Earl, Logan and Indonesia - article ; n°1 ; vol.6, pg 93-118

Russel Jones

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Archipel - Année 1973 - Volume 6 - Numéro 1 - Pages 93-118
1. Dr. Russell Jones (London School of Oriental and African- Studies) examines again in full detail the problem of the origin of the term Indonesia and retraces its various uses through European geographical works at the end of the XlXth century and the writings of the XXth century Indonesian nationalists. Used for the first time by Earl, a British traveller, the term was popularized by Bastian and then Mohammad Hatta.
III. 1. Dr. Russel Jones (School of Oriental Languages di London) dengan secara terperinci membicarakan kembali asal usul nama Indonesia dan secara teliti meninjau kembali berbagai pemakaian nama tersebut dalam karya2 ilmu bumi Eropah pada akhir abad ke XIX serta tulisan2 yang pertama ditulis oleh para nasionalis Indonesia abad ke XX. Nama Indonesia untuk pertama kali di- gunakan oleh Earl, seorang pelancong bangsa Inggris, lalu dipopu- lerkan oleh Bastian dan kemudian Mohammad Hatta.
26 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Informations

• Publié par: ARCHIPEL0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1973
• Nombre de lectures: 47
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Russell Jones
Earl, Logan and "Indonesia"
In: Archipel. Volume 6, 1973. pp. 93-118.
Abstract
1. Dr. Russell Jones (London School of Oriental and African- Studies) examines again in full detail the problem of the origin of the
term "Indonesia" and retraces its various uses through European geographical works at the end of the XlXth century and the
writings of the XXth century Indonesian nationalists. Used for the first time by Earl, a British traveller, the term was popularized by
Bastian and then Mohammad Hatta.
ringkasan
III.1. Dr. Russel Jones (School of Oriental Languages di London) dengan secara terperinci membicarakan kembali asal usul
nama "Indonesia" dan secara teliti meninjau kembali berbagai pemakaian nama tersebut dalam karya2 ilmu bumi Eropah pada
akhir abad ke XIX serta tulisan2 yang pertama ditulis oleh para nasionalis Indonesia abad ke XX. Nama "Indonesia" untuk
pertama kali di- gunakan oleh Earl, seorang pelancong bangsa Inggris, lalu dipopu- lerkan oleh Bastian dan kemudian
Mohammad Hatta.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Jones Russell. Earl, Logan and "Indonesia". In: Archipel. Volume 6, 1973. pp. 93-118.
doi : 10.3406/arch.1973.1130
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_1973_num_6_1_113093
EARL, LOGAN AND "INDONESIA"
by Russell JONES
for "For it us, symbolises Indonesia and represents evokes an a independent political objective, father
land in the future, for the making of which every
might." rightminded Indonesian must work with all his
— Mohammad Hatta in De Socialist,
no. 10, Saturday 8 December 1928.
When, on 17 August 1945, Ir. Sukarno proclaimed in Jakarta the
independence of the Netherlands Indies, he and his fellow nationalists
had an obvious choice of name for the new republic, Indonesia. So
obvious in fact that it has attracted little comment ; but it is perhaps
worthwhile placing on record some of the circumstances surrounding
the birth and subsequent fortunes of the name which was to be given
to one of the largest countries in the world today.
At one time the choice could have been expected to fall on an
indigenous name, such as Nusantara, (l) which is modern Javanese for
'archipelago', and is used in Bahama Indonesia to denote the Archipelago.
The respectable antiquity of Nusantara is attested, for it occurs in the
(*) Dr. Noorduyn points out that the wcrd is in fact etymologically hybrid incorpo
rating the Sanskrit element antara ("other"). 94
islands' 14th century that is, Nàgara-kërtâgama, excluding Java. It (2) did though not refer there to in what the sense we now of 'other know
as Indonesia; indeed it is of questionable value to speak of such a con
cept as "Indonesia" prior to Dutch colonisation. After being reintrodu-
ced by Brandes the name Nusantara was taken up by E. F. Douwes
Dekker in the 1920's and for a time was used as an appellation for
the Netherlands Indies in some circles. (3)
But it never really caught on. In fact, until the year in which inde
pendence was proclaimed, foreign writers simply could not agree on
a name by which to refer to the area. The author of a book published
in the preceding year begins his Introduction with the words "The
vast archipelago that lies between Australia and southeastern Asia is
not easy to delimit. In fact, it has not even a name that is everywhere
acceptable " (4) This was true in the early part of the twentieth
century. It was equally true throughout the nineteenth century. In
fact we can begin our inquiry by looking at the way an English writer
confronted this question early in the nineteenth century.
George Samuel Windsor Earl (s)
Earl was born on February 10 1813, in a village called North End
in Hampstead, London. His father, Percy Earl, was a sea captain in
the East India Company's service. In 1832 we find the young Earl tak
ing a passage in a Dutch schooner, the Monkey, from Western Australia
bound for Java ; he would then have been only 19 years old, and since
he had already spent two and a half years in Western
he could not have been much beyond 16 when he left England. For
the next two years or so (until about November of 1834) he voyaged
in the area he knew as "the Eastern Seas". He returned to England
in 1835, and an account of his wanderings was published there two
(2) Th. Pigeaud, Java in the 14th Century, Vol. V, The Hague 1963 ; p. 139 and
verses cited.
(3) B.H.M. Vlekke, Nusantara, a History of Indonesia, The Hague/Bandung 1959 ;
p. 400. GJ. Resink, Indonesia's History between the Myths, The Hague 1968
pp. 20-22.
(*) Hawthorne Daniel, Islands of the East Indies,. New York, 1944; XL
(8) The main published biographical sources are his book The Eastern Seas, and
an article "George Samuel Windsor Earl" in JMBRAS XXXII/1 1959, pp.
105-153 by the late C.A. Gibson-Hill. Gibson-Hill's article is rich in detail and
carefully researched, especially as regards sources available in Singapore, but
contains one or two factual errors (e.g. dates of birth, marriage and death,) and
is able to say nothing about Earl's parentage and childhood. See Appendix A. 95
years later (6). In his account Earl shows a keen interest in everything
that was to be seen and a quite remarkable discernment for one of his
years who could not have had the benefit of extended formal
education. (7)
Earl's "voyages and adventures" were largely confined to what we
now call the "Indonesian Archipelago" and he was conscious of this
as a geographical region. But he did not ever refer to it as the "Indo
nesian Archipelago" — this term had not been invented. In fact the
reader cannot help noticing the diversity of terms which he does use
to describe the area. He most frequently calls it by the name which
he uses in the title of the book, "the Indian Archipelago" (8) or simply
"the Archipelago" (9) or occasionally "the East-Indian Archipelago". (10)
At other times he prefers to use "Eastern India" (u) and on one
occasion at least refers to the Archipelago as "the Indian Islands" (12).
Potentially more confusing is his reference to the area simply as "In
dia", (13) more especially as he on occasion uses "India" (14) in the
usual sense of what was also known at that time as "British India",
though he does on occasion distinguish the latter by referring to it as
"continental India" (15) or, on one occasion, as "Western India". (16)
(6) G.W. Earl. : The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian
\Archpeiago in 1832-33-34, comprising a tour of the Island of Java, visits to
Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, &c [London 1837] xii + 461 p.
[Reprinted by Oxford University Press, 1971],
(7) Gibson Hill (op. cit , p. 105) writes "It is clear, however, that he had a good
education, though he never admitted to a university degree". The nature of his
interests (ethnography, geography, navigation, law, agriculture,) and the languages
he mastered (including Dutch and Spanish), suggests a continuing process of
self-education rather than an intensive education in his early youth in England.
Earl in his book (p. 447) shows striking prescience in anticipating by 120 years the
realisation that Australia and Indonesia would be "intimately connected with
each other" which found its expression with the introduction of Indonesian studies
in Australian universities in the 1950's.
(8) pp. 311, 395 448 &c. The term was popularised by Crawford's History of the
Indian Archipelago, published in 1820. See B. Harrison in Historians of South'
East Asia, ed. D.G.E. Hall, London 1961; p. 245.
(») pp. 32, 77, 376 &c.
(10) p. 445.
(") pp. 2, 70, 391 &c.
(12) p.417
(13) pp. 23, 353, 358 &c.
(i") p. 452
(15) pp. 360, 408
(i«) p. 392 96
Earl also uses the term. "Dutch India" for our area, (17) which is less
ambiguous, but he more often avoids it ; his unwillingness to use it
may be attributed to the fact that some parts (Singapore, the Malay
Peninsula,) were excluded from Dutch claims ; or it may be due to
his marked antipathy to the Dutch, a sentiment that was not uncommon
amongst his countrymen at the time, and one which he took no pains
to conceal.
In his account of this area, then, Earl confronted the problem facing
every other writer on the subject in the nineteenth century : there was
no convenient and agreed term by which it could be described (18).
Nearly all the names in use had some reference to "India", but this
term if used alone was impossibly vague, and if defined tended to be
unwieldy.
'India' a large In the nineteenth century Europeans understood by
area extending all the way from the modern state of Pakistan to the
Indonesian Archipelago. The position was further complicated by the
existence of 'East Indies' to refer to much the same area. The latter
term had in fact originally denoted a still larger area. When European
explorers, after