Abstract

This chapter tracks the trajectories of three Indonesians in the metropole. It first explores the concept of ‘cultural citizenship’, which helps to understand their strivings in an imperial world that withheld formal citizenship to its colonial subjects. Partial metropolitan biographies of three Indonesians follow, with each of them exemplifying a common attitude towards empire: the path towards assimilation by Wim Tehupeiory (1883-1946), political dissent from Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo (1886-1943), and the recourse to the arts and to ‘association’ of Jodjana (1896-1972). All three life trajectories show that, in parallel to the Black Atlantic so thoroughly theorized in transatlantic imperial history, there is an Eastern equivalent, an Indisch consciousness of sorts.

Keywords: anticolonial dissent, cultural citizenship, Jodjana, Cipto Mangunkusumo, assimilation, Black Atlantic

If I were a Dutchman, […] I would wish for the independence festivities to be as copious as possible. Yet, I would not wish for the natives of these lands to take part in them. I would prohibit them from cheering along. […] It would be so indecorous, so presumptuous, so inappropriate, if we – I still imagine myself to be Dutch – let the native cheer along in the commemoration of our freedom.

Several pamphlets in Dutch and Malay have circulated. The first pamphlet If I Were a Dutchman… gave the impression that the Indies compare to the Netherlands in the same way as the Netherlands compared to France a hundred years ago. This depiction is as unfaithful as it is vicious. The Indies were ruled by native kings who oppressed the population. We have brought peace and order, and have treated the population in better ways.