Onderwijsraad,
Batavia, 1931).
(51)	Koloniale Studien /Colonial Studies/Weltevreden, Batavia,
--:	Feb. 1940, p. 2736
contraditlons" stood side by side. (52)
Professor Berg showed that the basis of the rationalistic,
Western education was at fault because it addressed itself one-
sidedly to the intellect, was non-religious, although in Indonesian
eyes religion and.ethics are essential. Because education was neutral,
it led, according to the author, to cynicism, indifference and
materialism and affected the moral basis of society. This education,
according to Berg, started off the period in which Indonesian youth
were no longer at home in their own society. Education, which was
completely opposed to the earlier, static attitude to life, sucked
them into the vortex of "progress", brought about a break with the
old and presented no new harmony. This break with tradition meant
a loss of the old customs,'but, according to Berg, the desertion of
traditional customs, themselves of an indifferent nature, has the
tendency to cause the masses to desert good customs, too. Against
this de-nationalising and rationalising the society, according to
the author, possesses no defenses or antidotes. In the long run
this must therefore, according to Berg, lead to a general degenera-
tion, unless something else as positive as the old is not put in the
place of the vanishing culture. Just as in China, India, and Russia,
Western education led too much to the forming of an uprooted, spirit-
ually unbalanced group of Suddenly Westernised intellectuals. Berg
therefore argued for a revision of the rationalistic basis of the
governmental. Western education. (53) The Economisch Weekblad of
14th September 1946 found that: "Many, in blind worship for every-
thing that is "Western" and "modern", become altogether estranged
from the indigenous culture whilst the so-called adoption of West-
ern culture is no more than superficial. Others reject every foreign
cultural element on principle and a priori, and retreat to a fortress
of self-sufficiency. Still others are seized by a sterile indiffer-
ence or apathy."
De Kat Angelino puts forward the objection that Western educa-
tion often led to the adoption of certain externals of Western cul-
ture and attitude to life yet without implanting the essence of
Western culture, while at the same time this caused the Indonesians
to become detached from the source of their own culture. In this
case there arose, according to the author, a bastard form, a
(52)	Miss B. H. Lans: ’T3e Soendaneesche vrouw in het licht van het
heden, het verleden en de toekomst" /The Sundanese woman in the
light of the present, the past, and The future/ (Ind. Gen.,
6 Feb. 1920).	"
(53)	Professor Dr. C. C. Berg: "Critisohe beschouwing van Neerlands
cultureele invloed en Neerlands cultureele taak in Oost-Indie"
/Critical consideration of Netherlands cultural influence and
Ketherlands cultural task in the East Indies/, (Ind. Gen,,
6 April 1934).	“37
combination not of both cultures, but of two soul-less parts
amputated from each Qf the two cultures. The people concerned
expected no more salvation from their own tradition, but Western
culture left their hearts "stone cold". Wertheim thought after the
war that Western influence "still, on th.e whole., acted as an uproot-
ing and dislocating factor. (54) The danger of mixing cultural ele-
ments was later pointed out by Indonesians also. (55)
This development may therefore probably be seen in the follow-
ing manner: the initial awareness of the necessity to acquiesce in
the "colonial" situation went together with an internal opposi-
tion, to which the old legend gave expression. After this, when a
rehabilitation of national independence seemed unthinkable and
the hope of it vanished, the national struggle limited itself to the
preservation of Javanese cultural property, such as literature and
drama. When doubt also arose about the worth and the tenability of
their own ciilture, there resulted an apathetic dejection. The
national revival of the 20th century again gave rise to the hope of
a better future. The Western education of this century, however,
restilted in all sorts of uprooting and dislocation.
Though there was thus all kinds of dislocation, which have by
no means been surmounted, there was not only dislocation. As
appears from the foregoing, there was also a co-operation on a
large scale for the modernisation of the country, an adoption of
Western ideas, a search for a new attitude to life, an intentional
and purposeful attempt at acculturation, the search for a synthesis
which would bind valuable ingredients from their own culture with
valuable elements from Western culture although all this was accom-
panied by stupendous difficulties.
The image of the old Java of a century and a half ago has thus been
thoroughly altered. The society consisting exclusively of princes,
nobility and peasants, traditional and ordered in a strict hierarchy,
lost its traditional and hierarchic character in the supra-village
sphere. The one-sided feudal class division was broken through by
the rise of new social groups which brought more differentiation.
The nobility was "put in its place" and modernised.
The hypertrophically developed aristocratic style of life went
through an atrophic development. The public display of power and
homage decreased. The processions and ceremonies, the tours, the
ppmp and splendour, the pajung and hormat wholly or almost wholly
disappeared from public life. The courtly, over-refined etiquette
was simplified. On the other hand this aristocratic form of life
gave lasting cultural values, which impressed a strong stamp on
the whole people, especially in Central Java, though here it
(54)	Professor D. W. F. Wertheim: Nederlandse cultuur invloeden
in Indonesia /Ketherlands cultural influences in Indonesia/
(Undated, c7 T948).
(55)	e.g. Agoes Djaja in the "Kroniek van Kunst en Kultuur",
/Chronicle of Art and Culture/ Jan. I949.	~38
probably also worked as a brake against an adaptation to modern
times.
The belief in the old "wajang-culture” is seriously shaken.
The accent is moving from the artof living to the art of govern-
ment, from the development of personality to the reformation of
society. After the;destruction of many of the old things there has
followed a construction, in an attempt to modernise in the Western
spirit.
In conclusion I note that no complete picture has been given in
the above of the structural changes in the supra-village sphere.
Thus, for example, to the newly arising social groups should be
added that of the semi-intellectuals, which, according to Overdijkink
(56), play such a large role in the post-war political situation.
Also the comparison of Javanese feudalism with that in mediaeval
Europe makes no claim to completeness. This comparison was, for
that matter, not a goal in itself. Each evaluation of Javanese
feudalism will, however, consciously or unconsciously contain a
comparison and therefore it appears to me better to do so conscious-
ly and to seek a standard whereby feudalism can be "measured”,
by comparison, even though this is only possible by approximation.
The main point as I saw it was to place certain economic problems
in a more general framework and to point out the connection between
the two.
(56) Dr. G. W. Overdijkink "Het Indonesische probleem. Nieuwe
feiten” /The Indonesian problem. New facts/,
1948, p. 173.