【院生ゼミ】6月1日
【大学院】
In this week, we discuss the movie Max Havelaar (1976). Some of the points we discussed include:
1. Not all local population were against the Dutch colonial rule. In fact, local rulers cooperated with the Dutch, and in return the Dutch supported them. This relationship was apparent in the scene where Dutch soldiers shot a young peasant to death who protested against the local ruler's oppressive treatment.
2. The movie shows that the Dutch soldiers consisted of people of many racial and ethnic backgrounds. An African soldier can be identified, as the Dutch maritime empire at its height included South Africa. Christianised Indonesians also served as soldiers for Dutch. The Dutch effort to Christianise the local population (emphasized in the early part of the movie) worked well with its colonial "divide and rule" policy.
3. The fight between a water buffalo and a tiger (and the former's victory over the latter) may be interpreted as a metaphor of the local peasants' resistant against the colonial Dutch. This prophecy-like discourse that a docile water buffalo can overcome a mighty tiger is also reflected in the famous 19th-century Javanese painter Raden Saleh's painting. Note that a water buffalo is a symbol of ordinary people in modern Indonesia's national emblem.
We will continue the discussion about the movie in the next week.