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perceptions of protest: defining the dangerous in colonial Sumatra
Author(s) -
STOLER ANN
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1985.12.4.02a00030
Subject(s) - rhetoric , colonialism , legitimation , elite , communism , state (computer science) , power (physics) , negotiation , political science , political economy , sociology , law , politics , philosophy , linguistics , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science
Historical analysis of how the Dutch administrative and plantation elite perceived protest in colonial Sumatra reveals a striking shift in focus. Whereas in the 1870s labor violence was personalized and downplayed, by the 1920s it was construed as a politically motivated prelude to communist revolt. This paper looks at the written rhetoric surrounding these issues not as a reflection or legitimation of colonial power, but as a site of negotiation over the nature of it, between the European planters and the colonial state. It is argued that this rhetoric shaped how danger was defined and how protection of corporate capital's private interests became synonymous with the maintenance of a public rust en orde (peace and order). [Indonesia, labor protest, colonial state, rhetoric, plantations]