The Vernacular Press and the Emergence of Modern Indonesian Consciousness (original) (raw)

This thesis is based on three main assumptions: that the press in Indonesia was an agent for intellectual development; that the growth of the vernacular press was pioneered by Dutch scholars, Eurasian editors and peranakan Chinese and Indonesian journalists; and that the development of the vernacular press before 1914 ran parallel to the growth of social, economic and political conscious ness of the colonial society in the Dutch East Indies. The first I also wish to record my debt to the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for supporting me financially during my studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies and I want also to thank the Ford Foundation for granting me a fellowship which enabled me to visit Cornell University and to carry out my research in Indonesia in 1973. Lastly I should like to thank my wife, Aysha, for her constant encouragement, patience and understanding during my long years of studies. 3 A Note on Orthography Both the old Dutch spelling system and the new Indonesian-Malaysian common spelling system inaugurated in 1972 are employed in this study. The spelling of names of persons, journals and organizations follow the old Dutch system. Names of towns and cities have been spelt according to the post-1972 Indonesian orthography. 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BB Binnenlandsch Bestuur, Interior Administration, European Civil Service BKI Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde, Contributions to Linguistics, Geography and Ethnography, journal published by the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde Exh Exhibitum, incoming correspondence of the Colonial Office fl florin, Dutch guilder