The Sepoy conspiracy of 1815 in Java

Abstract

Towards the end of the period of British rule in Java (1811-1816), during the last months of 1815, a far-reaching conspiracy was discovered amongst the Sepoy (British-Indian) garrisons at the Central Javanese courts. In this conspiracy, members of the Surakarta court were them selves directly involved, and the success of the plot miglit have put the entire European administration of Java in jeopardy. The incident thus provides a fascinating insight into the state of kraton (court) politics in the Central Javanese kingdoms at the time as well as illustrating the laxity in discipline and widespread disaffection which prevailed amongst the Sepoy troops towards their European officers some forty years before the great Indian Mutiny of 1857-58. Although the original documents relating to this affair are readily available in the volumes of the Bengal Secret and Political Consultations in the India Office Library (London),1 very little has been written about the affair in either the Dutch or English histories of the period. Some of the documents were indeed published by M. L. van Deventer and P. H. van der Kemp, whereas Raffles himself referred briefly to Sunan Pakubuwana IV's (1788-1820) connection with the Sepoys in the second volume of his History of Java, but these references provide only a very fleeting survey of this intriguing episode.2 This lack of information was later underlined by G. P. Rouffaer in his famous article on the Vorstenlanden (the Princely States of Central Java) when he wrote of the 'as yet highly inadequately known Sepoy conspiracy of 1815 in Solo5.3 The main reason for the silence surrounding the affair in contem porary sources and memoirs was due to Raffles' own anxiety to disguise the gravity and magnitude of conspiracy from the civilian inhabitants of Java. Thus Dr. Thomas Horsfield, the American naturalist, who was resident in Java at the time, later recalled that, of this mysterious event the European inhabitants (of Java) remained almost totally unapprised, although their existence probably depended on the prompt decision of a moment, which, under Providence, was displayed by the British officers in the garrison of Yogyakarta.4