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Preserving the Resources: Plantations and Mines Workers’ Hygiene

Préserver les ressources : lʼhygiène des ouvriers des plantations et des mines dans les Indes néerlandaises des XIXe et XXe siècles
Gani A. Jaelani
p. 33-56

Résumés

Cet article examine le rôle des médecins dans l’État colonial des Indes néerlandaises au XIXe et début du XXe siècles, en particulier à Sumatra. Principalement chargés de veiller à la santé des Européens de la colonie, leur tâche s’est élargie lorsqu’ils ont dû également s’occuper de celle des ouvriers des plantations et des mines. Cette tâche supplémentaire était cruciale pour garantir la productivité des travailleurs, au bénéfice de l’État colonial. Le système de cultures forcées (sistem tanam paksa) a entraîné un grand nombre de décès parmi la main-d’œuvre indigène. Le docteur Willem Bosch a exprimé son inquiétude en critiquant le gouvernement colonial, puis en suggérant un système de santé qui réduirait le taux de mortalité dans la colonie. Lorsque de grandes plantations ont été ouvertes à la suite de la mise en œuvre de la politique libérale, l’attention portée à la condition des travailleurs s’est accrue, quoique de manière limitée, afin de garantir une meilleure santé de cette population, principale force motrice des entreprises. Dans de nombreux cas, cependant, ces travailleurs ont subi des traitements affreux, y compris de la part des médecins des plantations eux-mêmes. En s’appuyant sur les rapports des médecins européens, cet article examine leurs points de vue sur les questions de santé des travailleurs dans le cadre de l’économie politique de l’État colonial.

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Texte intégral

Introduction

1In the 19th c., the extension and intensification of imperialism went hand-in-hand with the need to secure more resources. The promulgation of the Agrarian Law (Agrarische Wet) in 1870, which marked the beginning of liberalism in the Dutch East Indies, allowed private companies to exploit new lands and limit government intervention in economic practices. During this period, the Europeans began to look toward Sumatera, an island with fertile and unexploited lands. The opening of the new lands for plantations created an additional need for labor. The need for doctors to support business operations grew with the arrival of new workers. The companies demanded this workforce to be healthy in order to remain productive.

  • 1 See Schoute 1936. For more recent studies about this issue, see Boomgaard 1989, Boomgaard 2003 and (...)
  • 2 Hesselink 2011.
  • 3 Jaelani 2013.
  • 4 See Harrison 1999; Anderson 2006; Seth 2018.

2The need for a healthy population had become a major question since the mid-nineteenth century. The colonial government’s concern for increasing the health of the population could be seen in the implementation of the vaccination program1 and the establishment of the Sekolah Dokter Djawa (Javanese Medical School) along with a midwifery school; the first was intended to train the vaccinators, while the aim of the second was to lower the mortality rate among children and mothers during labor2. Meanwhile, the regulation on prostitution was also issued to combat the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially syphilis.3 To some extent, the discussion about the population in its relation to manpower produced the apparition of a racial category. The physicians in this period believed that racial differences should be considered in assigning fieldwork because for some races, as opposed to others, working in the field and under the sun was not suitable; therefore the awareness about living a hygienic life produced racial categories as well. Thus, through the question about the population’s health, the physicians constituted the racial body with the possibility to work in the tropics.4

  • 5 Tschudnowsky 1899.
  • 6 Kuenen and Knebel 1910.

3This article aims to examine physicians’ reports of health condition of the plantation and mining works in the Dutch East Indies during the colonial period. These reports were mainly published in the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indie (the Medical Journal of the Dutch Indies), from the late nineteenth-century to the third decade of the twentieth century. This journal accommodated physicians working in the Dutch East Indies to discuss about every subject related to the medical knowledge in the tropics, as well as the survey of the health condition of the population. Several physicians also published their reports independently, but their publications to some extent were still discussed in the medical journal. These reports were previously consulted for supplementary sources only for those researching about plantations, yet they were never considered hitherto as the primary sources for historical analysis. Meanwhile, they were critical to the extent that they constituted reports by the doctors who criticized the system implemented expansively in the plantations, such as the report by Tschudnowsky, entitled Contribution à la Géographie Médicale de l’Archipel Malais.5 Nevertheless, as indicated in the reports, there were concerns about the possibility of changing the system that would threaten the ongoing medical services, as in the pamphlet by Kuenen and Knebel that protested against Van Blommestein’s plan (see further below).6 Through close readings of these published reports, we can find political views of the physicians in the context of the colonial state. These views are important to enrich different perspectives of the worker’s hygiene in the Dutch East Indies at that time and its relation to the role of physicians. Lastly, although most of the discussion focuses on workers in plantations and mining in East Sumatra, this article also occasionally takes cases of workers in other places that are also discussed by physicians at that time.

  • 7 See Pelzer 1985; Stoler 2005; Stoler 2009; Breman 1989; Erman 2005.
  • 8 The work of Markdoembaks is an exception. It discusses the physicians’ oblivion toward the oppressi (...)
  • 9 Arnold 1993; Gilman 1985; Vaughan 1991; Anderson 2006; Lyons 1992. For discussion about historiogra (...)
  • 10 Pande 2010.

4Most of the studies on colonial labor focus on the colonial politics and political economy of the plantations and mining. The issues include enforcement of discipline among workers and State control, workers’ protests and confrontation, racial-based hierarchical structure in the plantation, and class conflicts in coal mines.7 In the Dutch East Indies context, analysis on the role of physicians in this debate is limited while their views contributed greatly in constituting the colonial state.8 Meanwhile, the link among the doctors, medical science, and colonialism itself has been frequently discussed in other colonial settings. In general, the analysis is focused on the interconnection between medical science and control over the natives through the invention of racial and sexual categories attributed inherently to the colonized people. Within this framework, colonial medicine is treated as “tools of empire,” concentrating in the idea of “curing their ills” and pathologizing the tropics and the people that should be regulated because the natives were considered as the carriers of disease-causing bacteria.9 Such conviction had enforced the colonial subject to implement a set of rules to create a healthy, productive population that would not hinder the progress brought by colonialism as Ishita Pande shows as the manifestation of colonial liberal vision.10

  • 11 Manderson 1996, especially chapter 5 ‘Sickness and the World of Work: Men on the Estates,’ pp. 127- (...)
  • 12 Breman 1989: 39-41.

5Regarding the colonial medicine studies, this article is inclined to extend Lenore Manderson’s work on the link between doctors and labor availability, by emphasizing on doctors’ diagnosis on the workers and the importance of attending to their health in order to increase productivity.11 In the Dutch East Indies context, however, this liberal approach contradicted the colonial doctors’ advice. During that period, labor conditions were governed by the Coolie Ordinance (koelie-ordonnantie) of 1880. This ordinance controlled the short-term contract and sanctions for negligence. The conditions benefited the plantation owners and abused the life of the workers. It had been the subject of criticism since its first enactment in 1880, as well as the amendments in 1904 and 1915.12 In this context, the doctors recommended that the coolie ordinance to be preserved in order to protect the plantation, something that was against the liberal economic system. In a free labor system, the workers would be given more freedom to regulate themselves when they were sick; meanwhile the coolie ordinance forced them to be admitted to the hospital. When the coercive practices legalized in the coolie ordinance were critically denounced, these doctors sternly argued that the coercion was necessary. Having yet awareness of hygiene and admitting themselves to the hospital to care for their illness, these workers, in the doctors’ opinion, would disserve the plantation owners and eventually the colonial state itself. In this article, I examine the cruciality of manpower health in the context of the political economy of medicine in the colonial state, through physicians’ roles in assuring the coolie ordinance continuance which resulted in accentuating the racial division.

Physicians’ Role in Supporting Liberal Politics

  • 13 Culturstelsel or Sistem Tanam Paksa is a system that forced the peasants to cultivate one fifth of (...)
  • 14 Fasseur 1994: 56.

6The implementation of culturstelsel13 was a subject of criticism in the colony as well as in metropolitan Netherlands. This system was highly profitable to the Dutch in which the Dutch Indies was regarded as the “cork on which the Netherlands floats”14, while at the same time causing misery to the native population in the colony. To a certain extent, the system was considered a form of slavery whereby the peasants were left without a choice but to work in the system, and sometimes their burden was heavier. In the view of liberal politics, it was oppressing and had to be replaced by free labor.

  • 15 Hesselink discusses Doctor Bosch’s criticism regarding this issue and emphasizes his advice in crea (...)
  • 16 Bosch 1852.

7The role of the physicians, such as Doctor Willem Bosch, in the debate, was rarely discussed.15 In 1847, as the Chief of the Military Health Department, Bosch wrote a report about the Javanese health condition in which he related the epidemy in Central Java that caused a high mortality rate. Food shortage due to crop failure, he reported, was one of the causes of the epidemy. The most notable point of the report is how culturstelsel was associated to the cause as the obligation to cultivate particular types of plants left insufficient remaining land for growing staple plants. As a result, this system to some extent led to famine and in some areas was followed by an epidemic outbreak, such as in Central Java. The famine caused a lack of nutrition making the people susceptible to diseases and for this reason, Bosch argued that poverty was the cause of the epidemy which in turn killed many people16.

  • 17 Jaelani 2017: 84; see also Rusnock 2002.
  • 18 Bosch 1851; See also Fasseur 1994: 105-6.
  • 19 Van Hoëvell and Bosch 1860: 6-7.

8Doctor Bosch’s report displeased the colonial government, and it was only the beginning of his criticism of the highly exploitative colonial system. His opinion actually resonated with the European general perception at that time that a large population meant prosperity.17 In a pamphlet published in 1851, De vermeerdering van Java’s bevolking: beschouwd als de grootste bron van rijkdom voor Nederland (The increase of Java’s population considered as the greatest source of wealth for the Netherlands), he argued that population level determined the great productivity while the implementation of culturstelsel generated the opposite. To support this argument, he provided examples of regions, such as Priangan in West Java that was blessed with vast and fruitful lands but lacked population, resulting in its limited productivity.18 On this basis, the culturstelsel was in contradiction with prosperity. Moreover, it also reflected a liberal view that encouraged the reduction of state interference in economic matters. Along with W.R. van Hoëvell, Docter Bosch delivered a speech at a meeting convened by an Amsterdam society named Felix Meritis on 8 March 1860, on the importance of “free labor” to replace culturstelsel.19

  • 20 Kuitenbrouwer 1991: 36.
  • 21 Bosch 1858: 165-88; regarding Bosch’s criticism of the colonization, see Pols 2011, especially pp.  (...)
  • 22 Indisch Genootschap 1865. Doctor Bleeker was a physician who became the first director of Dokter Dj (...)

9The end of the cultivation system and the support for free labor were the main topics of the liberals in the Netherlands in 1850. Even though the differences in political views provoked a great debate, both sides agreed that the colony should generate profit to the Netherlands. Among other issues appearing during that period was the possibility to expand the exploitation to the Outer Islands (islands outside Java) to increase productivity. F. H. van Vlissingen together with several liberal businessmen and scientists wrote a petition in 1857 in which they advocated the colonization of the Outer Islands. However, this idea was rejected by a committee formed by the government, chaired by Jan Jacob Rochussen, a former Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Nonetheless, Rochussen began to consider the possibility of opening the Outer Islands for new exploitation as mentioned in the petition.20 This rejection of colonization is not surprising as the main concern about European health in the colony had been a frequent debate since the early nineteenth century. Doctor Bosch was among those who were in disagreement, but more than a decade later, in an article aimed at responding to this proposal, he turned in favour of colonization.21 To some extent, this shift of attitude related to his position as a supporter of liberal politics which encouraged the expansion of the colonization of islands outside Java. It was believed that the arrival of new workers from Europe would stimulate the employment of free labor. On another occasion, the liberal vision of colonial politics was reflected as well in the speech of Doctor Peter Bleeker during an Indisch Genootschap session.22 The forum gathered liberal politicians to discuss liberal political issues. In his speech, Doctor Bleeker gave a retrospective view of the colonization and the importance of the expansion. To accomplish this program, support from political power was considered essential.

  • 23 Bosch 1858: 180-181.

10Nevertheless, despite Doctor Bosch support for colonization, grounded on the medical justification that acclimatization was no longer an issue for the Europeans to survive in the tropical heat, he reminded his compatriots not to overwork. Instead, he wrote, “a few hours of field labor may at first suffice for you, the fertility of the soil on which you are placed, the precautions with which you are surrounded, the help of native laborers at your disposal, will provide the necessary guarantees.”23 This statement implied another issue concerning the racialised division of work once the Europeans began to settle in the tropics.

The Racial Division of Labor

  • 24 Becking and Van der Burg 1874: 757-763.

11On 21 January 1873, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Science in the Dutch East Indies (Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Geneeskundige Wetenschappen in Nederlandsch-Indië) received a letter from the Netherlands Society of Industry (Nederlandsche Maatschappij van Nijverheid, NMN) asking about the possibility to emigrate and work in the tropics. Signed by Doctor Becking and Doctor Van Der Burg as the president and secretary of the association, the reply to the letter dated 29 October stated that the coming of unmarried European men in the colony to work was possible provided the workers followed the rules of hygiene. Moreover, they should avoid the colonization of the lowlands.24

12The request from the Netherlands Society of Industry indicated to what extent the issue of acclimatization reappeared with political change in the Netherlands, especially the promulgation of the Agrarische Wet in 1870. The liberalization of the economy had opened a wider door for private companies to expand their exploitation, and consequently, the prospect of new lands encouraged more Europeans to emigrate to the Dutch East Indies. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the region was still considered dangerous, but physicians, especially those who worked there, provided their assurance.

  • 25 Indisch Genootschap 1872; Indisch Genootschap 1873a; Indisch Genootschap 1873b.
  • 26 Becking and van der Burg 1874: 763.

13Around this period, the Indisch Genootschap meetings had bigger concerns on the issue of migration. During the 17 December 1872 meeting, a paper written by Cornets de Groot was distributed, discussing the response to the implementation of Agrarische Wet in which De Groot was optimistic about realizing the land colonization as part of the liberal political agenda that would benefit the Netherlands. The response to this paper was presented in the following two meetings mainly discussing migration.25 Most of the discussion agreed with de Groot’s views, and with the fact that the colonization of the lowland should be avoided as well as fieldworking for the Europeans. This latter point became the highlight at that time, given that colonization itself was no longer considered hazardous for Europeans’ health. Nevertheless, the fact that Europeans were not encouraged to work on the field did not necessarily mean that agricultural work was impossible because it could be delegated to non-Europeans.26

  • 27 Indisch Genootschap 1873a: 33.
  • 28 Doctor Treille, a French physician, wrote in 1888 in his book On the acclimatization of Europeans, (...)

14Other speakers, such as Mr. Robidé van der Aa and Doctor Bleeker, concurred with De Groot.27 A similar agreement can also be found in statements by other physicians with medical experiences in the colony, for example Doctor Treille, Doctor Navarre, Da Silva Amado, and Van Overbeek de Meijer. In general, they theorised that European men were not physically apt for fieldworking under the tropical sun, and such jobs should be delegated to natives or other races. This racial division of labor also indicated that the jobs reserved for the Europeans were better respected than those for other races.28

  • 29 Van der Burg 1884.
  • 30 Van der Burg 1895: 173-174.
  • 31 Several studies show that the increase in racial issues is related to the growing number of Europea (...)

15The racial division of labor became increasingly common as monographs and guidebooks for visits to the tropics were issued. This can be read in Doctor Van der Burg first volumes of De Geneesheer in Nederlandsch-Indië (The Physician in the Dutch East Indies),29 as well in his other book specifically intended as a guidebook, Persoonlijke gezondheidsleer voor Europeanen, die naar Nederlandsch-Indië gaan of daar wonen (Personal health guide for Europeans going to or living in the Dutch East Indies), published in 1895.30 It is at this point that racial prejudice mixes with the idea of medicine. That is why, to some extent, the increasing number of Europeans who came to the Dutch East Indies at the end of the nineteenth century further strengthened the sentiment.31

16European settlement in the tropics that appeared as an issue in the first half of the nineteenth century heavily relied on physicians’ opinions deciding whether the colonization was possible without causing any hazard to the health of the Europeans. Their opinions were conditioned by the economic and political factors as we have seen in the way they argued about the possibility of the settlement to support the liberal policy in the colonial state. At the end of the nineteenth century, especially with the creation of numerous plantations, the debates ceased because it seemed that the majority of the physicians endorsed the new wave of European moves to the Dutch East Indies. Their endorsement had also created a racial division of labor by assigning particular professions to a particular race. For this reason, it could be said that the physicians also provided some kind of justification for racial differences and since the natives mostly cultivated the land, their health should also be a concern.

The Worker’s Health Issue

  • 32 Kuenen 1920: 3.

17As prescribed by the physicians, working the land must be performed by the natives or by the Chinese. However, this prescription led to the spread of diseases assumed to result from lack of hygiene and quickly became the main problem in companies. The need for a healthy workforce was crucial because productivity required a healthy physical condition of workers that would lower the death rates32 and the companies depended on it. Accordingly, agricultural companies should facilitate health services, as stipulated in the koelie-ordonnantie, as also implemented in mining both in East Sumatra and elsewhere. Nevertheless, until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was not the case even though the presence of a physician on the plantation was assured.

  • 33 Adriani 1893: 5.
  • 34 Adriani 1893: 11.
  • 35 Van der Burg 1898: 740-743.
  • 36 Doctor Tschudnosky published Contribution à la géographie médicale de l’Archipel Malais in 1899, wh (...)
  • 37 Tschudnowsky 1899: 39-42.

18Doctor Pieter Adriani, a physician at The British Deli and Langkat Tobacco Company, described in 1893 the dreadful state of the hospital near the plantation. It was located on the lowest ground, instead of the top of the hill, showing the selection of an unhealthy place, coupled with the fragile condition of the building which resulted in the coolies’ refusal to be treated there.33 He also had to treat the patients in that hospital every day to the point that he could not visit another hospital due to the distance. For this reason, he believed that in Deli “sweating is more taken to heart than humanity and the laws of health, the latter are neglected in favor of the former,” 34 a statement that was later confirmed by Doctor Van Der Burg in a similar manner who emphasized that economic problems always prevailed over health.35 Doctor Tschudnowsky, who worked in the central hospital on a plantation in Deli related a similar story in 1899.36 First, he found many cases of coolies who chose to starve to death because they suffered from oppression taking place at the plantations. Another problem with hospitalisation was the loss of income and medical expenses burdened upon the coolies. He also found cases of whip wound as a proof of heavy punishment from the plantation owners. Such treatment resulted in many cases of suicide and mental illness.37

  • 38 Terburgh 1899: 431.
  • 39 Terburgh 1899: 434.
  • 40 Terburgh 1899: 433.

19Apart from plantations, the health issues of workers in the mines had also received attention. Doctor Terburgh reported that in Sawah Lunto the already unreasonable workload resulted in even higher mortality rates. Deaths in work place were more or less caused by a fairly high workload, not merely disease transmission caused by climatic and environmental conditions.38 He also found that the second-highest cause of illness was the injury caused by an accident at work.39 However, he did not mention that the injuries were caused by torture. In his findings, most of the injuries were due to the coolie’s poor physical condition.40 He therefore suggested that requiring healthy coolies for employment should be a priority before hiring them in the mines besides the hygiene programs. In this description, it is clear that he neglected the working conditions that could cause the deteriorating health of the workers. Instead, he blamed their pre-existing weak physical condition.

  • 41 Van Driel 1936: 303–304; See also Snijders 1921: XLV–LX.

20Despite these reports, the issue of violence against coolies and their poor health were not the subject of discussion regarding working conditions on plantations at the meetings of the Association of the Advancement of Medical Science in the Dutch East Indies established in 1896, in which Tschudownsky and Terburgh were both members. The minutes of the meetings published in the journal only recorded the problem of diseases spreading in the plantations. Nevertheless, as stated by Van Driel in his retrospective article on the history of this association, the issue of social medicine, especially the prevention of the spread of diseases and the improvement of the health standard of workers was also discussed. However, concern about awful treatments had not been raised41, despite the proofs of violence on the workers’ bodies. The physicians were more concerned with their physical weakness that would jeopardize the operation of the plantation. However, that does not mean that the two reports had no resonance at all. At the second Chamber parliamentary meeting on November 23, 1900, Henri van Kol brought the issue based on those reports which later sparked debate at the meeting.

  • 42 Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1900: 415.

21Van Kol began his speech by stating the problems in the plantations of East Sumatra as a result of the implementation of the koelie-ordonantie, where reports of abuse of power were never taken seriously and attempts to uncover the problem were seen as a threat to the plantation’s good image and opportunities of investment. However, he saw hopes when he read a report from a health congress in Paris written by Doctor Tschudwonsky that he was confident for being in a scientific forum attended by medical experts who were to some extent free from colonial political interests.42

  • 43 Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1900: 418.

22Responding to Van Kol’s statement, J.T. Cremer, the Minister of Colony, stated in a sarcastic tone that how “unreliable this man is can be seen from one of his statements”. Van Kol accused that the planters refused to take the coolies to the hospital because they were not really sick, instead they were taken to prison to receive punishment. Minister Cremer pointed out that Van Kol was only providing his own opinion, leaving out the testimonies from officials, residents, assistant-residents, and inspectors who worked there. Through this statement, the Minister persisted with his opinion that Deli was in good condition. Obviously, up to this point, he defended the interests of the businessmen. Even when Van Kol cited Doctor Terburgh’s report to corroborate his opinion, Minister Cremer persisted, defending the business interests, that Deli was in a good condition.43

  • 44 Moon 2007: 18.

23As a member of Parliament from a socialist party, Van Kol’s biggest concern was the welfare of the native workers in general. As Suzanne Moon points out, Van Kol put a strong emphasis on the welfare of the natives before considering the economic benefits of the metropolis, and he consistently strove for this. This view must also be seen in relation to the Ethical political thinkers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries44. Two years after the debate, Van Kol visited the Dutch East Indies, travelling from Sumatra to Java, and made a detour to the Deli plantation. During this visit, he witnessed first-hand what had previously only been heard or read from people’s reports. In his observations, Van Kol wrote:

  • 45 Van Kol 1903: 106.

The doctor, who has to visit 25 places and treat 5000 coolies, is often absent […]. What a trampling of all the rules of hygiene I had to see there, not to mention that of humanity! In one wildly swarmed room, without any partition, lay syphilitic women, dying malaria sufferers, swollen beri-beri patients, and lepers. A dysentery patient sat quietly, and the water was drained from a swollen woman. A young girl, still very young, lay flat on her belly, covered with ulcers of a venereal nature, and stared at me everywhere with her big sad eyes, as if pleading for help against the harshness of my racemates. Poor child, so far from Java alone in the world, in such surroundings.45

  • 46 Breman 1989: 203-205.
  • 47 Breman 1989: 121-123.

24Van Kol’s observations confirmed the plight of the workers on the plantations, beyond the testimonies of others. Furthermore, the story of the suffering of the workers was also something that could not be ignored anymore. For mining workers in Ombilin, the results of A. G. Vorderman’s investigation also corroborated Terburgh’s report regarding the existence of various kinds of problems, starting from the coercion of workers to treat their illnesses, and horrible mistreatments by nurses, to violence by foremen46. Likewise, Doctor F. Maier reported that many patients were treated in dirty places and did not receive enough food, to the point that they had to pay for treatment and medicine. Such conditions confirmed the reality of many coolies refusing to be hospitalized.47

  • 48 Hoetink 1902: 1.

25In contrast to these reports, investigation by Hoetink in East Sumatra yielded slightly different information. Hoetink was a government employee for China affairs. It was generally known that plantations and mines in Sumatra imported workers from China because of their good work ethic. In this context, in February 1902 he was asked by the Department of Justice to carry out an investigation which he later presented in a report entitled Verslag van eene reis naar de Oostkust van Sumatra (Report of a trip to the East Coast of Sumatra). This report focused on the issue of the workforce as a whole in tobacco and coffee plantations as well as in mining companies in East Sumatra, overall approximately 160 companies. In his introduction, he admitted that it was impossible to visit all the companies due to lack of time, and a few visits and interviews with the company’s representative and local government officials was considered enough to provide sufficient information regarding the conditions of workers there.48 Based on his method, it was clear that the results were likely to be biased because they were based on sources of information that Van Kol avoided.

  • 49 Breman, 1989: 205-206.
  • 50 Hoetink 1902: 3.
  • 51 Hoetink 1902: 34.

26In the case of mineworkers in Sawah Lunto, for example, he claimed that the tortures were necessary for discipline and order. On the number of fleeing workers, he denied that it was due to harsh treatment; the escape had its origin in the habit of the coolies, and it was a contagious disease in large plantations.49 Furthermore, in his report, Hoetink also stated that the ordinance was actually aimed at protecting workers.50 He also reported that the health services in East Sumatra were something to be proud of and suggested the presence of European doctors on site instead of recruiting Javanese doctors for cheaper medical expenses. Hoetink also emphasized that sick porters should not be allowed to stay in the cottage, but they had to be taken to the hospital to avoid the lazy ones.51

  • 52 Breman 1989: 2.
  • 53 Van den Brand 1902. For an analysis of this pamphlet, see Breman 1989.

27The report was a defence of the issues circulating about the violence against workers in Sumatra used by the government to deny the awful treatments despite the many testimonies. In 1902, Van Den Brand, a Medan lawyer, published his well-known pamphlet, Milionen uit Deli, which criticized the conditions of the workers and health services in Deli. It was a longer version of his speech at a meeting held by Indische Bond on 29 March 1902 in which he denounced the practice of the koelie-ordonnantie on a moral basis, based on the news that appeared in the newspapers and his experience as a lawyer.52 He broadened the analysis by placing the issue of violence against coolies in the context of colonial politics. This pamphlet caused quite a stir, as it destroyed Deli’s good image.53

  • 54 Römer 1905: 721.

28The scandal led the government to set up a special commission to investigate Van den Brand’s allegations, as an attempt to respond more seriously to the issues that had been raised since the end of the nineteenth century. Physicians had also reported the cases of morbidity and mortality in which the question of violence was slightly mentioned as in the quantitative report by Doctor Römer, the Secretary of the East Sumatra branch.54 Doctor Praag, working in Loeboe Dalam, however, thought that this report was problematic. First, the title of the report was misleading because Römer only displayed data from the hospital where he worked. Therefore,

  • 55 Van Praag 1906: 27-36.

“it is not surprising that such tables could not constitute a reliable source, and as such could not serve other than to lead to wrong conclusions. That Dr. Römer has tried to adapt the results of the surveys to what was known to him from his experience seems to be a daring attempt, in which he has not succeeded in the least; the misconception of the incidence of many diseases given by these tables is the best proof of its absolute worthlessness.” 55

  • 56 Van Driel 1933: 1164.

29Many doctors in East Sumatra were indeed offended by Doctor Römer’s report. They even put forward a motion which was later published in GTNI regarding the termination of statistical reporting. However, as Doctor Van Driel said a few years later, what Doctor Römer did was a step in efforts to compile statistical data to obtain an indicator of the health conditions of a place. The strong opposition to Doctor Römer’s report, according to Doctor Van Driel, must be seen in the political context of the time: the formation of the Labor Inspectorate at the end of 1904 and Rhemrev’s investigation into the abuse of violence against coolies. In both cases, it was the plantation owners who were the targets of criticism. However, the doctors at the forefront to treat the coolies, were considered silent and even gave justifications for the violence, then felt that the statistical reports did not match the facts.56

30The goal of improving the health of plantation workers as promulgated in the koelie-ordonnantie was far from being achieved. The reports of the doctors in the field were far more convincing than those of politicians who were often in favour of plantation owners. From a conceptual point of view, this regulation was intended for the welfare of the workers, but in practice, it was often inappropriate. At this point, what was hoped for the availability of a healthy and strong workforce for high productivity was far from being achieved, as it was revealed in the reports up to the early twentieth century.

Establishing the system at the cost of the freedom of the workers

  • 57 Modderman 1929: 213-216.
  • 58 The poenale sanctie (“penal sanction”) was a set of provisions forming part of the Coolie Ordinance (...)
  • 59 The writings issued continuously from May to June were then published in a book entitled De Poenale (...)
  • 60 W. Kouwenaar 1929: 592-593.

31The success stories of the companies in East Sumatra, such as De Deli Maatschappij, Deli Batavia Maatschappij, and de Tabak Maatschappij “Arendsburg”, only emerged especially in the second decade of the twentieth century. In the book published to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the East Sumatra Planter, the compiler, P. W. Modderman, addressed the improvement of healthcare services in a chapter entitled “Het Pathologisch Laboratory” as a result of the implementation of the koelie-ordonnantie. Modderman seemed to disagree that the implementation of the ordinance had brought misery to the population. Instead, he believed that it contributed to the success of health service in the plantation.57 Similarly, in the same year, journalist Marcus van Blankenstein published a series of articles about poenale sanctie58 on the East Sumatra plantations in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant. In the same sentiment, Van Blankenstein reminded that despite the controversies, the ordinance provided an improvement to the health condition that should not be overlooked.59 The Director of Pathologisch Museum Medan, Doctor Willem Kouwenaar, also published an article on the celebration of the fifty years of plantations in East Sumatra. Doctor Kouwenaar wrote that in the beginning, there was only a basic medical centre. Each plantation had its hospital where every patient was treated by a doctor.60 This system was considered inefficient due to the lack of supervision by doctors, to the point that the mortality rates remained high.

  • 61 Schüffner and Kuenen 1910.
  • 62 Kuenen 1920: 9.
  • 63 Kouwenaar 1929: 598.

32It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that this system changed, under the leadership of Schüffner, a German doctor working for a company in Senembah who was interested in the health condition of the workers in Deli that was known to be unsanitary, and where the death rate was very high.61 One of his proposals was the establishment of a centralized health service. Years after its success, the so-called centralized health service system was, as described in 1920 by Kuenen, one of its architects, organized as follows: people with infectious diseases were removed from their workstations and immediately placed in isolation in a central location under constant surveillance of a doctor; patients with confirmed infection were immediately sent to isolation as soon as an outbreak occurred in the company so that immediate action could be taken; the doctor visited the sick every day and gave them treatment; and the enormous waste of time of travelling from one company hospital to another was no longer necessary, saving the doctor time for research.62 This led to the creation of a laboratory in 1906 as the centre of the battle against diseases. The function of the Deli laboratory, according to Kouwenaar, was not only “to provide on-demand hygiene advice, to conduct water research, and to advise on the construction of hospitals, but also to carry out research for the account of municipal authorities and provide them with opinions.”63 It also helped to justify all prophylactic measures to prevent the spread of diseases.

  • 64 Janssen 1914: 42-43; Kouwenaar 1931: 1218-1219; Maurer and Schüffner conducted research on malaria (...)

33The establishment of this laboratory came from the initiative of Doctor Georg Maurer, another German doctor who built a research centre at the Deli Maatschappij hospital in Medan, and Doctor Schüffner who worked at the Senembah Maatschappij, helping a similar institution in Tandjong Morawa.64 Both doctors believed that etiological research could only be carried out in well-equipped laboratories. The directors of each company, Joost van Vollenhoven, Chief Administrator of the Deli Company, and Dr. C. W. Janssen and E. Tweer, respectively, Director and Chief Administrator of the Senembah Company, appreciated and supported this effort. This collaboration between planters and doctors made the efforts more systematic in order to eradicate diseases and improve health conditions of the workers in East Sumatra.

  • 65 Schüffner and Kuenen 1910: 18-20.
  • 66 Van Driel 1930: 7-8; Van Driel 1934: 19.

34The efforts by Schüffner and Kuenen showed a reduction in mortality among Chinese and Javanese coolies working at the Senembah Maatschappij: from a total death rate of 60.2 per thousand in 1897 to 10.8 per thousand in 1906 and 14.9 per thousand in 1907. These figures clearly show positive results regarding the improvement of workers’ health.65 A more comprehensive overview covering the entire East Sumatra region can be read in a study conducted by Van Driel. In his research on the death rate among workers in East Sumatra in 1929, he showed that the overall average worker mortality was 7.19 per thousand for contract workers and 12.96 for free labor, while in 1932 the figure was even lower at 4.63 per thousand for contract laborers and 5.01 per thousand for free labor.66 Again, these figures attested to the progress made regarding the workers’ health condition as a result of the success in improving hygiene in the workplace, thereby preventing the emergence of disease, and subsequently reducing mortality.

  • 67 Leopold 1915: 222.
  • 68 Leopold 1915: 169.
  • 69 Modderman 1929: 135-38.

35It was the obligation to provide basic needs and the presence of doctors employed by companies in East Sumatra and the Dutch East Indies in general that contributed to the improvement of the workers’ health. Doctor Leopold in his dissertation on the mines in Peloe Laoet showed that the koelie-ordonnantie had benefited the workers67 even though this system sometimes led to the use of force under the pretext that the workers, living in conditions different from their homes, had difficulty applying hygiene rules.68 This excuse for violence raised criticisms and attempts were initiated to modify the regulations in the coolies’ contracts, as proposed for example by A. F. van Blommestein. In September 1909, as a chief officer for labor legislation in the Dutch East Indies, van Blommestein came to Deli to conduct a study on the proposed implementation. Not long after he arrived there, he published a draft of a new regulation that proposed the implementation of poenale sanctie only for a partial number of coolies which caused strong opposition from both businessmen and doctors.69

  • 70 Driel 1936: 313-315.
  • 71 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 4.
  • 72 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 4.

36The Association of the Advancement of Medical Science in the Dutch East Indies, East Sumatra branch, under the leadership of Doctor Kuenen, condemned this plan,70 and then published a pamphlet in 1910 in response to Blommestein’s proposal. This pamphlet questioned the relationship between the freedom of the workers and the necessities imposed by a hygiene policy. They seemed to be certain that the individual freedom contradicted the needs of society and the individual freedom of the workers contradicted the development of hygiene on the plantation. They also stated that “where contagious diseases are concerned, the law takes effect without hesitation (cholera, smallpox, etc.); the interests of the individuals themselves are indeed taken into account, but not their wishes and desires; public health, one of the chief matters for which a Government or Community has to take care of, is of too great importance; individual liberty does not qualify for this”.71 In their view, the presence of these regulations made their task much easier. So that, in the last 20 years, a great progress had been made in Deli concerning the question of hygiene and that it “is thanks to a favourable collaboration between the board, planters, doctors and in later years also the Labor Inspectorate that this progress has been achieved”.72 Doctors had to force workers to seek treatment, but the koelie-ordonnantie also obliged the employers to facilitate access to health services. It was the latter that was responsible for implementing public hygiene measures on the plantation.

  • 73 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 10.

37According to Kuenen and Knebel, unlike in Europe, where the use of force was unnecessary, “here in the tropics it is quite different, for the native does not feel the urge to consult the European physician out of ignorance and unmotivated fear; his fatalism and his limited ability to see into the future so far that it would be better for him to give up his freedom of movement for a short time to restore health usually make him refuse to undergo treatment if they are let to choose all by themselves.”73 The exertion of strength, therefore, appeared to be the key to the success of the public indigenous health program. On the other hand, free workers in many companies could easily be sent to the hospital if necessary. However, for the others, the application of the ordinance remained essential that the whole of the regulation, including the sending to the hospital by force, should be applied.

  • 74 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 10.
  • 75 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 15.

38From this point of view, it is easier to understand why the presence of vrije arbeiders (free labor) was a threat to hygiene on the plantation. The pamphlet suggested that “we fear in the first place (and the grounds for that fear are clear from what has been said) that, as a large part of the coolies will no longer appear in the hospital, people afflicted with contagious diseases will remain on the farms and infect their surroundings; dysentery, ankylostomiasis, cholera, and other diseases will spread and the sad states of the past will return.”74 Thus, free laborers were dangerous not only for themselves but also for those around them. For these European doctors, their freedom was opposed to their well-being. Granting doctors the use of force was the way to put in place an effective health policy. In the absence of regulations, health conditions in the plantation were threatened.75

  • 76 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 21.
  • 77 Van der Heijden 1918: 75.

39They further asserted that the threat was not only for the plantation but also for the country in general. Although they admitted that the notion of individual freedom was important, they nevertheless wanted to set limits to prevent the real danger. Allowing the sick to wander around and giving them options for treatments created much more serious damage. It is in this sense that the freedom of workers, at least from the point of view of the doctors working at Deli, should be limited.76 The lack of surveillance resulting from free labor was considered dangerous because if an epidemic broke out, it would be difficult to force the free workers into a health centre.77

  • 78 Baermann 1919; Baermann 1926.
  • 79 Straub 1930: 69-75.
  • 80 Van Gulik 1931: 354.
  • 81 Van Driel 1931: 803.

40In the final report written by Doctor Baerman for the Petoemboekan Hospital, is also emphasized the importance of the poenale sanctie in the success of improving the health conditions of workers in East Sumatra, and its elimination would pose a danger to the work environment.78 This statement was his reaction to the plan to abolish the poenale sanctie as he was to leave East Sumatra for good in 1930. Doctor Straub said that Baermann was one of the doctors who until the end of his tenure saw the importance of regulating the coolies, despite the times that had changed, in which the practice of forcing someone to do something, even if it was for their own good, could no longer be justified.79 In response to this change, Doctor Van Gulik then offered some plans that the medical care of a free working-class population had to rest on different foundations than that of a contracting population.80 This view was criticized by Van Driel, saying that the free labor was always present on the plantations, so the changes were not what he imagined.81 Despite the debate regarding the koelie-ordonnantie, in the 1930s doctors were more open about the possibility of its abolition. They were confident that the clean-living habits that had been ingrained for years would not disappear with the abolition of the rules that forced them to do so.

  • 82 Heinemann 1935: 524.

41In a Geneeskundige Tijdchrift report from 1935,82 Doctor Heinemann questioned the consequences of the abolition: had there been an increase in the number of sick and fatalities? He noted:

  • 83 Heinemann 1935: 526.

“If we look again at the mortality figures of recent years, we see that the year 1932 –i.e. the first year after the abolition of the penal sanction – was particularly favourable, furthermore that the mortality in 1933 rose slightly above average (as a result of influenza– epidemics on some of our companies) but also did not reach the 10 per mile. The abolition of the penal sanction did not change the medical and hygienic discipline.”83

42By saying this, Heinemann did not imply that the ordinance had no relation to the health condition of the workers. This favourable condition in his statement was made possible because the recruitment of new workers was no longer necessary, as the early workers and their descendants continued to work on the plantations, thanks to its excellent sanitation. The pondok system was very effective in ensuring the health of the community. This system was a large building divided into several rooms that resembled a barrack. Companies preferred pondok, as it was easier to monitor workers compared to separated houses.

  • 84 Heinemann 1935: 533.

43From his observations, Heinemann concluded that, on the one hand, it was no longer necessary to introduce a penal sanction and that, on the other hand, the company must stop bringing in workers from the exterior. He had confidence in the company to bring forth a new generation of workers who would benefit from a good physical condition and a good health. They would not only serve the company, but also the future of the Dutch East Indies. “A powerful lineage of future workmen is growing up in our companies. Educating these children in the sense of Western hygiene is not only important for our society but also the whole of Indies.”84

Conclusion

  • 85 Manderson 1987: 91-112; Manderson 1999: 102-7.

44The relationship between physicians and colonialism in the Dutch East Indies can also be seen in comparison with other colonies. Manderson pointed out that in terms of service, since their arrival, the Europeans, which included administrative and military personnel, had top priority. The local people also benefitted from health services although mostly directed to those from elite groups. In its development, along with increasing economic activities with the opening of plantations and mining sites, health services were also provided to the workers to ensure that they could continue to be productive.85

45We have begun this article with a discussion of the role of Doctor Bosch in campaigning for colonization and free labor in the Dutch East Indies. Both aspects were believed to be a way out of the misfortune caused by the implementation of the culturstelsel. In his view, instead of bringing prosperity, the system brought misery to the Javanese population which resulted in reduced profits for the Dutch. The power of liberal parties in the Dutch parliament made this new development possible and led to the clearing of large new lands in Sumatra. To ensure the health of workers, the presence of doctors and special laws governing workers were necessary. Unfortunately, the laws themselves, while basically designed to protect the workers, were often a source of violence against them. Criticism could not be avoided, to the point that it had to be abolished. However, physicians disagreed, thinking that it would be dangerous to the hygienic conditions on the plantations. Consequently, the laws should be preserved. Furthermore, in the second decade of the twentieth century, physicians also often criticized the free labor on plantations, as a threat to the population as a whole from a health perspective. At this point, there was a contrast between what was championed in the mid-nineteenth century regarding free labor by Bosch, and what changed in the first decades of the twentieth century. Both were in the interests of the workers as a whole but produced different knowledge products. It is at this point that the political position of the physicians in the colonial state became very clear. In addition to providing scientific justification for racial differences, they also provided political justifications for certain interests.

46The support of the physicians for free labor in the mid-nineteenth century and their shift in the second decade of the twentieth century shows to what extent the production of scientific knowledge was always related to political interests. The political role of the physicians in building a colonial state by assuring workers’ hygiene is therefore more nuanced. Their change in position demonstrated the contradiction in the liberalist goal of the colonial state.

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Notes

1 See Schoute 1936. For more recent studies about this issue, see Boomgaard 1989, Boomgaard 2003 and Neelakantan 2010.

2 Hesselink 2011.

3 Jaelani 2013.

4 See Harrison 1999; Anderson 2006; Seth 2018.

5 Tschudnowsky 1899.

6 Kuenen and Knebel 1910.

7 See Pelzer 1985; Stoler 2005; Stoler 2009; Breman 1989; Erman 2005.

8 The work of Markdoembaks is an exception. It discusses the physicians’ oblivion toward the oppression carried out by the enterprise owners which made him question their oath as doctors. Nevertheless, in this book, Markdoembaks does not question much about this issue in the context of colonial power. See Makdoembaks 2019.

9 Arnold 1993; Gilman 1985; Vaughan 1991; Anderson 2006; Lyons 1992. For discussion about historiography on colonial medicine, see Marks 1997 and Ernst 2007.

10 Pande 2010.

11 Manderson 1996, especially chapter 5 ‘Sickness and the World of Work: Men on the Estates,’ pp. 127-165.

12 Breman 1989: 39-41.

13 Culturstelsel or Sistem Tanam Paksa is a system that forced the peasants to cultivate one fifth of their land with plants having an economic value on the European market or compelled them to provide sixty days of work on government plantations.

14 Fasseur 1994: 56.

15 Hesselink discusses Doctor Bosch’s criticism regarding this issue and emphasizes his advice in creating a school to train the natives in medicine as the solution to fight epidemics. In his work, this story is put as the background of the creation of Dokter Djawa and midwifery school in the mid-nineteenth century. See Hesselink 2011, especially Chapter 3. Moreover, the political role of Doctor Bosch is also discussed in the dissertation by Doctor Adrian Borgers about him. See Borgers 1942.

16 Bosch 1852.

17 Jaelani 2017: 84; see also Rusnock 2002.

18 Bosch 1851; See also Fasseur 1994: 105-6.

19 Van Hoëvell and Bosch 1860: 6-7.

20 Kuitenbrouwer 1991: 36.

21 Bosch 1858: 165-88; regarding Bosch’s criticism of the colonization, see Pols 2011, especially pp. 132-134, and De Knecht-van Eekelen 2000: 70-85.

22 Indisch Genootschap 1865. Doctor Bleeker was a physician who became the first director of Dokter Djawa school. He published a considerable body of work on medical topography, initiated survey on the Javanese population, and had an interest in ichthyological research. See van Heiningen 2010: 257.

23 Bosch 1858: 180-181.

24 Becking and Van der Burg 1874: 757-763.

25 Indisch Genootschap 1872; Indisch Genootschap 1873a; Indisch Genootschap 1873b.

26 Becking and van der Burg 1874: 763.

27 Indisch Genootschap 1873a: 33.

28 Doctor Treille, a French physician, wrote in 1888 in his book On the acclimatization of Europeans, that for a white man, ploughing the soil was forbidden because his physical construction could not support it. Meanwhile, Doctor Navarre in Colonial Hygiene Manual also wrote that physical labor should be avoided, specifying that all “professions exercised in front of fires: cooks, bakers, pastry chefs, blacksmiths, drivers, etc.” should rather be reserved for the Natives. At the International Congress of Colonial Physicians in 1883, Da Silva Amado divided Europeans working in the tropics into two categories: those who did intellectual work and those who did physical work. According to him, the former were better respected, and their activity was better suited to their health. However, he advised that tropical heat could slow down brain functions. Referring to the history of the colonization of the Dutch East Indies, a Dutch physician, Van Overbeek de Meijer stated that racial difference was decisive for working the land. The physiology of certain races was compatible with certain works. See Van Leent 1884: 95-107; Le Cour Grandmaison 2014: 211-213.

29 Van der Burg 1884.

30 Van der Burg 1895: 173-174.

31 Several studies show that the increase in racial issues is related to the growing number of European women who arrived in the Dutch East Indies. Therefore, the growing racial prejudice by the end of the nineteenth century is always related to gender issues (see Locher-Scholten 2000; Stoler 2010; Gouda 2008). Moreover, the development of the field of physical anthropology in the second half of the nineteenth century increasingly provided empirical evidence regarding racial differences which was supported by scientific justification as shown in the study by Sysling (2016).

32 Kuenen 1920: 3.

33 Adriani 1893: 5.

34 Adriani 1893: 11.

35 Van der Burg 1898: 740-743.

36 Doctor Tschudnosky published Contribution à la géographie médicale de l’Archipel Malais in 1899, which was based on his experiences from 1891 to 1896, two years in Borneo and three years in Deli. In the diary published as a supplement of this work, he said that he started his assignment in early September 1893 as a doctor in company A (he did not give its full name) located in Deli. He explained that the company owned five plantations, in the middle of which there was a central hospital and where he lived. The farthest plantation location had to be reached by foot four hours away. As a doctor, once a week, he had to visit the plantations.

37 Tschudnowsky 1899: 39-42.

38 Terburgh 1899: 431.

39 Terburgh 1899: 434.

40 Terburgh 1899: 433.

41 Van Driel 1936: 303–304; See also Snijders 1921: XLV–LX.

42 Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1900: 415.

43 Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1900: 418.

44 Moon 2007: 18.

45 Van Kol 1903: 106.

46 Breman 1989: 203-205.

47 Breman 1989: 121-123.

48 Hoetink 1902: 1.

49 Breman, 1989: 205-206.

50 Hoetink 1902: 3.

51 Hoetink 1902: 34.

52 Breman 1989: 2.

53 Van den Brand 1902. For an analysis of this pamphlet, see Breman 1989.

54 Römer 1905: 721.

55 Van Praag 1906: 27-36.

56 Van Driel 1933: 1164.

57 Modderman 1929: 213-216.

58 The poenale sanctie (“penal sanction”) was a set of provisions forming part of the Coolie Ordinance (1880), allowing a plantation owner to punish his coolies in any way he saw fit. It was abolished in 1931.

59 The writings issued continuously from May to June were then published in a book entitled De Poenale Sanctie in Practijk, published in the same year (M. van Blankenstein 1929: 39).

60 W. Kouwenaar 1929: 592-593.

61 Schüffner and Kuenen 1910.

62 Kuenen 1920: 9.

63 Kouwenaar 1929: 598.

64 Janssen 1914: 42-43; Kouwenaar 1931: 1218-1219; Maurer and Schüffner conducted research on malaria together, which explains the origin of the expression “titik Maurer” for the dots in red blood cells in the quartan malaria infected patients. On his days in Deli, Schüffner recalled “I still enjoy the moment, when Maurer showed me the stippling of tertetians, in the marvellous beauty of colours, sharply pink, in vivid contrast with the deep blue protoplasma and the ruby-red nucleus, one of the most beautiful images that microscopy of the blood can offer.” Quoted in Verhave (2017: 405).

65 Schüffner and Kuenen 1910: 18-20.

66 Van Driel 1930: 7-8; Van Driel 1934: 19.

67 Leopold 1915: 222.

68 Leopold 1915: 169.

69 Modderman 1929: 135-38.

70 Driel 1936: 313-315.

71 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 4.

72 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 4.

73 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 10.

74 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 10.

75 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 15.

76 Kuenen and Knebel 1910: 21.

77 Van der Heijden 1918: 75.

78 Baermann 1919; Baermann 1926.

79 Straub 1930: 69-75.

80 Van Gulik 1931: 354.

81 Van Driel 1931: 803.

82 Heinemann 1935: 524.

83 Heinemann 1935: 526.

84 Heinemann 1935: 533.

85 Manderson 1987: 91-112; Manderson 1999: 102-7.

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Gani A. Jaelani, « Preserving the Resources: Plantations and Mines Workers’ Hygiene »Archipel, 104 | 2022, 33-56.

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Gani A. Jaelani, « Preserving the Resources: Plantations and Mines Workers’ Hygiene »Archipel [En ligne], 104 | 2022, mis en ligne le 01 mars 2023, consulté le 17 février 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/2996 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.2996

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Gani A. Jaelani

Assistant Professor at Department of History and Philology, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia

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