International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 3 | Page 159

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES
SPRING 2016
the east islands spice producers which then finally fell into the VOC’s hands later on. VOC
was a chartered private enterprise constituting a state in all but name, complete with its
own fleet and army, which gradually expanded its influence and grip on political matters.
The VOC was formerly established by seven chambers which represented each state in the
Netherlands. Like the British East Indies Company in India, VOC relied and depended mainly
on “indirect rule” through the “feudal” characteristics of the former Indonesian kingdoms
which had spread throughout the East Indies. VOC used traditional native elites — Kings and
their personnel — as vassals while imposing their will and extracting major income under
the supervision of Dutch colonial officials. In 1799, VOC was dissolved and awarded to the
United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The political effect being played by the Napoleonic War
in Europe had a great impact on the people in East Indies. The Dutch officials in the East
Indies were supposed to have practicable and sufficient knowledge of the French language.
A small private school for the French language was also opened in 1811.
A few months later, the East Indies archipelago was brought completely under
English rule with the assignment of T.S. Raffles as the first English colonial LieutenantGovernor. English was introduced as the official language of the government. In order to
promote Malay to the English officials and English to the indigenous officials, the first
English grammar manual as well as dictionary (Malay-English and English-Malay) was
compiled and written in 1812 with the effort of W. Marsden. During the short British
interregnum 1811-1816, education was left entirely to private initiatives. In 1813, a
missionary opened a small school with English and Latin as part of the curriculum, and there
may well have been more private schools of this sort during these years.43 The only
educational institution subsidized by the British colonial government was a small school
founded by A.D.F. Pahud, a Swiss from Lausanne, father of the later Governor-General C.F.
Pahud (1856-61); its aim was to teach “in the first instance Dutch and afterwards English
and French grammar”. This school, which numbered 30 pupils by the end of 1815, proved so
unprofitable that Pahud migrated to the Netherlands in 1818.44 Raffles definitely had a low
regard towards Malay being spoken in the East Indies and in a speech given to the Batavian
Society of Arts and Sciences in April 1813, he remarked:
Essential to notice with regard to our future proceedings is the necessity of
encouraging and attaining a more general knowledge of the Javanese language.
Hitherto the communication with inhabitants of the country has been chiefly
through illiterate Interpreters, or when direct, through the medium of a barbarous
dialect of Malays, confounded and confused by the introduction of Portuguese and

43

F. de Haan, 1922-1923, Oud Batavia; Gedenkboek uitgegeven het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en
Wetenschappen naar aanleiding van het driehonderdjarig betaann der stad in 1919, Batavia: Kolff. 3 vols., II p.
262 in Groeneboer, Op. Cit., p. 70.
44
J. A. van der Chijs, 1902, Het middelbaar schoolonderwijs te Batavia gedurende de eerste helft van de 19e
eeuw, volgens officieele bescheiden, Batavia: Kolff., p. 3-7 in Groeneboer, Op. Cit., p. 71.

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