Government and Mission in the Torajan World of Makale-Rantepao

Religion, in highland South Sulawesi in the second decade of the twentieth century was not treated with the neutrality claimed by the Dutch for their rule in the Indies. A long and costly war had just been concluded with the Acehnese, and Islamic organizations on Java were showing signs of vitality that troubled the colonial authorities. Dutch officials throughout those islands which had substantial Muslim populations and still unconverted groups of highlanders were, then, concerned over the potential of a politically militant Islam. This caused the government to focus more attention on contiguous highland populations in provincial policy planning than their numbers warranted. So it was that the Torajan world was not left to make its slow accommodation with the Islamic lowlands of South Sulawesi.