Ethnic disorder in VOC Asia. A Plea for Eccentric Reading
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10684Abstract
This article is part of the forum 'Rethinking the VOC: Between Archival Management and Research Practice'.
The archives of the Dutch East India Company reflect the concerns and interests of colonial administrators. One intrinsic element of colonial rule, as manifested in its sources, is the tendency to reify ethnic labels. This contribution to the forum tries to encourage alternative readings of colonial archives. Judicial papers can help to challenge the replication of colonial social categories. The method is illustrated by looking at the testimonies of the so-called Chinese rebellion in Batavia in 1740, when ethnic labels could be a matter of life or death. The resulting approach is to foreground dynamics of creolisation rather than to repeat colonial templates of segregation and an essentialist ethnic division.
De archieven van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie weerspiegelen de zorgen en belangen van de koloniale bestuurders. Een intrinsieke karaktertrek van koloniale overheersing, zoals die ook zijn weerslag in de bronnen heeft gekregen, is de neiging om etnische labels te verabsoluteren. Deze bijdrage aan het forum probeert een alternatieve lezing van de koloniale archieven te stimuleren. Gerechtelijke archieven kunnen een tegenwicht bieden aan de replicatie van strikte koloniale sociale categorieën. Deze aanpak wordt geïllustreerd aan de hand van getuigenissen over de zogenoemde Chinese opstand in Batavia in 1740. De benadering leidt tot een nadruk op processen van creolisering en bepleit een sterkere terughoudendheid in het herhalen van koloniale schema’s van segregatie en van het maken van een essentialistisch etnisch onderscheid.
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