Changes in Indonesia's Social Stratification

Abstract

NTINETEENTH century Java witnessed the consolidation of a colonial IN status based on racial distinctions. general features of this colonial caste system have been described by the late Raymond Kennedy in his excellent paper, The Colonial Crisis and the Future.' situation differed from the pattern followed in other colonial empires inasmuch as the color line in Java was drawn between those of mixed parentage and those of pure Indonesian descent. result of this peculiar division was that Eurasians (at present mostly called Indo-Europeans2) were included within the European ruling class though their social position was by no means equal to the status of those of pure Dutch parentage. Chinese and other foreign Orientals formed an intermediate group consisting, at least in Java, mainly of traders and handicraftsmen. After the extension of Dutch rule over the Outer Islands, the colonial class structure spread to these territories as well. Though the colonial status pattern obscured to some extent the original class distinctions within the Indonesian society, the indigenous structure mostly remained untouched. In particular, the distinction between the Indonesian nobility and the common people was kept largely intact by Dutch rule. In contrast to the Western prestige system, a scale of values was preserved which to a certain extent embodied a protest against the colonial system, representing a kind of counterweight: a prestige scale, that is to say, based on religion. According to this scale, the Islamic scribe, the hadji (pilgrim returned from Mecca) and the Arab Sayyid (descendant of the Prophet) were men of high standing, whereas white men were merely kafirs (unbelievers).' twentieth century, however, witnessed a basic change of the status pattern, largely as a result of economic changes and the spread of Western education.4 expansion of a money economy gave rise to numerous new