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Indianized Southeast Asia: Similarities and Differences

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The Social Evolution of Indonesia

Part of the book series: Studies in Social History ((SISH,volume 5))

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Abstract

The principal areas of Southeast Asia show a number of similarities and differences which make various overlapping divisions into societal and cultural types possible. Fisher mentions the contradistinction between the isolated Indo-Pacific peninsula and the more open, maritime Malaysian lands which lay on the international seaways and whose spice trade made them attractive. Islamic commercial expansion strengthened the antithesis continental-insular and Western penetration starting with the arrival of the Portuguese had the same effect.1 Another point of departure is the contrast between ‘Asiatic’ sawah areas and the periphery, the commercial-maritime fringe with its swidden hinterland and the mountain peoples.2 Benda applies a cultural criterion for his division into Indianized, Sinicized and His-panized Southeast Asia.3 Within this tripartite differentiation further subdivisions can be made, such as Asiatic/non-Asiatic, agrarian centre/commercial periphery, sawah/swidden and so forth. In this sense, Benda’s classification seems a suitable basis on which to characterize the various zones.

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Notes

  1. Fisher, Southeast Asia, p. 127.

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  2. See Chs 3, 6, 7.

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  3. Benda, ‘Political elites’, in: Continuity, pp. 189–194.

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  4. Siffin, The Thai Bureaucracy, pp. 8 ff, 14 ff; Cady, History, pp. 4 ff, 21 ff; Ingram, Economic Change, pp. 38 ff; Jacobs, Modernization, pp. 4 ff and passim; Duffar, Les forces, pp. 24 ff, 33 ff, 42 ff; Furnivall, Colonial Policy, pp. 14 ff; Sarkisyanz, Buddhist Background, pp. 54, 85, 108, 140, 142 ff, 148;Delvert, Le pay san cambodgien, pp. 455, 488 ff; Heine-Gelderen, ‘Conceptions’, in: Southeast Asia. The Politics, pp. 74–89. For Indonesia: Ch. 7. Mandel, (Traité, I, p. 107) probably has the Indianized zone in mind when he points out that Southeast Asia represents a historical instance of extreme adaptation to the physical milieu. See also the involution theory of Geertz.

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  5. Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 50, 77–78; Adas, Burmese Delta, pp. 65 ff, 78–79, 112 ff, 140 ff, 189 ff; Ingram, Economic Change, pp. 76–79; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 144 ff; Furnivall, Netherlands India, pp. 178–179; Boeke, Structure, pp. 40 ff; Jacobs, Modernization, p. 206; Delvert, Paysan, pp. 495–509; Furnivall, Colonial Policy, pp. 86–87; Hall, History, p. 782; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, p. 52.

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  6. Tinker, Union, pp. 34 ff; Cady, History, pp. 537 ff, 578 ff; Ba Maw, Breakthrough in Burma.

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  7. Id., ChsIV, VIII, IX, X; Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 182–183; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 369–370, 380, 382 ff; Southeast Asia Documents, pp. 135–136;

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  8. Stifel, ‘Burmese Socialism’, in: PA, 45, 1, Spring 1972, pp. 60 ff. The distribution of the land among the landless and indigent peasants did not pass smoothly. Fryer, Id., p. 370. According to Sarkisyanz (Buddhist Backgrounds, p. 190) village relations did return more or less to precolonial conditions.

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  9. Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, p. 137; Ingram, Economic Change, pp. 79, 210, 225; Skinner, Chinese Society, pp. 3–5, 126 ff, 150–154, 189–190, 249–251, 253–254; Purcell, Chinese, p. 115. This process continues in a certain way

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  10. (Skinner, Id., pp. 298 ff; Hindley, ‘Thailand’, in: PA, 41, 3, Fall 1968, pp. 365–366) without the disappearance of the Chinese as an identifiable minority. For the Thai peasant see also: Potter, Thai Peasant Social Structure; Neher, Dynamics.

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  11. Jacobs, Modernization, pp. 173–177; Riggs, Thailand, pp. 229–240.

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  12. See the following chapters.

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  13. Fisher, Southeast Asia, pp. 179 ff, 386–388, 438–439, 474–477, 501–503, 570; Fryer, Southeast Asia, pp. 145–148, 208, 218, 220, 248, 258, 267, 270, 276, 369–370, 380; Ingram, Economic Change, pp. 27 ff, 43 ff, 71–74, 99 ff, 111, 121, 135–139, 146–148, 209 ff; Skinner, Chinese Society, pp. 91 ff, 170 ff, 213 ff; Purcell, Chinese in Malaya, pp. 54 ff, 71 ff, 88 ff, 104 ff, 127 ff, 193 ff; Mahajani, Role of Indian Minorities, pp. 16 ff, 98 ff; Freedman, ‘Chinese’, and Hatley, ‘Overseas Indian’, in: Man, State and Society, pp. 431–466; Chakravarti, Indian Minority, pp. 56–95; Heidhuess, Southeast Asia’s Chinese Minorities, pp. 8 ff.

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  14. Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 79–81. For the weakness of the Muslim entrepreneurs see: Castles, Religion, pp. 1–14. See also Chapter 12. In Burma the above mentioned outstripping (Stifel, ‘Economics of the Burmese Way’, in: AS, XI, 8, Aug. 1971, p. 816) took the form of virtual liquidation. For the compradors in general see: Mandel, Traité, I, pp. 116 ff, 135; II, pp. 116–117.

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  15. Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 88–90.

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  16. Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 66, 293; Skinner, Chinese Society, pp. 359–361; Stifel, ‘Burmese Socialism’, in: PA, 45, 1, Spring 1972,pp. 68, 71;Tinker, Union, pp. 188–189. See also: Southeast Asia’s Economy, pp. 153–155. Heidhuess (Southeast Asia’s Chinese Minorities, pp. 27–28) tends to underestimate the economic strength of the Chinese. For the Intelligentsia also: Benda, ‘Political Elites\ in: Continuity, pp. 189 ff. See also: Wertheim, Elite, pp. 70 ft; Id., East-West Parallels, pp. 90 ff.

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  17. Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 112–113.

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  18. Asian Bureaucratic Systems, pp. 397 ff; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 89, 90; Von der Mehden, Southeast Asia, pp. 124–131; Jacobs, Modernization, passim; Siffin, Thai Bureaucracy, Chs 8 ff; Riggs, Thailand, pp. 251–310, 389–390; Duffar, Les forces, pp. 54–55; Pomonti et Thion, Des courtisans aux partisans, pp. 88 ff. This problem has mainly been studied for the Thai case.

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  19. Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 179–180; Janowitz, Military, pp. 5 ff, 25 ff, 75 ff; Le role extra-militaire de l’armee, pp. 313–346; Kennedy, Military, pp. 55 ff, 94–103; Hoadly,Military; Lissak, Military Roles.

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  20. Chakravarti, Indian Minority, pp. 169 ff; Purcell, Chinese, pp. 489–491; Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 165–166; Chinese in Indonesia, pp. 82 ff.

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  21. Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 289 ff, 384, 387;

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  22. Wiant, ‘Burma’, in: AS, XIII, 2, Febr. 1973, pp. 185–186; Myint, Southeast Asia’s Economy, p. 35; Le monde diplomatique, juin 1974, p. 18.

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  23. Skinner, Chinese Society, pp. 359–361; Jacobs, Modernization, p. 122.

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  24. Scott, Moral Economy, passim. See also: Pelzer, Pioneer Settlement, Chs Mil, VI; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, Ch. 2. Further: Scott and Kerkvliet, ‘Polities’, in: JSEAS, IV, 2, Sept. 1973, pp. 242 ff.

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  25. Boeke, Structure, p. 163; Scott and Kerkvliet, Op. cit, pp. 246, 247.

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  26. Seavoy’s conclusion for Indonesia - ‘The Green Revolution offers the opportunity for another postponement, probably the last’ - holds true for all of Southeast Asia (Seavoy, ‘Social Restraints’, in: JSEAS, VII, 1, March 1977, p. 30). On the other hand the Green Revolution contributes to the deterioration of the position of smallholders and tenants. Scott, Moral Economy, pp. 210 ff. For the failure of rural cooperations: Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 74, 147–148.

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  27. For tenancy reform: Fredericks and Wells, ‘Some Aspects’, in: AS, June 1978, XVIII, 6, pp. 648–658.

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  28. Pelzer, Pioneer Settlement, pp. 168–172; Ingram, Economic Change, p. 66; Wertheim, Dawning, p. 37; Id., Elite, Ch. 6 ff; Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 72–73,145, 311 ff, 368–370,432.

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  29. Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia, pp. 3944. For the Chinese in this zone: Purcell, Chinese, pp. 283 ff, 425 ff, 458 ff; Skinner, ‘Chinese Minority’, in: Indonesia, pp. 98 ff; Gins-burg and Roberts, Malaya, pp. 243 ff, 363 ff; Chinese in Indonesia, pp. 139 ff. The artificial protection of the Malay peasant (determined by the extreme pluralism of Malaysia) did foster stagnation as well. Fryer, Id., pp. 220, 248, 258–265. See also: Political Economy, pp. 163–173.

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  30. Thompson, Labor Problems, passim; Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 76–77; Chakravarti, Indian Minority, pp. 31 ff, 46–55; Furnivall, Colonial Policy, pp. 89, 117–122; Purcell, Chinese, pp. 107, 112, 157 ff, 283–284, 286–293, 299–303, 308 ff, 327, 329 ff; Labor Law and Practice in Laos, pp. 16, 24–25, 32–34; Labor and Practice in Thailand, pp. 15, 25–26, 35–36; Duffar, Les forces, pp. 27–30; Sandhu, Indians, pp. 51 ff, 87 ff; Gamba, Origins of Trade Unionism; Marxism in Southeast Asia, pp. 25–26, 82–84, 86–87. In Thailand the working class (and the communist movement too) was Chinese for a long time. Only gradually a Thai proletariat emerged; a large percentage of Bangkok workers is still Chinese. Skinner, Chinese Policy, pp. 345–346, 350–353.

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  31. Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 115–116, 121; Butwell, U Nu, p. 8; Legge, Indonesia, pp. 130–131; Meyer, Derriere le sourire Khmer, Chs V and VI. In Burma the conservative and traditionalist Buddhist monks, the pongyi’s, monopolized extra-urban mass mobilization up to the late 20s. Sathyamurti, ‘Some Aspects’, in: Nationalism, Revolution and Evolution, pp. 28 ff.

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  32. Scott and Kerkvliet, ‘Polities’, in: JSEAS, IV, 2, Sept. 1973, pp. 25 ff. See also: Benda, ‘Peasant Movements’, in: Continuity, pp. 220–235; Jacoby, Agrarian Unrest’, Sartono, Protest Movements’, Scott, Moral Economy, pp. 193 ff.

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  33. Hall, History, pp. 740–742; Cady, History, pp. 189 ff, 207 ff, 231 ff, 250 ff; Sarkisyanz, Buddhist Backgrounds, pp. 131 ff; Blumberger, Nationalistische beweging, pp. 55 ff; van Niel, Emergence, pp. 90 ff; Sartono, Protest Movements, pp. 142 ff.

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  34. Communist Uprisings of 1926–1927.

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  35. Bastin and Benda, History, pp. 116 ff.

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  36. Id., pp. 123 ff; Elsbree, Japan’s Role.

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Authors
  1. Fritjof Tichelman
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© 1980 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers bv, The Hague

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Tichelman, F. (1980). Indianized Southeast Asia: Similarities and Differences. In: The Social Evolution of Indonesia. Studies in Social History, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8896-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8896-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-8898-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-8896-5

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