Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Vol. 166, no. 1 (2010), pp. 107–183 Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Vol. 166, no. 1 (2010), pp. 107-183 URL: http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/btlv URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-100133 Copyright: content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License ISSN: 0006-2294 Book reviews Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied, Rethinking Raffles; A study of Stamford Raffles’ discourse on religions amongst Malays. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2005, xii + 107 pp. ISbN 9812104356. Price: SgD 25.00 (paperback). NATHAN PORATH Nakhon Sawan Rajabhat University
[email protected] This short book is a published version of the author’s Masters thesis, in which he explores Sir Stamford Raffles’ discursive ideas on the religions of the Malay peoples whom he encountered. By ‘Malay’ is meant here the earlier, broad understanding of that term, including the peoples of the archipelago as well as the Malay-speakers living on the peninsula. The book attempts to chal- lenge a certain idealistic view of Raffles by focusing on what this author calls his discursive ‘shades of alterity’. Aljunied argues that Raffles’ ideas of the religions of the peoples of the archipelago were plagued by a prejudice which, although varying in strength, developed over time to justify his benign civili- zing mission. For Raffles, proselytizing Islam was a threat. Islam was the reli- gion that had replaced, and was still replacing, the Hindu-Buddhist religion, which he appreciated as being more civilized. He also believed that Islam had generated a civilizational obstinacy among Malays that hampered the origi- nal artistic and rational development which, according to him, was clearly visible in the Hindu-Buddhist cultural formations in the area.