currently living in Indonesia as Indian-American, I was surprised, Mr. Rooseboom the recent article comparing the Colonial experiences of Indonesia and India, showing the British in a read better light than the Dutch. Unfortunately, here in my time I have heard many times, Indonesians complain that it would have been better if they are not settled by the Dutch, also heard this from the mouth of the former president B.J, Habibie Indonesia at a recent conference. The reality is of course much more complex, and here I hope when the Lord Rooseboom to provide a different angle.
India and Indonesia were, strongly desired by the population, the two greatest colonial possessions in the world during the 18th and 19th centuries, and both were of the European powers. Once in their endeavor, that it is not the valuable resources of the East Indies, the British East India Company decided to try his luck further west to settle in India and use. While the Dutch repressive tactics have used to subjugate the local population - the invasion of Bali and the killing of the royal family is just one example - the British far more sinister, can still be felt, a policy of divide and rule, which effects with today
Both countries were heavily exploited for their resources -. to go with nearly all gains to Europe. The British, it took but one step further, formally turning wide regions autonomous farmland in Bengal in giant opium plantation, monopsony starvation prices for poppy setting, turn it into valuable opium, and the shipping of the project to East Asia and the profits to England. In China, opium addicted million and hastened the ruin into a European satellite state countries. Once magnificent economy Is it really any wonder that even today China takes any western advice with healthy skepticism? Or that the Indian farmer today is fighting the burden of the past to overcome?
Mr. Rooseboom refers to the infrastructure of the British left, including railways and their scanty educational efforts that need to be determined never included women and low caste people. What must be realized is that India, like Indonesia, had an indigenous education system of colonial policy was devastated. After independence, India had a similar literacy rate of the peoples of Indonesia, perhaps with more tokens highly educated. Today Indonesia's literacy rate is higher than in India. And the trains? They were exploiting resources built first and exercise second British control, not empower Indians who had nothing to say in their construction or use.
The Dutchman added similar Harms economically, but nothing in Indonesia can be compared to the British social policy of rational Division. In an effort to manage people, attracted the British boundaries of religion drawn. The 105 partition of Bengal divided Bengali Hindus and Bengali Muslims who wear the same language, speak the same dress, and are not as clearly defined (significant minority in a mixed environment in peace lived). Later, Sikhs Punjabi Muslims and Punjabi were a partition between Pakistan and India, shared that was forced on the people and led to millions of deaths.
Can you imagine if the Dutch had done the same thing here? Created Christians a separate state for the Javanese Muslims and Javanese? European ideas of race, religion and ethnicity did not fit in pluralistic societies such as India and Indonesia. Just as the system of nation-states, but that is another story.
Indonesia should thank that the Dutch society not divided so thoroughly. India is recovering, but the Pakistan border remains tense, and today, Hindus are fleeing Bangladesh whose Hindu minority population has shrunk to date, only 10% of 25% after independence. I'm going to often how easily surprised Indonesians of different religious and ethnic backgrounds mix. In India, which is so rare, except in interesting cases, like my mother's hometown of Hyderabad, who rarely sees ommunal violence. Hyderabad was never under direct British control, so never went through the same types of divisive, destructive policies so much of the rest of South Asia.
The truth is, there is no such thing as good and bad Colonialism Colonialism. Pre-colonial India and Indonesia had great empires, incredible achievements in art, literature and culture. connected Malay sailors to while spices flowed the archipelago by complicated networks of trading from the Malabar Coast of southern India in the world. The British and Dutch stunted growth both countries and subjugated them to terrible, destabilizing exploitation. The wealth we see today in the ornate old buildings of Amsterdam and London is directly connected with poverty still visible in Jakarta and New Delhi.
to the British and Dutch in India and Indonesia are similar to trying different compared to assess shadow of injustice. The truth is, there are only wrong if you exercising human control over others and use it to win, no matter how altruistic rhetoric. In time, I believe, India and Indonesia will be able to cast from the damage caused by Europe to recover, but it will be a long, hard process, and we should always remember that it did not have to be so.
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