Regional nationalism in a colonial state: a case study from the Dutch East Indies

Abstract

Little theoretical attention has been paid to the subject of anti-colonial nationalist movements which defined the nation not as the indigenous population of the colonial state as a whole, but as some smaller unit within that state. This paper examines one such ‘regional’ nationalism, in the Minahasa area of North Celebes during the Dutch colonial occupation of what is now Indonesia. Minahasan nationalism was generated by forces similar to those which, at a later date, also gave rise to its pan-Indonesian counterpart. Its occurrence can be explained in terms of the uneven distribution of colonial institutions and the uneven social impact of colonialism in time and space. The evolution of Minahasan regional nationalism was as complex as that of any other nationalist movement, and is described here with the aid of five rudimentary models extracted from the general literature on nationalism. These models stress ethnicity, modernization, communication, inequality and politics respectively. The decline of Minahasan nationalism after 1942 is explained in terms of the radically changed political conditions accompanying decolonization in Indonesia. Parallels and contrasts are suggested with other parts of Indonesia and with separatist nationalisms in other colonial and postcolonial states.