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6 TheInnerLife of LateColonialSociety UNLIKE THE COMPANY PERIOD, the nineteenth century is rich in personal records that have survived from members of the rapidly expanding Indies-based European group. No longer was the capturing of experience left to the traveler. Now the new settlers from various levels of colonial society felt compelled to commit their opinions to paper. Many of the writers were struck by the fact that Netherlanders were not able to maintain in Indonesia the coherence and integrity of their own culture, even for a few decades. I have tried, in preceding chapters, to show that this was so partly because demonstration and maintenance of status required adoption of Mestizo values ~d manners. And in addition, there was the onslaught of a colonial, polyglot society. Nineteenth-century immigrants surveying the colonial culture described in chapter 5 sought reasons for the sudden changes in their culture elsewhere. From Johannes Hennus to Bas Veth, they pour out a constant stream of criticism of prevailing conditions of Indies life and ofwhat they saw as the degeneracy of Dutch settlers there. l Their explanations for cultural change range from the alleged refusal of immigrants to respect class privilege and birthright to miscegenation and the supposed "pull of the blood. " Concubinage with Indonesian women was sometimes said to cause the loss of Dutch values, to undermine home life, and to re~ult in the abandonment of many part-European children who grew into adults dangerous to law and order. Other critics blamed the sudden alteration in living styles and beliefs on white women, whom they perceived as idle, arrogant, and worldly, once transplanted to the Indies. Others railed against a supposed loss of piety, and characterized immigrants as obsessed with money, rank, and precedence. It became fashionable with critics to deride the reading habits of Indies Europeans as lacking direction and serious purpose. Or they would attribute cultural change to daily contact with part-Indonesians and urge parents to send their children to Holland for schooling. They wrote with shock of Europeans who visited Javanese wayang (shadow puppet theater) perfonnances and took delight in other fonns of Indonesian arts. The greatest contempt was reserved for those European migrants who took to 135 THE SOCIAL WORLD OF BATAVIA living as Indonesians. Such "horror stories" were traded in all accounts of Indies life. Their cautionary note reminds us that in colonial society outer badges of identification carried many implications. Alteration in costume meant also alteration in the way people earned a living, dictated which legal system ruled their conduct, described different sets of privileges and obligations, raised or lowered status within separate groups. At a later date another set of writers extolled virtues and habits they perceived as specifically Indies.2 These writers spoke of "our Indies hospitality," which was a liberality of purse towards friends and relatives and a graciousness towards house-guests, who were entertained royally and suffered to stay for lengthy visits. They discerned an elegance to life in the slow pace of daily affairs, the long hours of conversation outdoors in the evening, the carriage rides and balls. They found a wannth and eagerness to help each other among the Europeans where the critics saw only backbiting and hypocrisy. They waxed eloquent over the Indies rituals of morning coffee, midday sleep, and ceremonious exchange of visits. Against those who complained of a lack of intellectual stimulation in the colony, they spoke of a broadening of mind and a new generosity of thought. And there were some who sang praises to the faithful nyai (Indonesian mistress) who stuck by her master and who revealed to him the "mysteries of the Orient." Still others immortalized their Javanese cooks or nursemaids in their writings. These writers gloried in Indies habits that characterized the colony in the second half of the nineteenth century, particularly the costume, bathing, and rijsttafel. As noted earlier, it was precisely when immigrants were able to keep in close touch with the homeland, by furlough, telegraph, libraries, and so forth, that they ostentatiously adopted Indonesian practices. The VOC male immigrant who would probably never revisit his home country stuck to his layers of clothing and his wig, shunned bathing and frequent changes of linen, and worked steadily throughout the afternoon. But, starting from the late nineteenth centul)', the Dutch civil servant wore colonial whites, left the office at two in the afternoon, and donned batik pyjamas after a siesta and an Indonesian meal. So it is odd that yet others should...

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