I m p r e s u Global histories: a student journal Volume 7, Issue 1 (2021) ISSN: 2366-780X
EDITOR
Ruby Guyot
EDITORIAL BOARD
Shayna Allen Charlotte Bracklo Alec Carver Diego Dannemiller Patrick Graves Daniela Greca Daniel Hinchey Lukas Jung Natasha Klimenko Julia Neisser Phoebe Ka Laam Ng Anna Nesterova Henrique Pimenta Gomes Marta Podvolotskaya Sylvia N Roper Joshua Rossetti Aditya Sah Simone Steadman-Gantous
Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 i PUBLISHER INFORMATION SCOPE AND PURPOSE
I m p r e s u Founded in 2015 by students of the In response to the increasing interest M.A. program Global History at Freie in the ‘global’ as a field of inquiry, Universität Berlin and Humboldt- a perspective, and an approach, Universität zu Berlin, Global Histories Global Histories: A Student Journal is a Berlin based bi-annual journal aims to offer a platform for debate, published in association with the discussion, and intellectual exchange Freie Universität Berlin. for a new generation of scholars with diverse research interests. Global Freie Universität Berlin history can provide an opportunity to Global Histories: A Student move beyond disciplinary boundaries Journal Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut and methodological centrisms, both Koserstraße 20 in time and space. As students of 14195 Berlin global history at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, our interest lies not in SPONSORS prescribing what global history is and what it is not, but to encourage This journal project is realized collaboration, cooperation, and with generous support from Freie discourse among students seeking to Universität Berlin, specifically from explore new intellectual frontiers. the Center for Global History of the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, the OJS e-publishing project at CeDiS, and COPYRIGHT AND PUBLICATION the ZEDAT hostmaster team. DATES
All material is published under the PUBLICATION FREQUENCY Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International copyright license. The journal is published twice yearly This issue was published in in spring and autumn. Please see the May 2021. website for further details.
ii Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 I m p r e s u PEER REVIEW STATUS AND ETHICS
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All articles which appear in this issue, with the exception of editorial content, were subject to peer review.
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Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 iii 1 EDITORIAL LETTER
5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 Research articles 8 “ATTRACTING ALL INDIANS UNDER THE PRETEXT OF RELIGION”: DUTCH- INDIGENOUS RELATIONS AND THE MORAVIAN MISSION IN BERBICE (1738-1763) By Marie Keulen
34 MISSION, MEDICINE, AND AGENCY: POWER- STRUCTURES IN MEDICAL MISSIONARY Con-ENCOUNTERS By Jan Becker
56 FACTORIES AGAINST THE CLOCK: TIME- DISCIPLINE AND RESISTANCE IN THE SILK REELING FACTORIES OF BURSA, 1850-1915 By Zeynep Ecem Pulas
78 ENVISIONING (IN)DEPENDENT FILASTIN: THE SYNTHETIC AGE IN BRITISH-RULED PALESTINE By Omri Polatsek
112 CONTESTING IMPERIAL FEMINISMS: THE LIFE OF AN EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY EGYPTIAN ACTIVIST By Bella Ruhl iv Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 tents 136 MAKING PATAGONIA AN “AUSTRALIAN ARGENTINA” AND MAKING THE AMAZON TIGHTLY BRAZILIAN: DEPICTIONS AND POLITICAL PROJECTS IN ROBERTO PAYRÓ’S AND EUCLIDES DA CUNHA’S TRAVEL WRITINGS (1898, 1904-1905) By José Bento de Oliveira Camassa
162 IN AN ALIEN CITY: AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN WARTIME CALCUTTA (1942-1946) By Suchintan Das
2 Book Reviews 192 THE GLOBAL BOURGEOISIE: THE RISE OF THE Con- MIDDLE CLASSES IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE Reviewed by Simone Steadman-Gantous
198 MANCHURIAN MEMORIES IN POSTWAR JAPAN Reviewed by Chi Ho Kiang
202 ASIAN PLACE, FILIPINO NATION: A GLOBAL INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION, 1887-1912 Reviewed by Charles Brophy
208 DISTRIBUTIVE STRUGGLE AND THE SELF IN THE EARLY MODERN IBERIAN WORLD Reviewed by Lara Wankel & Alina Rodríguez
tentsGlobal Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 v
Dear reader, in Germany has been in At present, the world place since December 2020, remains in a state of great with the universities having instability. Having passed been closed since March the milestone of one year of that same year. For the of COVID-19—and the new cohort of students who rather tragic marker of over arrived—some of whom 3 million reported deaths are now members of our from the virus worldwide— editorial team—they have most of us remain touched been unable to experience by the pandemic. Even the same type of education with the gradual rollout of in global history. Rather, the vaccination campaign, they, like many others, the effort to inoculate and have experimented with prevent further infections has putting the global in digital exposed global inequalities perspective. They have in financing vaccines and in participated actively in video maintaining medical supply seminars, which have come lines. Information campaigns with the unexpected benefit questioning the science of increased accessibility of vaccination have also that in-person events did not proliferated globally, through always entertain; they have vast online networks which engaged tenfold with digital infiltrate even the smallest archives, considering at great of local communities. The length what it means to be a impact of the virus thus historian in an increasingly- continues to be felt by all, digitized age; and, perhaps regardless of one’s place in most importantly, they have the world. practiced creating global What does the communities from the safety pandemic’s continuation and (and occasional boredom) of evolution mean for those their homes, demonstrating of us at work to understand how solidarity can form the global? For academics even amongst conditions of all over, the continuation isolation. of home office and the For our editorial team, restricted access of spaces the continuation of the such as libraries and archives pandemic has brought a have meant readjusting one’s similar reckoning with the expectations and goals. benefits and limitations of In our Global History MA working digitally. While the program here in Berlin, this is challenges of 2021 forced no different: a hard lockdown us to once again cancel
Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 1 the annual Global History by looking at the life of an Student Conference, our Egyptian feminist activist in journal continues in full the early twentieth century, form. This issue features disentangling narratives seven outstanding pieces of Western feminism from of research from students Orientalist assumptions. José of global history, inquiring Bento de Oliveira Camassa in topics ranging from compares and contrasts the colonial settlements to global travel accounts of two Latin labor dynamics to cultural American writers to analyze transfusions. Marie Keulen the colonial discourses begins by examining the role of regions absorbed into of the Moravian mission to Argentina and Brazil at the Berbice, interrogating how turn of the twentieth century. the Dutch colonial officials, Last but certainly not least, the Moravian missionaries, Suchintan Das, using an and the Indigenous abundance of vibrant source populations co-existed in the material, takes a closer look eighteenth-century Atlantic. at the lives of American Jan Becker follows with a G.I.s stationed in World War study of German medical Two Calcutta, illustrating missionaries to twentieth- the differences between century Java, exploring soldiers and locals, as well agency and power relations as white and Black soldiers, with intricate nuance. Zeynep in extensive detail. And in Ecem Pulas engages with addition to these research the theoretical foundations articles, this issue includes of E. P. Thompson to several book reviews, where investigate how female Simone Steadman-Gantous, laborers in the late industrial Chi Ho Kiang, Charles Ottoman Empire utilized Brophy, Lara Wankel, and time-discipline in their Alina Rodríguez provide attempts to gain more valuable commentary on rights. Omri Polatsek uses four recently published an agricultural industry as a texts relevant for the field of jumping off point to explore global history. the global nature of the While we, as many Synthetic Age in British- others, remain saddened by ruled Palestine, along with the limitations imposed on the effects of local actors our ability to engage with the in establishing economic world—both academically nationhood. Bella Ruhl turns and otherwise—we remain colonial dynamics around hopeful that a return to
2 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 a safer, happier future is soon on the horizon. Even through the latest round of lockdown blues, we have still found the energy, resolve, and determination to come together, as authors, team members, and readers, to put together a strong, salient collection of global histories. We hope you take some of that strength with you while perusing this issue.
With best regards, Ruby Guyot Editor-in-chief
Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to acknowledge the interest and work of all students who submitted an article, essay, or review during the last call for papers. We are especially grateful to the authors published in this issue, for both their fruitful contributions and efforts in revision. These authors include Marie Keulen, Jan Becker, Zeynep Ecem Pulas, Omri Polatsek, Bella Ruhl, José Bento de Oliveira Camassa, Suchintan Das, Simone Steadman- Gantous, Chi Ho Kiang, Charles Brophy, Lara Wankel, and Alina Rodríguez. Their dedication to their pieces and excellent work in revision shines through in this issue.
In addition, we would like to extend our immense gratitude to the students on the Global Histories journal team, particularly those who devoted extensive time and effort to reviewing and editing the published pieces. These members include Lukas Jung, Daniel Hinchey, Aditya Sah, Sylvia N Roper, Diego Dannemiller, Patrick Graves, Simone Steadman-Gantous, Joshua Rossetti, Daniela Greca, Charlotte Bracklo, Anna Nesterova, Henrique Pimento Gomes, Shayna Allen, Phoebe Ka Laam Ng, and Alec Carver. The attention and dedication these members provided towards the pieces they worked on, even during highly hectic periods in our master’s studies, was fundamental in the editorial process for this issue. The design work of Natasha Klimenko, in addition, made for yet another beautiful and accessible issue, and her work on the journal’s layouts has been highly valued by our team.
Finally, we are grateful for the continued support and assistance for this project by the Freie Universität Berlin, particularly the Global History faculty, chaired by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Conrad, and the Online Journal Systems team at CeDiS. In March 2021, our website and journal platform was upgraded by the Online Journal Systems team, and we are particularly grateful to Carola Fanselow for her help in facilitating the set-up of the new system.
Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 5 1 Research
6 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 articles Research
articlesGlobal Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 7 “Attracting all Indians under the Pretext of Religion”: Dutch- Indigenous Relations and the Moravian Mission in Berbice (1738–1763)
by MARIE KEULEN
8 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K ABSTRACT e u l n In the middle decades of the eighteenth century, the Dutch
| colony Berbice on the northern coast of South America “ A formed the stage of the short but successful mission of the t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Moravian Church among the Indigenous people of the region. Whereas from the perspective of the Moravians this religious mission was part of their numerous missionary activities in the Atlantic world from the 1730s onwards, for the governor, council, planters, and various Amerindian groups living in Berbice the arrival of the missionaries was something new. This article brings together the historiographical fields of Moravian missions in the Atlantic world on the one hand and Dutch-Indigenous relations on the other hand. Examining the reaction of the local and metropolitan colonial authorities to x t o f R the Moravian community and the missionaries’ interaction with different Indigenous population groups inhabiting the region, e l i g o n this article argues that the history of the Moravian community in Berbice opens a window through which Dutch-Indigenous ” relations can be investigated. From the perspective of the Dutch colonial authorities, the alliances with the Amerindian peoples were of vital importance for oppressing the majority enslaved population, and the interactions between their much needed-allies and the Moravian missionaries were seen as a threat. Using colonial archival material on the conflicts and confrontations between missionaries and authorities, this article shows that their relationship was primarily defined by the (desired) interactions of both parties with the Amerindian populations. It shows the colonial perspective on the interactions between European missionaries and Indigenous groups while revealing the metropolitan and local authority’s priorities, limits, and fears.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marie Keulen is a Research MA student in Colonial and Global History at Leiden University. Her research interests include the interplay of global, regional, and local dynamics within colonial societies. She is particularly interested in the interactions, confrontations, and connections between the different social and cultural groups inhabiting the Atlantic and Caribbean region.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 9 ” INTRODUCTION several places in North America.
e l i g o n In both German and English, In the middle decades of these Moravian missions have x t o f R the eighteenth century, the Dutch been discussed extensively, with colony Berbice on the northern coast a particular focus on the lives and of South America formed the stage beliefs of the missionaries as well as of the short but successful mission their interactions with the enslaved of the Moravian Church among the and Indigenous populations.3 Indigenous people of the region.1 With their missions, the Moravians From 1738 until the slave revolt in established a global community with 1763, the Moravians established a a shared Christian identity.4 Within small Christian settlement in Berbice the Moravian religious community, t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P from where they maintained contact which was founded by Nikolaus A with various Amerindian groups, of Ludwig von Zinzendorf in 1722, whom several people were baptized missionary activities were considered e u l n | “ and lived among the Moravian fundamental for their unconditional missionaries. This was a striking commitment to the expansion of the M a r i e K event, given the fact that in Dutch kingdom of God. The missionaries, Atlantic historiography the absence seen as the chosen warriors for the of missionary work has often been Saviour’s service, had a special place mentioned as characteristic of Dutch within the Moravian congregation colonialism in the region, and as and were in close contact with the characteristic of Dutch-Indigenous home front. Whereas the activities relations in particular.2 From the and attitudes of the missionaries perspective of the Moravian Church, within the colonies of the Atlantic the mission in Berbice was part of world have been widely examined, their numerous missionary activities however, the reaction and attitude from the 1730s onwards in the towards the missionaries from the Atlantic world, including the Danish perspective of the colonial society West Indies, Suriname, Jamaica, and
3 Hartmut Beck, Brüder in Vielen Völkern: 250 Jahre Mission Der 1 I would like to thank Michiel van Brüdergemeine (Erlangen: Verlag Groesen for his insightful comments. für Mission und Ökumene, 1981); I also wish to thank the editors of Gisela Mettele, Weltbürgertum Global Histories: A Student Journal Oder Gottesreich: Die Herrnhuter for their comments and suggestions. Brüdergemeine Als Globale 2 Recently, Danny Noorlander has Gemeinschaft 1727-1857 (Göttingen: challenged this view of missionary Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009); work in the Dutch Atlantic: see Danny Michele Gillespie and Robert L. Noorlander, Heaven’s Wrath: The Beachy, eds., Pious Pursuits: German Protestant Reformation and the Dutch Moravians in the Atlantic World (New West India Company in the Atlantic York: Berghahn Books, 2007). World (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell 4 Mettele, Weltbürgertum Oder University Press, 2019). Gottesreich.
10 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 M a r i e K have been less widely investigated. reaction to the same religious
In Berbice, a small and community makes the hostile attitude e u l n sparsely populated Dutch colony of the Society of Berbice even more
| centred around the Berbice River interesting. Although the Moravian “ A on the Caribbean coast of South community in Berbice is the central t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P America, the presence of the subject of this article, the main Moravian missionaries led to tensions interest lies not in the community between them and the local and itself, but in how their environment – metropolitan colonial authorities. in particular the colonial authorities The colony was owned by the – reacted to their presence. This Society of Berbice, a company that way, the story of the Moravian operated under the sovereignty of missionaries could tell us more about the Dutch Republic. The company the colony of Berbice. directors were based in Amsterdam A central and recurring and the local colonial administration concern of the directors and the x t o f R consisted of an appointed governor governor of Berbice was the large e l i g o n who had to protect the interests number of Amerindian people
of the company. Conflicts and living with and, according to ” confrontations about the oath of them, influenced by the Moravian allegiance, participation in the civil missionaries. In the entire Guianas, militia, and payment of capitation an area stretching from the Orinoco taxes eventually led to a hostile river to the Amazone river, a large, situation in which the directors and multi-ethnic Indigenous population the Society of Berbice’s governor inhabited the region. These various decided not to allow more Moravians Indigenous peoples – in the Dutch to settle in their colony. This differs Guianas the Arawaks (Lonoko), the from the attitude of the local colonial Caribs (Kari’na), the Waraos, and authorities in Suriname, where the the Akawaios – lived in their own Moravian missionaries were seen settlements outside the colonial as less of a threat. In her article, society. In Berbice, the Arawaks Jessica Cronshagen shows that in and Waraos lived closest to the the second half of the eighteenth plantations, whereas the Caribs century, the governor of Suriname and Akawaios lived more inland, was satisfied with the Moravian away from the colonial society.6 The missionaries forming a “European frontier” between the plantations and Maroon communities.5 This different 1 (2019): 9, https://doi.org/10.5325/ jmorahist.19.1.0001. 6 Marjoleine Kars, ““Cleansing the Land”: Dutch-Amerindian Cooperation 5 Jessica Cronshagen, ““A Loyal Heart in the Suppression of the 1763 Slave to God and the Governor”: Missions Rebellion in Dutch Guiana,” in Empires and Colonial Policy in the Surinamese and Indigenes: Intercultural Alliance, Saramaccan Mission (c. 1750–1813),” Imperial Expansion, and Warfare in Journal of Moravian History 19, no. the Early Modern World, ed. Wayne E.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 11 ” constant focus on the Amerindian Although an important
e l i g o n populations by the colonial characteristic of the colonial society authorities was no coincidence, of Berbice, this topic of Dutch- x t o f R given the dependency of the latter Indigenous cooperation has not on the various Indigenous groups yet been the subject of a focused living in and around the colony of historical study.8 This article argues Berbice. During the seventeenth that the existence of the Moravian and eighteenth centuries, Dutch- community in Berbice during the Indigenous encounters and middle decades of the eighteenth relationships played an important century, and more importantly, the role on the northern coast of South reaction of the colonial authorities America, in particular in the Dutch to their interaction with the valuable 7 t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Guianas. At the beginning of the allies of the Society of Berbice, forms A seventeenth century, those Dutch- an interesting window through which Indigenous relations were primarily this topic could be investigated. In e u l n | “ defined by trade. Over time, as answering the question of how the the Dutch colonies developed into Moravian missionaries and the local M a r i e K plantation colonies with an enslaved and metropolitan colonial authorities African majority, the military role interacted with each other during the in suppressing slave revolts and existence of the Moravian community capturing runaway slaves became in Berbice (1738-1763), I hope to get more important. a better understanding of social and political relations between the four different groups involved – the Amerindians, the Moravian Lee (New York: New York University missionaries, and the metropolitan Press, 2011), 253, 262; Lodewijk and local authorities of Berbice – Hulsman, “Nederlands Amazonia. with special attention to the position Handel met Indianen tussen 1580 en 1680” (PhD diss., University of of the Indigenous peoples in the Amsterdam, 2009), 1–2. colony. This brings together the two 7 For the seventeenth century see historiographical fields of Moravian Hulsman, “Nederlands Amazonia”; missions on the one hand and Dutch- Mark Meuwese, Brothers in Arms, Indigenous relations on the other. Partners in Trade: Dutch-Indigenous Alliances in the Atlantic World, 1595- This new approach to the 1674 (Leiden: Brill, 2011); for the subject matter of the Moravian eighteenth century see Neil Lancelot missions in early modern Atlantic Whitehead, “Carib Ethnic Soldiering colonies also calls for a new focus in Venezuela, the Guianas, and the Antilles, 1492-1820,” Ethnohistory 37, no. 4 (1990): 357–385, https://doi. org/10.2307/482860; Bram Hoonhout, 8 The exception is an article by Borderless Empire: Dutch Guiana in Marjoleine Kars on the Dutch- the Atlantic World, 1750-1800 (Athens, Indigenous military cooperation GA: University of Georgia Press, during the slave revolt of Berbice in 2020). 1763: Kars, ““Cleansing the Land””.
12 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K concerning source material. Until same is true for the more extensively 12 now, the extensive and very well- researched missions in Suriname. e u l n preserved correspondence network Even the article by Cronshagen, in
| of the Moravian missionaries has which she discusses the position and “ A been the main source for historians the role of Moravian missionaries t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P working on Moravian missions. in the colonial politics of Suriname, Keeping contact with both the only uses Moravian sources.13 religious communities in Europe Although occasionally using those and North America, letters were Moravian letters and reports, this frequently sent back and forth across article primarily focuses on a different the Atlantic Ocean.9 Nowadays, the type of source material: the colonial traces of this exchange can be found archival material of the Society of in several archives.10 The mission in Berbice preserved in the Dutch Berbice, most recently discussed National Archives in The Hague.14 by the historian H. Weiss in 1921, This consists of both documentation x t o f R has only been investigated based written by the directors of the e l i g o n on those Moravian sources.11 The Society of Berbice in Amsterdam
and documentation written for the ” directors by the colonial officials 9 From 1747 onwards the administration in Berbice. The governor of the of the Moravian Church was colony was supposed to inform the divided between a European and directors as accurately as possible an American front. The American on his actions, which resulted in and Caribbean missions, including the mission in Berbice, were under letters, minutes of the council, and the administration of Bethlehem. financial books being sent to the However, after 1747 still, many letters Dutch Republic. This article draws on were also sent from and to Europe. documents from both the directors 10 The Unity Archives in Herrnhut, and the colonial officials identified the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, and the correspondence of the Zeist Mission Society held in the Utrecht Archives. Berbice En Suriname 1738-1816,” New For the missions in Suriname and West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West- Berbice specifically, many of the Indische Gids 2, no. 1 (1921): 36–44, personal letters and official reports 109–12, 113–21, 181–97, 249–64, are available through the source https://doi.org/10.1163/22134360- publication of Friedrich Staehelin: 90001820. see Friedrich Staehelin, Die Mission 12 Weiss, “De Zending Der Der Brüdergemeine in Suriname Herrnhutters”; Maria Lenders, Strijders Und Berbice Im Achtzehnten Voor Het Lam: Leven En Werk van Jahrhundert. Eine Missionsgeschichte Herrnhutter Broeders En -Zusters in Hauptsächlich in Auszügen Aus Suriname, 1735-1900 (Leiden: KITLV, Briefen Und Originalberichten 1996). (Hernnhut: Missionsbuchhandlung, 13 Cronshagen, ““A Loyal Heart to God 1914). and the Governor””. 11 H. Weiss, “De Zending Der 14 National Archives, The Hague (NL- Herrnhutters Onder de Indianen in HaNA), Sociëteit van Berbice, 1.05.05.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 13 ” by searching the Handwritten Text two missionaries living and working
e l i g o n Recognition data of the Dutch at several plantations. In those early National Archives.15 years, the cooperative relationship x t o f R The first section examines between the governor, council, and the emergence and growth of the missionaries made it possible for the Moravian community in Berbice. Moravians to peacefully establish a Arriving in the colony in 1738, the growing religious community. This, Moravian community consisted of however, changed with the arrival of the new Governor Jan Frederik Colier in 1749. The conflicts and 15 Liesbeth Keijser, “6000 Ground confrontations that arose during his Truth of VOC and Notarial Deeds term form the subject of the second 3.000.000 HTR of VOC, WIC and t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P section. Several times, Moravian A Notarial Deeds” (Zenodo, 21 January 2020), https://doi.org/10.5281/ missionaries had to appear at a ZENODO.4159268. The HTR-data meeting of the council where the e u l n | “ of the archive of the Society of civil status of the Moravians was Berbice was obtained by the Dutch questioned. Both the governor M a r i e K National Archives in the context of and the directors of the Society of their project ‘De IJsberg’ using the Transkribus HTR platform. They used Berbice expressed their concerns both documents from the Dutch regarding the missionaries’ contact East-Asia Company (VOC) and the with the Amerindians. This attitude Noord-Hollands Archief to create of the colonial authorities – and the a trained Transkribus HTR+ model central role of the Amerindians in called ‘IJsberg’. This model was used for the HTR-data of the archive of their worries – is explicitly examined the Society of Berbice. Because the in the third and last section of this HTR-data of the Society of Berbice article. Comparing this to the situation has a relatively high fault rate, I used in Suriname, it becomes clear that the several spelling possibilities when reaction of the metropolitan and local searching the keywords ‘moravische’ and ‘herrnhutters’ in Voyant Tools colonial authorities of Berbice to the (mora*, morav*, herr*, hern*, herrn*) Moravian missionaries in their colony
14 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K Moravian Church, Nikolaus Ludwig the perspective of the Amerindians, von Zinzendorf, was asked by Jan planters, governor, and council in e u l n Nicolaas van Eys to send some Berbice, on the other hand, the arrival
| missionaries to his plantation to teach of the two Moravian missionaries was “ A his slaves the Evangelical religion.16 something new. t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Zinzendorf agreed, and in the spring In the first two years of the of 1738, he found Johannes Güttner mission in Berbice, Güttner and and Ludwig Christoph Dehne, two Dehne were the only Moravians men willing to go to Berbice. It was in the colony. For one year they from that moment onwards that the lived at one of the plantations of Moravian community shifted their Van Eys, from where they would attention from Suriname to Berbice. work at several plantations in the Already between 1735 and 1738, region to earn enough money for several attempts had been made to their livelihood.18 In November 1739, establish a missionary community both Güttner and Dehne wrote x t o f R in Suriname without success. In several letters to the Moravian e l i g o n total, eleven Moravian ‘brothers’ community in Herrnhutt, in which
and ‘sisters’ were sent to Suriname, they wrote that they had moved to ” but they all either died, came back another plantation called Johanna to Europe, or joined their fellow at the invitation of its owner Erhard brothers and sisters in Berbice.17 Arthing.19 Already several months Only more than ten years later, in the earlier, Güttner wrote about their 1750s, were the missionary activities plans of leaving Groot-Poelgeest in Suriname successfully continued. because of the “wicked lifestyle” at From the perspective of the Moravian the dining table of the plantation’s community, the missions in Suriname director and, more importantly, the and Berbice could be seen as part of remote location of the plantation, the same story, often with the same with the consequence that “not actors. Several missionaries spent many Indians come here”.20 Although time in both colonies and regularly the Moravians had initially come to travelled between the two. From Berbice to convert plantation slaves, they had soon shifted their focus to the Amerindian populations of the
16 Staehelin, Die Mission Der region, more specifically the groups Brüdergemeine, Teil II. Erster of Arawak people they encountered Abschnitt: Anfang der Mission in during their first year in Berbice. Berbice 1738-1748, 3–5; Weiss, “De Zending Der Herrnhutters,” 41. 17 Cronshagen, ““A Loyal Heart to God and the Governor”,” 6; H. Weiss, “Het 18 Staehelin, Die Mission Der Zendingswerk Der Herrnhutters in de Brüdergemeine, Teil II. Erster Oerwouden van de Boven-Suriname,” Abschnitt, 3, 7–25; Weiss, “De De West-Indische Gids 1 (1919): 102–3, Zending Der Herrnhutters,” 41. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134360- 19 Staehelin, 25–27. 90001942. 20 Staehelin, 23.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 15 ” Having had good contact with the this, Dehne writes that they were
e l i g o n “wild heathens”, Güttner writes, dismissed once they declared to be the missionaries had more hope loyal citizens.23 In the years after their x t o f R to spread their Christian messages arrival, Dehne and Güttner described among the Indigenous peoples their contact with the local authorities than among the enslaved African as cooperative. Plantation owner people.21 This became even more Arthing, with whom the Moravians apparent in July 1740, when Güttner worked and lived for one year, and Dehne were accompanied by was a member of the council, and Heinrich Beutel and his wife Elisabeth helped the missionaries to get a Beutel, who brought with them a small estate to build their own house letter by Zinzendorf, which ordered called ‘Pilgerhut’.24 The successor t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Güttner and Dehne to live among of Waterham, Governor Jan Andries A the Amerindians and to learn their Lossner, was also favourably language.22 disposed towards the missionaries. It e u l n | “ Regarding these early years was under his rule that the decision of the mission in Berbice, there seem was made in autumn 1740 to grant M a r i e K to be no (preserved) records from the the Moravians a ten-acre plot of land Society of Berbice that mention the along the creek Wieronje. In a later Moravian presence. It is only from the report about the mission in Berbice, documentation of the missionaries written by missionaries in 1753, themselves that we know that there Governor Lossner was praised for was contact between the Moravians this decision, stating that during his and the colonial authorities in the “Government of 9 years the Brothers first two years. In his journal on had an opportunity of establishing their voyage to Berbice, Dehne themselv’s in stillness & our savior described an encounter between begun to gather the rewards of him and Güttner and the council of his Pain & Labour from among the governance during the first days Heathen here”.25 of their presence in the colony. It was half a year after As head of the council, Governor the settlement of the Moravian Bernhardt Waterham explained to missionaries in Pilgerhut that the the missionaries the laws of the first preserved mention of the colony, including the obligation to missionaries in the documentation of take the civil oath of allegiance. the Society of Berbice was written. The missionaries, however, refused to do so, stating that it would be against their belief to take a secular 23 Staehelin, 10–11. oath. Although the governor and 24 Staehelin, 33–36. the council were not happy about 25 Moravian Archives, Bethlehem Pennsylvania (MA), MissSur Suriname Papers, inventory number 2, ‘Report 21 Staehelin, 24. of the mission at Berbice, Suriname, 22 Staehelin, 31–33. 1738-1752’, p. 29.
16 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K In April 1741, pastor Johann Christian The problem pastor
Frauendorff wrote an alarming letter Frauendorff reported to the local e u l n on behalf of the Church Council of authorities was thus not the presence
| the Protestant Church in Berbice of the Moravian missionaries as such, “ A about the Moravian missionaries but the religious act of baptism he t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P to the governor and the council.26 regarded as illegitimate. The solution, Given the fact that the Moravian he wrote to the governor and the Church was not a privileged religion, council, was a redoing of the baptism the Protestant Church Council felt by the Protestant Church. obligated to report the baptism of Not knowing how to the child of Heinrich and Elisabeth handle the matter, the governor Beutel, a religious act they regarded decided to forward the issue to the as illegitimate. In his letter, pastor directors of the Society of Berbice Frauendorff made a clear distinction in Amsterdam. In a brief letter, the between the civil and religious status directors responded by stating that x t o f R of the Moravians. While he saw the they did not have any knowledge e l i g o n latter as problematic and illegitimate, of the presence of the so-called
Frauendorff, on the other hand, “herrenhutters” in the colony. ” characterized the missionaries as Concerning the issue of baptism, “free citizens” who were allowed to the directors did not think that live in the colony of Berbice, the Moravian missionaries would agree to the pastor performing [W]hich could not be denied their sacraments.28 Eventually, to them, as they subject at the end of that same year, the themselves to the laws of the council of Berbice decided in line country as obedient subjects with the Church Council that the to their rulers, neither has one baptism performed by Moravians received the slightest complaints was illegitimate. However, the about them, while in silence and council did not insist on a redoing peace they earn their bread, and of the religious act, as suggested are a burden to no one.27 by Frauendorff. Instead, they let the Moravians continue their practice, with the only consequence being the acknowledgement that the 26 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 80, p. 178– sacraments performed by them 189. were regarded as illegitimate. The 27 Idem. Citation in Dutch: “konde directors approved of this decision haar sulxs niet gewijgert worden als made by the council and explicitly deselve sig de wetten van het land, als gehoorsaame onderdaanen aan emphasised that this religious hunne overheden onderwerpen, men issue was not a matter of the “High heeft ook tot hiertoe niet de minste klagte over deselve tevoezen, terwijl in stilheijd ende vrede haar brood winnen, ende niemand tot last zijn”. 28 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 14, p. 278.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 17 ” Government”.29 Thus, although the continued on the same cooperative
e l i g o n baptism of Heinrich and Elisabeth footing. In addition to the plot of land Beutel’s child by their fellow Moravian that was given to the missionaries in x t o f R missionary Güttner led to several the year 1740, Lossner granted them letters back and forth between the some additional land in 1745.32 In the Church Council, pastor Frauendorff, meantime, the Pilgerhut community the governor, the council, and the expanded during the 1740s. Firstly, directors, the matter had no major several Moravians from Europe, consequences for the Moravian North America, and Suriname came community in Berbice and their to Berbice. In the year 1745, the relationship with the local colonial community grew from four to ten authorities.30 This can also be seen missionaries, and in subsequent t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P from how the Moravian missionaries years, several more people joined A themselves described this issue. In a the Pilgerhut community.33 The most letter to the Moravian community in significant change in the 1740s, e u l n | “ Herrnhut, Güttner briefly mentioned however, was the growing number that he had to appear for the of Amerindian people that settled in M a r i e K council to answer questions on the or next to Pilgerhut. According to the baptism of Beutel’s child. According reports written by the missionaries, to Güttner the council “was very by the year 1748, around 60 friendly” and afterwards “[he] felt Amerindians lived with the Moravians, good in [his] heart and was happy of which 41 people were baptised.34 and went back to [his] Brothers”.31 The Amerindian people living closest In the years after this religious to the colonial settlements, including matter, relations between the the Moravian community, were missionaries and Governor Lossner the Arawaks, whom the Moravians explicitly and repeatedly mentioned in their reports. Occasionally, the
29 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 15, p. 8–13. missionaries also mentioned the 30 I found four letters from the directors presence of Carib people, who lived and five incoming letters from the colony to the directors related to this matter. Respectively: NL-HaNA, 32 MA, MissSur, inv. no. 43, ‘Land 1.05.05, inv. no. 14, p. 278; inv. no. 15, patent for land in Berbice, Suriname, p. 8–13; inv. no. 15, p. 21–28; inv. no. November 18, 1745’; NL-HaNA, Digital 15, p. 39–44; inv. no. 80, p. 178–189; duplicates of the ‘Dutch Series’ of the inv. no. 83, p. 117–121; inv. no. 83, p. National Archives of Guyana, 1.05.21, 123; inv. no. 83, p. 126–128; inv. no. 83, inv. no. AZ.1.7, p. 120–121. p. 212–217. 33 Staehelin, 3–4; Staehelin, Die 31 Staehelin, 39–40. Citation in German: Mission Der Brüdergemeine, Teil “Sie haben mich im Rath weiter II. Zweiter Abschnitt: Blütezeit der um nichts gefragt und waren sehr Indianermission in Berbice 1748-1755, freundlich und hiessen mich wieder 3–4. gehen. Es war mir wohl in meinem 34 MA, MissSur, inv. no. 2, ‘Report of the Herzen und ward vergnügt und ging mission at Berbice, Suriname, 1738- wieder zu meinen Brüdern.” 1752’, p. 32.
18 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 FIGURE 1. Printed inset map of the Pilgerhut community at the Wieronje Creek. This inset map is portrayed on (Figure 2): Leiden University Special Collections (LUSC), Bodel Nijenhuis Collection (COLLBN) Port 63 N 52, ‘Berbice en Suriname Gelegen in Zuid-America 6 Gr. benoorden de Aequinoctiaal linie’.
farther away from the colonial map of Pilgerhut, made during or society. This seems to suggest that after the existence of the Moravian the Moravian missionaries were able community in Berbice (Figure 1). On to differentiate between different this map, more than forty houses groups of Indigenous peoples. are categorised as “Huizen van However, it is unclear to what extent Indiaanen” (houses of Indians), they were able to do so correctly. of which the majority are located The portrayal of a significant around the central “Gemeente-Huis” Amerindian community in Pilgerhut (community home). To what extent can also be found on a printed inset this is a trustworthy representation
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 19 ” of the actual Pilgerhut is difficult to the council, on the 13th of May 1749,
e l i g o n say. Strikingly, when the missionaries the directors wrote that they did wrote about the number of not understand why the oath was x t o f R Amerindian people living at Pilgerhut, not demanded from the Moravian they also briefly mentioned the fact missionaries; everyone except the that Governor Lossner was very Mennonites (whose exceptional happy with the converts. In the position dated from the early years archive of the Society of Berbice, of the Dutch Revolt), they stressed, however, I did not find any notice of should take the oath.36 Clearly, the this. It is plausible that if Lossner was directors were not aware of, and indeed pleased with the Amerindian not happy with, the position that the community at Pilgerhut, he did not Moravians had gained in their colony t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P communicate this to the directors in and the arrangements Governor A Amsterdam. Lossner had made. The cooperative Yet this growth of the relationship between the governor, e u l n | “ Moravian community did not council, and missionaries made it go unnoticed. When a ship with possible for the latter to obtain their M a r i e K passengers would arrive in the own plot of land and to peacefully colony of Berbice, it was customary establish a growing religious for the governor to report this in community. This, however, was about the minutes of the council meeting, to change with the arrival of a new which would be sent to the directors governor. in Amsterdam. This way, the latter was notified that on the 24th of October 1748, several passengers, ARISING CONFLICTS AND of which some were Moravian CONFRONTATIONS missionaries, had arrived in the colony. The minutes of the council Several days before the say that the passengers had sworn directors wrote their critical message the oath of allegiance. However, on the actions of the council, regarding the newly-arrived Moravian they had fired the incumbent passengers, the council wrote that Governor Lossner due to his they were exempt from swearing repeated disagreements with the the oath: “according to custom, no superintendent general of the oath of allegiance is required, but Company's plantations, appointing their word that they will behave as a faithful citizen and inhabitant here”.35 Reacting to the minutes of op hun lieder woord van sich als getrouwe burger ende inwoonders alhier te sullen gedraagen”. 35 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 99, p. 36 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 1, p. 15–20; 20. Dutch citation: “van dewelke NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 16, p. 26– volgens het gebruyk geen Eed van 31; NL-HaNA, 1.05.21, inv. no. AG.1.1, p. getrouwigheijd word gevergd, maer 157.
20 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K Jan Frederik Colier as his successor. the first months after his arrival, Colier
Accompanied with detailed wrote extensively on the missionaries e u l n instructions, Governor Colier arrived and his actions against them,
th | in Berbice on the 28 of September while referring several times to the “ A to inform Lossner of his dismissal. resolution of the directors issued a t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Apparently, the directors, who had couple of days after his appointment. been dissatisfied with Lossner’s The central issue in the policy, were afraid the former conflict between Governor Colier governor would flee from the colony, and the Moravian community as they explicitly instructed Colier was the demand by the local and to ensure Lossner would be held metropolitan authorities that the accountable in Holland, “if necessary latter had to fulfil their civil duties. by placing him under arrest”.37 The This meant taking the oath of arrival of Colier in Berbice had allegiance, paying capitation for both significant consequences for the themselves and the Amerindians x t o f R relationship between the local and living at Pilgerhut, and participating e l i g o n metropolitan colonial authorities and in the civil militia, which included
the Moravian missionaries, with the carrying weapons. Whereas under ” latter being increasingly confronted the government of both Waterham with suspicion, hostility, and and Lossner the local authorities restrictions. The above-mentioned were satisfied with the promise of the resolution from the directors, written Moravians to be loyal citizens, both on the 13th of May 1749, could Governor Colier and the directors be seen as a turning point after in Amsterdam did not allow for the which local colonial authorities in Moravians to be an exception to the Berbice spent increasing time and rule. Interestingly, such a privilege effort on the Moravian community was granted to the Moravian at Pilgerhut. By far most of the missionaries in Suriname. In 1740, preserved documents from the after negotiating with Moravian Society of Berbice on the Moravians representatives, the directors of the – both from the directors and the Society of Suriname decided that local colonial officials – were written concerning both the oath and the during the years of Colier’s term as civil militia, the Moravians would be governor of Berbice.38 Especially in treated in the same manner as the Mennonites – something explicitly turned down by the directors of the 37 Plakaatboek Guyana (PG), 1670-1816, Huygens Institute,
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 21 ” Society of Berbice.39 Whereas the civil were expected to swear the oath.
e l i g o n status of the Moravian missionaries However, the minutes of the meeting was undisputed in the first eleven reveal that the missionaries were x t o f R years of their presence in Berbice, not willing to do so, referring to the it had now become a reason for customary practice under Governor Colier and his council to repeatedly Lossner and stressing the fact summon Moravian missionaries to that they had lived peacefully in the council meeting and demand the colony for eleven years now.41 their obedience. When the council made clear that The first confrontation the order came from the directors between the Moravian community in Amsterdam, whose message and Governor Colier occurred only a they read aloud, the missionaries t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P couple of days after the latter arrived requested “to be considered and A in Berbice. In his first letter to the treated as the Moravian Brothers directors, Colier stated that he had who are in Suriname, and regarding e u l n | “ “instructed the bailiff to immediately the arms trade to be allowed to be go to all Moravian brothers who considered as the Mennonites”.42 M a r i e K are in the colony” and to tell them For the Moravians, this reference to in the name of the council and the the situation in Suriname was a very directors “to appear here on the next logical one, as the missions in both Tuesday, being the 7th of October, at colonies were very much interrelated: the ordinary meeting to take the Oath several missionaries who came to of Allegiance”.40 It is striking that only Pilgerhut in the second half of the two days after his arrival in the colony 1740s were coming from Suriname. Colier summoned the Moravian This perspective is also visible on missionaries before the council a printed map of the eighteenth- meeting. This strongly suggests century Moravian missions in Berbice that was he instructed to do so by and Suriname (Figure 2). The the directors in Amsterdam, who were unhappy with the agreements made between the missionaries and 41 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 102, p. Colier’s predecessors. As instructed, 102–107; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. six of the now twelve missionaries 104, p. 22–28. The same event is also mentioned in a missionary ‘diary from living at Pilgerhut appeared at Pilgerhut’, which describes a similar the council meeting, where they course of the event: Staehelin, Teil II. Zweiter Abschnitt, 30–36. 42 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 102, p. 102–107; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. 39 Staehelin, Die Mission Der no. 104, p. 22–28. Dutch citation: Brüdergemeine, Teil I.: Erste Missions- “versoekende soo aangesien und Kolonisationsversuche in en gehandeld te worden als de Suriname 1735-1745, 108–9. Moravische Gebroeders die te 40 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 102, p. 101– Suriname zijn, en aangaande 102; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 104, p. Wapenhandel te moogen werden 19–22. geconsidereerd als de menoniten”.
22 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 FIGURE 2. Printed map of the three Moravian missions in Berbice and Suriname (marked green), from left missionary communities, all three to right: the Pilgerhut community below the inset map of Pilgerhut (see Figure 1), the mission along of them highlighted in green, were the Corentyne river, and the mission along the Saron literally part of the same picture. river. The government buildings Fort Nassau and Fort The directors in Amsterdam, Zeelandia of Berbice and Suriname respectively are marked red. LUSC, COLLBN Port 63 N 52, ‘Berbice en the governor, and the council in Suriname Gelegen in Zuid-America 6 Gr. benoorden Berbice, however, thought differently; de Aequinoctiaal linie’. Copies of the same map can they did not regard the relationship also be found in the Moravian Archives: MA, DP Collection of Drawings and Prints, inv. no. f.051.1.a–b. between the Society of Suriname and the Moravian missionaries as a point of reference for their own policy, and they persisted in their demands. As the six missionaries were still refusing to take the oath, they were temporarily brought outside, for the council to deliberate on the situation. The governor used this moment to
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 23 ” bring up a new, but according to contact and interactions between
e l i g o n him related issue: the influence of the Moravian missionaries and the the missionaries on the Amerindians Indigenous population were never x t o f R living in the colony. perceived as a problem before the directors had sent Colier to The Lord Governor told the the colony, this had now suddenly Council to have been told that become an issue of careful attention by some practice they people for the governor, who shared his are holding up the Indians of worries with his superiors in the this country, which is detrimental Dutch Republic. to the colony and the private In subsequent years, the persons because of the service issue of the oath – and the civil t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P which those Indians are required duties in general – remained A to do.43 a subject of conflict. Only after Governor Colier promulgated a e u l n | “ Next, the bailiff was asked resolution in 1752 stating that all how many Amerindians he had seen missionaries had to swear the oath M a r i e K at the residence of the missionaries, and that they would be banned from to which he replied that he had the colony if they refused to do so, seen several white persons and the majority of the missionaries took Amerindians, both men and women, the oath.45 The obligation to pay who preached and sang together. the capitation money seemed to be At the end of the meeting, Colier less a matter of contention, given decided that he would inform the that already at the beginning of the directors about this and ask them year 1750 the Moravians paid their whether the Moravians were allowed dues over the year 1749.46 This was to continue to live in Berbice. In the not the case with the requirement to meantime, he prohibited them to participate in the civil militia, which “hold meetings” and to “delay Indians prompted the captain of the civil who owe any service”.44 Whereas the militia, Joseph Dietzscholt, to write a letter of complaint to the governor and the council in 1751. Although 43 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 102, p. the “Moravian brothers […] have 102–107; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 104, p. 22–28. Dutch citation: “Den themselves answered ‘we will behave Heere Gouverneur aan den Hove like obedient citizens’”, Dietzscholt gesegt ter hoore gekomen te zijn dat zij lieden door eenige practijcque d’indiane van dit land op houden, ’t dienst schuldig sijn oponthoud te geene naadeel geeft aan de colonie verleenen”. en particulieren door den dienst 45 Staehelin, Teil II. Zweiter Abschnitt, dewelke die Indianen sich hebben 4; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no 1, p. verplicht te doen”. 242–244; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 44 Idem. Dutch citation: “onder verbod 16, 195–197. van geene vergaderige te mogen 46 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 110, p. 369– houden ende geen indianen den elke 374.
24 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K wrote, no weapons and ammunition made it clear to the governor and were found with them during his the council that they still wanted e u l n inspection – something that was the resolution from the 13th of May
| considered part of participating in the 1749 to be implemented. Otherwise, “ A civil militia.47 The importance of the they stressed, “our authority will be t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P issue of the civil militia is remarkable, greatly weakened”.48 Whereas in 1741 as even in the sparsely populated the directors had never heard of the colony of Berbice the Moravian presence of the missionaries in the missionaries would not make a colony, leaving a lot of room for the significant contribution in terms former governors Waterham and of manpower. Why, then, had the Lossner to make agreements with the strict enforcement of the Moravian Moravians, they had now taken an missionaries’ civil duties become active role in the colonial relationship such an issue for both the local and with the Moravian community. In metropolitan colonial authorities? the same year, one of the directors, x t o f R From the resolution of the 13th Jacob Boulé, was sent to Berbice e l i g o n of May 1749 onwards, the directors “to bring the mentioned Colony 49 of the Society of Berbice played on a better footing”. In 1751, after ” a significant part in the evolving having received letters from Boulé conflict with the Moravians. This saying that the “so-called Moravian was, for one reason, because of brothers are trying to back out on their contact with the local colonial their duties”, the directors repeated authorities and their influence on their call for the implementation of how they – especially the governor their earlier resolution.50 Furthermore, – reacted to the presence of the the directors themselves had contact Moravian missionaries in the colony with the Moravian missionaries, when of Berbice. In a resolution from the latter directed their request for November 1750, at a moment when a treatment similar to the situation the conflict on the issue of the oath in Suriname to the directors. The was still unsolved, the directors request, signed by Anth. Buyn
48 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 16, 102– 47 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 110, p. 106. Dutch citation: “onse authoriteit 80–81. Dutch citation: “Moravische zeer word verswakt”. broeders […] hebben deselve tot 49 PG, the 2nd of September 1750, andwoord gegeeven wij sullen ons ‘Jacob Boulé wordt naar Berbice gedraagen als gehoorzame burgers”. gezonden als gedeputeerde van de For the regulation considering the Staten-Generaal’; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, mandatory armament of civilians see: inv. no. 219, p. 153–156. PG, the 9th of July 1750, ‘Controle 50 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 16, p. 108– van de verplichte bewapening van 116; NL-HaNa, 1.05.05, inv. no. 1, p. burgers door officieren van de 131–141. Dutch citation: “zogenaamde burgerij op alle plantages in hun Moravische broeders zig aan de divisie’; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. verschuldigde pligten op de colonie 219, p. 93. tragten te onttrekken”.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 25 ” and Lodewijk Wijs51, addressed all passports, that they were obliged
e l i g o n three mentioned aspects of the civil to take the oath, Dehne and Beutel duties: the oath of allegiance, the themselves thought that they could x t o f R capitation, and the participation in continue on the same footing as the civil militia with the obligation when they left the colony in 1747. The to carry weapons. Discussing the two missionaries, having missed the request in their meeting, the directors previous conflicts and confrontations decided not to grant an exemption with the governor, had a different on all three points – a decision they understanding of what it meant to communicated to the local authorities take the oath. In contrast to the first in Berbice.52 confrontation between Moravian As was the case in 1748, missionaries and Governor Colier at t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P the arrival of two Moravians in a meeting of the council, this time, A the colony in 1751 led to renewed the latter was not willing to let the colonial attention for the position Moravians go easily. When Dehne e u l n | “ of the missionaries in the colony. and Beutel refused to fulfil Colier’s The arriving Moravians, Dehne and demands, the council decided “that M a r i e K Beutel, had already been in Berbice they must leave this colony at the first from 1738 and 1740 respectively, opportunity, no later than with the but both went to Europe for several first from here departing ship”.54 years in 1747, after which they then Shortly before this decision returned to Berbice. Governor Colier was made, while Dehne and Beutel mentioned their arrival in a letter to were waiting outside, another group the directors, in which he also stated was also summoned at the council that the missionaries were expected meeting: thirty-three Amerindian to take the oath of allegiance at the captains were called to account for next meeting of the council. However, the actions of some Amerindians Colier added, “I have already noticed providing shelter and help to runaway that they will not want to do this” – slaves, while they were supposed expecting yet another confrontation.53 to hand them over directly to their Although Dehne and Beutel owners. Directly after the Amerindian were already told by directors in captains left the meeting, the bailiff Amsterdam, who granted them their was asked by the governor whether he had seen many Amerindians with the Moravians, to which he answered 51 Sometimes also spelled as ‘Weiss’. that “there were about three hundred 52 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 1, 150– 153; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 16, 126–129; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 1, 157–159; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 54 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 109, p. 16, 130–132. 152–157. Dutch citation: “dat zij met 53 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 108, p. de eerste geleegentheijd uijt deese 26–30. Dutch citation: “dog heb ik colonie moeten vertrecken, en dat al gemerkt dat sij deselve niet sullen ten uijttersten, met het eerste van hier willen doen”. vertreckende schip”.
26 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K Indians there”.55 Likely, the fact that interactions as beneficial for the those issues were discussed after colonial administration. The colonial e u l n one another at the same meeting relationships with Amerindian
| was no coincidence. For Colier, the populations, and especially the “ A concerns regarding the presence Arawaks, were of great importance t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P of the Moravian missionaries in his for the Dutch. Instead of regarding colony on the one hand, and the the contacts of the Moravian importance of the Amerindian groups community with those groups as a for the oppression of the majority possible contribution to the Dutch enslaved population, on the other cause, Colier and his superiors hand, were very much connected. worried that the influence of the Already when Colier mentioned the missionaries would be at the expense arrival of Dehne and Beutel in the of their own desired influence over colony, he ended his message for the Indigenous peoples. During both the directors by saying that “it was confrontations at the council meeting, x t o f R to be wished that those people had Colier asked the bailiff to provide e l i g o n never come to this colony, attracting him with more information on the
all Indians under the Pretext of missionary community. According ” Religion”.56 to the bailiff’s remarks and the documentation of the missionaries themselves, the Pilgerhut community “I FEAR WE WILL LOSE ALL attracted many Amerindian people – INDIANS” as visitors, residents, and Christians. A Moravian diary even describes a From the very first moment visit from a delegation of Amerindian he arrived in Berbice until the people coming all the way from the very last moment he wrote to the Orinoco river in Spanish colonial directors on the situation in the territory west of Essequibo.57 This colony, Colier expressed his worries influx of different Amerindian groups about the interactions between visiting the Pilgerhut community the Moravian missionaries and the must have been a striking event various Amerindian groups living at for the local colonial authorities as or visiting Pilgerhut. It is clear that well as the planters living near the he, as well as his superiors in the missionaries. As the alliances with Dutch Republic, did not regard these the Indigenous populations were vital for the colonial society of Berbice, in particular for the maintenance of the 55 Idem. Dutch citation: “dat wel omtrend institution of slavery, Governor Colier drie hondert indiaenen daer waeren”. 56 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 108, p. did not lose sight of the events taking 26–30. Dutch citation: “’t waare te place at the Moravian community. wenschen dat die luyden nooit in deese colonie waaren gekoomen, trekkende sij onder Pretext van Religie 57 Staehelin, Teil II. Zweiter Abschnitt, alle de Indiaanen naar zig”. 38.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 27 ” Even when, years later, a new Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara,
e l i g o n governor had arrived in the colony, only when the institution of slavery who came to be on much friendlier came to an end under British rule in x t o f R terms with the Moravian missionaries, 1833, and when the military aid of their relationship with and influence the Indigenous populations was no on the Amerindian populations longer needed, did this dependency remained a very important concern. cease to exist, and the Amerindians During the seventeenth then retreated away from the colonial and eighteenth centuries, as a societies.60 consequence of increasing European The strong position of the colonisation, the various Amerindian Caribs and Arawaks in Berbice is groups living in the region of the visible through their easy access t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Guianas – the Arawaks, the Caribs, to gifts and guns. Faced with their A the Waraos, and the Akawaios – dependency on Amerindian allies became more intertwined with and times of European competition e u l n | “ European powers both through over Amerindian favours, the Dutch trade relationships and military needed to enlarge their investment M a r i e K alliances.58 Although both Europeans in the indigenous alliances.61 This and Amerindians became more included reaffirming the alliances and more dependent on each other with gifts and guns. Moreover, as the centuries progressed, it in threatening to lay down their was especially the former that was agreed-upon tasks such as capturing highly dependent on the military runaways, the Amerindians aid of the latter – both concerning strengthened their bargaining their rival European powers and position. Not all inhabitants of the majority enslaved population. the colony, however, treated the In the eighteenth century, this Indigenous populations as important was certainly true for the Dutch actors who needed to be kept as colonies of Berbice, Essequibo, and friends, something the metropolitan Demerara. In Suriname on the other and local colonial authorities tried to hand, after the seventeenth century, prevent by issuing several ordinances Amerindian groups remained largely and instructions to protect the at the margins of the colony – both position of their Amerindian allies.62 politically and geographically.59 In
Dutch Atlantic, 1680-1815 (Leiden: 58 Neil Lancelot Whitehead, Leiden University Press, 2018), 143. “Ethnic Transformation and 60 Hoonhout, Borderless Empire, 42. Historical Discontinuity in Native 61 Hoonhout, 37; Kars, 267. Amazonia and Guayana, 1500- 62 PG, the 20th of October 1736, 1900,” L’Homme 126/128 (1993): ‘Waarschuwing de Amerindianen met 292, 297–98, http://dx.doi. rust te laten’; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. org/10.3406%2Fhom.1993.369641. no. 219, p. 32–33; PG, the 3th of June 59 Gert Oostindie and Wim Klooster, 1749, ‘Instructie voor Gouverneur Realm between Empires: The Second Colier’, second instruction point 12;
28 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K It is also important to note that not feeling of unease concerning the all Indigenous people were seen mere fact that the few Moravian e u l n as important or valuable allies that missionaries attracted and converted
| needed to be pleased with gifts or tens or hundreds of Amerindian “ A protected against the violence of people. Because the aid of the t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P planters: Amerindian slavery was Indigenous allies was a necessity for part of the colonial slave society of the colonial authorities, and because Berbice and the so-called ‘red slaves’ most of the time cooperation “was were frequently bought from Carib or by no means a forgone conclusion”, Arawak groups. The colonial officers, this interaction was seen as a threat however, trying to avoid provoking a for the colony.64 The Amerindians, conflict, always attempted to make they feared, were influenced by sure no people of allied groups were the Moravians. On the other hand, bought as slaves.63 there was a more specific concern This concern for the regarding those Amerindian people x t o f R relationship with their much-needed who were part of the Pilgerhut e l i g o n allies played a central role in the community, namely that they would
position and attitude of the local not carry out their agreed-upon ” colonial authorities towards the duties. While “keeping a watchful eye Moravian missionaries. Noticing that on their behaviour”, Colier and the the Pilgerhut community attracted council did not fail to report all the a significant number of Amerindian possible “evil consequences of the people, Colier and his council so-called conversion of the Indians repeatedly expressed their worries by the Moravian brothers”.65 to the directors in Amsterdam. On In Suriname, where the the one hand, there was a general Indigenous populations were not as important for the colonial society as in its neighbouring Dutch colonies, NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 16, p. the local colonial authorities had a 64–86; PG, the 7th of October 1760, very different attitude towards the ‘Verbod de Amerindianen lastig te Moravian missionaries living in their vallen’; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 130, colony. Besides the earlier mentioned p. 23; PG, the 3th of September 1764, privileged status of the Moravian ‘Instructie voor Gouverneur Heyliger’, point 26; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. Church in Suriname regarding the 18, p. 218–224. 63 PG, the 21th of April 1746, ‘Verplichting van Amerindianen 64 Kars, 266–67. om voor ze Amerindiaanse slaven 65 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 111, p. aanbieden die aan de Gouverneur 27–30. Dutch citation: “een wakend te tonen’; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. oogh over hun gedragh te houwden”, no. 219 p. 105–106; PG, the 7th of “de kwaade gevolgen dewelke January 1751, ‘Verplichte registratie de soogenaamde bekeeringe der van gekochte Amerindiaanse slaven’; Indiaanen door de Moravische NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 219, p. gebroeders […] souwde konne te 166–167. weege brengen”.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 29 ” oath of allegiance and the civil receive “a church, houses, and even 69 e l i g o n militia, in the 1750s and 1760s, the a salary”. Because the Maroons Moravians received permission to in Suriname had a very different x t o f R settle in different parts of the colony role in the colonial society than the for their missionary work. A couple Amerindians in Berbice – they were of years after missionary Dehne a threat rather than a vital ally – the was banished from Berbice, he was presence of Moravian missionaries sent to Paramaribo to revive the and their interaction with the mission in Suriname.66 Interestingly, Maroons was welcomed. the old Governor of Berbice Lossner When Colier had left the was involved in the negotiations colony of Berbice and was replaced between the missionaries and the by the new Governor Hendrik Jan t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Governor of Suriname, Pieter Albert van Rijswijk in 1756, the issue of the A van der Meer, by emphasizing the relationship and interaction between positive influence of the Moravian the Moravians and the various groups e u l n | “ missionaries in the colony.67 This of Amerindians did not disappear view of the Moravians as an added from the colonial mind. Once back in M a r i e K value for the colony was fundamental the Dutch Republic, Colier wrote the for the attitude of Governor Van der directors of the Society of Berbice a Meer – as well as his successors – memoir on how to bring the colony towards the Moravian community into a “more flourishing state”.70 in Suriname. As Cronshagen shows One of the points he mentioned in her article, the local colonial was the presence of the Moravians authorities were satisfied with the in the colony and their relationship missionaries forming a “European with the Amerindian populations. frontier” between their plantations The “Indians”, he wrote, “must be and the Maroon communities by kept under subordination”. They fulfilling a diplomatic role for the must be told that “the mentioned colonial government.68 Several years Herrenhutters are not their chiefs”, after the Society of Suriname had but that the Government had granted permission for settlement, always retained power over them the role of the Moravians as colonial and the missionaries.71 According agents became even more explicit as the then Governor Crommelin asked the missionaries to establish 69 Cronshagen, 10. a community near the Maroons in 70 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no 223. Dutch Saramacca. In return, they would citation: “in een bloeyender staat te brengen”. 71 Idem. Dutch citation: “moeten ook wel onder subordinatie gehouden 66 Weiss, “De Zending Der Herrnhutters,” worden, en haar wel in te prenten dat 187–88. de gemelde Herrenhutters […] egter 67 Weiss, 188; Cronshagen, ‘“A Loyal hunnen opperhoofden niet zij maar Heart to God and the Governor”,” 7–8. dat het Gouvernement altoos deselve 68 Cronshagen, 9. magt over hen behoude als te vooren,
30 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K to Colier, who acknowledged the For the missionaries at Pilgerhut, importance of good understandings this refusal of granting passports to e u l n with the Indigenous populations, the their fellow Moravians was a final
| missionaries were standing between push to redirect their focus on the “ A the colonial administration and their new missions in Suriname. Not only t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P allies. He clearly had the feeling would the newly arriving people of a need for a restoration of the from Europe and North America go power relations between the colonial to Suriname instead of Berbice, but authorities, the Moravians and the at the end of the 1750s the Pilgerhut Amerindians. Given the strong community itself – both missionaries dependency of the colony on the and baptized Amerindians – largely Indigenous populations, however, it is resettled in Suriname territory. highly questionable whether his view After two decades of successful of the balance of power was close to missionary activities in Berbice, reality. the conflicting relationship with the x t o f R With the memoir and all other colonial authorities together with e l i g o n previous letters from Colier in mind, the increasing social unrest at the
the directors of the Society of Berbice plantations of the colony drove the ” continued their distrustful attitude Moravian missionaries to leave for regarding the Moravian community, Suriname. which they saw as an undesirable In contrast to the directors, presence in their colony. Thus, when Governor Rijswijk received the news the new Governor Rijswijk reported in about the plans of the missionaries one of his first letters to the directors to leave the colony as bad news. on his pleasant visit to the Moravian Being aware of the close relationship missionaries at Pilgerhut who, between the Moravians and some according to him, “seem to live there groups of Amerindians, Rijswijk wrote very quietly and simply”, the directors to the directors that if it were true rapidly replied that they were not to that the missionaries would leave be trusted.72 At the same time, they for Suriname, “I fear we will lose All made sure no more Moravian people Indians, at least two-thirds, which were admitted into Berbice, stating would cause irreparable damage, that “more than too many of those to Your Honourable and to the men were found on the colony”.73 whole colony”.74 Although the new
en dat de Herrenhutters daar aan selfs p. 11–13; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 2, onderdanig zijn”. 157–158. Dutch citation: “dat bereyds 72 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 124, meer dan teveel van die luyden op de p. 22–31. Dutch citation; “die colonie werden gevonden”. mijn voorkomen daar seer stil en 74 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 125, p. eenvoudig te leven”; NL-HaNA, 675–677. Dutch citation: “ik dat wij 1.05.05, inv. no. 2, p. 219–221. Alle de Indianen zullen verliesen, 73 NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 16, p. ten minsten twee derde, dat een 214–221; NL-HaNA, 1.05.05, inv. no. 17, inreparable schade zoude verwecken,
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 31 ” governor had a different view on the revolt – and the colonial society in
e l i g o n Moravian missionaries than both his general – was already visible in the predecessor and his superiors – he decades before 1763. In their reaction x t o f R did not see how “those people could to the presence (or absence) of cause us the slightest hindrance”75 – the Moravian missionaries and the he did have a similar concern for the interactions they had with various much-needed allies of the Society of Amerindian groups, the metropolitan Berbice. This time, however, it was and local colonial authorities were not the presence of the Moravians constantly focused on their much- that caused a threat to the colony, but needed allies. For the colonial society their plans to leave. In both cases, the of Berbice, maintaining access reaction of the colonial authorities to the cooperation of Indigenous t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P to the missionaries, and their strong groups was of vital importance. A focus on the Indigenous groups Instead of solely examining the interacting with the missionaries, Moravian missions in the Atlantic e u l n | “ tell us something about their own as either being part of a Moravian priorities, limits, and fears. global community or as missionary M a r i e K events in itself, the history of the mission in Berbice shows that it is CONCLUSION also part of the bigger story on the interactions and entanglements The Moravian mission in between Europeans, Africans, and Berbice came to a final end when the Americans in the early modern last missionaries living at Pilgerhut Atlantic world. Using the colonial fled the colony during the major slave archival material on the Moravian revolt of 1763. During this revolt, in community in Berbice, this article has which the colonial authorities were opened a new window through which on the edge of defeat, it was the this history can be investigated. It Amerindian military cooperation shows the colonial perspective on that played a central role. Without the interactions between European their help, “the Dutch colonial missionaries and Indigenous groups power likely would have failed” to while revealing the metropolitan and suppress the enslaved resistance.76 local authority’s priorities, limits, and The case of the Moravian mission fears. in Berbice shows that this important During the two and a half characteristic of the Berbice slave decades of the Moravian mission in Berbice, the relationship between missionaries and authorities was aan UWelEd Agtb en aande heele primarily defined by the (desired) colonie”. interactions of both parties with the 75 Idem. Dutch citation: “ik kan niet Amerindian populations. Whereas sien die mensche ons de minste in the beginning, this relationship hindernisse kunnen toebrengen”. was cooperative, which enabled the 76 Kars, 251.
32 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 M a r i e K missionaries to establish a growing religious community, from the e u l n arrival of Governor Colier onwards,
| this had given way to conflicts “ A and confrontations. Because the t r a c i n g l I d s u e h P Moravians had religious objections to the demands of the metropolitan and local authorities and thus refused to fulfil the civil duties, some missionaries were banned from the colony. More importantly, explicitly calling them a threat to the colony, the decision was made to stop admitting new Moravian people into Berbice. In Suriname, there was x t o f R the opposite situation, where the e l i g o n Moravian missionaries were part of
the solution to the threat rather than ” the threat itself: they could keep the dangerous Maroon communities at a safer distance from the colonial plantations, the governor reasoned. The attitudes of the colonial authorities in Berbice and Suriname to the Moravian missions were thus very much influenced by their relationships with the Amerindian and Maroon populations respectively. It is in this way that the complexities of the colonial society of Berbice are reflected in the story of the short but successful mission of the Moravian Church on the northern coast of South America.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 33 Mission, Medicine, and Agency: Power-Structures in Medical Missionary Encounters
by JAN BECKER
34 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J a n B e c k ABSTRACT e r
In conducting a global microhistory on Soetjipto, a Javanese | M i s o n , e d c student in one of the German Bethel Mission’s schools in the Dutch East Indies, this paper analyses the power- relations in missionary encounters. Not only were Javanese intermediaries–nurses, students, and teachers–an integral part of the missionary medical and educational work, the missionaries were outright dependent on their collaboration. , a n d A g e c y For indigenous actors, the missionary project could provide attractive opportunities, such as medical service and Western education. These opportunities, however, had to be negotiated with the indigenous actors’ own social network. In following Soetjpto’s trajectory from student to missionary evangelist, it becomes apparent that some aspects of the missionary project were irreconcilable with local culture. Soetjipto’s decision to convert despite his family’s objection demands for a reappreciation of the most basic aspect of mission history: faith.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jan Becker did his undergraduate studies in Münster and Paris and is currently finishing his MA in Colonial and Global History at Leiden University. He will embark on a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence in September. His PhD thesis will analyse medical missionary work across the Indian Ocean and its reciprocal relationship with the environment.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 35 INTRODUCTION in 1799, parts of the Indonesian archipelago became a Dutch colony On Christmas Eve 1927, in 1800. When the Bethel Mission’s , a n d A g e c y Soetjipto was baptised in Central missionaries arrived in Java in Java by missionaries of the Bethel 1922, the archipelago had been Mission. In the weeks prior to his under Dutch influence for centuries. conversion, he had endured severe Similarly, the predominantly Muslim fever and sickness, even being on Javanese had experienced decades M i s o n , e d c | the edge of death. But Soetjipto’s of European missionary work.
e r decision to convert to Christianity The Bethel Mission did not had far-reaching consequences. His build up entirely new missionary family, who belonged to the Priyayi, structures. Rather, Walther Trittelvitz J a n B e c k the highest social class of the Dutch provided personnel for existing East Indies, abandoned him. Why, missionary educational and medical then, did Soetjipto consecrate his life structures of the Neukirchener to God? Mission. The Neukirchener In the early 1920s, the Mission was a previously rivalling Bielefeld-based German Bethel German mission that ran hospitals Mission began a short intermezzo in and schools in Poerwordadi and its long history of missionary work. Goeboeg–both close to Semarang.2 Traditionally, the Bethel Mission Its establishment in Java originated had been active in East Africa, in a relief campaign following a particularly in modern-day Tanzania famine in the early 1900s. The and Rwanda. For around a decade, Dutch physician Dr. van der Ley however, Walther Trittelvitz, the founded a hospital in Poerwodadi Bethel Mission’s head, sent out seven which developed into a branch of missionaries to Central Java.1 At that the Neukirchener Mission called time, Java was part of the Dutch Salatiga Mission.3 The seven East Indies. After the dissolution German missionaries of the Bethel of the United East India Company Mission thus participated in an interorganisational, transnational missionary project. Their focus lay on 1 The Bethel Mission has so far not been subject to extensive research. For its activities in East Africa, see: Edward N. Snyder, “Work Not Alms: 2 For the purpose of consistency The Bethel Mission to East Africa with its sources, this paper uses and German Protestant Debates the German/Dutch transliteration of over Eugenics, 1880–1933” (PhD -oe- instead of the current spellings diss., University of Minnesota, 2013); in Bahasa Indonesia that use -u- Frigga Tiletschke, “’Afrika Müssen (Poerwodadi/Purwodadi, Goeboeg/ Wir Auch Haben!’ Die Bethel-Mission Gubug, Soetjipto/Sutjipto). in Ostafrika 1885–1970” (PhD diss., 3 Otto Sickinger, Aus der Universität Bielefeld, 2020). To my missionsärztlichen Arbeit der knowledge, the Bethel Mission’s work Neukirchner Mission auf Java, s.l., s.d., on Java remains so far unresearched. AMS M 318, 141–142.
36 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k educational and medical missionary the power-structures as well as the work. With Dr. Otto Sickinger, self-determination that led to his and e r the Bethel Mission sent out an other indigenous actors’ conversion. | M i s o n , e d c approbated physician. The remaining The paper challenges oversimplistic six missionaries were teachers and concepts of power-relations in nurses. arguing that power-relations in The Bethel Mission’s archival medical missionary encounters were documents are currently stored in manifold, ubiquitous, overlapping, Wuppertal, Germany. In 1971, the and reciprocal. , a n d A g e c y Bethel Mission merged with the The Bethel Mission was Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft to primarily a medical mission. Its the Vereinte Evangelische Mission headquarters in Bielefeld were the (VEM). Nowadays, the Bethel von Bodelschwinghschen Anstalten Mission’s archive is subsumed in the Bethel, a diaconal psychiatric hospital Archiv- und Museumsstiftung der that was founded in 1867 and exists VEM (AMS). The Bethel Mission’s to date. The medical focus was, archive mainly includes sources on therefore, at the core of the Bethel their work in East Africa. Seven files, Mission.5 however, derive from their missionary Analyses of medical missions work in Java. These are organised traditionally engage with the by author and comprise sources historiographic debates on religion on the seven missionaries: Elfriede and empire, religion and medicine, Krieg, Dr. Otto Sickinger, Marie Eglin, and religion and orientalism. In Agnes Püschel, Käthe Klarenbeck, analysing medical missionaries Elise Kuckel, and Käthe Weiß. in India, David Hardiman argues The files contain primarily circular that “the ‘medicine’ provided by and personal letters between the the missionaries encompassed missionaries and Walther Trittelvitz in far more than just treatment for Bielefeld.4 physical illness. What they were This essay explores the providing, rather, was an all-round medical missionary work of the therapy that was designed to Bethel Mission in Java between ‘civilise’ the supposedly ‘primitive’ 1922 and 1937, with a focus on Bhils, bringing them into the light of indigenous agency. Soetjipto’s case a Christian modernity”.6 Hardiman of conversion serves as a micro- historical thread that illuminates 5 Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Ärzte in der Anstalt Bethel: 1870–1945 (Bielefeld: Bethel Verlag, 1998). 4 Research at the AMS in Wuppertal 6 David Hardiman, Missionaries and was conducted in October and Their Medicine: A Christian Modernity November 2020. I thank the AMS’s for Tribal India, Studies in Imperialism archivist Christian Froese for his (Manchester and New York: support and his insights into the Manchester University Press, 2008), history of the Bethel Mission. 5. Emphasis added.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 37 conceptualises missionary medicine This paper will fill in this gap as a distinct field of medicine by analysing the implications medical and thereby repudiates purely missions had on indigenous agency , a n d A g e c y Foucauldian analyses of colonial and indigenous actors’ faith. The first medicine. Contrarily, David Arnold’s section outlines the role scholars Colonizing the Body argues that have conceded to indigenous Western medicine served primarily agency in recent historiography. one power when applied outside Subsequently, sections two to four
M i s o n , e d c 7 | Europe: the colonial state. Both of will provide a global microhistory
e r these accounts, however, neglect the that narrates local intermediary role of indigenous actors in medical Soetjipto’s entanglements with the missionary encounters. Waltraud Bethel Mission. In particular, section J a n B e c k Ernst’s call for a shift away from two focuses on personal indigenous- universal theory and towards the missionary hierarchies. Section social reality and the lived intricacy of three examines the missionaries’ medicine(s) remains topical to date.8 deployment of medicine to restrict There have been some attempts to indigenous agency. Finally, section focus on indigenous actors and their four analyses missionary and medicine. In Nurturing Indonesia, Hans indigenous medical epistemes and Pols argues that colonial structures their implications for indigenous inimical to indigenous medical actors agency. spurred a medical nationalism among indigenous physicians.9 He does not, however, consider religion a decisive I. AGENCY, FOCUS, AND SCALE factor in his analysis of indigenous medical actors. Historiography on religion- making and the production of scholarly and missionary knowledge in colonial situations has always 7 David Arnold, Colonizing the Body: defined certain actors. Religion- State Medicine and Epidemic Disease making, by definition, requires active in Nineteenth-Century India (Berkeley, construction; it requires makers. CA: University of California Press, (Nation-) States, institutions, officials, 1993). 8 Waltraud Ernst, “Beyond East and scholars, and colonial, missionary, West. From the History of Colonial and indigenous private individuals Medicine to a Social History of participated in the construction of Medicine(s) in South Asia,” Social both religion and knowledge. Whom, History of Medicine 20, no. 3 (2007): then, is one supposed to focus on? 505–24, https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/ hkm077. And whom have scholars in the past 9 Hans Pols, Nurturing Indonesia: focused on? Medicine and Decolonisation in the Historians have frequently Dutch East Indies, Global Health shifted their approaches and Histories (Cambridge: Cambridge subsequently the actors they University Press, 2018).
38 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k conceded agency to. Benedict than shifting one’s focus within a Anderson, in his 1983 work Imagined structural approach, scholars have e r
Communities, argues that colonial to include local actors in their works, | M i s o n , e d c powers unconsciously promoted the she claims. In doing so, Bloembergen emergence of nationalisms through enters a historiographic tradition that censuses, maps, and museums.10 This developed in contrast to Edward structural approach and its somewhat Said’s Orientalism. unintuitive findings analyse religion- Published in 1978, Said’s making in regard to nationalism Orientalism would become the , a n d A g e c y and define the colonial state as pivotal work for area studies, the primary actor that set religious religious studies, and, more categorisations for its censuses. generally, scholarly fields related to Anderson’s focus on the nation-state the ‘East.’12 Influenced by Jacques has strong implications for agency on Derrida and Michel Foucault, Said’s subaltern levels. As he argues for a chef-d’œuvre applies discourse construction of colonial nationalism analysis to nineteenth and twentieth- from the exterior, his account century scholarly works in the neglects local agency. His focus field of Orientalism. Said presents on colonial powers and the nation- Western knowledge production on state leaves no room for the active the Orient as imperial intellectualism. participation of locals. Western scholars, intentionally or If one wants to include local unintentionally, constructed an agency, a shift from national to inferior East in contrast to a superior transnational foci, however, does West. Said thus considered Western not necessarily pose a solution. colonial scholars as primarily potent In her work on the repercussions to construct religion. His account of narratives of a culturally does not leave room for the influence homogeneous ‘Greater India’, of local intellectuals, let alone Marieke Bloembergen warns “against religious practitioners. pitfalls of the new transnational Therefore, a post-Orientalism approaches that focus on cultural current has emerged. Focusing on flows, as these may exaggerate local knowledge production and the region’s cultural unity and reify regimes has become one way of […] moral geographies […].”11 Rather differentiating Said’s seemingly ineluctable power-relations. Michael
10 Benedict Anderson, “Census, Map, Museum,” in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread India,” in Belonging across the Bay of Nationalism, Benedict Anderson, of Bengal. Religious Rites, Colonial rev. ed. (London: Verso, 2006 [1983]), Migrations, National Rights, ed. 163–185. Michael Laffan (London/New York: 11 Marieke Bloembergen, “Borobudur in Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 49. the Light of Asia. Scholars, Pilgrims, 12 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: and Knowledge Networks of Greater Pantheon Books, 1978).
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 39 Laffan, for example, applied local Alicia Turner argues that “we need knowledge production to religion- to not only pay attention to the ways making. In regard to Indonesia, he in which the colonial state engaged , a n d A g e c y examines “how Islam was interpreted religious projects for the ends of and fashioned by the region’s diverse governmentality, but also be attentive actors […].”13 Further criticism of to the ways in which some actors Said’s concept of Orientalism has may have participated with very been brought forward by Marieke different, and perhaps contradictory,
M i s o n , e d c 14 16 | Bloembergen and Martijn Eickhoff. goals in mind.”
e r Knowledge production and heritage Following Turner’s argument, formation in Southeast Asia started this paper claims that agency is earlier, not with the advent of colonial a twofold concept. It is conceded J a n B e c k powers. Indeed, foreigners never by the historian’s narrative which gained epistemological access is related to a choice of scale and without the aid of locals. Their book focus, but also depends on the demands a stronger appreciation potentialities of historical actors of these local knowledges that and their self-determination. This were interdependent with colonial paper addresses both issues by knowledge. conducting a global microhistory on Focusing on direct encounters the Indonesian student Soetjipto. His between locals and colonists, recent case serves as a means to illuminate historiography pays particular the complex web of dependencies emphasis to the self-determined and power-relations that covered the manoeuvring of locals. Raymond medical missionary project in Central Corbey, for example, analyses Java. mass-conversions at Raja Ampat. Global microhistory is a Corbey sees these conversions as an comparatively new methodological autonomous local means of coping field in historical scholarship. In with forms of modernity.15 Similarly, 2010, Tonio Andrade called for a stronger appreciation of historical actors traditionally underrepresented 13 Michael Laffan, “Preface,” in The Makings of Indonesian Islam. Orientalism and the Narration of a Sufi Past (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011), XI– Ampat Ritual Art: Spirit Priests and XIV, here XII. Ancestor Cults in New Guinea’s 14 Marieke Bloembergen and Martjin Far West (Leiden: C. Zwartenkot Art Eickhoff, “Great Sacred Majapahit. Books, 2017), 90–109. Biographies of a Javanese Site in the 16 Alicia Turner, “Pali Scholarship ‘in Its Nineteenth Century,” in The Politics Truest Sense’ in Burma. The Multiple of Heritage in Indonesia. A Cultural Trajectories in Colonial Deployments History (Cambridge: Cambridge of Religion,” The Journal of Asian University Press, 2020), 97–128. Studies 77, no. 1 (2018): 123–138, 15 Raymond Corbey, “F.C. Kamma. A here 136, https://doi.org/10.1017/ Missionary’s Efforts (1930s),” in Raja S0021911817001292.
40 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k in works of global history.17 Global actors that only hazily appear in microhistory is thus not merely a the sources– global microhistory e r 20 stylistic choice. Rather, microhistory relies on purposeful speculation. In | M i s o n , e d c challenges traditional foci on national, reconstructing Soetjipto’s personal imperial, and structural approaches.18 experiences, the continuous use of Accordingly, it has often been linked the ‘perhaps’ may thus be legitimised to subaltern studies.19 This link, not only by Fernand Braudel’s high however, is misleading, as it implies a praise for historical imagination,21 one-directional power hierarchy that but also by an ancient appreciation , a n d A g e c y views the respective subject of the and anticipation of micro-historical microhistory at the bottom. Soetjipto’s methodology: „On me faict hayr les case indicates a more intricate net of choses vray-semblables quand on me overlapping and reciprocal power- les plante pour infallibles. J’ayme ces relations. The Bethel Mission’s mots, qui amollissent et moderent missionaries were as much woven la temerité de nos propositions : A into this net as Soetjipto, the other l’avanture, Aucunement, Quelque, On local students, and the medical dict, Je pense, et semblables. [sic!]“22 personnel. Global microhistory, evidently, has its drawbacks. As it is an 20 Microhistory has faced criticism for approach specifically designed to its use of speculation since its early analyse the non-analysable–those methodological advances. On the purposefulness of speculation and its merits as a methodological tool, see Carlo Ginzburg, “Beweise und 17 Tonio Andrade, “A Chinese Farmer, Möglichkeiten. Randbemerkungen Two African Boys, and a Warlord. zur Wahrhaftigen Geschichte von Toward a Global Microhistory,” der Wiederkehr des Martin Guerre,” Journal of World History 21, no. 4 in Die wahrhaftige Geschichte von (2010): 573–591, https://www.jstor.org/ der Wiederkehr des Martin Guerre, stable/41060851. Natalie Zemon Davis (Frankfurt am 18 For a methodology of global Main: Fischer TB, 1989), 185–213. microhistory, see: John-Paul A. Ginzburg’s afterword is not included Ghobrial, “Introduction. Seeing the in the original French version of Le World like a Microhistorian,” Past Retour de Martin Guerre. & Present 242, no. 14 (2019): 1–22, 21 See Andrade, “A Chinese Farmer, Two https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtz046. African Boys, and a Warlord,” 591. 19 Henrique Espada Lima, A micro- 22 Michel de Montaigne, “Des boyteux,” história italiana. Escalas, indícios in Essais, Michel de Montaigne, e singularidades (Rio de Janeiro: Tome III, Chapitre XI, 1595. Cited Civilização Brasileira, 2006); Alf after: Pierre Villey and Verdun Lüdtke, “Introduction. What is the Louis Saulnier, eds., Les essais de History of Everyday Life and who Michel de Montaigne, (Paris: Presses are its Practitioners?” in The History universitaires de France, 1965), of Everyday Life. Reconstructing 456. Author’s translation to English: Historical Experiences and Ways „My aversion to the most probable of Life (Princeton, NJ: Princeton sentences is raised when they are University Press, 1995), 3–40. presented to me as infallible. I like
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 41 II. RECIPROCAL POWER- Coburg’s court in Coburg, Germany.25 RELATIONS Narrations of his grandfather’s experiences were most likely passed , a n d A g e c y Probably born around 1910, on in the family. As Raden Saleh Soetjipto belonged to a Priyayi- converted to Christianity in Europe, family, the highest class among the Soetjipto had a family tie to European local elites. His intricate relationship colonial-political, religious, and with Javanese elites as well as with cultural structures from birth.26 M i s o n , e d c | European medical and missionary Instead of visiting a Javanese,
e r personnel situate him in the centre Chinese, or Dutch school, Soetjipto’s of European-indigenous missionary parents decided to have him contacts. He appears in the sources educated by Elfriede Krieg in the J a n B e c k for the first time in April 1927. Elfriede Bethel Mission’s Zendingsschool in Krieg, one of the Bethel Mission’s Poerwodadi. Their decision displays missionary sisters, mentioned a traditional conceptualisation of Soetjipto in her circular letter of Palm power-relations between indigenous Sunday 1927 and described him as and European actors: as the colonial one of her former students at the state privileged Western education Zendingsschool (missionary school) over traditional local forms of in Poerwodadi.23 Soetjipto’s family, education, locals that could afford it the letters revealed, was among the had a vivid interest in complying with most influential of Java. Soetjipto’s colonial educational demands. Yet, grandfather, as Krieg stated, was Soetjipto’s parents’ choice of school Javanese romanticist painter Raden arguably was no surrender to these Saleh.24 Saleh was a protégé of the demands. Dutch colonial government and Although there was a top- travelled to Europe to receive artistic down colonial power-relation that training in 1829. His celebrated work preferred locals who underwent earned him invitations to European European forms of education in courts, such as Ernest of Saxe- official employments, there were nevertheless ways of self-determined manoeuvring–particularly for the
to have such words that soften and diminish the boldness of our 25 For Raden Saleh’s inflictions with the assertions: perhaps, to a certain Dutch, see Marie-Odette Scalliet, extent, in part, people say, I believe, “Raden Saleh et les Hollandais : and such like.” Artiste protégé ou otage politique 23 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, ?” Archipel 69, no. 1 (2005): Goeboeg, 10 April 1927, AMS M 428, 151–258, https://doi.org/10.3406/ 73–74. arch.2005.3933. Unfortunately, 24 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Soetjipto is generally omitted in works Goeboeg, 12 August 1927, AMS M on Raden Saleh. 428, 66. 26 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Goeboeg, 12 August 1927, 67.
42 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k indigenous elites. As the family Sickinger wrote to his colleague presumably had ties to Europe, Dr. Samuel Müller in East Africa in e r
Soetjipto could have studied abroad 1927 to share his experience with | M i s o n , e d c in the Netherlands. Numerous Indo- missionary work, he advised him Dutch children did so, as Evert van to comply with local elites’ wishes. Imhoff and Gijs Beets have shown.27 When conceiving a new missionary It would be misleading, however, to hospital, Sickinger claimed, one portray Soetjipto’s family’s choice should include a separate ward as a way of coping with this colonial for the Priyayis. Otherwise, they , a n d A g e c y hierarchy. The reason for Soetjipto’s would avoid the hospital.29 That family to choose the missionary would render medical missionary school was not due to a power- work futile, as it “promotes our relation that had them positioned at relationship with the better-off of the bottom. The Bethel Mission–and the different races, which in turn missionary societies in general–had can serve our missionary task.”30 For a vivid interest in reaching local one, the missionaries knew about elites in their missionary work. The their dependence on the Priyayis as consideration was at all times the local intermediaries that could spur same: converting a people worked sympathy for their project among the most efficiently in a top-down indigenous population. Furthermore, manner, and local elites were well in many instances the Bethel Mission aware of this missionary approach.28 also relied economically on local The Bethel Mission’s interest goodwill. In 1933, Sickinger had to in families such as Soetjipto’s, persuade the local Regentschap however, exceeded the urge to (indigenous regents) to donate a Christianise them as a kick-off for new building to the hospital. At mass-conversions. The Bethel Mission was, rather, downright dependent on the local elites. 29 Otto Sickinger, Missionsärztlicher When missionary physician Dr. Otto Bericht an Samuel Müller, Blora, 1 February 1927, AMS M 318, 121. Sickinger and Müller upheld a lively conversation. They exchanged 27 Evert van Imhoff and Gijs Beets, medical knowledge from their “Education at home: The age- respective missionary locus. There is specific pattern of migration between a research gap on transnational and the Netherlands and the former transregional networks of missionary Dutch East Indies around 1930,” medical knowledge production. Demographic Research 11 (2004): 30 Otto Sickinger, Jahresbericht des 335–356, https://doi.org/10.4054/ Missionskrankenhauses in Blora über DemRes.2004.11.12. das Jahr 1924, s.l., s.d., AMS M 318, 28 Most famously, see Alan Strathern, 171. In the original: “[…] fördert unsere Unearthly Powers: Religious and Beziehung zu den besser Gestellten Political Change in World History der verschiedenen Rassen, was (Cambridge: Cambridge University wiederum unserer Missionsaufgabe Press, 2019). dienen kann.”
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 43 that point, “dangerous mentally Elfriede Krieg. Although Krieg– ill people” had to go to prison, as together with the Zendingsschool– the hospital was not equipped to had left Poerwodadi for Goeboeg , a n d A g e c y accommodate them.31 This treatment in November 1926, multiple former was an intolerable condition in the students would make trips from medical missionaries’ eyes. Another Poerwodadi and even Yogyakarta to example for financial dependence visit Krieg in her new environment. were the Christmas celebrations of Two of the former students, Kasiran M i s o n , e d c | 1927 that had to be funded jointly by and Soetjipto, stood out through
e r the Salatiga Mission and the local their particularly close continuing Regentschap.32 The Bethel Mission relationships with Krieg. Not only did was an unsustainable model without they uphold amicable ties with her, J a n B e c k local pecuniary sources. they also engaged with her work; in Aware of this missionary Goeboeg, they both aided Krieg with dependence, Soetjipto’s parents most her teaching and even taught new likely chose the Zendingsschool as students themselves.33 a space that was to a certain extent This direct engagement open to their creative participation. of indigenous intermediaries in Missionary education combined processes of knowledge production, European knowledge transmission knowledge transmission, and with a comparatively beneficial missionary work spurred ambiguous hierarchical position for local elites, reactions on the side of the Bethel demonstrating a reciprocal power mission. On the one hand, there dependence. As much as Soetjipto’s was a deep appreciation of local parents had a vivid interest in having knowledge, local culture, and their son educated at a Christian, intermediary work. Dr. Otto Sickinger European school, Elfriede Krieg repeatedly expressed his and her missionary peers were sympathy: just as dependent upon the local Regentschap’s good will, sympathy, We are grateful that we have and financial assistance. such people in whom Christ After having graduated has taken shape, so that they from the Zendingsschool, Soetjipto, can independently process the as well as numerous other former Christian truths as Javanese and students, kept in close touch with proclaim them to their people in Javanese–not European–form.34
31 Otto Sickinger, Letter to Walther Trittelvitz, Blora, 29 January 1933, 33 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, AMS M 318, 70r. In the original: Goeboeg, 10 April 1927, AMS M 428, “Gefährliche Geisteskranke”. 73–74. 32 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, 34 Otto Sickinger, Aus der Goeboeg, 24 December 1927, AMS M missionsärztlichen Arbeit der 428, 61. Neukirchner Mission auf Java, s.l.,
44 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k Sickinger did not consider no circumstances, however, were it sufficient to have the Bible they to become “Europeanised.”37 e r translated linguistically into Another example for missionary | M i s o n , e d c Javanese. Indigenous Christians, temporariness was Elfriede Krieg’s according to Sickinger, would have approach to reaching the indigenous to culturally translate it as well.35 This youth. In 1926, she initiated the is precisely what Soetjipto, Kasiran, journal Jeugdbeweging that and other locals did. The group she contrived as a tool for local of intermediaries was further not intermediaries. After an initiatory , a n d A g e c y confined to former students. Elfriede phase under Dr. Otto Sickinger’s Krieg, for instance, initiated a literary direction, the journal was to be circle with local women. One of handed over so that the Javanese them, whom Krieg considered highly youth could convert their peers.38 educated, would also eventually The Priyayis were aware of the long- teach at the Zendingsschool.36 term objective of missionary societies The appreciation of local and acted accordingly, for instance, intermediaries resulted from a in sending Soetjipto to a missionary concept of temporariness inherent school already in the anticipation of to the missionary project. In both the missionaries’ exodus. evangelical as well as medical terms, Whereas the Bethel the primary objective of missionaries missionaries did repeatedly express was, according to Sickinger, to make gratitude for the intermediaries’ work, oneself dispensable. Missionary they did not consider it a dependency sisters’ main task, for instance, was on their side, despite the fact that this not nursing, but instructing local dependency was mutual. In regard nurses. These local nurses were to to indigenous intermediaries, the be educated rather strictly, but under missionaries entered a contested field between appreciation, gratitude, and dependence. Soetjipto’s parents s.d., AMS M 318, 163. In the original: „Wir sind dankbar, dass wir solche Leute haben, in denen Christus 37 Otto Sickinger, Missionsärztlicher Gestalt gewonnen hat, so dass sie die Bericht an Samuel Müller, Blora, christlichen Wahrheiten selbstständig 1 February 1927, AMS M 318, 122; als Javanen verarbeiten, und ihren Racial considerations played a Volksgenossen in javanischer – decisive part in aversions against und nicht europäischer – Form alleged “Europeanisations”: see verkündigen können.“ Diana Miryong Natermann, Pursuing 35 Otto Sickinger, Letter to Walther Whiteness in the Colonies: Private Trittelvitz, Blora, 1 March 1925, AMS M Memories from the Congo Free State 318, 179. and German East Africa (1884–1914) 36 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, (Münster and New York: Waxmann, Goeboeg, 6 March 1927, AMS M 428, 2018). 77–78; Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, 38 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, s.l., 1 January 1927, AMS M 428, 80– Goeboeg, 4 November 1926, AMS M 81. 428, 88–89.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 45 were aware of that. They were also Apart from curing indigenous people, aware of the missionaries’ plan missionaries employed diagnoses, to stay only temporarily. With the the limits of medical knowledge, and , a n d A g e c y gradual emergence of nationalist drugs in their attempt to oppress thought in the Dutch East Indies, religious agency. considerations about the future in a In 1927, Soetjipto had decolonised Indonesian nation-state already been in contact with the were already virulent among the Bethel Mission, and Elfriede Krieg
M i s o n , e d c 39 | well-connected Priyayis. Sending in particular, for approximately
e r Soetjipto to the Zendingsschool was five years. The missionary efforts thus a gamble for a post-colonial and towards his conversion were post-missionary future. sustained and periodical. They J a n B e c k are tangible in Krieg’s letters back home, to very different degrees III. CURE, COERCION, AND throughout the years. In 1927, CONVERSION however, Krieg accelerated her conversion attempts. In July 1927, Apart from running Krieg confronted Soetjipto with the Zendingsschols, the Bethel Mission alleged omnipresence of tropical was primarily a medical mission. disease and the resulting ever- It sought to actively use ‘modern threatening possibility of a sudden Western’ medical knowledge to spur death.41 To be on the safe side, conversion. In his book Missionaries she urged Soetjipto to decide for and their Medicine, David Hardiman conversion in a timely manner.42 argues that missionaries benefitted Her advances constitute a profound from scientific advances that gave conceptional intersection of disease, them an aura of superiority.40 death, and conversion. Contrasting Hardiman thus creates an epistemic to Hardiman’s analysis that focuses hierarchy in favour of the ‘modern on cures of tropical diseases, Krieg Western’ medical episteme. omitted the potentialities of Western Hardiman’s case study on North- medicine. Her focus, by contrast, lay East India is in parts applicable to in the dangers of disease. the Javanese case. However, a cure was no prerequisite for conversion. Medical knowledge was applied in 41 For the long tradition of European multiple ways by the missionaries. perceptions of tropical disease and of the Orient as a disease-ridden locus, see Hugh Cagle, Assembling the Tropics. Science and Medicine 39 Michael Laffan, Islamic Nationhood in Portugal’s Empire, 1450–1700 and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Below the Winds (London and New Press, 2018). York: Routledge, 2003). 42 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, 40 Hardiman, Missionaries and their Goeboeg, 12 August 1927, AMS M Medicine. 428, 66.
46 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k Indeed, Soetjipto soon a means of further pushing Soetjipto experienced illness and death towards baptism. e r directly. At the young age of Admittedly, the Bethel Mission | M i s o n , e d c approximately twenty years, his best also spurred conversions that had friend Kasiran died from typhus on clearer ties to traditional power- 29 October 1927.43 Soetjipto had a relations. Elfriede Krieg’s personal strong personal relation to Kasiran. assistant, for instance, worked for her Kasiran was considered the school’s due to severe pecuniary problems. best student and was funded in his Krieg was aware of this, yet she , a n d A g e c y studies by missionary sister Agnes expected her assistant to convert to Püschel.44 He was the first person out Christianity if she wanted to continue of Soetjipto’s immediate entourage to working for her.47 Another example of convert to Christianity.45 Most likely, subtle power-relations in conversion he was something of a role model to is the case of seven-year-old Chinese Soetjipto. Apart from the indigenous- girl Lien, whose parents sent her missionary relationship Soetjipto had to live with Elfriede Krieg and get with Elfriede Krieg, Agnes Püschel, a European education. To facilitate and other members of the Bethel Lien’s acclimatisation and to keep Mission, the strong personal tie her from crying for her family, Krieg between Soetjipto and his best friend employed “strong medicine”.48 This Kasiran had profound implications technique of coerced conversion for his stance towards Christianity. constitutes another challenge to According to Elfriede Krieg, Kasiran Hardiman’s argument. Missionaries professed to God on his death bed.46 used ‘Western’ medicine in True or not, Kasiran’s conversion other ways than allopathically. and his early death had twofold Pharmaceuticals occasionally also consequences. On the one hand, served to oppress indigenous people they arguably made Soetjipto more mentally in a far more simplistic way. receptive to the religious aspect of In December 1927, Soetjipto the missionary project. On the other endured a fortnight of severe illness. hand, they served the missionaries as Strikingly, the preliminary missionary diagnosis was identical with Kasiran’s cause of death: typhus.49 For the
43 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Bethel Mission’s missionaries, death Goeboeg, 30 October 1927, AMS M 428, 63–64. 44 Agnes Püschel, Circular letter, 47 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Koppeng [sic!], 4 July 1925, AMS M Goeboeg, 24 December 1927, AMS M 429, 47. 428, 62. 45 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, 48 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Goeboeg, 27 June 1927, AMS M 428, Goeboeg, 29 March 1929, AMS M 70. 428, 38–38r. 46 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, 49 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Goeboeg, 30 October 1927, AMS M Goeboeg, 24 December 1927, AMS M 428, 63–64. 428, 60.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 47 played a pivotal role in conversion. had implications that exceeded the After all, the missionaries claimed medical sphere. Does Soejtipto’s that eternal life in heaven was survival, then, prove that these , a n d A g e c y unattainable without earthly devotion diagnoses were missionary rather to God. When Raden Yuwono, a than medical diagnoses? Not friend of Kasiran’s, was diagnosed necessarily; what was missionary with pulmonary tuberculosis, Krieg rather than medical were the continuously urged him to convert: implications that followed once a M i s o n , e d c | diagnosis had been made.
e r I told him seriously that, Medicine, then, served as according to the doctor, he a means of conversion in multiple did not have a long life ahead ways. On the one hand, Lien’s J a n B e c k of him. He was suffering from case reflects its use as a maker of pulmonary tuberculosis. Oh, compliance. On the other hand, David he was doing quite well, he Hardiman’s notion of medicine as a said. I stood by my statement creator of a superior aura shows in and urged him, driven by inner the Javanese case as well. According determination, to devote the to Dr. Sickinger, Salvarsan, a drug perhaps short time on earth to that proved efficient against the God, to consecrate his life to widespread skin disease Framboesia, God [...].50 was the primary enticement that drew locals to the missionary hospitals.51 Missionaries not only used the More striking, however, is the fact potentiality of successful allopathic that ‘modern Western’ medicine did treatment for their purpose. They also not necessarily have to work in order used diagnoses in an expedient way. to have its desired effect, at least Conveying the certainty of imminent from the missionaries’ perspective. death was, at least in the eyes of Soetjipto witnessed Kasiran’s death, the missionaries, a reasonable way which was a clear demonstration of of spurring conversion, entailing a the limits of the missionaries’ medical profound urgency. Diagnoses thus knowledge. Typhus, after all, was not Framboesia. Yet, he turned to the missionary hospital when he
50 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, experienced sickness himself. Goeboeg, 25 February 1929, AMS M Soetjipto was finally baptised 428, 49. In the original: “Daß er nach on Christmas Eve 1927, while still ärztlichem Ausspruch kein langes convalescent.52 Whereas some Leben vor sich habe, sagte ich ihm ernst. Er litt an Lungentuberkulose. O, es ginge ihm ganz gut, gab er zurück. Ich blieb bei meiner Behauptung und 51 Otto Sickinger, Jahresbericht des forderte ihn auf, innerlich getrieben, Missionskrankenhauses in Blora über die vielleicht noch so kurze Erdenzeit das Jahr 1924, s.l., s.d., AMS M 318, Got [sic!] ganz hinzugeben, sein 174. Leben Gott zu weihen […].” 52 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter,
48 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k personal ties discouraged Soetjipto medicine is not expedient, however, from this form of religious dedication for the study of indigenous agency. e r towards Christianity–namely Local actors perceived missionary | M i s o n , e d c his family–Kasiran’s death and medicine as profoundly religious. Soetjipto’s amicable ties to Elfriede Consequentially, they generally had Krieg encouraged him. In regard to strong reluctances to use missionary personal power-relations, Soetjipto medicine. According to Otto was torn between two parties, but Sickinger, locals would try all other eventually he gradually shifted forms of medical treatment available , a n d A g e c y away from his family. Analysing before consulting the missionary indigenous actors’ manoeuvring of hospital:54 missionary and local behavioural demands in regard to medical In general, we see that most epistemes can thus illuminate the people come to the doctor late, process that led towards Soetjipto’s often only when his help can conversion. Indigenous actors no longer be used effectively. employed behavioural approaches First, all sorts of different, mostly of reconciliation to cope with useless remedies, often based contradictory power-relations. Only on superstition, are always rarely did they decide for one party, used.55 for the consequences were severe. Adhering to a middle ground avoided As much as locals tried to social exclusion from either side. avoid missionary medicine, medical missionaries tried to hinder locals from consulting indigenous practices IV. MEDICAL EPISTEMOLOGICAL of treatment and healing. HIERARCHIES In the summer of 1927, a most obvious clash of medical In their classic works, epistemes took place in Poerwodadi, David Arnold and Wolfgang Eckart grouped medical missions as a subsection of colonial medicine. 54 Elfriede Krieg, Letter to Pastor Gleiß, Medical missionaries were a means Poerwodadi, 4 April 1923, AMS M 428, 53 366r. of advancing the colonial project. 55 Otto Sickinger, Aus der This conceptualisation of missionary missionsärztlichen Arbeit der Neukirchner Mission auf Java, s.l., s.d., AMS M 318, 149. In the original: „Im Allgemeinen sehen wir, dass die Goeboeg, 24 December 1927, AMS M meisten erst spät zum Arzt kommen, 428, 60. oft erst dann, wenn seine Hilfe 53 Arnold, Colonizing the Body; nicht mehr wirkungsvoll einsetzen Wolfgang Eckart, Medizin und kann. Erst werden immer alle Kolonialimperialismus. Deutschland möglichen, meist nutzlosen, oft nur 1884–1945 (Paderborn: Ferdinand auf Aberglauben beruhenden Mittel Schöningh, 1997). benutzt.“
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 49 as missionary sister Agnes Püschel Dr. Sickinger and his medical reported: missionary colleagues, similarly to indigenous people, conceptualised , a n d A g e c y The other day there was a medicine and healing practices in Javanese miracle doctor, who a religious way. For the indigenous is said to have healed some actors, missionary medicine stood people; all of Poerwodadi and synecdochically for Christianity. the surrounding area was on For the missionaries, traditional M i s o n , e d c | its feet. Old people, who one local practices were born out of
e r does not see otherwise, were superstition and impiousness. The brought to him. Even Chinese intersections of medical and religious people, who normally do not epistemes resulted in a contested J a n B e c k want to know anything about field of indigenous agency. Javanese, called him! Satan’s Restrictions to medical care power is great! I have never were issued by both missionary and seen our streets as busy as indigenous actors. Whereas medical they were then. Even more missionaries tried to hinder locals developed Javanese, such as from consulting ‘miracle doctors’, the Regent, support such a thing. locals willing to use missionary These were difficult days also medicine faced opposition from for our doctors. It was simply family members. In his report Aus said: ‘Whoever goes to the der missionsärztlichen Arbeit der miracle doctor and comes back Neukirchner Mission auf Java, Dr. afterwards will not be admitted’. Sickinger provides an example. That helped with some.56 When a Chinese patient wanted to have his kidney stones removed, he considered it most purposeful to 56 Agnes Püschel, Circular letter, consult Dr. Sickinger. However, his Poerwodadi, 12 June 1927, AMS M 429, 15. In the original: „Neulich mother, whom he was living with, war hier ein jav. Wunderdoktor, der was strongly opposed to missionary angeblich manche gesund gemacht medicine. The man thus had to wait hat; ganz Poerwodadi und Umgegend for his mother to leave town to visit war auf den Beinen. Alte, die man his brother before he could have sonst nicht sieht, wurden zu ihm gebracht. Sogar Chinesen, die sonst the surgery. His cousin, in turn, had von Javanen nichts wissen wollen, the same condition, but did not want riefen ihn! Satans Macht ist gross! Ich to have surgery before awaiting his habe noch niemals unsre Strassen so cousin’s surgery’s outcome.57 Apart belebt gesehen, wie damals. Selbst mehr entwickelte Javanen, z.B. der Regent, unterstützen so etwas. Es waren schwere Tage auch für unsere manchen.“ Aerzte. Da wurde einfach gesagt: 57 Otto Sickinger, Aus der ‚Wer zu dem Wunderdoktor geht missionsärztlichen Arbeit der und nachher zurückkommt, wird Neukirchner Mission auf Java, s.l., s.d., nicht aufgenommen.‘ Das half bei AMS M 318, 147.
50 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k from indicating locals’ ways of non- to become an evangelist.59 In the compliance with their community, this meantime, Soetjipto had become fully e r example shows that the reluctance immersed in the missionary project. | M i s o n , e d c of locals to consult one of the Instead of playing the continuous missionary physicians derived from game of reconciliation, Soetjipto their respective social communities. had chosen one edge of the net On the other hand, local of power-relations. Consequently, actors’ reluctance to consult local Soetjipto’s family broke off contact medical knowledge stemmed from with him.60 The gamble for Soetjipto’s , a n d A g e c y the hegemony of missionary and status in between these spheres colonial medicine as well as direct ultimately came at a risk and having missionary attempts to discourage sent Soetjipto to the missionary locals to use local medical structures. school backfired. Thus, indigenous actors found Soetjipto’s choice to engage themselves torn by a complex ever more closely with the mission network of power-relations. Whom through time might well be due to was one supposed to give priority? his conviction of their missionary Most indigenous actors sought project. Conceding agency to a way in between. They tried to indigenous actors should not be reconcile both medical and religious misconstrued as imposing the epistemes. This argument of idea of resistance on their every epistemic reconciliation illuminates action. After all, the concept of the local actors’ accumulative indigenous agency also includes medical approaches. Only after the self-determined cooperation all local treatments failed would with colonial and missionary many indigenous actors afflicted by powers that were traditionally diseases turn to Western forms of seen as hierarchically superior. medicine.58 Raymond Corbey recently argued This concept of reconciliation that conversion served indigenous is also applicable to Soetjipto and people as a self-determined way of transcends the medical sphere. After coping with inescapable intrusions of his conversion, Soetjipto moved to modernity.61 What he omits, however, Salatiga, where he received training is the religious aspect of conversion. Soetjipto most likely developed not only practical but also spiritual-
58 On the indigenous perception of colonial medicine and the perceived sameness of medicine 59 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Kopeng, and colonialism see Frantz Fanon, 27 June 1928, AMS M 428, 57–58. “Medicine and Colonialism,” in 60 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, A Dying Colonialism (New York: Goeboeg, 8 October 1928, AMS M Grove Press, 1994 [1959]), 121–45. 428, 55. Fanon’s argument also holds true for 61 Corbey, “F.C. Kamma. A Missionary’s missionary medicine. Efforts (1930s).”
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 51 religious interests in the missionary The perspective of a project. After completing his training missionary success, however, implies as an evangelist in Salatiga, he took a general indigenous aversion , a n d A g e c y up work at the missionary hospital against the mission. Traditional in Poerwodadi. The final notion on scholarship has argued that power- Soetjipto traceable in the Bethel structures were favourable for Mission’s archive is that he had missionary societies in missionary- already conducted several baptisms indigenous encounters. Indigenous
M i s o n , e d c 62 | in his new role. agency was understood as a
e r manoeuvring of locals through inimical, superior power-structures. CONCLUSION This paper, contrarily, has shown J a n B e c k that power-relations in indigenous- Agency is a twofold missionary encounters were not concept. It is conceded by the one-sided, and neither was there historian’s narrative, but it also a missionary hegemony. Rather, depends on local power-relations. indigenous actors as well as medical In conducting a global microhistory, missionaries found themselves in the historian concedes as much a net of overlapping and reciprocal agency as narratively possible. power-relations. Oftentimes, What emerges is an account torn indigenous actors were situated between possibilities–the inclusion above missionary personnel. of traditionally underrepresented To analyse indigenous agency actors–and restrictions–the silence in medical missionary encounters, of colonial archives–as much as its this paper proposes an analytical protagonist. Soetjipto attended the trichotomy of power-relations: Bethel Mission’s Zendingsschool personal, religious, and medical in Poerwodadi. After graduating, hierarchies. These power-relations he remained in close ties with his often stood in contrast to each other, former missionary teacher Elfriede resulting in two extreme positions of Krieg. On Christmas Eve 1927, finally, behavioural demands. Indigenous he was baptised. His family broke actors coped with the resulting net off contact with him and he went of power-relations in two ways: they on to become an evangelist. At first either chose a reconciliatory path glance, Soetjipto’s engagement with in between or they decided for one the Bethel Mission appears like a edge of the net. missionary victory all along the line. In regard to treatment and medicine, most indigenous actors
62 Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Goeboeg, 1 May 1933, AMS M 428, 16; Elfriede Krieg, Circular letter, Goeboeg, 28 August 1932, AMS M 428, 20.
52 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 FIGURE 1: Photography of Women’s Ward, taken by Dr. Otto Sickinger, 1933. Otto Sickinger, AMS M 318, sought to reconcile local and Western 69. The backside reads: “Blick in neuen Krankensaal. epistemes and behavioural demands. Frauensaal, Aerztin mit europ[äischen] u[nd] eingeb[o- renen] Schwestern”. English: “View into the new hospi- They would first consult local medical tal ward. Women’s hall, doctor with European and local actors before eventually turning nurses”. Courtesy of the Archiv- und Museumsstiftung to Western medical actors such der Vereinten Evangelischen Mission, Wuppertal. as the Bethel Mission’s hospitals. In personal and religious terms, reconciliation proves to have been less feasible. When Soetjipto found himself torn between his family’s expectations and the missionary project’s perceived spiritual attractivity, he chose the latter. His family ties disintegrated over his decision. The irony lies in the fact that it was his parents who sent him to
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 53 the Zendingsschool in the first place. Mission’s hospital in Blora comprised As Alicia Turner put it, in regard to three European physicians, two religious projects, “some actors may European nurses, and 42 indigenous , a n d A g e c y have participated with very different, nurses.64 In Blora, the indigenous and perhaps contradictory, goals in preponderance was even stronger: mind.”63 These contradictions showed two European physicians, three even in close personal circles such as European nurses, and 51 indigenous Soetjipto’s family. nurses.65 M i s o n , e d c | The primary reason for The above picture, taken
e r Soetjipto to convert to Christianity by Dr. Otto Sickinger, shows that was a veritable religious conviction. five out of six of the present nurses Over time, he most likely developed were indigenous. What implications J a n B e c k a faith in Christianity that outweighed for the concept of intermediaries his family ties. In arguing for does this entail? If indigenous spiritual-religious factors in cases actors like Soetjipto were an of indigenous conversion, this integral and essential part of the paper thus challenges predominant missionary project, is the concept notions of secular-modern historical of an intermediary then pejorative? scholarship. One ought to seriously Future scholarship on knowledge consider and reappreciate the most production, knowledge transmission, obvious aspect of missionary history: and religion-making will have to faith. reconsider the role of indigenous Soetjipto’s family background actors in medical missions. and his commitment to the Current research pushes the missionary project makes him the boundaries of Orientalist tradition. archetype of a local intermediary. Foci have shifted from the nation- Apart from participating in knowledge state, colonial institutions, and transmission and knowledge colonial scholars towards local production at the intersection of individual agency. Conceding too Europeans and locals, Soetjipto much agency, however, runs the also served as an indigenous actor risk of neglecting power-relations. in religion-making. He taught at Whereas indigenous actors had the Zendingsschool in Goeboeg, profound potentialities of self- worked as an evangelist at the determined action, they nevertheless missionary hospital in Poerwodadi, acted within power regimes and and conducted baptisms. For future research, however, the implied strict distinction between indigenous and 64 Otto Sickinger, Aus der missionsärztlichen Arbeit der missionary actors is misleading. Neukirchner Mission auf Java, s.l., s.d., The personnel of the Bethel AMS M 318, 141–142. 65 Otto Sickinger, Aus der missionsärztlichen Arbeit der 63 Turner, “Pali Scholarship ‘in Its Truest Neukirchner Mission auf Java, s.l., s.d., Sense’ in Burma,” 136. AMS M 318, 144.
54 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 J a n B e c k power hierarchies. Traditionally, Europeans were seen at the top e r of these hierarchies more often | M i s o n , e d c than not. However, Europeans and particularly missionaries depended on the aid of local intermediaries that were accustomed to local cultures and vernaculars. If one considers this dependence, a multiplicity of , a n d A g e c y hierarchies emerges. Power-relations do not solely rest on political, economic, or military factors. In medical missionary encounters, these power-relations were overlapping and reciprocal, working constantly in more than one direction.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 55 Factories Against the Clock: Time-discipline and Resistance in the Silk Reeling Factories of Bursa 1850–1915
by ZEYNEP ECEM PULAS
56 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s ABSTRACT
What can the study of different regimes of time discipline in factories and deviations in their measurement tell us about the
relationship between capital, labor and the state authority in | the Ottoman Empire? In this article, I will answer this question F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k by analysing the official letters and petitions of the Bursa Silk workers to explore how “watchless” people understand and negotiate new time patterns emerged from mechanized production. I argue that the mechanized factory production did not result in a clock-measured, regular working day up until the early twentieth century in silk factories of Bursa. These irregular labor patterns, however, cannot be explained by the immature scale of the industry or lack of labor rationalization. The answer lies at the heart of the working day: such irregularity enabled employers to increase, to say it in Marxist terms, the absolute surplus value. Furthermore, I will argue that the demand for regimented work hours came not from the capitalists, and it was not the Ottoman government`s top-down reforms. Rather, the demand to curb all-invading, irregular work hours came from the young female laborers who were deemed the least “time-conscious”. In this light, the story of Bursa decenters the male-dominated view in the global history of economy and labor and adds nuance to our understanding of the temporalities of capitalism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zeynep Ecem Pulas is an MA student in Global History from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Freie Universität Berlin. Her main research interests are the history of capitalism, the history of science, and temporal culture in the late Ottoman Empire.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 57 INTRODUCTION cotton industry was soon replaced by raw silk production—the process How was the Ottoman of unravelling the silk cocoon—since Empire’s incorporation into the profits in the silk sector were more Europe-dominated capitalist economy substantial.3 Following developments achieved during the first wave of in manufacturing technologies in globalization between 1850-1914? As Lyon, French reeling machinery was F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | it was the norm in other middle-sized adopted by the private enterprises
low-income states like India, some of in the Empire. Ultimately the small the small-scale domestic producers Western Anatolian city became a were wiped out as a result of the supplier of raw and semi-finished fall of economic barriers. Yet the silk for European factories, chiefly in Ottoman response to this ever more France. Hundreds of smaller-scale Z e y n p E c m P u l a s economically interconnected world filatures4 and a dozen factories was to transform its manufacturing mushroomed in the city as a result.5 industry from male-dominated, guild- In such a scenario, one may and urban-focused production to expect export-oriented large-scale female-dominated, unorganized, raw silk production to upend the spatially mixed production.1 Following old work rhythms marked by the the Anglo-Turkish Commercial sunrise and sunset and to cultivate Convention of Balta Limanı in 1838, new ones where the changing wage in return for European military labor patterns were integrated support to curb the Egyptian into rigid clock time. The clock governor Muhammad Ali`s march time also championed the new to the imperial capital, an influx of work ethic characterized by the cheap machine-made English cotton yarn into local markets transformed the main textile manufacturing Ottoman Empire’s Industrious Core: The Story Of Bursa,” in The City centre of the Empire, Bursa. While in the Islamic World (London: Brill, cotton manufacturing became less 2008), 381, https://doi.org/10.1163/ profitable, it did not mean a total ej.9789004162402.i-1500.87. collapse of the city’s industry.2 The 3 Donald Quataert, “Some Preliminary Observations on Silk and Carpet Workers in the Ottoman Empire, 1750- 1914,” Turkish Studies Association 1 Tarik Şengül, Atilla Aytekin. Bulletin 8, no. 1 (1984): 1-5, http://www. “Zonguldak Coalfield and the Past jstor.org/stable/43385132. and Future of Turkish Coal-mining 4 The word filature comes originally Communities,” in Changing Work and from French and is used to describe Community Identities in European both the act of silk spinning and silk Regions Perspectives on Past and factories in Bursa in the documents of Present (London: Palgrave Mcmillan, the era. 2011), 154, 10.1057/9780230353916_6. 5 Ayhan Aktar, “Bursa’da Devlet 2 Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Renata ve Ekonomi,” in Bir Masaldı Bursa Holod, Antillio Petruccioli, and (Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1996), André Raymond, eds. “At The 130.
58 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s close relationship between time and challenged. Some scholars and monetary value. As Karl Marx argued that this shift in time senses pointed out, there is a necessarily progressed neither linearly nor temporal dimension to how capitalist uniformly.8 They claimed that natural
production occurs—it requires times of the day and night and | workers and the material to be in seasons retained their importance F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k the right place at the right time, in people’s lives, and clock time “with military uniformity, regulated awareness in fact existed prior to by stroke of the clock times.”6 industrialization. These critiques This was elaborated further by E. are a good reminder of the relative P. Thompson in his classic essay, influence of culture in shaping and where he argued that in England, the promoting clock consciousness, as industrial revolution paved the way opposed to the solely economic and to a transition from task orientation industrial aspects of the capitalist to timed labor, from irregular work mode of production. However, to the regular, clock precise, and although adding nuance to the rationally organized factory work.7 histories of time consciousness, These external factors, coupled with the research of these scholars was the preachings of the moral value of more focused on the multiplicity of work and productivity, and the Puritan time senses and of time disciplines, work ethic, gradually altered the and less on the process whereby workers’ sense of time. This resulted clock time became hegemonic, in not only the internalization of clock which is what, in fact, Thompson was time discipline by the workers, but concerned with. also an apprehension of time as a commodity: time became an object of bargaining power between the worker and the employer. 8 Paul Glennie and Nigel Thrift, The debates that E. P. “Reworking E. P. Thompson’s “Time, Thompson opened about the Work Discipline, and Industrial historical fusion of industrial Capitalism,” Time and Society 5, no. capitalism, the spread of clocks, 3 (1996): 275– 299, https://doi.org/1 and internalization of time discipline 0.1177/0961463X96005003001; Paul Glennie and Nigel Thrift, Shaping in Britain were both extended the Day: A History of Timekeeping in England and Wales 1300– 1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 6 Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of 2009); Vanessa Ogle, “Whose Time Political Economy: Volume I, ed. Is It? The Pluralization of Time and Friedrich Engels, trans. Samuel Moore the Global Condition, 1870s–1940s,” and Edward B. Aveling (New York: American Historical Review, 118, no. International Publishers, 2003), 264. 5 (2013): 1376–1402, https://www.jstor. 7 E. P. Thompson, “Time, Work- org/stable/23784581; Vanessa Ogle, Discipline and Industrial Capitalism,” The Global Transformation of Time: Past and Present, no. 38 (Dec. 1967), 1870–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge https://www.jstor.org/stable/649749. University Press, 2015).
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 59 Some economic and social industrialization.10 In Tokugawa Japan, historians have also directed their peasants’ pre-industrial time keeping attention to other parts of the world, habits resulting from their agricultural such as the Middle East, Africa, and economy complied with the new time Asia, to test the extent of the new economy in factories. Smith argued capitalist time consciousness in that the Japanese peasant attached different sociocultural contexts.9 For a high moral value to time and its F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | example, Thomas C. Smith holds productive use, which was already
that Japanese workers had easily appropriate for an industrial mode of sensitized themselves to the new production.11 Analyzing the export- capitalist time economy in factories, oriented cotton mills of Colonial and time disciplining workers was not Bombay, Hatice Yıldız similarly an important component of Japanese claims that mechanized production Z e y n p E c m P u l a s did not result in a radical change to irregular, task-oriented working 9 Ogle, The Global Transformation of patterns.12 The capitalist employers Time; Ritika Prasad, “Time-Sense: in Bombay’s mills did not endorse Railways and Temporality in Colonial fixed hours of labor despite further India,” Modern Asian Studies 47, no. 4 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1017/ industrial development well into the S0026749X11000527; Avner twentieth century. She concludes Wishnitzer, Reading Clocks, Alla that in the Bombay “business model”, Turca: Time and Society in the Late the terms of working life were Ottoman Empire (Chicago: University shaped by fluctuations in demand, of Chicago Press, 2015); On Barak, On Time: Technology and Temporality which gave mill owners the upper in Modern Egypt (Berkeley, CA: hand in adapting themselves to the University of California Press, 2016); volatile markets while contributing Thomas C. Smith, “Peasant Time to precarity and instability for the and Factory Time in Japan,” Past workers.13 Yıldız contends that & Present 11 (May 1986): 165–97, https://www.jstor.org/stable/650505; workers demanded more structured Frederick Cooper, “Colonizing Time: working hours to resist the working Work Rhythms and Labor Conflict in conditions in the mills and thus Colonial Mombasa,” in Colonialism “asserted the importance of clocks and Culture, ed. Nicholas B. Dirks and calendars against the oppressive (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1992); Hatice Yıldız, “The Politics of Time in Colonial Bombay: Labor Patterns and Protest in Cotton Mills”, Journal of Social History 54, 10 Smith, “Peasant Time and Factory no. 1 (Fall 2020): 206-285, https://doi. Time in Japan”. org/10.1093/jsh/shz016.; Hatice Yıldız, 11 Ibid, 170-71. “Parallels and Contrasts in Gendered 12 Yıldız, “The Politics of Time in Colonial Histories of Industrial Labour in Bombay: Labor Patterns and Protest Bursa and Bombay 1850–1910,” The in Cotton Mills”. Historical Journal 60, no. 2 (June 13 Yıldız, “The Politics of Time in Colonial 2017): 443–70, https://doi.org/10.1017/ Bombay: Labor Patterns and Protest S0018246X16000340. in Cotton Mills,” 240.
60 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s ambiguity of factory time.”14 regular working day in the Ottoman I argue that Thompson silk reeling factories of Bursa until the described the shift from one time early twentieth century. Employers system to the other as by no means relied on new disciplinary practices
easy or one directional, and as such, to control the female workers via | his different conceptualizations bells, spatial reorganizations, and F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k of time should be thought of as male overseers, all of which differed overlapping, rather than one from small scale ateliers. Meanwhile, subsuming the other. Thompson the actual hours of employment in describes in detail how English these filatures themselves were workers’ time was expropriated unregulated: the workdays in the by factory owners, showing that factories continued to fluctuate rules regarding time-discipline between 8 and 16 hours, and varied were continuously refashioned and from summer to winter. These negotiated. He quotes a Dundee irregular labor patterns, however, factory worker: “ …in reality, there cannot be explained solely by the were no regular hours: masters and immature scale of the industry. A managers did with us as they liked. clock-measured, rationally organized The clocks at the factories were work model did not take place in the often put forward in the morning and silk factories because factory owners back at night, and instead of being wanted to respond to the changing instruments for the measurement market demand more alertly. of time, they were used as cloaks Moreover, this irregularity enabled for cheatery and oppression”.15 In employers to increase, in Marxist the Ottoman context as well, labor terms, the absolute surplus value. By patterns were elastic because extending the workday as much as owners kept them as such to have they could, the hyper-exploitation of the capacity to maneuver better in the cheap female labor subsidized an unpredictable market. Given that profits even further. As I will show, the cost of labor power was low, and however, these workers soon learned unionization was almost non-existent, the value of time, and started to fight owners could gain more from a lack for their working day. They were of “time discipline” than from it. conscious of themselves as people In this paper, I demonstrate who were being exploited and whose that the case of Bombay shows interests were different from those of strong parallels with the Ottoman their employers. silk industry of Bursa. I argue that In July 1908, the thirty-year the mechanized factory production autocratic rule of Abdülhamid II did not result in a clock-measured, ended with the restoration of the constitution and the establishment of the Young Turk regime. What 14 Ibid, 285. followed was sweeping labor strikes 15 Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline across the empire that shocked both and Industrial Capitalism,” 68.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 61 capitalists and the Ottoman state. Middle East have drawn similarities The euphoric aftermath of the so between government offices, military called “Young Turk Revolution” and compounds, and schools, as well “Declaration of Freedom” provided as what Foucault called the “docility a liberal political climate for workers projects” of the eighteenth-century, from all sectors to demand their yet a separate study on time discipline rights and higher wages. Bursa in the Ottoman factory has not been
F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k 18 | silk workers soon joined the strike carried out. By focusing on Bursa’s
wave. After a series of petitions and silk industry, this paper aims to fill letters sent to officials that did not this gap. Since the Ottoman state prompt change, 6000 silk workers, showed little interest in documenting mainly women, took to the streets the labor conditions in the empire, of Bursa to demand more clearly I will be drawing on a mixture of Z e y n p E c m P u l a s defined work hours and higher unofficial sources, namely foreign wages in 1910.16 These workers not and local newspaper articles, foreign only became aware of the levels travelers’ accounts, and secondary of exploitation they endured, but sources. Of this evidence base, the they also resisted these ambiguous only piece produced by the workers hours of labor. They emphasized themselves is a single letter that was clearly defined work schedules, thus sent to the newspaper İştirak. The rest weaponizing the hours of the clock in is produced by a class different from their struggle against the ambiguous the workers. This is a shared concern employers’ time. In other words, by many historians globally who are time-discipline became their very dealing with subaltern groups, since symbol of oppression and resistance archives are by and large silent to simultaneously. their experiences. This paper will Research on the Ottoman nevertheless attempt to recover and temporal regime is still limited and favor workers’ experiences in the has fallen heavily on the “watch factory in discussion of capitalist time owning” middle class and Ottoman regime. bureaucratic elite.17 Scholars of the
18 In the eighteenth century, European armies employed a combination of 16 Nicole van Os, “Bursa’da Kadin control and surveillance techniques to Isçilerin 1910 Grevi”, Toplumsal Tarih impose docility on their soldiers both 39, no.7 (1997): 7-10. “in economic terms of utility” and “in 17 See: Avner Wishnitzer, Reading political terms of obedience”. Through Clocks, Alla Turca: Time and Society repetitions of practice and continuous in the Late Ottoman Empire; Vanessa impositions of strict time schedules Ogle, The Global Transformation of on the body, soldiers adapted to Time: 1870-1950; François Georgeon these disciplinary techniques and and Frédéric Hitzel, eds., Les became capable of acting without Ottomans et le temps (Leiden, The them. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Netherlands: Brill, 2011), https://doi. Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New org/10.1163/9789004217799. York: Vintage Books, 1995), 135-156.
62 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s This paper has three main by increasing the amount of time objectives. First, I will argue that the worked per worker in an accounting mechanization of the silk reeling period.20 Thompson too, coming industry in Bursa did not result in from the Marxist school, described
clock-measured work patterns. time-management in the factory | Although the use of machinery is “a as a means of exploitation. The F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k powerful supplement to regulating exploitation consists of the employer pace of work”19 that creates habits paying the worker for only a certain and customs, in this case social part of their working time, keeping relations molded the technology the rest without compensation. The rather than vice versa. A flexible length of the working day, therefore, approach to measuring working time is an ever-contested issue between enabled employers to keep wages the worker and the employer—the down and adapt to a highly unstable proletariat and the capitalist, in silk market. Therefore, employers Marx’s terms—and, thus, it sufficiently prioritized flexibility over discipline. explains workers’ resistance. In what Secondly, I will show that both follows, I will demonstrate that the Abdülhamid II and the Young Turk time management in the silk reeling opposition were mutually reluctant factories was shaped by the strategic to interfere in time regulations in decisions of the employers. the factory despite, paradoxically, preaching punctuality and crafting the image of the hard-working 1. SILK REELING IN BURSA Ottoman worker in public discourse. Lastly, I will show that the demand “Moments are the elements of for regimented work hours came not profit” — Marx quoting from an from the capitalists, and neither from 1860 report by one of the British the Ottoman government`s top-down government’s factory inspector21 reforms. Rather, the demand to curb all-invading, irregular work hours Sixty years before E. P. came from the young female laborers Thompson’s seminal work “Time, who were deemed the least “time- Work-discipline conscious”. and Industrial Capitalism” was With or without mechanical published, a letter was sent to İştirak, time pieces and observance of a socialist newspaper published in clock-time, capitalists were always the Ottoman Empire. In the letter on the hunt for reasons to extend dated 1909, the workers describe the the boundaries of the working rigorous working conditions in the day. To cite Marx, that is how factory: “The working day starting absolute surplus value is obtained: at night and finishing at one o’clock
19 Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline 20 Marx, Capital, 445. and Industrial Capitalism,” 82. 21 Ibid, 226.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 63 the next day is only interrupted of clear demarcation between by a 20-minute meal break,” they work and leisure was, however, not convene.22 Their meal break passes suitable for the mechanized working so quickly that they “cannot even rhythm of the factory. In fact, it was swallow their first bite of bread.”23 seen as wasteful. The necessity of They demanded a reduction in the straightforward time-measurement 16-hour working day and explained with mechanical clocks was more F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | the hardships of working the night convenient for the mechanized
shift as women. They further describe factory where “the time meant the verbal and physical abuse the employer’s money.”27 female workers receive from their The early proliferation of male overseers. As soon as the public clocks and general diffusion factory bell commences ringing, of timepieces started prior to Z e y n p E c m P u l a s calling them back to work, the bell the appearance of the factory. sound “makes their heart somber and Nevertheless, factories, especially shreds their dignity into pieces.”24 mills, became the sites where this The letter concludes with signatures time discipline was first scrupulously of ‘five thousand young women put into force. Thompson adds working in Bursa’s silk mills’.25 that the Protestant work ethic also Thompson argued that overlapped with industrial capitalism’s large-scale factory production, demand for the synchronization of which was facilitated by the labor. Therefore, mechanical clocks Industrial Revolution, altered the not only became the harbinger of organization and value of time in the industrial capitalism, but also, with first generation of English workers the help of Protestant ethics, clocks around the end of the eighteenth became the very tools for disciplining century. These workers from farming the self. A greater sense of time-thrift backgrounds were “task-oriented”, and a more exacting time discipline meaning that their work rhythm was thus spread by word of mouth from in harmony with that of nature’s. In the capitalist employers to the other words, it lacked urgency and workers: in Thompson’s words, “by allowed for interruption. Like “milking the division of labor; the supervision the cows’’ or “harvesting before thunderstorms set in,” this work was marked by a sense of necessity for and Industrial Capitalism,” 60. David executing that task.26 The absence Landes asserts that prior to the advent of the railway, task-orientation was a universal characteristic of rural societies. David Landes, Revolution 22 ‘Hayat ve hakikat,’ İştirak, 2 Apr. 1909 in Tone: Clocks and the Making of (20 Mart 1325), 25. the Modern World (Cambridge, MA: 23 Ibid, 26. Harvard University Press, 1983) 25, 24 Ibid, 25. 72. 25 Ibid, 25. 27 Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline 26 Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism,” 61.
64 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s of labor; fines; bells and clocks; legislation to set work days.30 money incentives; preachings and The silk reeling industry schoolings; the suppression of fairs experienced a roller-coaster pattern and sports—new labor habits were for most of the late nineteenth
formed, and a new time-discipline and twentieth centuries. When the | was imposed.”28 silkworm epidemics devastated F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k In order to understand European raw silk production in the alternative path of capitalist the first half of the nineteenth development in the Ottoman century, the industry turned to Empire, we need to extend and Ottoman markets. Sustained by enrich Thompson’s theoretical rising Western demand, the industry framework. The Ottoman female continued to expand, and by 1855 workers were abhorred by the nerve- the Bursa region contained some wrecking sound of the factory bell 2000 factory-based reels.31 This and the inhumane precision of a early boom lasted until the 1850s twenty-minute lunch break, yet the and was followed by a sharp burst seemingly clock-precise mealtimes in the global silk market. However, did not follow the same kind of as soon as the silkworm diseases time-regimented workdays in their came to plague the Ottoman silk factory. Since the industry was very industry, many mill operators went precarious and heavily dependent on bankrupt. In 1869, the newly opened the European market demand, work Suez Canal and the subsequent was organized on the principle of entry of East Asian silk into the flexibility, meaning whenever there market caused a further fall in silk was demand, the workers were put prices.32 Nevertheless, Bursa’s silk to work for long uninterrupted hours. reeling industry recorded a significant Factory operators, while adopting growth in the late nineteenth century. new disciplinary techniques, did not According to the British Console want to formalize the length of the Mailing’s report on Bursa, 9000 workday. Factories in Bursa worked workers were employed at that longer hours in summer, between time, making up twelve percent of fourteen and sixteen hours, and the local population.33 Marked by shorter hours in winter, with no overtime payments.29 The Ottoman government neither cooperated 30 B.O.A, DH.İD.107/17. Lef:3. 5 Ağustos with workers nor with the local 1326 (18 Ağustos 1910). government of Bursa to pass any 31 Donald Quataert, ed., Manufacturing in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, 1500-1950 (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994), 28 Ibid, 90. 150. 29 Ergun Türkcan, “İngiliz. Konsolosluk 32 Quataert, Manufacturing in the Raporlarına Göre Ondokuzuncu Ottoman Empire and Turkey, 1500- Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısında Bursa,” Tarih 1950, 105-7. ve Toplum, C.4, Sayı 34, (1985): 391. 33 Türkcan, “İngiliz. Konsolosluk
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 65 booms and bursts, the industry was natives are “busy for one day and overcome by uncertainty even when idle for three or four, or [they] work the market was stable. It remained very hard for one hour and loiter and an exceptionally volatile industry, a saunter for three.”37 This regularity risky investment for the capitalist, and Macfarlane espoused for was in line provided low paying, irregular, and with what Thompson described as undependable jobs for workers.34 the transition from task work to timed F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | Exploitation of female labor, labor.
availability of home-produced To keep the expenditure per raw material (cocoons), and vast worker as low as possible, factory European demand all aided the owners increasingly relied on the establishment of mechanized women-only cheap labor force.38 With production in Bursa. By 1913 there such risky market prospects at hand, Z e y n p E c m P u l a s were 41 reeling factories using steam mill owners preferred young girls power.35 Mechanization of the reeling from the lower strata of the Ottoman process was pioneered by Swiss and society who were willing to work French entrepreneurs, who were for extremely low wages.39 These soon joined by Ottoman subjects.36 young girls lived in dormitory-like Mechanized silk production, due quarters and were subject to harsh to its spatial characteristics such as disciplinary conditions reminiscent of gathering a high number of workers nineteenth-century Japan or Victorian under one roof and demanding a England.40 After the rapid growth regularity of work and repetition, of factory-building in the first half of required a unique type of time discipline. Scottish traveler and writer Charles Macfarlane described this 37 Charles MacFarlane, Turkey and Its new industrial time discipline in Bursa Destiny: The Result of Journeys Made factories as significant for natives in 1847 and 1848 to Examine into the State of That Country, Vol. I (London: to learn some degree of regularity John Murray, 1850), 145. and orderliness. “Usually,” he writes, 38 Quataert, Manufacturing in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, 1500- 1950, 93. Raporlarına Göre Ondokuzuncu Yüzyılın 39 In 1913, a worker employed by the İkinci Yarısında Bursa,” 388-89. Ottoman industry earned an average 34 Quataert, Manufacturing in the daily wage of 12.5 kurus. In Bursa, Ottoman Empire and Turkey, 1500- however, a worker employed by a 1950, 106. reeling factory earned only 5 kurus 35 Murat Cizakca, “A Short History of per day, which was the lowest daily the Bursa Silk Industry (1500-1900),” wage (yevmiye) in the Ottoman Journal of the Economic and Social Empire. See Çizakça, “A Short History History of the Orient, 23, no. 1/2 (April of the Bursa Silk Industry,” 154; 1980): 142, https://www.jstor.org/ Quataert, Ottoman Manufacturing in stable/3632237. the Age of the Industrial Revolution, 36 Leyla Erder, “The Making of Industrial 104. Bursa” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton 40 Cizakca, “A Short History of the Bursa University, 1976), 151. Silk Industry (1500-1900),” 150.
66 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s the nineteenth century, the industry factory of the young Turkish Republic suffered from overcapacity in the complained about the absence of second half. Mills typically operated “a factory clock that is similar to for fewer than 200 days a year. the ones in European factories”, or,
Ottoman silk reeling factories in fact, “any time piece that shows | were distinct from small scale or the time accurately in the factory.”43 F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k home-produced silk in terms of their Workers demanded a whistle to blow physical separation of the workplace to mark the end of the workday since from living areas, the mechanical they had no option but to rely on the pace, and stricter discipline of factory owners’ “broken clock”.44 In work they imposed on workers. Yet the light of this example, it is fair to mechanization did not play a key role say the actual working conditions in creating temporal experiences of the workers and the ambiguity of in the factory. It was the employers’ the workday remained little changed choices when to put workers to work, from the Young Turk era to the and when to turn the machines on Turkish Republic. Once again, the and off. The Ottoman example shows question persisted: how were the that industrial capitalism became workers supposed to reckon with the major profiteer in the absence time inside the factory? of clock “time discipline”, and it benefited greatly from the malleable work hours and the precarity rustling 2. IDEOLOGICAL RIVALRIES ON from them. This flexibility was just TIME as crucial for success as the low cost of, specifically female, labor “In Turkey however, few people power in Bursa. As Timothy Mitchell require to catch the trains or has argued, capitalism survived, steamboats: time-tables are also parasitically, without having a singular as often ignored as consulted-; logic or essence.41 and punctuality is not a virtue It is not surprising to see cultivated by the Oriental.” that the irregular character of labor — Lucy Mary Jane Garnett in patterns carried on well into the Turkish life in town and country, twentieth century. More than a 190445 decade later, another letter was sent to a newspaper in 1935.42 This While European officials and time, the workers from a weaving
43 “Haber,” r, 1. 41 Timothy Mitchell, Rule of experts: 44 Ibid, 1. Egypt, technopolitics, modernity 45 Lucy M. J. Garnett, The Turkish (Berkeley, CA: University of California People: Their Social Life, Religious Press, 2002), 303. Beliefs and Institutions and Domestic 42 “Haber,” Aksam Postasi, (Istanbul), 26 Life (1909; repr., Whitefish, MT: Birincikanun 1934, 1. Kessinger Publishing, 2004), 23.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 67 travelers pointed to the supposedly persisted until the fall of the Empire in inherent lack of punctuality exhibited 1923, but mean time did not surpass by Ottomans, their improvidence the old temporal hour system until it and lethargic work habits, and their was finally abolished in 1926.48 apparent indifference to time, Islamic A closer analysis of the societies had a lively time awareness multitude of temporal regimes due to the tight rapport between their prevailed in the Empire reveal a wider F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | daily rituals and the sun’s movement ideological rivalry. The old and the
through the sky.46 Alaturka saat, also new temporal orders, alaturka time known as gurubi (literally meaning and alafranga, represented different relating to the sunset) was the values in the struggle to bring the indigenous hour system calculated by Ottoman Empire in line with European the hours from sunrise to sunset. By modernity. The rivalry between Z e y n p E c m P u l a s this method, clocks would be reset at Abdülhamid II and his discontent sunset every day, and as such, time Young Turks was also reflected in was determined by the movement the debates on time.49 While the of the sun. The alaturka saat (clock) former endeavored to amalgamate divided both day and night into 12 a unique Ottoman way to modernize hours each. Since the duration of the “irrational” alaturka system from sunlight varies with the time of the within, the latter advocated for the year, however, the day hours and abandonment of the indigenous hour the night hours were not only of system and a sharp break with old unequal length, but also changed traditions. However, one recurrent according to season. As opposed form of preaching emerged in both to the alaturka saat, which lacked camps simultaneously: the discourse precision, European mean time, on the moralized concepts of work known as alafranga, divided day and and productivity. Regardless of the night into an equal length of 24 hours significance attributed to time thrift throughout the year.47 Alaturka saat and time discipline, the Ottoman government failed to take any action to regulate the flexible time-related 46 Mehmet Bengü Uluengin, strategies in the factories. “Secularizing Anatolia Tick by Recent studies reveal that Tick: Clock Towers in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic,” time discipline and schedules were International Journal of Middle East put into use in schools and public Studies 42, no. 1 (February 2010): 17, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40389583. 47 Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and Feza 48 Avner Wishnitzer, “Our Time: On Günergun, “Osmanlı Türkiyesi’nde the Durability of the Alaturka Hour Alaturka Saat’ten Alafranga Saat’e System in the Late Ottoman Empire,” Geçiş,” in X. Ulusal Astronomi International Journal of Turkish Kongresi (2-6 Eylül 1996), (İstanbul: Studies, 16/1 (2010): 47-69. İstanbul Üniversitesi Fen Fakültesi, 49 Wishnitzer, Reading Clocks, Alla Astronomi ve Uzay Bilimler Bölümü, Turca: Time and Society in the Late 1996), 434-441. Ottoman Empire, 164-5.
68 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s service institutions from the first every half hour and at the beginning Tanzimat laws (1839) onwards.50 and the end of the working day of During the era of Abdülhamid II (1876- public officials. They were built not 1909), however, a new approach only to showcase the hegemonic
to time became more prominent, and symbolic powers of the sultan in | as time regulation extended from the provinces, but also to supervise F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k bureaucracy to public life. The the government officials. This Hamidian era witnessed extensive demonstrates a clear intention bureaucratization with the goal of to time-discipline the Ottoman creating the ideal Ottoman citizen: bureaucracy and instill punctuality, hardworking and loyal to the throne. as well as to organize the daily life of One of the decrees of Abdülhamid the city dwellers with respect to their II was that provincial cities should working day.52 In using alaturka and build a clock tower in his name.51 alafranga hours simultaneously, the Clock towers were generally built palace as well as the intellectuals of close to the government buildings the era accepted that the European or in the main square of the cities. system was necessary for interacting These clocks showed both alaturka with the outside world, yet the and alafranga time. In Adana, for abolition of the indigenous alaturka example, the clock tower chimed hour system was not on their political agenda. Avner Wishnitzer argues that the new time-related values 50 See Wishnitzer, Reading Clocks; such as punctuality, productivity, and Wishnitzer, “Teaching Time: Schools, Schedules, and the Ottoman Pursuit efficiency, which were considered of Progress,” New Perspectives on essential qualities for progressing Turkey, no. 43, (2010): 5-32, https:// toward European-style modernity, doi.org/10.1017/S0896634600005756; were cultivated relying on the Wishnitzer, “With the Precision of alaturka saat.53 a Watch? Time Organization in the Ottoman Army, 1826-1918,” in François The concern for synthesizing Georgeon and Frédéric Hitzel, eds., the old and the new as well as the Les Ottomans et le temps (Leiden synchronous use of the alaturka and Boston: Brill, 2012), 281-315; G. and alafranga time was soon Güvenli, “Le temps de l’école, le discredited by the political opposition temps à l’école,” in Georgeon and 54 Hitzel, Les Ottomans et le temps, 317- of the Hamidian order. Known as 327; A. Lyberatos, “Clocks, Watches the Young Turks, these men were and Time Perception in the Balkans. trained in the new modernized, time Studying a Case of Cultural Transfer,” regimented schools and military of in H. Heppner and E. Posch, eds., the Hamidian era, and eventually Encounters in Europe’s Southeast. The Habsburg Empire and the Orthodox World in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Bochum: 52 Uluengin, “Secularizing Anatolia Tick Winkler, 2012), 231-255. by Tick,” 20. 51 Enver Behnan Sapolyo, “Saat 53 Wishnitzer, Reading Clocks, 151-152. Kulelerimiz”, Önasya, No: 44 (1969): 11. 54 Ibid, 167.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 69 became the critics of the very regime Time disciplining Ottoman officials “which taught them the importance of and scribes, as well as creating “a time.”55 The acceleration generated watch holding” elite which would be by the steamer, railway, and telegraph loyal to the throne, was at the heart lines was not only something to be of the Hamidian project, as well as thrilled by for the Ottomans, but it that of the Young Turks. There was also became a yardstick which they seemingly only one exception to F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | measured themselves against. Now the dictate of the clock-measured
civilization not only had a place— workday: the factory owners were Europe—but also a time, according to not among those eager to apply time which local time appeared to be both discipline to their factories. Time slow and primordial. As soon as they discipline was therefore not always came to power, the desire to follow imposed from a top-down approach, Z e y n p E c m P u l a s an Ottoman path to modernity was and could instead come from below, replaced by a stronger emphasis on as regulating time in the factory was efficiency and industriousness, and overlooked by both the Sultan and they weaponized the new concept the Young Turks. of mechanical time against what While the tension was they saw as the failed modernization increasing in Bursa between the of the Hamidian regime. Their new workers and the factory owners, agenda of timed labor involved a an article entitled “Amele Davasi, cultural assault on old temporal Acaba Onlar Vatanin Üvey Evlatlari practices and notions, combined with mi?” (The Workers’ Case, Are They an increased emphasis on time-thrift Step Children of the Fatherland?) and efficiency.56 was published in İştirak on 14 May As the nineteenth century 1910. The author pointed out that drew to a close, time became a the workers had been continuously political matter. The discourse of and ruthlessly exploited, despite laziness was used by both camps the restoration of the Constitution. It against their political adversaries further noted the indifference coming because it was deemed as one of from the new constitutional monarchy the major causes that lay at the that “came to power with promises core of the empire’s problems.57 of liberty, equality, fraternity” but proved ineffective in making a real change in the conditions of 55 Wishnitzer, “Teaching Time: Schools, laborers: “otherwise the enemy of Schedules, and the Ottoman Pursuit constitutional monarchy will laugh if of Progress,” 9-10. you neglect the rights of the poor and 56 Hatice Yildiz, “A Comparative History of Gender and Factory Labour in Ottoman Bursa and Colonial Bombay, c. 1850 – 1910,” (Ph.D. diss., University Practice of Work and Productivity of Cambridge, 2018), 280. in Late Ottoman Society,” (Ph.D. 57 Melis Hafez, “The Lazy, the Idle, diss., University of California at Los the Industrious: Discourse and Angeles, 2012), 8.
70 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s aggrieved workers as was done by the clock hours was thus reflected Hamid [Sultan Abdülhamid II] and his not just in the relationship between accomplices.”58 the workers and the employers, In fact, the Ottoman but between the Hamidian regime
government failed to address the and Young Turks. Yet both political | workers’ demands for a fair working camps refrained from regulating F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k wage and regulated working the time of the factory, since they hours. The factory owners, to their wanted to encourage free enterprise own advantage perpetuating the and foreign investment capital. This exploitation in the silk industry, negligence soon resulted in the continued allowing for harsh mobilization of workers and a bottom- working conditions and low wages. up politicization of time. Regardless of the utmost significance attributed to time thrift and discipline, the Ottoman government never took 3. FACTORIES AGAINST THE CLOCK any action to regulate the open- ended working day in the factories. “Today the masses are showing It was the workers themselves who great unruliness… They are petitioned for more regulated work going too far with their economic hours and concrete work schedules. demands, such demands that Analysing the link between the social even old European socialists transformation of time and the urban would not dare to make…” — industrial labor in Bursa thus reveals From an article named “Strikes” that it was not always the Ottoman published in the official Young watch-holding elite who pushed for Turk newspaper60 time discipline. As such, the contest between In the early years of the different temporalities was not only twentieth century, the main demand bound to the factory, but it revealed of the workers across the empire was a further political rivalry between two to set negotiable time arrangements camps, with differing perspectives for labor against the ambiguous, as to how to “catch up with Europe.” arduous, and all- demanding time Once the language advocating hard structure of the factories. Flexible work and rejecting idleness became time arrangements in the Bursa silk hegemonic, both Abdülhamid II filatures blurred the boundaries and the Young Turks used this between “free” and “working” discourse to eliminate their political time to meet the demands of the adversaries.59 The conflict about
Industrious,” 8. 58 Satenik Derderiyan, “Amele davası” 60 “Grevler” [Strikes], Ittihat ve Terakki İştirak, I, 12, 1 Mayıs 1326 (14 May [Newspaper of the Committee of 1910), 184. Union and Progress], sayi 14, 24 59 Hafez, “The Lazy, the Idle, the Agustos 1324 [6 September 1908].
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 71 capital. As indicated in the previous payments of the silk industry in Bursa. sections, factories imposed a In one letter dated 3 September rigorous discipline onto workers. 1909, workers conveyed that they In the meantime, workers were were paid the same amount of daily struck by the indifference to time wage after being made to work regulations in the factory, which longer than 15 hours.63 Workers was highly inconsistent with the repeatedly mentioned that they were F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | hegemonic discourse of time thrift deprived of light and suffered from
and punctuality. They did not wish to insufficient rest in the factory.64 This toil in factories “from the sunset until series of letters and petitions from the sunrise, from the night until the workers finally paved the way for next day afternoon.” 61 The Ottoman a number of official investigations, government concluded that any which resulted in a bill drafted Z e y n p E c m P u l a s change in the length of the working by the local authorities in 1909.65 day or an increase in wages would However, it did not pass the Ottoman result in a total loss of investors “in a Parliament, reflecting the initial developing economy like theirs.”62 All political commitment to a laissez-faire in all, these workers were informed economic policy. by the labor strikes that swept the The workers again sent a empire, and developed an acute petition to urge the government to sense of time as an economic take action to decrease working currency and a language of hours, increase the daily payment resistance. to ten kurus, and grant a one-hour After the “Declaration of lunch break.66 The local authorities Freedom” in 1908, workers started were eager to settle the issue of continuously petitioning the central wages and working hours in favor of administration of Bursa, which was the workers, but the “no regulation” responsible for mediating between policy of the government as well as the workers and factory owners. the factory owners’ resistance to the The local government in return sent workers’ demands resulted in the numerous telegrams and letters to the Ottoman Ministry of Internal Affairs (Dahiliye Nezareti) and the 63 Birten Çelik, “Sweatshops in the Silk Ministry of Commerce and Public Industry of the Bursa Region and Works (Ticaret ve Nafia Nezareti). the Workers’ Strikes in 1910,” Turkish These letters were full of complaints Historical Review 4, no. 1 (2013): 33, about long working hours and low https://doi.org/10.1163/18775462- 00401002. 64 Çelik, “Sweatshops in the Silk Industry of the Bursa Region and the Workers’ 61 ‘Ipek Amelesi Hakkinda”, İştirak, sene Strikes in 1910,” 34. 1. No 7, 27 Mart 1326, 110. 65 Yıldız, “Parallels and Contrasts in 62 Zafer Toprak, Türkiye’de Işçi Sınıfı Gendered Histories,” 23. 1908-1946 (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt 66 Çelik, “Sweatshops in the Silk Yayınları, 2016), 81. Industry,” 40.
72 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s withdrawal of the bill that had been strikers, mostly women, mobilized drafted by the local government of around their interests for better pay Bursa.67 and clean-cut work hours in August On 3 September 1909, the 1910. La Turquie, a Francophone
workers of Bursa decided to send newspaper in the Ottoman Empire, | a letter to Sultan Resat Mehmet V reported the strike as a “horde of F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k directly. This petition was different filature workers” headed by “four from the others, since the female or five women of ill repute, adorned workers emphasized the problems with jingling, false trinkets” who went of working flexible hours that were through the streets of Bursa going specific to female employment in from factory to factory and convinced order to get more attention for the the workers to join in and close labor abuses in the factory. They down their workplaces.70 Such a tone stated that the long working day, was commonplace in Francophone exceeding sixteen hours in the newspapers, since the strikes summer, endangered their safety: caused a major disruption to French “we met problems while coming [to economic interests in Bursa. work] early before the sun rises and The protest lasted for about leaving late in the night, since the fifteen days, a considerably long factories were usually away from the period in the general context of [main] streets and bad and drunk Ottoman labor movements, especially men disturbed us,” were among their when the lack of unionization grievances.68 Their ultimate demand among female workers is taken was, once again, for the shortening of into account.71 Immediately after the working hours. the strike ended, by the end of The 1908 strike wave August, the mills, which normally shows more than ever that in the would have been opened until face of flexible time patterns and November, suddenly closed down concomitant low payments, workers due to the lack of raw materials.72 resorted to striking, work stoppages, What countless petitions and letters and machine breaking to curb all- show us, however, is that female invading, exploitative factory time workers laid great importance across the empire.69 In Bursa, 6000
16, no. 2 (1992): 153–77, https://www. 67 Yıldız, “Parallels and Contrasts in jstor.org/stable/43385331. Gendered Histories,” 24. 70 Henri Rol, ‘Grève de fileuses de 68 Çelik, “Sweatshops in the Silk Brousse,’ La Turquie, 23 Août 1910, 2. Industry,” 34. 71 Yıldız, “Parallels and Contrasts in 69 Joel Beinin and Zachary Lockman, Gendered Histories,” 27. Workers on the Nile (Princeton, NJ: 72 Nicolina Anna Norberta Maria van Princeton University Press, 1987); Os, “Feminism, philanthropy and Yavuz Selim Karakısla, “The 1908 patriotism : female associational life Strike Wave in the Ottoman Empire,” in the Ottoman empire,” (PhD diss., Turkish Studies Association Bulletin Leiden University, 2013), 199.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 73 on the negotiations for the clear workers were taught by their masters boundaries of the work day, night the importance of time; the second work, and meal times. They were generation formed their short- aware of the fact that non-uniform time committees in the ten-hour time arrangements furthered their movement; the third generation exploitation, so they fought to replace struck for overtime or time-and-a half. this irregularity with a regular cycle of They had accepted the categories of F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | the working week. Female workers their employers and learned to fight
also enhanced their language of back within them.”75 The “masters” resistance by emphasizing their were not particularly interested in gendered experiences of factory learning the importance of time labor to push for abolishing night discipline, since the formalization work. As women, their “honour” had of working hours would negatively Z e y n p E c m P u l a s to be protected, they argued, and affect their profits. Yet, the workers therefore they asked to be allowed devised their own tactics to negotiate to leave the factory at a “suitable against the flexible time patterns in time” before sunset.73 Although the industry and actively struggled the provincial government was against the forces of industrial sympathetic towards the workers’ capitalism. demands, according to a 1914 article in the Kadınlar Dünyası, a popular women’s magazine, neither the CONCLUSION strike nor constant petitioning had any concrete consequences or The research on Ottoman contributed to any amelioration in the temporal culture has favored elitist working conditions in Bursa, even in views in explaining the temporal the years after.74 transformation in the Empire. E. P. Thompson argued However, this paper suggested a that it took threet generations of different reading from “below” by workers to understand the new focusing on the temporal experiences categories of industrial time and to on the shop floor. In the example fight within these categories against of Ottoman Bursa, the large-scale their employers. This paper, by industrial production did not bring demonstrating how Bursa’s female a straightforward structuring of the workers consciously weaponized irregular, imprecise work patterns. clock time, thus complicated To be able to best cater to the Thompson’s following observation: needs of the global economy, Bursa “The first generation of factory silk factories continued to exploit workers through precarious and
73 ‘Ipek Amelesi Hakkinda,” İştirak, 110. 74 “Sanayi’de sefalet-i nisvan,” Kadınlar 75 E. P. Thompson, “Time, Work- Dünyası, II, 140, 25 Nisan 1330 (8 May Discipline and Industrial Capitalism,” 1914), 2. 86.
74 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 Z e y n p E c m P u l a s random employment, with long and measuring time were associated arduous work hours. Significantly, with different paths of modernizing these Ottoman sweatshops were the empire by Abdülhamid II and the different from individual silk reels or Young Turks respectively. Bursa’s
merchant-controlled workshops. They industrial silk production is a great | incorporated effective disciplinary example of how the interest of F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k measures that created considerable the industry was protected at the physical stress on workers, while expense of these new industrious simultaneously cultivating a new Ottoman citizens that the Ottoman temporal structuring through elite tried to cultivate. Time machinery, uninterrupted time discipline was exclusively directed arrangements, and night work. at the working people and not at Scholars have argued that the factory operators. The Ottoman precarious work or “flexibility” was government’s concern with the an exception of “late”, “mature”, or unhindered progress of the industry “neoliberal” capitalism.76 The story of overshadowed the preachings and Bursa shows that we need to rethink schoolings of punctuality. the notion of precarious, flexible Finally, the silk reeling labor and its role in the history of factory workers of Bursa established capitalism. Flexible employment was their own language of resistance not a symptom of underdevelopment, against the factories’ flexible time but on the contrary, it was a feature patterns and concomitant low of capitalist modernity in the Ottoman payments. Workers resorted to context. Furthermore, similar different techniques to negotiate employment and production tactics the exploitative factory time. The are part and parcel of the so-called female workforce utilized a variety “mature” capitalisms of today. of disruptive tactics, from striking, Secondly, as the rhetoric sending letters and petitions to of time thrift along with the morally the government, and trying to gain charged condemnation of “idleness” the support of the reading public became more and more hegemonic, with their letter to İştirak. These time became increasingly politicized. techniques were the product of Alaturka and alafranga ways of the interaction of the gender, economic, and political hierarchies in which these workers functioned. 76 Rob Lambert and Andrew Herod, Employment regulation was too eds., Neoliberal Capitalism and weak to provide any effective Precarious Work: Ethnographies of protection against exploitation. The Accommodation and Resistance (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar push for regulating working time Publishing, 2016); Sanford Schram, came from, as Thompson points The Return of Ordinary Capitalism: out, those workers who fought Neoliberalism, Precarity, Occupy against the time concepts imposed (Oxford and New York: Oxford by the factory owners. These University Press, 2015).
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020 75 imposed time concepts, ironically, were the ones that were assumed to be pre-industrial, irregular, and “unmodern”. In Bursa it was the workers themselves who pushed for more regular, clock-precise work hours and meal times. Workers thus F a c t o r i e s A g n h C l k | developed a language of resistance
that emphasized the value of regular and standard work patterns, defined with reference to clock hours.
Z e y n p E c m P u l a s
76 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2020
Envisioning (In)dependent Filastin: Agrochemicals and the Synthetic Age in British-Ruled Palestine
by OMRI POLATSEK
78 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P ABSTRACT o l a t s e k
By reconstructing the history of Imperial Chemical Industries
|
Levant activities and examining Husni al-Miqdadi’s writings (one E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a of ICI Levant’s agents), this article explores the crystallization of the Synthetic Age in British-ruled Palestine. As ICI Levant was the leading local importer of agrochemicals to Palestine, it held a significant position for Zionist-Jews and Arab-Palestinians, both seeking to transform the economic basis of the land in order to materialize a future national economy that would be based on agriculture. After describing the interdependence between the Synthetic Age and British Imperialism in the first section, the article depicts the company’s local and regional activity and explores Arab-Palestinians reaction to its expansion in the second and third sections. In the last section, it studies the activities and writings of one of the company’s agents, Reconstructing al-Miqdadi’s work .(المقدادي) Husni al-Miqdadi vis-à-vis ICI’s local and regional activity reveals the material and social entanglements between the national-local and imperial- global, resulting from the new ‘chemical possibilities’ generated by British Imperialism. This article argues that al-Miqdadi's specific expertise as a fertilizer expert was a product of a substantial change that took place during the interwar period– the rising flow of synthetic agrochemicals to Palestine and the Middle East. As the Synthetic Age was set into motion by imperial infrastructure and colonial mindsets, its material and conceptual aspects shaped the interactions between local and imperial actors and enabled experts like al-Miqdadi to join in and expand the discourse of Arab-Palestinian nahda.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Omri Polatsek is an MA student at the Middle Eastern and African History department at Tel Aviv University. Currently, he is a visiting student at the Global History Department at Freie Universität Berlin. Omri’s master thesis explores the history of synthetic agrochemicals in British-ruled Palestine, focusing on the role of ‘chemical agents’ (companies, chemists, and double- potential chemical substances) in shaping changing ideas and material transformations.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 79 INTRODUCTION Filastin, a Jaffa based Arab- Palestinian newspaper, that “the On an early morning in agent of the department gave this January 1946, eight armed men huge quantity [of sodium nitrate] to and women broke into the offices this Jewish man, while [previously] he of Imperial Chemical Industries did not want to give the officials from Levant at Salame Road, Tel Aviv. Hebron Municipality 150 kilograms The single guard was no match of sodium nitrate without a police for this trained group. As he was escort?”3 Typically, the transportation E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
chloroformed and tied, other team of hazardous chemical substances in members spread pepper across the Palestine was accompanied by police
o l a t s e k floor in order to prevent the police or army forces. The writer explained dogs from tracing their scent. The that previously, when representatives
O m r i P group quickly left, carrying ten tons of Hebron municipality picked up of sodium nitrate in two unidentified sodium nitrate from the harbor, trucks.1 This meticulously planned they had to wait until the arrival robbery was not the only one taking of 11 armed soldiers to escort place after the Second World War them back to Hebron. The Filastin in British-ruled Palestine, however. correspondent was dumbfounded A more peculiar case happened a by the company’s naiveté and few months earlier at Haifa, when speculated whether there were any in November 1945, an unknown other motives beyond it.4 man arrived at the warehouses of This article will set out to Imperial Chemical Industries Levant explore Imperial Chemical Industries enquiring about goods he claimed Levant, the company that lost dozens he had to transport. After presenting of synthetic chemicals in 1946, and himself as a representative of Hebron one of its Arab-Palestinian agents.5 municipality and showing the guard During the interwar period, Imperial his certificates, the local official gave Chemical Industries was working on him five tons of sodium nitrate.2 a global scale, setting up branches “How is it possible?” all over the British empire and selling wondered a correspondent from its products worldwide.6 In the Middle East, the company’s main branches were in British-ruled Palestine. The 1 “Jews Raid Store,” The Scotsman, 16 January 1946; “Shod 10 ton natran hankati” [“Ten Tons of Sodium Nitrate 3 “Al-’irhabyun al-yahud yakhtalasun Stolen”] Ha’aretz, 16 January 1946. 5 atnan mutafajjirat” [“The Jewish 2 “5 ton homrey-nefets huts’au Terrorist Stole Five Tons of bemirma?” [“Five Tons of Explosives Explosives”] Filastin, 02 December Taken in Deceit?”] Ha’aretz, 03 1945. December 1945; “Mehapsim 5 ton 4 Filastin, 02 December 1945. homrey-nefets” [“Searching for Five 5 Hereafter: ICI Levant. Tons of Explosives”] LaHayal, 04 6 Hereafter: ICI (referring to the mother December 1945. company in London).
80 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P company’s personnel, products, and local and imperial-global, which ideas were prevalent in Palestine resulted from the new ‘chemical o l a t s e k during a specific historical moment possibilities’ generated by British
| when synthetic chemicals became imperialism between both world E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a common both for domestic and wars. industrial usages. In the agricultural While in the case of these realm, this moment during the two robberies, the synthetic fertilizers interwar period marked a shift were most likely used by the Jewish towards a mounting application anti-imperial forces to blow up British of synthetically made fertilizers, infrastructure, their original role was pesticides, and herbicides.7 to nourish various fields and orchards As this article will seek to in Palestine. In 1946, at the time of demonstrate, Husni al-Miqdadi these robberies, synthetic fertilizers who was working for the were often employed in intensive ,(المقدادي) company as a consultant and sales ‘modern’ agriculture schemes agent, was well-aware of the and used in various cultivation possibilities generated from ICI’s fields in British-ruled Palestine, chemical products. As a fertilizer the British empire, and around the specialist, he was informed of the world.8 While the consumption of potential for agrochemicals to synthetic agrochemicals outside enhance the economic value of Europe and North America was extracted from orange cultivation— gradually spreading through the Palestine’s most lucrative export crop. interwar period, the history of this From his ‘expert’ position, al-Miqdadi agricultural-industrial transformation sought to contribute to the prevalent remains unresearched. Historical national economic-awakening accounts on synthetic fertilizers discourse. By focusing on al- and pesticides are centered around Miqdadi’s work vis-à-vis the North America and Western Europe.9 company’s regional activity, this study will highlight the material and social entanglements between the national- 8 Corey Ross, Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire: Europe and the Transformation of the Tropical World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 7 Edward Melillo, “The First Green 2017). Revolution: Debt Peonage and the 9 Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth: Making of the Nitrogen Fertilizers Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Trade, 1840-1930,” The American Transformation of World Food Historical Review 117, no. 4 (2012): Production (Cambridge, MA: The MIT 1053-56, https://doi.org/10.1093/ Press, 2000); David Kinkela, DDT ahr/117.4.1028; Edmund Russell, War & The American Century: Global and Nature: Fighting Humans and Health, Environmental Politics and Insects with chemicals from World the Pesticide that Change the World War I to Silent Spring (Cambridge: (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Cambridge University Press, 2001), Carolina Press, 2011); Russell, War 53-73. and Nature. Historical scholarship on
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 81 Likewise, conventional histories while the emerging ties between of chemical infrastructure were imperial states and chemical written solemnly through nation- companies during the interwar centered and comparative national period has been accounted for, the history paradigms, dealing primarily consequences of this collaboration with industries located in the Euro- overseas has been completely American metropoles.10 As a result, neglected.11 The historiography on chemical companies and synthetic agrochemicals do not consider E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
organic fertilizers focuses on Latin the fact that the global change in America. For example, see Melillo, production, circulation, and usages of
o l a t s e k “The First Green Revolution”; Gregory synthetic substances was also based Cushman, Guano and the Opening of on imperial infrastructure and colonial the Pacific World: A Global Ecological O m r i P History (Cambridge: Cambridge networks. Who were the actors University Press, 2013). behind the flow of agrochemicals 10 Monica J. Casper, “Introduction: from the laboratory to the field and Chemical Matters,” in Synthetic from the factory to the orchard? How Planet: Chemical Politics and the did chemical companies interweave Hazards of Modern Life (New York: Routledge, 2003), xv-xvi; on the their overseas activities into the chemical industry in North America imperial apparatus? How did the and its relations to nationalism possibilities generated by synthetic see Kathryn Steen, The American chemicals and imperial infrastructure Synthetic Organic Chemicals Industry: shape local agents’ visions and War and Politics, 1910-1930 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina imaginations? This article will attempt Press, 2014); on the German chemical to fill this historiographical gap by industry and its relationship with the answering these questions, focusing state (and to two world wars) see on ICI Levant’s operations and Diarmuid Jeffreys, Hell’s Cartel: IG personnel in British-ruled Palestine. Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine (London: Bloomsbury, 2009); for the British government’s close ties with the chemical industry see Arnaud Page, “’The Greatest example, see Robert Vitalis, America’s Victory which the Chemist had Won Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi in the Fight (…) Against Nature’: Oil Frontier (Stanford, CA: Stanford Nitrogenous Fertilizers in Great University Press, 2006); Katayoun Britain and the British Empire, Shafiee, Machineries of Oil: An 1910s-1950s,” History of Science, Infrastructural History of BP in Iran 54, no. 4 (2016): 383-398, https:// (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, doi.org/10.1177/0073275316681801; 2018); Timothy Mitchell, Carbon on the British chemical industry Democracy: Political Power in the Age see W.J. Reader, Imperial Chemical of Oil (New York: Verso, 2011). Industries: A History Vol. II (London: 11 For examples in Germany and the Oxford University Press, 1970), 32- British Empire, see Jeffreys, Hell’s 46, 318-364. Middle East historians Cartel; Page, “Nitrogenous Fertilizers who research chemical industries in Great Britain and the British are mostly focused on oil. For Empire“.
82 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P Starting from the 1920s, a structural framework it will also
Western experts had started to serve here as a first step to revealing o l a t s e k address this industrial transformation the synthetic-chemical dependent
| and applauded the potential of agricultural-industrial transformation E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a ‘unlimited’ usage of man-made that was taking place in Palestine chemical substances by articulating during the interwar period more their current era as the Synthetic broadly. Thus, the Synthetic Age Age.12 This expression has been will point to the cross-fertilization used in the context of various between the intellectual and interactions between humans and material dimensions of the mass synthetics ever since.13 Recently, production, circulation, and usages the term has been remodeled by of synthetic chemicals around the Mortiz von Brescius as a conceptual British empire. By focusing on ICI as framework. He employs the term an ‘intermediate’ between the local to explore the expectations and and the global, this article intends anticipations stimulated by chemical to demonstrate that the Synthetic science and synthetic substances Age was gradually materializing from the 1830s onwards.14 Exploring outside of the ‘West’ as it was set al-Miqdadi’s professional life and into motion by imperial infrastructure writings, this article will extend and colonial mindsets. In this von Brescius’ conceptualization of historical moment, the company the Synthetic Age, not in time but took an active part in the industrial- in space, in order to include non- agricultural transformation in British- Western “horizons of expectations” ruled Palestine. The material and conceived from the new potentials conceptual aspects of the Synthetic of synthetic chemistry.15 Furthermore, Age enabled experts like al-Miqdadi this spatial sway from previous to join in and expand the discourse of and contemporary articulations of national economic Arab-Palestinian the Synthetic Age will allow me to independence. inject it with new analytical vigor. As This article has four sections. In the first part, I will provide an account of the Synthetic Age’s global 12 Edward D. Melillo, “Global dimensions and highlight the British Entomologies: Insects, Empires, and the ‘Synthetic Age’ in World History,” empire’s role in setting the Synthetic Past and Present 223 (May 2014): Age into motion outside of Europe 257-260, https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/ and North America. Against this gtt026. structural backdrop, the second 13 Melillo, “Global Entomologies,” 257- section will demonstrate that Imperial 260. 14 Universität Bern, Historisches Institut, Chemical Industries Levant, ICI’s Dr. Moritz von Brescius, accessed 03 regional sub-company, served as an May 2021, https://www.hist.unibe.ch/ intermediate by connecting British ueber_uns/personen/von_brescius_ chemical factories and laboratories to moritz/index_ger.html. Palestinian and regional cultivation 15 This term is taken from von Brescius.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 83 fields. By focusing on the company’s Nonetheless, those works, which activity, I suggest that the Synthetic mainly focus on pesticides and Age materialized in relation to, and as other toxic chemicals, are limited a consequence of, British imperialism chronologically to the 1960s onwards. in the Middle East. In the third As Timothy Mitchell has shown, the section, I will zoom in on the excessive consumption of synthetics relationship between ICI Levant and had caused troubles much earlier. In the Arab-Palestinian middle-class by Mitchell’s famous account Can the analyzing newspaper coverage on Mosquito Speak?, the mosquitoes E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
the company’s activities. In doing so, I were only one aspect leading to will demonstrate that this the death of tens of thousands of 16 o l a t s e k conversation was part of a broader Egyptians in 1944. As the Nile discussion taking place in British- Valley could not quench its thirst for
O m r i P ruled Palestine about ‘economy- ammonium nitrate, the dependence making’ and national independence. of Egypt’s agricultural cultivation on In the fourth and last section, I will synthetic fertilizers caused a major focus on al-Miqdadi’s work. As food crisis when the import of these mentioned before, al-Miqdadi sought fertilizers came to a halt during World to contribute to the prevalent War II.17 This ‘chemical addiction’ was discourse of Arab-Palestinian a symptom of a growing dependency ‘economy-making’ with his specific on synthetic chemicals outside of chemical-agricultural expertise. Europe and North America. This Furthermore, his writings reveal points to the spatial expansion of another aspect of this economic the global Synthetic Age outside of vision, as they were part of a broader the chemical metropolises, which intellectual discourse which sought to were located in the US, Britain, and animate an Arab economic nahda Germany. ,Since the interwar period .(النهضة) the mass-production of synthetic chemical substances18 came to THE SYNTHETIC AGE OUTSIDE play a major role in the making OF THE ‘WEST’ of economies and nations.19 As
In hindsight, one cannot think about synthetic chemicals without 16 Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts: addressing the hazardous aftermaths Egypt, Techno-politics, Modernity generated by their mass production (Berkeley, CA: University of California and worldwide usage. The global Press, 2002), 19-53. 17 Mitchell, Rule of Experts, 25. environmental movement, which 18 Pharmaceuticals, dyes, fertilizers, and materialized during the 1960s, led explosives. to historical research scrutinizing 19 David Edgerton, The Shock of the the dangerous outcomes of mass Old: Technology and Global History application of synthetic chemicals. since 1900 (London: Profile Books, 2006), 119-122.
84 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P noted earlier, the emerging ties British development policy around between imperial states and the empire. o l a t s e k chemical companies led to the The Synthetic Age overseas,
| growing importance of chemists however, was not limited to the E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a and chemistry as a part of the establishment of new chemical state apparatus.20 From an imperial factories alone. As the colonial perspective, establishing various spaces served as a captive market for chemical industries outside of the British manufactured goods, British- British islands was considered a made chemicals flowed throughout project equally as crucial as other the globe, arriving at the various infrastructural schemes of ‘high- colonies and protectorates. Outside modernism’, such as ports, train rails, of the British isles, the British empire’s dams, and electrical systems.21 As infrastructure and its preferential the Synthetic Age took shape in the tariffs contributed to the circulation of colonial space, functioning (Petro-) synthetic chemicals. New industrial chemical industries increasingly technologies developed during became an imperative for executing the First World War had made chemical substances available and necessary to various industrial mass- 22 20 In this context Fritz Haber and Carl productions. In the colonial space, Bosch, the German chemists and this translated both to a growing industrialists, come to mind. Their dependency on synthetic (agro) mutual work on nitrogen fixation led chemicals and the establishment to the mass production of ammonia during WWI. This chemical technique of chemical factories. For example, is mostly known today as the the two main development projects Haber-Bosch process. After the war, of British rule in Palestine, the Haifa industrialists and chemists were in Harbor and the Dead Sea industries, a close relationship with the state, were, in fact, dependent on imported which culminated once again with IG Farben’s intimate collaboration with chemical substances. The explosives the Nazi regime. In the British-Jewish that were reshaping the harbor context, Alfred Mond and Chaim were ignited by chemicals made in Weizmann, who will be introduced Britain, and the mass production of in the next sections, were both potash, bromine, and other chemical chemists and industrialists. Both also held prominent social and economic substances at the Dead Sea was positions between London and dependent on the importation of Jerusalem. other chemicals.23 Furthermore, 21 Robert Vitalis, When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 22 Roy MacLeod and Jeffrey Johnson, 1995), 78-80; Jacob Norris, Land of eds., Frontline and Factory: Progress: Palestine in the Age of Comparative Perspectives on the Colonial Development, 1905-1948 Chemical Industry at War 1914- 1924 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, (New York: Springer, 2006). 2013), 100-110, 139-142. 23 For the British manufactured
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 85 during the interwar period, the minerals).24 Therefore, there is reason continuous distribution of synthetic to argue that the global history of the chemicals was fundamental to the Synthetic Age was set into motion by mechanization and industrialization of imperial infrastructure and colonial the colonized states (cultivating more mindsets. crops, fighting pesticides, producing British-ruled Palestine provides a suitable case for this local unfolding of a global phenomenon. During this period E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
explosives, see letter from Chillik British policymakers, Arab-Palestinian Weizmann to Chaim Weizmann, capitalists, and Jewish experts
o l a t s e k 28/01/1930, 14-1363, Weizmann sought to transform the economic Archives (hereafter: WA); the basis of the land and to ‘develop’ the Chemical industry at the Dead Sea O m r i P imported chlorine from France and Palestinian economy via agriculture, Britain until the eruption of WWI. It industry, and commerce. While was used for bromine production, the British colonial administrators which had strategic importance were guided by imperial economic for the British during the war. See interests, the Arab-Palestinians and Moshe Novomeysky, “Palestine Potash LTD: A Potential Producer Zionist-Jews strove to create and of Some Chemicals Needed by bolster their own national economies Palestine, Dominions, and/or while linking them to the regional Israel State and imperial markets based on the ,-5061/16מ ,”.The U.K Archives (hereafter: ISA). During empire’s infrastructure.25 For these the war chlorine was produced at a new factory, which was funded various actors, Palestine offered by the British government, at the an economy that would be based Dead Sea industrial complex. Most on agriculture and minerals.26 As of the sulfur used for chlorine production came from Gaza sulfur quarries. The massive production of chlorine during the war might have 24 Ross, Ecology and Power in the Age caused the depletion of the sulfur of Empire, 282-291. from Gaza, as the ‘Gaza Quarries 25 For British interest in Palestine see Ltd’ did not last long after the war Jacob Norris, Land of Progress; had ended. In addition, as Moshe Sherene Seikaly’s ‘men of capital’ Novomeysky, entrepreneur of the used their economic journal to Dead Sea industries, mentioned in conceptualize a regional economy. the memorandum quoted above, the Sherene Seikaly, Men of Capital: chlorine could be used as ‘military Scarcity and Economy in Mandate poison gas’. While usually WWI is Palestine (Stanford, CA: Stanford remembered as the war where University Press, 2016); for the Jewish chemical warfare was most prevalent articulation of regional economy see in the battlefield, articles from that the many issues of Palestine and period mention a “British poison gas Middle East: Economic Magazine, Tel made in Palestine” that was used Aviv, Mishar veta’asia co., 1926-1945. to attack Nazi soldiers. See “British 26 This conception was shared by Poison Gas Made in Palestine,” The the British, Zionist-Jews, and Arab- Sunday Post, 17 December 1939. Palestinians, and also by other
86 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P agrochemicals became synonymous and its preferential tariffs helped the with ‘modern agriculture,’27 and company to expand its operations o l a t s e k chemical industries became an to most of the British colonies
30 | imperative in the colonies, global overseas. If Barclays Bank was the E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a chemical companies thus used the bank of the empire, supplying capital novel global order after World War I for undertakings in the colonies, to expand their operations.28 then ICI can be conceptualized as the chemical company of the empire, supplying various industries overseas A CHEMICAL IMPERIAL with synthetic and organic chemical INDUSTRY IN BRITISH-RULED substances. In fact, ICI was one of the PALESTINE biggest companies for chemicals on earth until it began to sell its assets One major chemical actor, in the late 1990s to early 2000s, and operating both on local and global was finally taken over by another scales, was Imperial Chemical major chemical company in 2008.31 Industries. The company was Following the British established in Great Britain in occupation of new territories after 1926, when four British chemical World War I, and after the formation companies joined their business and ratification of the mandates operations with the support of system, the company established the British government in order several branches in the Middle East. to establish synthetic nitrogen For this purpose, two sub-companies factories.29 Through the years, ICI were founded– ICI Egypt and ICI absorbed other chemical companies Levant. Whereas the first branch and expanded its production to operated only in Egypt, the second, various chemical products. The which was established in 1928, infrastructure of the British empire administered the company’s activities in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and Cyprus.32 These commentators. For an American example see Frank Adams, “Palestine Agriculture,” The Annals of the 30 D.W.F Hardie, A History of the Modern American Academy of Political and British Chemical Industry (Oxford: Social Science 164 (1932): 72-83, Pergamon Press, 1966), 300. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271623216 31 “Unsticking ICI,” The Economist, 11 400111. August 2007, accessed: 03 May 27 Edward Melillo, “The First Green 2021, https://www.economist.com/ Revolution,” 1031-1034. business/2007/08/09/unsticking-ici. 28 W.J. Reader, Imperial Chemical 32 Page, “Nitrogenous Fertilizers in Industries: A History. Vol. I: The Great Britain and the British Empire,” Forerunners 1870-1926 (London: 391; on the Egyptian branch see Oxford University Press, 1970), 317- Robert Vitalis, When Capitalists 328, 394-413. Collide: Business Conflict and the 29 Reader, Imperial Chemical Industries: End of Empire in Egypt (Berkeley, A History. Vol. II, 1-12. CA: University of California Press,
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 87 branches worked together under the inauguration ceremony, Mackie gave mother company of ICI in London.33 a speech in which he articulated the By 1931, the Jewish press celebrated newly local industrial dependence the company’s early success both in on the flow of global chemical Palestine and throughout the region, substances to Palestine. While and highlighted Chillik Weizmann’s it is safe to assume that he was crucial role in it.34 Yechiel (Chillik) advocating for the usage of his own Weizmann was the first manager of company’s products, Mackie was ICI Levant and the younger brother also pinpointing the transformation in E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
of Chaim Weizmann, who headed the global industrial consumption of the World Zionist Organization.35 In synthetic chemical substances:
o l a t s e k Palestine, Chillik Weizmann was the trusted right hand man for Alfred “It is a truism that chemicals
O m r i P Mond, who was himself the head of form the foundation of modern ICI’s mother branch in London. industry. There is scarcely any Weizmann was replaced form of industrial activity that is in 1936 by J. B. Mackie. At his not dependent on a very large extent in an assured supply of chemicals on whose quality and 1995), 78-80. Vitalis reviews the reliability complete confidence Egyptian government and Egyptian can be placed.”36 capitalists’ negotiations with ICI on the establishment of a new This change was also hydroelectrical powerplant which would produce fertilizers. noticed a few years before. In 33 Letter from I. Melamed to Chief 1933, the Sheffield Independent, a Secretary, Government of Palestine, northern England daily newspaper, ‘Telephone Facilities – Baghdad and was astonished by the ‘striking development’ of Palestine’s ,-114/32מ ,Cairo’, 22 December 1942 ISA. 34 “I.C.I Be’erets-israel” [“ICI in Eretz industries, linking it to ICI’s products Israel”] Doar Hayom, 01 May 1931. and to the British chemical colonial 35 Like Alfred Mond, who will be enterprise.37 Reporting from ICI introduced shortly, Chaim Weizmann Levant’s pavilion at the Anglo- was also an industrial chemist. He Palestinian Expo at Tel Aviv, the gained his fame and capital helping the British during WWI with the paper elaborated on the local usages mass production of war chemicals of British manufactured chemicals: from starch. One American-Jewish newspaper even remarked that “[t] “There are shown specimens he 1917 Balfour Declaration derived of wheat grown with English partly from Weizmann’s science.” See “A Scientist-Statesman,” The Reform Advocate, 26 January 1940. This goes to further highlight the role of 36 “British Chemicals in Our Industry,” chemists in the service of the state/ The Palestine Post, 29 May 1936. imperial apparatus during the interwar 37 “Striking Example of I.C.I.’s Enterprise,” period. Sheffield Independent, 09 June 1933.
88 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P o l a t s e k
| E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a
FIGURE 1: CI Levant’s brochure at the Levant Fair (between 1932-36). “Levant Fair. Official Publications,” V 3090/43, The National Library of Israel.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 89 FIGURE 2: “Great Britain consumes 85% percent of your oranges- buy British fertilizers.” “Be sure that the British fertilizers are the finest.” Al-Iqtisadat al- ‘arabiyya I(14), 15 July 1935. Jrayed Collection: Arabic Newspapers of Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine, jrayed. nli.org.il, founded by the National Library of Israel.
fertilizers by Syrian Sheiks; the Three years later at the King David Hotel at Jerusalem Levant Fair (another commercial decorated with the paints made exhibition), Palestine Post’s at Slough; different qualities of correspondent also pointed to the soap made in Palestine with many usages of British chemicals English chemicals […]; buses in in the local economy as he was Tel Aviv upholstered in Rexine; reporting from the ICI Levant pavilion. where, also, baking powder is From his account, the large degree already being made from English to which chemical substances played ingredients.”38 a crucial role in agricultural and industrial schemes is evident. As he described:
38 Ibid.
90 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P “A striking colored chart in the marked with dollar signs. While they
center of the exhibit shows are not visible, we can speculate that o l a t s e k the industrial uses to which ICI these boxes are filled with packed
41 |
chemicals are put in Palestine. oranges. This advertisement hints E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a They play a prominent part at the novelty of synthetic chemicals in the making of food, drink, in Palestine, as it captures a historical tabaco products, textiles, metals, moment in which the Synthetic Age engineering and electrical came into materialization in the equipment, leather, chemicals Middle East and vividly illustrates the and dyes, paint and paper, imperial flow of synthetic chemicals. bricks, pottery and glass, and Here ICI Levant serves as an oils and soap, as well as in ‘intermediate,’ which drew British- agricultural production.”39 ruled Palestine into global-imperial chemical networks. Right from its onset, ICI In addition to the products Levant published commercials in mentioned above, ICI Levant sold Hebrew, English, and Arabic, urging other chemical novelties. During the readers to buy the company’s 1930s, the company was importing products.40 In addition to plain various chemical substances to text boxes describing its wares Palestine, including different kinds as shown in Figure 1, other lively of fertilizers, weapons, explosives, advertisements displayed the new and dyes.42 In the early 1940s, one relationship between British synthetic could find ICI Levant’s pesticides and chemicals and the agriculture of herbicides at various Arab-Palestinian Palestine. Figure 2 is taken from the dealers in Haifa, Jerusalem, Ramallah, front page of Al-Iqtisadat al-‘arabiyya Gaza, Jenin, Acre, Nazareth, (The Arab Economic Journal), an Bethlehem, Jaffa, and Tiberias and Arab-Palestinian economic periodical. Tulkarem.43 In addition, during the Portrayed on the left side is the Second World War, the Palestinian British industrialist who loads the government appointed it almost ship with British fertilizers, which exclusively to be in charge of the travel to Haifa’s harbor. Returning to importation of chemical fertilizers the British isles are marching boxes to the country,44 thus making the
39 “At the Levant Fair,” The Palestine 41 Al-Iqtisadat al-‘arabiyya I (14), 15 July Post 01 June 1936. 1935. 40 For English, see The Palestine Post, 42 Ta‘asiyot Himi’yot Mamlahti’yot 10 January 1945; The Palestine Post, (Levant ba‘am), Yafo: Dfus M. Shoham, 21 June 1935; Al-Carmel, 31 August unknown year. 1932; Al-Carmel, 11 November 1933. 43 Plant Protection Services, Jerusalem, .ISA ,-634/9מ ,And many more in the following 02 March 1942 newspapers: Filastin, Al-Sirat, Al- 44 Letter from Controller of Agricultural Carmel, Al-Jami’a al-’arabiyya and Production to Chief Secretary, Al-Iqtisadat al-‘arabiyya. Government of Palestine, 24/02/1945,
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 91 company the largest importer of field experiment station or during agrochemicals to Palestine.45 a committee meeting discussing ICI Levant did not only sell plant protection,49 the company held various chemical substances– intimate ties with both Jewish and its experts were also involved British agricultural experts. with the local field of agricultural Since synthetic fertilizers and experimentation. Fertilizers other chemicals were relatively new produced by ICI were used in various and were in constant development, agricultural stations all over Palestine, ICI Levant took it upon itself to E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
and its synthetic pesticides were ‘educate’ local farmers on using used to control different pests. For its products. As mentioned in its
o l a t s e k instance, Jewish farmers reported brochure, it was in fact the company’s back to ICI Levant on the results of trademark to provide free expert
O m r i P their fumigation efforts against black assistance.50 For example, experts scales and hornets,46 and locust sent by the company to Tulkarem in attacks in Palestine were pushed 1930 had demonstrated to the local back with synthetic pesticides farmers how to use the fertilizers.51 produced by ICI.47 The massive Furthermore, one of the first actions campaign against locusts held all taken by the company right after over the Middle East during the hiring sales representatives was to Second World War was dependent schedule expert lectures, as indicated on a new pesticide, Gammaxene, by its agent visit to Jenin in 1931.52 which was invented in ICI laboratories ICI Levant’s agrarian methods in in England.48 In short, whether in the Palestine corresponded with similar attempts of ICI’s Indian branch to ‘educate’ farmers in the provinces of ISA. Bombay, Bihar, and Sind on synthetic ,-68.44מ 45 ‘Agricultural Chemicals and Fertilizers- Monthly Report of Stocks,’ 1942, .ISA ,-4894/3מ 46 See various letters in folder number Imperial Chemical Industries, Plant J15-13330-3, Zionist Archives. Protection Division, 1978), 6. 47 ‘Locust Campaign – 1947: Situation, 49 Minutes of the 11th Meeting of the Measures Taken and Preparations in Plant Protection Committee held on 13 .ISA ,-664/6מ .ISA. April 1938, -18/37מ .Hand,’ 17/02/1947 48 The Palestine Post, 19/10/1945; an 50 Ta‘asiyot Himi’yot Mamlahti’yot ICI publication about its chemical (Levant ba‘am), Yafo: Dfus M. Shoham, inventions that took place in Jealott’s unknown year. Hill in North England mentioned 51 “Al-sana’at al-kimawiyya al- Gammaxene together with DDT ‘imbartaturiyya w’al-da’wa al- as sharing the same “credit for the sahyunyya” [“Imperial Chemical dawn of a new era of insect control Industries and the Zionist in agriculture, horticulture, stored Propaganda”] Filastin, 30 December products, timber preservations and 1930. public health.” F. C. Peacock, Jealott’s 52 “Asabi’a miltshit fi jenin” [“The Fingers Hill: Fifty Years of Agricultural of Meltchett in Jenin”] Filastin, 14 Research, 1928-1978 (Bracknell: January 1931.
92 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P chemical usages.53 These agricultural be seen as a catalyst for the spread policies reflect the close relationship of synthetic chemicals into colonial o l a t s e k between the imperial apparatus and spaces. In Palestine, the Synthetic
| the empire’s chemical industries. In Age materialized in relation to, and as E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a the case of agrochemicals, British a consequence of, British imperialism imperial initiatives to ‘develop’ the in the Middle East. indigenous rural community via modern agricultural schemes, and private (imperial) business aiming at VISIONS OF A ROUND GOLDEN selling its products, were animating FUTURE each other. Thus, the Synthetic Age cannot be understood without At the start of 1930, Isa Al- both forces, which attempted to Isa, the editor in chief of Filastin, provoke a global change in synthetic was sued by ICI Levant managers agrochemical consumption. and the Palestinian government for The links between colonial “slanderous and false accusations.”55 agricultural policies and ICI The paper accused the company activities in the field of agriculture of smuggling weapons. More reveal a staggering connectivity specifically, the paper proclaimed between chemical industries, that “[s]ince ICI handed over the imperial infrastructure, and colonial- business of explosives to Chillik agricultural science.54 Exposing Weizmann […], the Zionists are these connections, however, is only well supplied with bombs and possible by focusing on the company the government does nothing to and its chemical substances. control it.”56 While in this specific Unpacking the cross-fertilization case, the company was accused between synthetic chemicals and of arming Zionist-Jews, usually the colonial spaces reveals the close allegations against ICI Levant were ties between chemical industries and set towards what (some of) the Arab- colonial sovereignty in a historical Palestinian writers believed to be its moment that was characterized by key ambition–the “extension of the the rise of synthetic chemicals. Under Jewish colonization.”57 The following the global context of the Synthetic Age, ICI Levant’s imperial activity can 55 “Mishpatam shel itonim aravim hane’aeshamim be’hafatsat diba” 53 Page, “Nitrogenous Fertilizers in Great [“The Trail of Arab Newspapers which Britain and the British Empire,” 392. are Accused of Defamation”] Doar 54 For colonial efforts around the empire Hayom, 05 March 1930. see Ross, Ecology and Power in the 56 Letter from Chillik Weizmann to Chaim Age of Empire; for British efforts in Weizmann, 28 January 1930, 14-1316, British-ruled Palestine see Roza El- WA. Eini, Mandated Landscapes: British 57 “Al-lurd miltshit w’aghradhu” [“Lord Imperial Rule in Palestine 1929-1948 Meltchett and his Goals”] Filastin, 12 (London: Routledge, 2006). December 1930.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 93 section will explore the Arab- instance, the Filastin correspondent Palestinian public debate regarding noted that “[t]he company opened ICI Levant’s position in Palestine branches in Syria […] despite the and will describe the unique role presence of a local Arab agent, who the company had in supporting or have been conducting business hampering the perceived economic- with other British companies.”61 national development. Arriving at the heart of the matter, As two prominent Jewish the writer warned that “if we will not figures and the leaders of ICI pay attention to [ICI Levant’s] broad E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
in Britain and Palestine, Chillik and extensive operations, which are Weizmann and Alfred Mond were taking place around us according
o l a t s e k often targeted by the press. The to their economic plan, they will media was concerned that Mond and take over the economy and the
O m r i P his son, Henry Mond (the second industries. Thus, our financial and Lord Meltchett) would assist the economic life, which are the basis “Zionist colonialization” as they for our independence, will be under held close connections to British their influence; by not being aware circles in Jerusalem and London.58 [of their activities], we will help to Thus, the press established a link create the national Jewish homeland between the Monds’ other economic unintentionally.”62 endeavors in Palestine with ICI Another theme that emerged Levant‘s undertakings in the region. from these articles was the lack of Consequently, the articles warned ICI Levant’s Arab agents and officials against “the economic Jewish in its operations. “If the company’s colonialization”59 of Palestine and wishes to serve the country and its the company’s place in it. Under commerce were true,” wrote Filastin this light, the company’s expansion in 1930, “it would have appointed attempts via its agents to other parts Arab officials; however, its actions [in of Palestine and east of the Jordan the local market] are testifying for its were observed under suspicion.60 For [real intentions].”63 The newspapers saw the lack of ‘Arab hands’ in the company lines as another indicator 58 “Al-sana’at al-kimawiyya al- of its “real purposes” mentioned ‘imbartaturiyya: shariqa yusaytiru alayha al-sahyunyyun ” [“Imperial before. While in the aforementioned Chemical Industries: A Company trial, the company’s representative Controlled by Zionists”] Al-Sirat, 23 November 1930. 59 “Al-sana’at al-kimawiyya al- 61 “Al-sana’at al-kimawiyya al- ‘imbartaturiyya w’shariqat shel: ‘imbartaturiyya: shariqa yusaytiru radd w’bayan” [“Imperial Chemical alayha al-sahyunyyun II ” [“Imperial Industries and Shell Company: Chemical Industries: A Company Response and Clarification”] Filastin, Controlled by Zionists II ”] Filastin, 29 25 December 1930. Novermber 1930. 60 Filastin, 12 December 1930; Filastin, 14 62 Ibid. January 1931. 63 Filastin, 25 December 1930.
94 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P testified that “half of the company’s of the land and debated about the officials in Palestine and Syria are means to ‘unlock’ it. In addition to o l a t s e k Arabs,”64 other documents from that agricultural transformation, during
| period attest differently. In a private the age of colonial development, E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a correspondence between Chaim and infrastructural projects were Chillik Weizmann in the same year, considered significant economic the latter informed his brother: “Since benefits.68 For example, the ICI had established in Palestine all importance of the new electricity grid work, sales, agencies, etc. have been and the Dead Sea mineral potential done by Jews and through Jews only received much media attention and and it is, therefore, that to all intents was popularized by newspapers and and purposes, ICI in Palestine acts by national leaders, both in Arabic like a Jewish Company.”65 It remains and Hebrew.69 However, British unclear whom Chillik Weizmann colonial administrators, viewing Jews preferred to deceive: his unrelenting as agents of development, gave them brother, or the British court. However, the most infrastructural concessions, the rest of this correspondence leaving Arab-Palestinians mostly demonstrates that with Chillik empty-handed. As early as 1923, the Weizmann as its manager, the young Jamal Al-Husseini, then the company preferred Jewish labor.66 secretray to the Executive Committee The broader context to these of the Palestine Arab Congress, accusations must be understood addressed the High Commissioner in light of British economic policy of Palestine, lamenting on the Arab in Palestine, which hindered non- loss of economic opportunities Jews.67 Like the British and the by referring to the governmental Zionists, the Arab-Palestinians ‘favoritism’ for giving various envisioned the economic potential concessions to Zionist-Jews.70 Although some of Al-Husseini’s arguments were inaccurate, it 64 Doar Hayom, 05 March 1930. nevertheless demonstrates the 65 Letter from Chillik Weizmann to Chaim economic importance of these Weizmann, 28 January 1930, 14-1316, WA. 66 This notion was part of a broader ideological movement of Jewish- 68 Norris, Land of Progress, 5-18. Zionist actors, who called for the 69 Norris, 181; Fredrick Meiton, Electrical ‘conquest of labor’ (kibush ha‘avoda). Palestine: Capital and Technology See Zachary Lockman, Comrades and from Empire to Nation (Berkeley, CA: Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers University of California Press, 2019), in Palestine, 1906-1948 (Berkeley, CA: 81-82. University of California Press, 1996), 70 “Report on the State of Palestine 47-48. Submitted to his Excellency the 67 Barbara Smith, The Roots of High Commissioner for Palestine by Separation in Palestine: British the Executive Committee Palestine Economic Policy, 1920-1929 (London: Arab Congress,“ 13 October 1923, .ISA ,-4908/24מ .(I. B. Tauris, 1993
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 95 development projects for Arab- the company’s potential in offering Palestinians as well. Thus, the solutions to the agricultural problems criticism of ICI Levant must be of Palestine using pesticides and understood in light of these historical fertilizers. More importantly, the writer events and the continuous Arab- emphasized the neutral character Palestinian dissatisfaction with the of the company’s activities by British (colonial) development policy referring to the activity of Weizmann in Palestine.71 as ‘apolitical’ and emphasizing the Nevertheless, not all of mutual gains of Arabs and Jews E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
the articles about ICI Levant were from the company’s success in negative. Other articles celebrated Palestine. The article concluded by
o l a t s e k the company and its activities in the paraphrasing the words of Weizmann local agricultural field. 72 During the himself, and connected the future
O m r i P British rule in Palestine, the black of ICI Levant with the future of and red scale pest were a constant Palestine’s economy and agriculture: threat to Arab-Palestinian and Jewish orange cultivation.73 In 1933, the “The manager [Weizmann] was Jerusalem based newspaper Mir’at right when he said: ‘The future of al-Sharq published an article praising ICI is the future of Palestine,’ and ICI Levant’s help and specifically its what is the future of Palestine if head, Chillik Weizmann, in fighting not the future of its orange trees; this bug in the northern district.74 the future of the orange trees is The article began by describing the extermination of the harming the problem, emphasizing the diseases.”76 government’s insufficient help and inadequate solutions to exterminating As noted before, orange the pest.75 It then introduced the cultivation was, until the Second company and Weizmann, explaining World War, Palestine’s most lucrative industry. According to government records, the orange export grew 71 Norris, Land of Progress, 168-204; from 830,959 boxes in 1920-21 to Meiton, Electrical Palestine, 81-82. 2,590,861 boxes in 1929-30 and 72 For example, Al-Sirat, 15 December further expanded to 13,055,770 1930; Al-Difa’, 20 February 1936. 73 Roza El-Eini, Mandated Landscapes, boxes in 1938-39. The Second World 144-145. War marked a stop to the orange 74 “Majhudat sharikat al-sana’at al- industry’s prosperity, as the number kimawiyya” [“The Endeavors of the of exported boxes had dropped by Chemical Industries Company”] Mir’at half.77 Due to financial difficulties and al-Sharq, 23 September 1933. 75 These included uprooting unyielding trees and introducing a ‘black scale tax’ on orange cultivators. Both moves 76 Mir’at al-Sharq, 23 September 1933. encountered vast opposition. The 77 A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in Palestine Post, 03 March 1933; The December 1945 and January 1946 Palestine Post, 22 December 1932. for the Information of the Anglo-
96 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P lack of pesticides, orange growers As such, just as during the 1930s, witnessed the black scale returning ICI Levant again assisted the o l a t s e k to their cultivation plots during the government and the orange growers
78 | war. In contrast to the plague of the with its personnel and chemical E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a 1930s, which was mainly limited to substances.82 northern Palestine, the black scale The interaction between had now spread west and south, ICI Levant and the Arab-Palestinian threatening the entire “citrus belt.”79 press thus reveals a complicated In 1944 the number of orchards relationship. While critics perceived infected by the black scale had the company as an extension of reached between a quarter and a Jewish colonization, other articles fifth of the total orange cultivation sought to neutralize the company’s area in the country.80 Like Mir’at Al- role in Palestine and to emphasize Sharq’s reporter ten years before, its benefits to the local cultivation the Palestine Joint Citrus Growers plots and orchards. Seemingly, these Committee realized the threats on two sets of opinions hold contrary the prominent place the orange explanations for ICI Levant’s goals in economy had in Palestine. Sending Palestine and its means to achieve an urgent warning to the government, them. However, the epistemological the committee alerted, “we wish world in which these writers and herewith respectively to call to their interactions with the company your attention the most serious and existed was in relation to their pressing problem that is now facing economic future. In other words, the Palestine citrus industry, namely, they both criticized or praised ICI the black scale, and to request that Levant as a part of a discourse that immediate steps be taken by the envisioned a national economy government to help save the industry upon which the future nation would from this threat to its existence.”81 be based. At this specific historical moment, the company’s strength and capital based on imperial reach, as American Committee of Inquiry: well as its ‘chemical agency,’ which Volume I (Palestine: Government generated a global flow of expert Printer, 1946), 341-344. knowledge and synthetic chemicals, 78 Palestine Joint Citrus Growers Committee to Chief Secretary, “Black were negotiated in the public arena. Here ICI Levant had a unique position ,-669.5מ .Scale on Citrus,” 26/04/1944 ISA. in assisting or hindering the arrival 79 G. E. Bodkin, “The Fumigation of Citrus Trees in Palestine,” Bulletin of Entomological Research 16 no.2 (1925): 143-149. Committee to Chief Secretary, “Black 80 Palestine Joint Citrus Growers Scale on Citrus“. Committee to Chief Secretary, “Black 82 For example, see A. Baroai to ,Acting Chief Plant Protection Officer ,-669.5מ .Scale on Citrus,” 26/04/1944 ISA. “Government Grant for Black Scale .ISA ,-679.23מ .Palestine Joint Citrus Growers Control,” 21 March 1947 81
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 97 (يدادقملا) of the transformation of agricultural Husni al-Miqdadi and industrial production. As the was born in 1903 in Tulkarem .in Ottoman-ruled Palestine (مركلوط) Synthetic Age was crystalizing in British-ruled Palestine, the means As a native of the city, al-Miqdadi to establish the economy and the was educated in the local primary national space were, in this case, school. Later, he received his middle anchored in an imperial context, school and high school education in in which ICI Levant, as a chemical Jerusalem. In 1921, al-Miqdadi joined company, played a prominent part. the Land Surveying Department of E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
the British administration in Palestine, and after two years of governmental o l a t s e k AGENT ORANGE: AN ARAB- service moved to study agricultural PALESTINIAN EXPERT IN THE engineering in France. In 1926, he
O m r i P SYNTHETIC AGE returned to Palestine and served as the principal of the agricultural school ICI Levant had a complex and in his hometown of Tulkarem, which multifaceted relationship with Arab- was one of the dozen educational Palestinians in British-ruled Palestine. centers of British agricultural At the heart of this relationship stood policy in Palestine. The last stop the notion of Palestine’s economic in his documented career was as potential and the company’s role in a company official for ICI Levant. enhancing or hampering its Starting from 1928, he travelled materialization. In this section, one of between its regional branches in the advocates for Palestine’s Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq.83 economic potential, Husni al-Miqdadi, Throughout his career, al- who was working for ICI Levant in Miqdadi published many articles and Palestine and the region, will be essays on various subjects. As an introduced. As al-Miqdadi agriculture expert, he mostly wrote participated in this public discussion, about different modes of fruit tree he contributed to it from his own field cultivation, plant diseases, and of expertise as a ‘citrus expert.’ various fertilization methods. By 1930 Furthermore, al-Miqdadi’s writing he published a book entitled “The األسمدة) ”reveals his vision of ‘economy- Fertilizers and Their Usages presenting himself on the ,(واستعمالها making’ in Palestine as a part of a broader contemporaneous vision of cover as an advisor to ICI Levant and thanking some of its officials for their .(النهصة – an Arabic awakening (nahda Al-Miqdadi’s vision of economic help in publishing the book.84 nahda was entangled with British imperial-chemical networks and infrastructures in the Middle East and 83 Y‘aqub al-‘awdat, Min A‘alam Al-fikr was profoundly related to the w’al-’adb fi Filastin (Al-Quds: Dar al- ongoing transformation brought by asraa’, 1992), 33-34. the Synthetic Age in the region. 84 Husni al-Miqdadi, Al-’asmida w’isti‘amalha w’fiha fusul w’idahat
98 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P o l a t s e k
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FIGURE 3: Fumigation efforts Reviewing his writings, it is obvious at Jaffa aimed at exterminating citrus pests. The Orange Trees that al-Miqdadi’s area of expertise our covered in tarpaulins. was citrus cultivation. For example, Approximately 1930-1933. Eric during the 1930s-1940s, he translated and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, Library of Congress. for Filastin several lectures about citrus and other fruit trees’ fertilization methods, and published with another Jaffa based newspaper, Al-Difa’, articles about citrus tree fertilizations and pests, in addition to other accounts on citrus diseases and how to prevent them.85 As Palestine’s
‘an al-nabat w’al-turba w’an al-zibl w’isti‘amalhu (Tulkarm: Maktab suriya w’filastin, 1930), 3-4. 85 Filastin, 25 October 1931; Filastin, 07
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 99 E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a | o l a t s e k O m r i P
most significant export until 1939 was FIGURE 4: Measuring the quantities of cyanide and acid oranges, it becomes clear why al- before the fumigation of the Miqdadi chose to specialize in citrus trees. In the center stands the cultivation and their fertilization government Entomologist. Around him are other foremen and modes. laborers. Approximately 1922- Al-Miqdadi also edited 1925. In later years, ICI Levant two agricultural journals, one imported hydrogen cyanide and employed its agent to help the based in Lebanon and the other in local orange cultivators. G. E. Palestine. The Palestinian journal Bodkin, “The Fumigation of Citrus was published by ICI Levant and Trees in Palestine,” Bulletin of Entomological Research 16 no.2 distributed locally and regionally. In (1925): 153. Cambridge University Al-Majalla al-zira’iyya al-‘arabiyya Press. (Journal of Arab Agriculture), the expertise of al-Miqdadi with citrus trees and fertilizers, and the company’s interests in assisting to the agricultural transformation with its chemical products, interlaced as the journal published scientific
October 1931; Filastin, 13 June 1931; Al-Difa’, 02 March 1938; Al-Difa’, 02 December 1942; Al-Difa’, 01 August 1945.
100 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P agricultural articles by Arab and philosophies to craft economic foreign experts. As a citrus expert, thought and envisioned an economic o l a t s e k al-Miqdadi contributed articles on nahda as part of a broader Arabic
87 | fruit tree fertilization and orange enlightenment project. Nahda, E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a tree diseases. In addition, the meaning awakening, resurgence, journal published other economic- or revival, is a distinct term for Arab agricultural news, a ‘questions to the cultural or intellectual ‘revival’ that editor’ section, where agriculturalists first appeared at the onset of the from Palestine and the region would nineteenth century, popularized send their inquiries to the journal, somewhere in the last third of the and an agricultural calendar, which same century.88 During the interwar advised the readers of the proper period, the nahda linked a nationally times for fertilization and watering.86 specific and a broader pan-Arab When al-Miqdadi wrote about framework together. In addition, different modes of cultivation and it served to bridge an historical various types of fertilizers, he wrote gap between the past of the ‘Arab from his field of expertise. As the civilization’ and modern-day issues previously mentioned writings are and concerns. As Peter Hill notes, mostly technical, they provide little the nahda must be understood vis- historical access to al-Miqdadi’s á-vis the contemporary changes world of thought. Luckily, al-Miqdadi and projects that its advocates lived left other writings, giving a better through.89 The British rule in Palestine picture of how he understood himself was a period of empire-building in relation to current-day issues, and national crafting in the Middle how he imagined the past, and how East. Thus, creating an adequate he envisioned the future. In the economic basis was a crucial concern remaining part of this section, al- for people who sought to animate Miqdadi’s additional writings will be the future state. As noted before, explored in order to position him in Arab-Palestinians understood the the context of Arab-Palestinian nahda economic potential of Palestine as discourse in British-ruled Palestine. derived from infrastructure projects In her remarkable research and crop cultivation. on economy-making in British-ruled Al-Miqdadi realized the Palestine, Sherene Seikaly describes economic potential of Palestine as a group of men that articulated their well. In his essay “The Economic اإلصالح) ”own vision of national economy. Development of Palestine he explored the ,(االقتصادي في فلسطين Over the pages of their journal Al-Iqtisadat al-‘arabiyya, these ‘men of capital’ drew from diverse 87 Seikaly, Men of Capital. 88 Peter Hill, Utopia and Civilization 86 Al-Majalla al-zira’iyya al-’arabiyya, in the Arab Nahda (Cambridge: 01 April 1947, 01 July 1947, 01 January Cambridge University Press, 2019), 3. 1948. 89 Hill, Utopia and Civilization, 3.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 101 economic conditions of the Arab the nation was founded not only on world and Palestine’s place in it. material economic potential, but also Similar to other Arab writers and on the proper education of the youth authors during the interwar period, to think economically and rationally: al-Miqdadi called for an ‘Arab “In order to improve we are in a dire awakening’ or nahda. Unlike many need for a strong foundation upon who advocated for the renaissance of which we will build our national the political and cultural spheres, awakening that will disperse this however, al-Miqdadi insisted that this blessed economic spirit to our sons E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a
| 93
”.(الروح االقتصادية المباركة) awakening must first be grounded on a firm economic basis: The science of the economy
o l a t s e k was vital to this awakening project. “It “The value of the civilized nation is miserable that our daily
O m r i P is depended on the value of its newspapers are not interested in wealth. [Therefore], we must economic researches,” lamented al- take care of our economy to our Miqdadi, “as they were and still are best extent since the progress of the best way to establish the the nation is based on its capital strongest of civilizations.”94 Here, he development methods and on echoes the rationale of Al-Jami’a al- the wealth of its individuals.”90 ’arabiyya’s editor to publish al- Miqdadi’s “valuable and useful Situating himself and his [research] topic for the economic epistemological world on a linear revival of the country.”95 Later in the path of historical progress, al-Miqdadi article, al-Miqdadi moved to review was concerned that “most of the the economic potential of Palestine eastern nations had neglected this based on a categorization of the ‘five issue [economy-making] to such a primary industries’– production ;(تحويلية) manufacturing ;(استخراجية) degree that currently they are unable ;(نقلية) transport ;(زراعية) to progress along with the other agriculture In these .(تجارية) civilized nations.”91 According to him, and commerce a proper economic revival would not sections, he elaborated on the take place by the “chattering of various minerals found in Palestine politicians” but by the practical and the region, the new education of youth about “economic transportation road from Palestine to and industrial issues.”92 The future of Iraq, and the new commerce opportunities from Haifa’s harbor. Here, al-Miqdadi’s account on the future economic potential of 90 “Al-‘islah al-iqtisadi fi filastin” [“The Economic Development of Palestine”] Palestine was firmly based on (re) Al-Jamia al-‘arabiyya, 15 September 1927. 91 Al-Jamia al-‘arabiyya, 15 September 93 Ibid. 1927. 94 Ibid. 92 Ibid. 95 Ibid.
102 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P new(ed) imperial infrastructure period in the region. designed to produce, extract, and Like other nahda writers, o l a t s e k deliver ‘raw materials’ in and out of al-Miqdadi understood himself as a
| the region. part of the Arab civilization, which E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a The agricultural industry was trying to march forward on the remained the last to be reviewed due track of ‘progress.’99 Simultaneously, to its fundamental importance to he used his knowledge to design a Palestine, “the foundation upon local economic nahda with his own which we must build our economic professional expertise.100 In a later is the article, al-Miqdadi wrote at length (نظامنا االقتصادي) regime agriculture since our country was on his vision for the future of citrus always an agrarian country, which cultivation in Palestine. He started by exported wheat, olives, cotton, wines emphasizing the essential place of and figs for the last 3000 years.”96 orange cultivation for the economy However, al-Miqdadi understood this of Palestine: “Most of the people longue durée of ‘agrarian expertise’ know that the citrus agriculture is as not exclusive to Palestinians. In tremendously important in Palestine. another essay, he highlighted the There is no doubt that this agriculture Arab civilization’s specific experience concerns every individual from the and proficiency as agriculturalists, inhabitants of the country, as the which went back to Middle Ages general economy of the state is Spain. According to al-Miqdadi, “it will based in its essence on the success not be an overstatement to say that or failure of this agriculture.”101 Al- some of the European countries are Miqdadi continued by reviewing the basing their agricultural progress on past expansion of the cultivation the knowledge of the Arab area and the yearly export of orange agriculturalists in Andalusia.”97 Like boxes. As he preached ten years Seikaly’s ‘men of capital,’ al-Miqdadi ago, and as a part of the scientific followed the nahda narrative research endeavors the ‘men of structure to reveal another “Arab capital’ advocated and praised, civilizational secret.”98 Here he al-Miqdadi continued to offer his returned to the Andalusian past to predictions on future agricultural- harmonize the Arab-Palestinians’ economic citrus trends based on the ‘civilizational’ skills with the new economic potentials of the interwar 99 Ibid. 100 Seikaly argues that the economic nahda can only be fully understood 96 “Al-‘islah al-iqtisadi fi filastin: II” in the relations between its local [“The Economic Development of manifestations and its broader Palestine: II”] Al-Jamia al-‘arabiyya, 19 ideological logic. Ibid, 21. September 1927. 101 “Mustaqbal zira’at al-‘athmar al- 97 Al-Jamia al-‘arabiyya, 19 September hamdiyya” [“The Future of Fruit Tree 1927. Cultivation”] Al-Difa’, 25 December 98 Seikaly, Men of Capital, 45-48. 1938.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 103 numbers he examined beforehand.102 specializing in chemical fertilizers and It is no wonder, then, to find pesticides, he was writing both on the an article about the economic technical side of his vision and on its potential of oranges in Palestine, political aspects. The orange growing written by al-Miqdadi, in the first industry in Palestine stood at the core published issue of Al-Iqtisadat al- of his future plans for the economy of ’arabiyya, which was advocating an Palestine. This vision was informed by economic nahda project.103 With this his intellectual roots embedded in the article and other writings, al-Miqdadi interwar nahda movement and by his E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
thus united economic achievement practical chemical expertise, which with national independence. More was itself a product of a structural
o l a t s e k specifically, he used his particular shift towards an agricultural industrial expertise as an agriculturalist to dependency on chemical substances.
O m r i P contribute to the discourse of As mentioned before, ICI Levant had economic nahda in Palestine, and to a significant impact on this process in articulate the economic foundations British-ruled Palestine. of the national future: “Our economic Finally, examining ICI and our financial Levant’s journal can provide further (حياتنا االقتصادية) life are both insight into the entanglements (نشاطنا المالي) activities founded to a certain extent on between the Synthetic Age as a orange cultivation. That is to say that global phenomenon and the local the future of the country is tied to the Palestinian agency inscribed in al- future of this agriculture.”104 Miqdadi’s economic nahda vision. Simultaneous to publishing Like other agents of the company, his writings, al-Miqdadi worked as al-Miqdadi was traveling between ICI a selling agent and consultant to Levant’s branches in Palestine and ICI Levant. As a fertilizer expert, al- the area.105 The spatial boundaries Miqdadi’s specific expertise was a of these regional travels could be product of a substantial change that possibly traced back by considering was happening during the onset Figure 5, taken from the Al-Majalla of the Synthetic Age and the rising al-zira’iyya al-’arabiyya. An ICI Levant flow of synthetic agrochemicals publication edited by al-Miqdadi to Palestine and the Middle East. himself, this journal advocated for the During the 1930s-1940s, chemical company’s products all around the substances and chemical industries region. On the journal’s front pages, were becoming prevalent in the the agricultural-economical space was region. As an agent of the company, assembled according to ICI Levant’s operations in the region (ICI Egypt was a different sub-company). As its name 102 Seikaly, 42-44; Al-Difa’, 25 December 1938. 103 Al-Iqtisadat al-‘arabiyya I(1), 01 105 Letter from District Commissioner, January 1935. Lydda District to Chief Secretary, 24 .ISA ,-248/43מ ,Al-Difa’, 25 December 1938. April 1947 104
104 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P suggests, it highlighted the region’s (Mecca and Jerusalem) but mainly agricultural aspects that were best through its economical-agricultural- o l a t s e k suited to consume the company’s industrial prospects. One can see,
| products. Consequently, the dates of for example, the oil field in Iraq (right E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a Basra, the grain fields of East Jordan, side) and the sugar cane factory in and the oranges of Palestine are Egypt (left side). Connecting these prominently displayed as the main nation-state economies with the attractions on the cover page.106 infrastructure of the British empire, During the interwar period, the harbors of Haifa and Alexandria this spatial reorganization of the serve as the main entry and leaving region was, of course, not only points for commodities, while trains, conceptualized by ICI Levant and trucks, and airplanes highlight non- al-Miqdadi. In an area that later maritime trade routes.108 became known as the Middle East, This comparison reveals various colonial development policies the entanglements between the encouraged British administrations intellectual aspects of the Palestinian- to (re)establish communications, Arabic nahda and the material travel, and trade infrastructure in dimensions of British imperial- the region. Jacob Norris shows chemical networks. The economy how this infrastructure, economic envisioned and advocated by the development, and the extraction of ‘men of capital’ was to be based on resources played a significant role in various economic enterprises, as constructing British-ruled Palestine al-Miqdadi eloquently articulated as physically and conceptually linked above. Cash-crop cultivation and raw to the Mashriq.107 Thus, from their material extraction were major pillars vantage point in Palestine, al-Miqdadi in this scheme. As Norris and Seikaly and the other ‘men of capital’ show, these ‘economic potentials’ conceptualized their local economic drove British actions and Arab- nahda vis-à-vis the region’s spatial Palestinian intellectual thought in the metamorphosis. region.109 What both miss, however, Juxtaposing the Al-Majalla is what al-Miqdadi’s agency and his front cover with Seikaly’s ‘men position with ICI make it possible of capital’ journal, Al-Iqtisadat for us to see–during the interwar al-’arabiyya, reveals the similar period, and especially during the geo-economic logic behind the 1930s-1940s, a subtle transformation Arab economic nahda. In Figure emerged. Agricultural and industrial 6, Palestine is characterized by production was becoming ever more its oranges. The Arab region is dependent on the mass-production illustrated with its religious features
108 Al-Iqtisadat al-‘arabiyya I(2), 15 106 Al-Majalla al-ziraiyya al-‘arabiyya, 01 January 1935. April 1947. 109 Norris, Land of Progress; Seikaly, Men 107 Norris, Land of Progress. of Capital.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 105 E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a | o l a t s e k O m r i P
FIGURE 5: Cover page of Al-Majalla al-ziraiyya al-‘arabiyya, 01 April 1947. Jrayed Collection: Arabic Newspapers of Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine, jrayed.nli.org.il, founded by the National Library of Israel.
106 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P and circulation of chemical order to materialize their national substances. economies. o l a t s e k In British-ruled Palestine,
|
Arab-Palestinians envisioned an E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a economic development that would CONCLUSION culminate in national independence. However, this economic nahda By reconstructing the was not limited spatially to history of ICI Levant activities and the colonial states, as it was in examining Husni al-Miqdadi’s constant relationship with a broader writings, this article has sought intellectual world of an Arab to explore the crystallization of ‘civilizational’ awakening. Writers the Synthetic Age in British-ruled like al-Miqdadi devoted themselves Palestine. In the first section, the to the agricultural-economical global dimensions of the Synthetic aspects of this project. Al-Miqdadi’s Age were outlined, demonstrating specific expertise revolved around how imperial infrastructure and Palestine’s most lucrative agricultural colonial mindsets played a crucial crop, oranges, and was informed role in its manifestation outside by the potential to enhance of Europe and North America. its economic value with British Analyzing the various activities of agrochemicals. From his ‘expert’ ICI Levant and its relations to the position, al-Miqdadi contributed swelling global flow of chemicals, to the prevalent discourse of the infrastructure of synthetics national economic awakening. As circulation was further illuminated, the two front pages of the journals contributing to an understanding exhibit, this agricultural-economic of the company as one of the transformation depended on British ‘intermediaries’ between the global imperial regional infrastructure and Synthetic Age and local actors in imperial goods. Al-Miqdadi’s national British-ruled Palestine. Arriving in the vision was intrinsically based on British colony, the company drew the new possibilities generated close links with prominent Zionist by British imperial networks, and figures and other local agents. The more specifically, on the potential of company also worked intimately applying agrochemicals (produced with the British government and with by the British Empire) in the Jewish research institutes to assist materialization of this economic them in their scientific endeavors. nahda. His world of thought reveals This was a part of an imperial effort, the historical traces of the Synthetic as ICI operated in other colonies with Age outside of the ‘West.’ Thus, his similar methods. account shows that the social and As a giant global chemical material prospects inscribed in the company, ICI Levant’s products global Synthetic Age met local forces were necessary for executing the which were inspired to use them in various colonial development
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 107 FIGURE 6: Cover page of Al-Iqtisadat al-‘arabiyya I(2), 15 January 1935. Jrayed Collection: Arabic Newspapers of Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine, jrayed.nli.org.il, founded by the National Library of Israel.
108 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r i P projects around the British empire. In and was fundamentally related to the
Palestine, as the major local importer changes brought by the Synthetic o l a t s e k of agrochemicals, it held a significant Age. Thus, al-Miqdadi’s case shows
| position for Zionist-Jews and how the Synthetic Age and the E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a Arab-Palestinians, both seeking to prospected potential inscribed in its transform the economic basis of the ideas and materials met local forces land in order to materialize a future that sought to use them for their own national economy that would be advantage. based on agriculture. The company had a complex relationship with the Following al-Miqdadi’s Arab-Palestinian middle-class, which historical agency, the realization of either argued against the company or national independence in Palestine celebrated its agrarian contributions. during the interwar period was This multifaceted interaction was conditioned on the imperial flow of part of a broader discussion taking agrochemicals that would materialize place in British-ruled Palestine about it. However, this notion holds within economy-making and national it a sharp contrast, as the aspiration independence. Together with to achieve independence from infrastructural projects, the economic Britain created a dependence on its potential of Palestine was conceived products. This seeming paradox can through its agricultural prospects. leave us with more potential inquiries ICI Levant had a significant role, as about the interdependencies its chemical products were used by between agrochemicals, imperial capitalists and agricultural experts to industries, and colonial spaces. support different visions to ‘develop’ More importantly, it highlights Palestine. the role of British imperialism in One of these visionaries was setting into motion the Synthetic Husni al-Miqdadi, who, with his own Age—an historical process that expertise as a citrus authority and contributed to our contemporary as an agrochemical expert, was able global ‘addiction’ to synthetic to ‘join in’ on the conversation of chemicals. Modern industrial economic awakening in Palestine. As agriculture, which relies heavily al-Miqdadi was working for ICI Levant, on synthetic chemicals, is playing he sought to promote its ‘addictive’ a significant role in our current agrochemicals. Simultaneously, predicament of ecological crises he was also advocating for a while functioning as a catalyst to national independence based global warming.110 In addition to on local industry, commerce, and modern agriculture. Al-Miqdadi’s vision of a national economic Arab 110 As of 2014, it generates about 14 nahda was entangled with British percent of the world’s greenhouse imperial-chemical networks and emissions. Climate Change 2014 infrastructures in the Middle East Synthesis Report, IPPC 2014, 88, accessed 03 May 2021, https://www.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 109 interferences with biochemical cycles, industrialized agriculture’s intensive usage of pesticides and herbicides have become an environmental hazard, which pollutes waters, soils, and living organisms.111 In light of our current global cascading disaster, conceptualizations of victorious E n v i s o g ( I ) d e p t F l a |
(Western) innovation overcoming Malthusian future nightmares are not
o l a t s e k sufficient in explaining the origins of our global chemical addiction.112 Nor
O m r i P do accounts of Green Revolution(s) and nitrogen and phosphorus cycles help us reveal the deep and entangled historical roots of our chemical dependencies.113 Revealing the entanglements between al- Miqdadi’s vision, ICI Levant’s actions in British-ruled Palestine and British imperialism in the Middle East might help us to start unpacking the history of our synthetic chemical obsession.
ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ SYR_AR5_FINAL_full.pdf. 111 Sharma, A., Kumar, V., Shahzad, B. et al. Worldwide Pesticide Usage and its Impacts on Ecosystem. SN Appl. Sci. 1, no. 1446 (2019), accessed 03 May 2021: https://doi.org/10.1007/ s42452-019-1485-1. 112 Melillo, “The First Green Revolution,” 1056-1060. 113 Ibid; Smil, Enriching the Earth; Dana Cordell, Jan-Olof Drangert and Stuart White, “The Story of Phosphorus: Global Food Security and Food for Thought,” Global Environmental Change 19 (2009): 292-305, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. gloenvcha.2008.10.009.
110 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021
Contesting Imperial Feminisms: The Life of an Early Twentieth Century Egyptian Activist
by BELLA RUHL
112 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h ABSTRACT
| In “Contesting Imperial Feminisms: The Life of an Early C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F Twentieth Century Egyptian Activist,” I make the argument that first-wave Egyptian feminism was inextricably bound to nationalist discourses, and was both produced whole-cloth and adapted from European models by Egyptian activists in response to changing economic and political conditions. Using the life and political work of Huda Sha'arawi, a women’s rights activist and nationalist who lived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, I complicate the euro-centric view that feminism in Egypt was the result of western intervention and was uncritically adopted by colonized women. Instead I try to draw attention to the ways in which Sha'arawi and her comrades formulated a feminism predicated on decolonial liberation and indigenous values, while navigating the political realities of British colonialism and industrialized modernity. A microhistorical study with far-reaching implications, this article analyzes Sha'arawi’s rhetoric and actions, including her performative political unveiling, to gain a deeper understanding of the political contributions of early twentieth century Egyptian feminism. My objective is to return some agency to intersectional actors whose politics have been unjustly framed within the historiography as derivative of (white, European) feminist and (patriarchal) nationalist frameworks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bella Ruhl is a historical researcher and a student in the MA Global History at Freie Universität Berlin. Her interests include gender and postcolonial history, material culture, and archival studies.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 113 I. INTRODUCTION oppressive gender-segregated culture of the Islamic Middle East In support of her husband’s is a component of Orientalism—a declaration of retribution against system of representation that the perpetrators of the September systematically depicts Eastern culture 11 attacks in New York City, then- as hyper-sexualized, violent, and First Lady of the United States Laura primitive.3 The particular gendered Bush made a speech on live radio. malignment of the Arabic world C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | Framing the invasion of Afghanistan established a tradition of justifying
as a protection of human rights, colonial interventions into the cultural she claimed that “[t]he fight against practices of Middle Eastern Muslims 4 B e l a R u h terrorism is also a fight for the as a necessary humanitarian act. A rights and dignity of women.”1 The potent example lies in the fact that implication of this sentence, and the the British controller-general Lord perspective it articulates, have been Cromwell, who acted as the head analyzed in depth by Islamic feminist colonial agent in late nineteenth scholars in the intervening years. The century Egypt, “opposed feminism most notable example was an article in...England, [yet] espoused in published by the anthropologist and the colonial context a rhetoric of theorist Lila Abu-Lughod in 2002, feminism that attacked Egyptian men where she posed the question, for upholding practices that degraded “Do Muslim Women Really Need their women.”5 The effects of this Saving?”2 In her sharply articulated particular mobilization have had a analysis, Abu-Lughod situated Bush’s lasting negative impact on the social seemingly humanitarian rhetoric perception of women’s activism within a long history of feminist within the Middle East. As historian discourse mobilized towards imperial and theorist Leila Ahmed explains, domination in the Middle East. the use of feminism by colonizers to The idea that it is in the best enforce hegemonic cultural norms interest of Arab women to be rescued and undermine indigenous social by a white savior from the reputedly structures “has...imparted to feminism in non-Western societies the taint of having served as an instrument of 6 1 Laura Bush, “Radio Address by colonial domination.” Mrs. Bush,” The White House Radio Address Archives, November 17, 2001, https://georgewbush- 3 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New whitehouse.archives.gov/news/ York: Pantheon Books, 1978). releases/2001/11/20011117.html. 4 Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women 2 Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Need Saving?,” 785. Really Need Saving? Anthropological 5 Fadwa El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Fashion Theory 3, no. 1 (1999): 67, Its Others,” American Anthropologist DOI: 10.2752/136270499779165626. 104, no. 3 (September 2002), https:// 6 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in www.jstor.org/stable/3567256. Islam (New Haven, CT: Yale University
114 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h Historically, it was not only framed women in terms of nationalist white Westerners who engaged motherhood, rather than as equals to
| with discourses that framed men. C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F Eastern “backwardness” in gender Today a radical effort is relations and societal organization being made among Middle Eastern in contrast to the “progressive” feminists to formulate an indigenous West. Middle Easterners with a stake articulation of women’s rights and in the hegemonic colonial project protections, grounded not in the participated in this endeavour post-Enlightenment ideologies of as well. The upper middle class Western Europe, but in the particular Egyptian social reformer Qasim cultural traditions and beliefs of the Amin, for example, wrote a book southern and eastern Mediterranean in 1899 entitled The Liberation and surrounding regions. Islamic of Women (Tahrir al mara’a) that Feminism, which seeks to translate, sparked controversy in Egypt over interrogate, and reinterpret the veiling practices and segregation. holy Islamic texts apart from the The book criticized Egyptian familial influence of patriarchal norms, is structures and, in particular, the one such intellectual initiative. Leila system of segregation as contributing Ahmed and other scholars of Middle to its economic “backwardness” Eastern women’s history, such as in comparison to Europe. In his Fatima Mernessi, have identified effort to Europeanize Arab culture, historical periods in which women Amin framed the veil as “a huge enjoyed relative autonomy and legal barrier between women and their protection.8 While there is no doubt elevation, and consequently a that patriarchy has played just as barrier between the nation and its dominant a role in social formation advancement.”7 Instead of seeking and the regulation of reproduction in women’s liberation for the sake the Middle East as in Europe, there of equality and opportunity for is an effort underway to define the women, he drew upon imperialist deconstruction or transformation modernization discourses, which classified civilizations according to a racialized hierarchy and a linear 8 For two examples, see Fatima model of development. Grounded Mernissi, The Forgotten Queens in the epistemologically violent of Islam, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland discourses of scientific rationality, (Minneapolis, MN: University of the earliest calls for women’s rights Minnesota Press, 1993); and Huda were fundamentally misogynistic and Lutfi, “Manners and Customs of Fourteenth-Century Cairene Women: Female Anarchy versus Male Sharʹi Order in Muslim Prescriptive Press, 1992), 167. Treatises,” in Women in Middle 7 Qasim Amin, Tahrir Al Mara’a. Eastern History, ed. Nikki Keddie and (1899) 45, cited in Guindi, “Veiling Beth Baron (New Haven, CT: Yale Resistance”, 61. University Press, 1991), 99-121.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 115 of these systems as a response feminist activism, strategies, and to actual locations, situations, and principles were one resource to historical contexts, rather than as a which Middle Eastern women’s legacy of colonial intervention. rights activists looked for inspiration, In the early twentieth century, they were also nonetheless however, this approach was in its “committed to constructing an infancy. It was not until the 1980s that indigenous movement that would postcolonial theory and second-wave be both modern and authentic.”11 C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | feminism combined to produce the Rapidly changing social and
discursive resources foundational economic conditions throughout the to its ascendancy. That is not to say nineteenth and twentieth centuries
B e l a R u h that all aspects of Middle Eastern autonomously raised questions and women’s rights activism before produced solutions rooted in local the late twentieth century were beliefs and values. intrinsically foreign, colonialist, and In order to gain a better formulated with little regard to the understanding of the ways in which actualities of women’s lives. Indeed, Middle Eastern women in the early women’s rights discourses were twentieth century engaged with highly contested, adapted, and feminist discourses and responded to rejected by indigenous feminists from the increased pressures on traditional the beginning. Even before Qasim gender systems, I undertake here Amin published his call for women’s a contextualized microhistorical education, for example, salons, analysis of an individual woman – the literary correspondence, and small- Egyptian activist Huda Sha’arawi. scale publications were exchanged As a member of the privileged among growing circles of educated elite classes of Cairo, Sha’arawi’s middle- and upper-class Egyptian experience was by no means women.9 These platforms functioned representative. Her publications, as consciousness-raising initiatives, however, offer a great deal of allowing women to critically historical insight into the channels analyze their position in relation along which feminist ideas emerged to social structures and dominant and circulated, and the ways in discourses.10 While European which these ideas were integrated and reformulated within the particular context of local, national, 9 Beth Baron, The Women’s Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press (New Haven, CT: Yale University vol14/iss2/5. Press, 1994), 188. 11 Mary Ann Fay, “Introduction,” Journal 10 Nabila Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 of Middle East Women’s Studies Egyptian Revolution: From Feminist Special Issue: Early Twentieth- Awakening to Nationalist Political Century Middle Eastern Feminisms, Activism,” Journal of International Nationalisms, and Transnationalisms Women’s Studies 14, no. 2 (March 4, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 5, doi:10.2979/ 2013): 40, https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/ mew.2008.4.1.1.
116 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h and regional culture and politics. II. A TELLING EXAMPLE Sha’arawi’s position as a leader in
| the struggle for women’s rights under The principal source on C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F the British imperial protectorate and Sha’arawi’s life is a memoir that the newly formed Egyptian nation, as she wrote in her later years, which well as her reputation as a relatively was translated and published liberal, Westernized figure, make posthumously by the American her an interesting starting point in historian Margot Badran in 1987. seeking to make sense of these As part of her editing process, dialectal conduits. Her life also offers Badran arranged and abridged insight into the lives and ideas of her Sha’arawi’s manuscript, included more radical peers. photographs alongside the text, and Through an analysis of provided contextual information and Sha’arawi’s published writings, it is explanations which make the text possible to gain an understanding more accessible to a Western reader. of early twentieth century feminist Reading along the grain of these at activism as it emerged in response to times heavy-handed interventions colonial and industrializing conditions, requires a multilayered assessment global discourses, and the individual of the text that acknowledged experiences of influential figures. The its position as a historiographical sources reveal sites of resistance to interjection into the late twentieth the imposition of European hegemony, century debate over women’s history even among the more Western- in the Middle East. At the same oriented and socially sequestered, time, it is necessary to approach such as the elite Sha’arawi. Two the work as a detailed first-person of these sites, namely nationalist account of Sha’arawi’s childhood and feminisms and politicized veiling a rhetorical document – a didactic practices, offer considerable insight and pathos-heavy articulation into the dialectic exchange between of feminist principles, written by indigenous and hegemonic modalities. Sha’arawi as a mature woman in her It becomes clear through a close fifties. The memoir describes her reading of Sha’arawi’s rhetorical work childhood within the harem, as part that the formulation of early twentieth of the last generation to be raised century Middle Eastern feminism was in this spatial and cultural context, critical, contestory, and anticolonial in and the particular observations its engagement with liberatory politics, and experiences which shaped her and was actively resistant to imperialist feminist consciousness. She very mobilizations of feminist discourses. intentionally highlights the particular Nonetheless, Middle Eastern feminists’ inequalities and limitations which experiences were situated within a marked her gendered experience, colonial context, and they responded including her more limited access to to their surroundings as pragmatic education and her early marriage. political strategists. Although she intended to publish her
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 117 memoir for an Egyptian audience, it memoirs describe a childhood fixated was left incomplete at the time of her on the closed internal relations death. within her home; her competitive Born in 1879 to a wealthy relationship with her brother, her family in Cairo, Sha’arawi’s childhood education, and her relationships world was circumscribed by with family friends, many of them architectural and social constraints, foreigners, dominate recollections yet characterized by a rich social of her youth. Unlike many young
C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F 12 | and intellectual exchange. Her women at the time, Sha’arawi was
father was a regional governor in encouraged to memorize the Quran the rural province of Mina, where he alongside her brother, a feat she
B e l a R u h amassed so much land and political accomplished at the age of nine. influence that he was referred Beyond this, however, she was to as “the king of upper Egypt.”13 not encouraged to venture into Like many increasingly powerful knowledge of Arabic, and despite her provincial administrators, he set up pleas to the eunuch who oversaw a household in the Egyptian capital her care and education within the as part of an influx of families to harem, Said Agha did not permit her Cairo and Alexandria.14 At the same to continue to study the language. time, the modernization program In a typical metareferential passage, initiated by Muhammad Ali in which returns the reader to an the early nineteenth century was awareness of the text’s rhetorical encouraging rural to urban migration, purpose, Sha’arawi recollects “hating and fostering a growing class of being a girl because it kept [her] white-collar bureaucrats and an from the education [she] sought.”15 increasingly complex administrative Characterizing her privileged mechanism. As in other regions childhood from a distance of years, worldwide, these changes created Sha’arawi emphasized the feelings unprecedented opportunities for of deprivation that arose from the mobility, destabilizing deeply rooted limitations placed on her education, social systems. in an effort to promote equal access To a young Sha’arawi, to education for girls and women. growing up within the vestigial She grounded this argument not household structure of the Ottoman in colonialist civilizational terms, as Empire, these shifts were peripheral Amin had, but rather by drawing on to the realities of daily life. Her
15 Huda Shaarawi, Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist 12 Sania Sharawi Lanfranchi, Casting off (New York: The Feminist Press at the the Veil: The Life of Huda Shaarawi, City University of New York, 1986), Egypt’s First Feminist (London: I. B. 40. She further expresses an early Tauris, 2012), 1. awareness that “being a female 13 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 1. became a barrier between [her] and 14 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 8. the freedom for which [she] yearned.”
118 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h her own lived experiences, framing neglect caused by her husband’s the debate in terms of the emotional previous relationship with a
| and internal experiences of a young concubine, to draw attention to C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F woman kept from her desire to the interpersonal challenges that learn.16 her unwanted marriage had on her Similarly, Sha’arawi mobilises early life. When Sha’arawi’s husband her biographical experiences with returned to his first wife after just marriage to support her mature two years, however, the teenager political position. Married at age was elated to have the opportunity thirteen to a cousin twenty-six to continue her life and education years her senior in order to retain undisturbed.17 familial control of her extensive Instead of Arabic, Sha’arawi inheritance, Sha’arawi became a studied French, piano, and other strong advocate for a legally codified Europeanized skills considered minimum marriage age for women necessary for a girl of her social and for limitations on polygyny. Her class. Her companions were often description of her lavish wedding Europeans, and these women also and spousal responsibilities are proved influential on her feminist contrasted with her childlike thought as she grew. Among daydreams, love of reading, and Sha’arawi’s friends and ideological playful activities, painting a dissonant influences was Eugénie Le Brun, picture of her youth. Rather than a Frenchwoman who had married making the claim that such cultural an Egyptian politician. Le Brun’s practices were “backward” or transnational experiences led her indicative of a societal deprivation, to write two books on the subject as Orientalist commentators of women in Egyptian culture, for a argued, Sha’arawi grounded her predominantly Western audience. desire for social change in her lived The first of these texts, entitled experiences. She describes in detail Harem et les musulmanes (The her feelings of marginalization and Harem and Muslim Women) was written “to describe the life of the Egyptian woman, as it really is, to enlighten Europeans.”18 Her aim in 16 To interpret her position as a proponent of education as an writing it was to counter Orientalist imported feminist principle is to presuppositions about the harem render invisible the rich history of and the women among Europeans, Islamic and Egyptian scholarship and she was able to bring many and knowledge production. Though European readers to the conclusion these sectors had generally been inaccessible to women, there that “Egyptians seemed not unlike was also a precedent of female intellectuals and itinerary figures embedded in Egyptian, Islamic, and Ottoman traditions. See Mernessi, The 17 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 21. Forgotten Queens of Islam. 18 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 80.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 119 themselves.”19 Despite this step the conversation away from one- towards cross-cultural understanding, dimensional, Orientalist depictions. some among Le Brun’s female Le Brun’s more nuanced perspective readership in Egypt felt that she left a lasting impression on Sha’arawi was criticizing their condition, and and was far more attractive to the expressed this to her frankly.20 young activist than the views of other Well-aware that through Western European women she encountered, eyes they appeared powerless and who bought fully into discourses C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | exploited, Egyptian women resisted which patronized and othered Middle
this characterization, asserting their Eastern women.23 active role within the household and At the weekly salon for
B e l a R u h their extensive reach into matters women which Le Brun hosted in of social and political relevance. the mid-1890s, Sha’arawi had the Their critical awareness of the ways opportunity to discuss a variety of in which they and their culture topics with both European and Arab was represented thus reveals a women, including social practices contesting relationship between such as veiling and seclusion.24 Egyptian women and European It was in this context that she feminist discourse, even if the latter first encountered European anti- was well-meaning. veiling rhetoric. A guest in the Despite these criticisms, Le salon expressed the Orientalist Brun can be understood as having perspective that “Egyptian women had a relatively nuanced view which could camouflage disreputable contradicted many of the colonialist deeds behind a mask,” and that the discourses on women that her fellow behaviour of European women was Europeans espoused. She was a better because their faces were convert to Islam, and defended the uncovered.25 Le Brun defended religion in feminist terms, arguing Sha’arawi against this malignment, that “Islam...has granted women but later confessed to her younger greater justice than previous friend that “although she admired religions.”21 This claim extended to the dress of Egyptian women, Islamic law, which she identified as she thought the veil stood in the ultimately just, though corrupted by way of their advancement.”26 The patriarchal tradition.22 While it is clear precise impacts of these statements that she was in no way producing a radical alternative to colonial feminist discourses, it also appears 23 Leila Ahmed, “Between Two that she was invested in moving Worlds: The Formation of a Turn- of-the-Century Egyptian Feminist,” in Life/Lines: Theorising Women’s Autobiography (Ithaca, NY: Cornell 19 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 80. University Press, 1988), 171. 20 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 80. 24 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 78. 21 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 81. 25 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 78. 22 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 81. 26 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 80.
120 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h on Sha’arawi’s ideology was not these needs with an immutable immediately clear, but she continued sense of decorum grounded in
| to cover her face in public for more Islamic morality. The veil (then and C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F than a decade after, indicating that still a potent political symbol in her later decision to unveil publicly struggles over female agency and was influenced by far more complex national identity) was a key site factors than solely Orientalist rhetoric. of Sha’arawi’s political action. In a Despite the fact that many profile of Sha’arawi written in 1927 of her friends were European, her for the American feminist periodical social language was interspersed The Woman Citizen, journalist Anne with French loan words, and the Hard made a point of contrasting interior decor of her home was “a the Egyptian’s modest and high- melange of oriental and western necked dress with the décolletage of styles,” Sha’arawi recounted many her European guests.30 The picture instances of staunch resistance accompanying the profile depicted to the Westernizing forces which Sha’arawi in a chic head covering surrounded her.27 One such instance and long-sleeved black gown. Her from a similar period of time involved adherence to Egyptian standards of an acquaintance inviting her to tea in moral rectitude was a reputation she a commercial shop “which accorded leveraged throughout her life, both neither with [her] preferences nor as part of her cultural identity and as [Egyptian] customary behavior” as the a form of nationalist activism against tea shop was patronized by both men the encroachment of European and women.28 She further refused to cultural hegemony. attend the same woman’s mixed-sex parties as a married woman attending without her husband.29 This selective III. NATIONALISM AS FEMINISM and critical adoption of Westernizing mores remained a theme throughout Sha’arawi’s nationalist Sha’arawi’s life. activism extended far beyond Clothing, in particular, proved her public appearance, however. demonstrative of this resistant stance. Participation in the nationalist Though Sha’arawi loved European movement, precipitated by her styles and, as a leading lady of Egypt, husband’s involvement in the found it her duty to be consistently in newly formed Wafd party, became the height of fashion, she balanced
30 Anne Hard, “Madame Hoda 27 Margot Badran, “Introduction,” in Charaoui: A Modern Woman of Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egypt,” The Woman Citizen. 12, no. Egyptian Feminist; El Guindi, “Veiling 4 (September 1927). https://link.gale. Resistance,” 59. com/apps/doc/EHWNAL819703162/ 28 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 79. NCCO?u=uarizona_ 29 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 79. main&sid=NCCO&xid=3dae96b5.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 121 Sha’arawi’s first major experience historian Mary Ann Fay remarked with political activism. Among that “[t]he women’s groups that Egyptian feminists it was widely emerged in the early twentieth accepted that before women could century were liberal reformist in their assert their political agency within goals and strategies, that is, they an Egyptian state, such a state had were not revolutionary,”32 she entirely to be formed. Nationalism, itself a neglected the fact that these women contested concept with origins in the were revolutionaries. They were C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | West, became a “vehicle for feminist actively involved as participants in
demands,” in that it was understood the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, and as the only viable avenue towards their institutionally-aligned advocacy
B e l a R u h political autonomy and potential was premised on the fight for the political agency.31 formation of new national institutions. For colonized women, Women’s rights movements the feminist fight was not against grounded in nationalist liberation their own men, but alongside sought to break away from colonial them, against Western oppression. imperatives and establish new and Imperialist feminisms sought to insert independent political structures in a white savior between the colonized which feminist utopian ideals could man and woman, working on the be manifested. premise that Islam was inherently Though both feminism and more sexist than Christianity, and that nationalism had ideological ties it was not possible for communities to the oppressor, nationalism as in the Global South to negotiate feminism was intrinsically resistant gender and modernity legibly within to imperialist discourses. It stood an indigenous cultural framework. By in opposition to colonial forces, allying with their countrymen against which enabled a highly patriarchal Western oppression, colonized order in which colonized men were women exerted their political power incentivised to utilize European and demanded enfranchisement on patriarchal tools to contribute to their own terms, not on terms set the further oppression of colonized by white Western oppressors. This women.33 Unfortunately, despite came with the understanding that women’s active involvement in many alongside liberation from colonial global nationalist and anti-imperialist control existed the potential for movements, they were frequently left women’s rights to be encoded in new out of newly established postcolonial government systems. It was through governments.34 Nevertheless, an the anticolonial struggle that Egyptian women asserted their political voice and demanded autonomy. When 32 Fay, “Introduction,” 2. 33 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution,” 43. 31 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 34 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution,” 39. Egyptian Revolution,” 40.
122 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h understanding of the connections both a state and political agency in that women in Egypt made between relation to that state. Among leaders
| their oppression as colonized of the nationalist movement, the C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F subjects and their oppression as action was praised for its symbolic women marks a critical point of potency. In the context of the anti- departure from the hegemonic norms imperialist revolution, “[w]omen’s of imperialist feminisms. unprecedented acts were welcomed More immediately, however, and justified by national needs.”37 the nationalist movement gave According to historian Egyptian women an opportunity to Fadwa El Guindi, “Egyptian women, establish themselves as political Muslim and Christian, [positioned] agents with influence and a direct their liberation vis-à-vis the relationship to the state. In 1919, simultaneously rising nationalism following the rejection of the Wafdist that grew up in response to colonial petition for national liberation intervention.”38 The two movements from the British, Sha’arawi and her were inextricably linked in both compatriots organized a march ideological and organizational terms. in protest of the occupation.35 Unable to participate alongside her The “Ladies March”, as it came to husband in the nationalist Wafd be referred to in the press, was party, Sha’arawi founded a women’s an unprecedented expression of auxiliary, the Wafdist Women’s women’s collective political agency Central Committee, in 1920.39 Like the in modern Egypt, and marked an party itself, the WWCC was open to interesting turn in self-conception people of all faiths and social classes. among its proponents. Women Under Sha’arawi’s leadership, from all social classes and walks of the Committee “consciously set life participated, from elite harem out to be if anything even more women in cars to unveiled prostitutes comprehensive” in its diverse marching on foot.36 In demonstrating participation than the Nationalist publicly for an Egyptian state, these party was.40 This diversity translated women were declaring a political to the makeup of the Egyptian influence on the governing body, Feminist Union, which Sha’arawi as citizens and as individuals formed in 1923 as a feminist splinter with bearing beyond that of their organization of the WWCC. The husbands and households. The overlapping membership of the march was, in short, both a nationalist two organizations underscores and feminist demonstration, as the intrinsic interrelation between women asserted their demands for nationalism and feminist activism
35 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 37 Shaarawi, Harem Years, 112. Egyptian Revolution,” 45. 38 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 60. 36 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 39 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 73. Egyptian Revolution,” 46. 40 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 74.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 123 that characterized women’s priorities, and translated to activism early twentieth century political in the form of petitions, protests, and engagement in Egypt, as in other editorial journalism. parts of the colonized world.41 The EFU also remained Established in preparation engaged in the nationalist fight, for the 1923 conference of the seeing political sovereignty as a International Women Suffrage precondition for the furthering of Association in Rome, the EFU their agenda. The relevance of this C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | selectively and critically incorporated connection became even more
Western strategies into its agenda apparent when it was recognized according to a discriminant that “the British [had] sought to limit
B e l a R u h ideological framework. Feminist the activity of Egyptians by actually Hanifa Khuri, “in recounting the closing down schools,” stinting the work of the Egyptian Feminist possibility of free public education for Union, asserted that Huda Sha’arawi girls, and putting new hurdles in the had always urged the adoption of path of activists.44 In fact, as Ahmed European customs ‘that are suitable points out, “[t]he British occupation for Muslims’ and the rejection of in fact retarded women’s education those that are ‘reprehensible.’”42 in a number of ways.”45 Once Reflecting principles “previously again, the struggle against British formulated by Malak Hifni Nasif,” imperialism was synonymous with the EFU defined its goals as “social, advocacy for women’s rights, and political, legal and moral equality feminist nationalism marked a site of with men,...the right to higher resistance to imperialist interventions. education for girls, [the prohibition Feminists campaigning on of] polygamy and divorce without both fronts were quick to point out the woman’s consent, [an increase the ways in which colonialism and to] the age for marriage to sixteen, the economic developments of the and [the promotion of] public health nineteenth and twentieth centuries and hygiene in Egypt.”43 Of these, brought changes which negatively education and marriage reform affected women’s rights. Middle- emerged as the most immediate class feminist Nabawiya Musa, in her address to the International Women Suffrage Alliance in 1923, made it 41 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 very clear that a historical precedent Egyptian Revolution,” 40. for gender equality existed within the 42 Charlotte Weber, “Between Islamic Middle East that equaled or Nationalism and Feminism: The surpassed that of Western Europe.46 Eastern Women’s Congresses of 1930 and 1932,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 4, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 98, https://www.jstor.org/ 44 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 123. stable/10.2979/mew.2008.4.1.83. 45 Ahmed, “Between Two Worlds,” 157. 43 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 104- 46 International Women’s Suffrage 105. Alliance, Report of the Ninth
124 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h Yet foreign intervention, particularly and nationalist agitation remained the economic and social influence of rhetorically and practically tied to
|
Britain and France, had imposed a the advancement of women’s rights C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F specific, Western-oriented version of and political agency within the new modernity on the developing state. state. In 1924, as part of a further Economic and religious suppression, push to dislodge British intervention along with the suppression of in the Egyptian economy, Sha’arawi education, had had lasting effects, launched a nationalist boycott of and were inextricable from women’s British goods, patterned off the rights issues and the agenda of the nonviolent resistance movement EFU. Just as he had cut budgets for in India.48 Since women in Egypt, education and specifically limited as elsewhere, were the primary the education of girls and women, consumers for their households, the British controller-general Lord a strike against British economic Cromer “had actively discouraged hegemony became simultaneously industry in Egypt” in order to maintain an exercise of Egyptian women’s a trade imbalance and “preserve political and economic power.49 Egypt as a market” for processed Such expressions of British goods.47 women’s political agency marked the Grounded in the economic nationalist struggle as a turning point principle of mercantilism, and in the women’s rights movement prototyped in British India, this in Egypt which effectively made it strategic obstruction of economic a public political movement, rather development established imperial than a cultural debate taking place domains as a constant supply of raw privately in harems and literary materials and a market for finished circles. It also meant that a coalition products. This had had a massively was formed of women from diverse detrimental impact on the Egyptian backgrounds, who were involved in economy and on development, both nationalist and feminist activism. which had stagnated since British This coalition spanned generations, officials, following the Urabi Revolt classes, and religious faiths, and of 1879, halted Muhammad Ali’s found common ground in its hopes industrialization plan. Production for an Egyptian nation designed to and consumption remained critical facilitate and protect the needs of arenas in the anticolonial struggle, women. Emphasis was placed on institutional reform, and the diversity of the movement required a certain Congress: Rome, Italy, May 12th inclusivity of language. to 19th 1923 (Dresden, Saxony: B. G. Teubner, 1923, accessed via This became particularly Alexander Street “Women and Social apparent in the issue of secularism. Movements, International” database), 170. (hereafter IWSA, Report of the Ninth Congress). 48 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 113. 47 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 123. 49 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 114.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 125 For Ahmed, “[t]he dominant voice of the International Women Suffrage feminism,” which she equates with Association in 1923. The flag Sha’arawi, was secular in nature, consisted of a “white crescent and and, by extension, the product crosses against a green background, of European cultural imperialism replacing the stars of the national (secularist humanism being the flag,” symbolizing the unity of underlying ideology on which Christians and Muslims in pursuit European feminism was based).50 of the nationalist cause.53 While C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | An alternative interpretation of Sha’arawi was confessionally Muslim,
the relative absence of religious her political rhetoric was largely appeals in the publications of free of appeals to Islamic thought or
B e l a R u h the Egyptian feminist movement spirituality. This was likely as much a mainstream, however, is taking into result of the multireligious makeup account the diversity and plurality of her audience and fellow activists of the movement itself. Egypt in and a desire to appeal to a large the early twentieth century was a constituency as it was an interest in religiously diverse region, which secularism. had been incorporated repeatedly Despite her strategic into multiethnic land-based empires. rhetorical neutrality when addressing In 1919 the region was inhabited a mixed-faith audience, the by indigenous, Arabic, and Turco- nationalist-feminist vision Sha’arawi Circassian Muslims; Coptic and articulated was firmly grounded in European Christians; and a small but Arab and Islamic tradition. According politically active and long-established to her cousin and biographer, urban Jewish population.51 Sania Sharawi Lafrancha, the Among the earliest and most activist defended both cultural and sustaining participants of both the religious Islam, as well as Islamic nationalist and feminist movements law. These assertions are affirmed in Egypt were Coptic Christians.52 by archival speeches and articles One concrete example of this which Sha’arawi published in alliance is the flag flown at the 1919 l’Egyptienne, the francophone journal women’s march and displayed by of the EFU.54 In these sources she is the delegation to the conference of recorded arguing in support of the implementation of Islamic law (rather than a law code based on European 50 Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, models) in the new Egyptian state, 156. seeing the Sharia, the corpus of 51 The Jewish population of Egypt was Islamic religious law, as the only almost completely eradicated in the second half of the twentieth century acceptable basis for productive legal as a result of deportations and and civil reform in Arab-majority popular hostility in the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 52 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 53 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 95. Egyptian Revolution,” 46. 54 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 102.
126 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h nations. In a 1944 speech to the Arab the level of the whole country” Feminist Conference, for example, through women’s education and
57 | in support of a bourgeoning pan- a modernization of Islamic law. C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F Arab feminist movement, Sha’arawi The pervasiveness of this type demanded that Arab women have of imperialist rhetoric, found “restored her political rights, rights mixed into much of the public granted to her by the Sharia” and literature produced by colonial and by the Quran.55 Framing religious anticolonial agents alike, makes it texts in terms of their utilization for nearly impossible to untangle the the modern state, she pointed to “indigenous” from the “imperialist.” It the fact that “Islam [grants women] reaffirms the impossibility of a clean the right to vote for the ruler and distinction between the two in the has allowed [them] to give opinions conceptual history of anti- and post- on questions of jurisprudence and colonialism. Despite attempts to religion.”56 These claims illustrate return agency and generativity to the her advocacy for a reinterpretation rhetoric of colonized peoples, there of Islam that returned to the original is no way to fully escape the fact that sources to address the needs of the the discursive field in which these present, a perspective resonant with debates took place was already the aims of the Islamic Modernism marked by the violent epistemologies movement, or Salafism, which had of imperialism, articulated with a emerged in the previous century. In vocabulary circumscribed by the framing both her anti-imperialist and oppressor. feminist points, Sha’arawi drew on Egyptian traditions and genealogies, articulating a feminism which was not IV. DISCOURSES OF THE VEIL simply imported, but critical, globally informed, and locally situated. The issue at hand–that is, Yet Sha’arawi’s politics the contested nature of feminist remained marked by discursive discourse in the colonial context relations of inequality. It would be –is a pertinent illustration of the remiss to neglect the fact that her complexity of this phenomenon speeches leveraged the colonial of discursive inequality. Because terminology of “backwardness” industrial development in Egypt and expressed a desire to “[raise] occurred in tandem with colonial intervention, distinguishing which calls for changes in women’s status 55 Huda Shaarawi, “The Opening were caused by practical necessity in Speech,” in Opening the Gates: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing, response to economic conditions and ed. Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke which were imported from Europe (Indianapolis, IL: Indiana University Press, 1990), 338. 56 Shaarawi, “The Opening Speech,” 338. 57 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 102.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 127 as a product of cultural hegemony is El Guindi summarizes rife with difficulty. This is, however, Ahmed’s thesis succinctly: “[h]ad an important distinction, and one Nasif lived longer...it is very likely that that has a critical bearing on present two parallel (organized) feminisms debates. It is most clearly elucidated would have developed—one in the following passage from Women grounded in Arabo-Islamic culture, in Islam: the other in European culture and feminism.”59 Instead, in Ahmed’s C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | “The dominant voice of telling, the Arab-Islamic strand
feminism, which affiliated remained dormant after Nasssef’s itself, albeit discreetly, with premature death, while the liberal
B e l a R u h the westernizing, secularizing Westernized strand dominated tendencies of society...assured the subsequent half-century. The the desirability of progress postcolonial turn in feminism, she towards western-style societies. claims, laid the groundwork for vital The alternative...searched new intellectual approaches and for a way to articulate female a return to indigenous feminisms. subjectivity and affirmation Writing in the late 1990s, Ahmed within a native, vernacular, had a strong stake in locating and Islamic discourse- typically uplifting indigenous feminisms, but in terms of a general social, in her effort to legitimize the budding cultural, and religious field, she creates an overly binary renovation.”58 and un-nuanced distinction. More strikingly, she fails to acknowledge In this passage, Ahmed the ways in which Sha’arawi utilized attempts to draw a clear line between and adapted extant discourses the imported and the indigenous, to accomplish tangible assets for claiming that twentieth-century Egyptian women, including greater feminism in Egypt could be empirically access to education and healthcare. divided into camps which aligned Her assertion fails to take into themselves with each tendency. In account the complicated navigation subsequent paragraphs, she explicitly of colonized power structures that associates Sha’arawi with the former characterized colonized Egypt and group, and compares her ideology overdetermined the vectors of extensively with the perspectives of possible political action and utopian a lesser-known contemporary, Malak ideology available to early twentieth Hifni Nassef, who, despite dying century feminists. Sha’arawi’s young, produced an extensive body feminism did in fact arise from a of feminist work which was deeply particularly Egyptian context and rooted in Arab Islamic culture. did not buy into European feminist
58 Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 156. 59 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 67.
128 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h ideology whole-cloth. However, she To gain a broader was limited by the fact that national understanding of the considerations
| liberation and anti-colonialism were at play in this debate, and to C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F necessary preconditions to feminist respectfully complicate Ahmed’s advancement. strategic essentialism, some historical As usual, it appears, the most context is necessary. Veiling was a potent heuristic remains the veil. common practice throughout the Unlike Nassef, who remained publicly Mediterranean world since ancient veiled until her premature death in times. It communicated status and 1918, Sha’arawi chose to publicly modesty, was principally reserved unveil as a performative political for free (non-enslaved) women, and act in 1923. Upon her return from was worn as a protection from the the Conference of the International sun in many pre-Islamic cultures.61 Women Suffrage Alliance in Rome, Veiling and seclusion, though not she removed her face covering in unambiguously mandated by the the Cairo train station in front of a Islamic holy texts, were, along with crowd of supporters, journalists, many other wide-ranging cultural and onlookers. This action is one practices, enshrined in religious of her most enduring legacies, and law and codified, particularly during one of the most controversial. It is the intensely patriarchal Abbasid used within the historiography as period, as a means of controlling a shorthand for the depiction of reproduction.62 Gender segregation Sha’arawi, along with most of the practices were used by the elite participants of the early twentieth classes, in the Islamic world as century Egyptian feminist movement, in Europe, to ensure patrilineal as passively receptive to hegemonic bloodlines and to communicate a European feminisms. In fact, the family’s wealth and status. This was historiographical discussion has been limited to the wealthy and privileged influenced by an overly simplistic classes, while the majority of women political logic which has pervaded were forced by necessity to work the discourse of the veil and ties outside the home in the marketplace, it back to imperialist mentalities.60 as laborers, traders, or servants. This formulation equates veiling with Until industrialization began Islam, conservatism, anticolonial to precipitate wide-ranging economic nationalism, and Arab identity, and social change, strict segregation and unveiling with Westernization, remained accessible only to those imperialism, and the violent cultural who could afford the luxury and hegemony of humanist secularism. expense of maintaining a separate The reality is far more complex and deserves closer analysis. 61 Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 56. 62 Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 60 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 58. 79-80.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 129 architectural space in the home for starting in the nineteenth century women and children, who did not made the practice of segregation have to engage in productive labor, more accessible to a larger number and who were served, guarded, of people, but at the same time and accompanied by specialized persistently tested and eroded its and often highly-educated enslaved boundaries and reformulated its individuals.63 Despite its connotations cultural significance. to contemporary Western viewers, While veiling was not a C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | veiling is not a practice unique to strictly religious practice, for many
Islam, and in Sha’arawi’s youth was it increasingly stood for a respected practiced by Christian, Jewish, and cultural identity, including religious
B e l a R u h Muslim Egyptians alike. Indeed, and sexual values, threatened both for most of its history, veiling “was by economic and demographic an urban phenomenon associated change and by European influence. mostly with the upper classes.”64 The European attack on segregation As urbanization and social mobility practices, as well as other aspects increased, however, so did of Islamic Egyptian culture, the prevalence and visibility of “strengthened the attachment to segregation. Once accessible only the veil as a national and cultural to the most privileged, practices symbol and gave it a new vitality.”66 of segregation were increasingly Veiling and segregation thus became utilized as a means of communicating nationalist issues, symbolic of an aspirational and upwardly mobile Middle Eastern cultural norms, in social status among the emerging response to European imperialism urban bourgeois classes. It also and industrialization. Among those became more common to see invested in the future of the country – women from the upper and middle pundits, politicians, clergy, journalists, classes out on the streets, engaging social commentators, and many in commerce, attending schools, and others who contributed their thoughts undertaking philanthropic or paid to the public debate playing out in work.65 Economic and social change the newspapers, pulpits, lecterns, and around dinner tables – the veil became a symbol of progress versus
63 Adult women in nineteenth-century tradition, or modernization versus harems were themselves often cultural preservation. It was invested enslaved, concubines imported from with religious and political meaning the Caucuses to be the highly refined and stood, synecdochally, for the and well-educated mothers of the entirety of the nationalist struggle ruling class. 64 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 62. and the divisions within it. 65 Beth Baron, “Unveiling in Early Yet, by one estimation, only Twentieth Century Egypt: Practical and Symbolic Considerations,” Middle Eastern Studies, 25, no. 3 (July stable/4283318. 1989), 378, https://www.jstor.org/ 66 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance”.
130 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h 16% of Egyptian women veiled in symbolized cultural identity, a 1919, and many of those who went recently achieved social status, and
| about unveiled had never veiled a reaffirmation of Egyptian nationalist C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F to begin with.67 Rural peasant norms, Sha’arawi’s personal and women covered their heads but gendered agency came from an not their faces, as it would have escape of the traditional boundaries been impracticable to do so given placed upon upper class women the hard labor that they performed by segregation. Nationalist political on a daily basis.68 In urban centers, activism should be understood as “[p]oorer women had always been an assertion of women’s political visible in the streets, often unveiled,” agency, a relationship to the and historical accounts from as early state, and a disavowal of external as the sixteenth century attest to (imperialist) intervention. Likewise, a persistent presence of unveiled by exercising her right to unveil (as women in the public spaces of Cairo a parallel right to that of taking up and the infeasibility of enforcing the veil), a politically active woman veiling upon them.69 The debate over in the context of an urbanizing, veiling was largely symbolic, and a industrializing society should be manifestation of larger ideological understood as articulating a demand conflicts between conservative and for individual political rights and progressive forces played out across representation, and for citizenship women’s bodies. For most, it had in relation to the newly-formed little to do with women’s individual nationalist state.71 The act of unveiling choices, but instead was a societal also indicated a desire to move out decision, to be enforced or allowed of the cloistered harem space and as it was perceived to be expeditious engage with a changing economic on a national and geopolitical level. landscape, one certainly marked Only a few feminists articulated a by imperialism, but also one of stance which emphasized choice contested modernity, and a desire and personal freedom, among them for social change after centuries of Nassef, who, despite her own choice Ottoman, and then British, imperial to remain veiled, “[approved] of control. The emergent feminist unveiling for those who want it.”70 consciousness had “evolved out of In contrast to the middle- women’s changing everyday lives class Nassef, for whom veiling in a country that had experienced overwhelming socio-economic transformation.”72 Unveiling was, 67 Baron, “Unveiling in Early Twentieth Century Egypt,” 382. 68 Baron, “Unveiling in Early Twentieth Century Egypt,” 382. 71 Badran, “Introduction,” 20-21. 69 Baron, “Unveiling in Early Twentieth 72 Margot Badran, “The Feminist Vision Century Egypt,” 376. in the Writings of Three Turn-of-the- 70 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 64. Century Egyptian Women,” Bulletin of Italics mine. the British Society for Middle Eastern
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 131 for many women, an expression and sexually available.76 As strict of a desire for and commitment to veiling was also impossible for “increased freedom of movement to these women, the garment served go out to schools, shops, and other as a heuristic signifier of individual places,” in order to engage with the character. new opportunities that Egyptian The inherently classed nature modernity provided.73 of the veil proved prohibitive to direct Furthermore, Sha’arawi, engagement across socio-economic C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | at least, saw the veil as a foreign levels, as Sha’arawi discovered when
innovation, “imposed on the women attempting to provide aid to the of the upper classes of Egypt peasants at her husband’s properties 77 B e l a R u h under the Ottoman Empire,” and at Minya. “As the lady of the manor, therefore never truly representative she was impeded by social tenets, of indigenous cultural tradition.74 and found it hard to approach...the While the veil had of course already rural poor,” whose lives she sought existed in Egypt since before even to improve.78 On a less drastic level, the introduction of Islam, segregation presumptions of seclusion also ossified within Egyptian social complicated the unity of the women’s practice as a tool of the Ottoman movement, which was represented Turko-Cisserian elites to distinguish both by elite and middle-class themselves from the Arab and women. In fact, since the nineteenth indigenous Egyptian population.75 century, “middle-class women... The system of veiling and seclusion were at the forefront of the feminist had always been as much about cause.”79 Many of Sha’arawi’s closest class as it was about gender, and allies, including Nabawiya Musa, served as a potent visual signifier were highly educated middle-class which marked women from different women, some of whom had chosen classes as separate from each other. to unveil on ideological grounds. By Classed dress also signified divisions seeking to break down boundaries in behaviour and respectability, as and create cross-class alliances in elite women were associated with pursuit of nationalist and feminist virtue, modesty, and hygiene, while aims, “[e]arly Egyptian feminism not working class women, particularly only challenged the patriarchal order sex workers or single mothers, faced but...superseded class.”80 In this stigmatization as unclean, immodest, context, unveiling was an act of class
76 Baron, “Unveiling in Early Twentieth Studies 15, no. 1/2 (1988): 11, https:// Century Egypt,” 380. www.jstor.org/stable/195212. 77 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 33. 73 Baron, “Unveiling in Early Twentieth 78 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 33. Century Egypt,” 382. 79 Ramdani, “Women in the 1919 74 Lanfranchi, Casting off the Veil, 102. Egyptian Revolution,” 41. 75 Badran, “Introduction,” 17. 80 Badran, “Introduction,” 21.
132 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h solidarity, defying the distinctions protections which patriarchal custom that had for so long vertically divided had denied them. Addressing the
| women from coming together to IWSA audience, Musa argued that the C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F advocate for their rights. Egyptian feminists’ “struggle is only The implications of class, aimed at the customs which nothing culture, and nation were elaborated sanctions or justifies, and [claims] a on by Musa in a speech to the IWSA right sanctioned by religion and our conference, which she attended social law.”82 Likewise, in an address as a delegate alongside Sha’arawi. to the Arab Feminist Conference In this speech Musa argued that, in 1944, Sha’arawi explained that rather than looking to European patriarchal interpretations and women as a model for desirable innovative customs (bidʻah) had taken gender relations, Egyptian women from women the rights that Islam should look to the peasant classes had granted them. She went on to of Egypt, who “[go] out with [their connect feminism and nationalism faces] uncovered, [participate in their] yet again, arguing that “the Arab man husband’s purchases and sales, [and who demands that the others give have a clear] idea of agricultural him back his usurped rights would... affairs.”81 Musa’s framework was give the woman back her own lawful more than just a particular vision rights, all the more so since he for the future of Egyptian feminism himself has tasted the bitterness of – it was an intentional effort to deprivation and usurped rights.”83 produce an indigenous model for This distinction was Egyptian gender relations. It was an important component in also noteworthy in that it explicitly understanding the rhetorical transcended class and reversed significance of Sha’arawi’s historic the structurally defined order which unveiling. El Guindi further offers a placed the secluded, veiled woman critical piece of information: “[i]n her at the pinnacle of aspiration. speech at the Feminist conference in In her speech, Musa was Rome, Sha’arawi specified the face careful to distinguish patriarchal veil [a garment referred to as the “custom” from religious “law” in an burqu’ at the time, contemporarily effort to establish both a field for referred to as a niqāb,] not the head viable reform and one of fundamental covering, as a barrier to women’s cultural significance. The perspective advancement.”84 These traditional articulated here is one which has veils were often made of a long been mentioned previously: that rectangular panel of white fabric Islam and the original laws derived from the Quran and Hadith afforded women extensive rights and 82 IWSA, Report of the Ninth Congress, 169. 83 Shaarawi, “The Opening Speech,” 81 IWSA, Report of the Ninth Congress, 339. 171. 84 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 63.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 133 which was pinned to the head Debates over ideology covering and concealed the wearer’s and ownership, and agency and face below the eyes. It was this innovation, are not simply ink-bound garment that Sha’arawi removed, wranglings over technicalities of retaining the hijab “in the manner that the past. They are political, activist finds support in Islamic sources.”85 claims which take on a life of their Sha’arawi’s unveiling (al-sufur) fit own and can be wielded with into a larger effort to strip back the powerful influence. Without a doubt, C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F | elements of “custom” which limited Sha’arawi’s performative unveiling
women’s ability to engage actively “has entered the lore on women’s in daily life, while retaining and liberation and, as lore, is alive and is 86 B e l a R u h upholding Islamic law and practice. continually embellished.” Within the historiography, particularly among those theorists who seek to establish an Islamic V. CONCLUSION feminist tradition purified of imperialist influence, there is a As questions of cultural tendency to interpret Sha’arawi’s imperialism, feminist ideology, and actions as an act of compliance veiling practices remain politically with imperialist imperatives, as salient, the histories of these debates rooted fundamentally in a desire to become both critically relevant and modernize and Westernize Egypt politically useful. Identifying the at the expense of Egyptian culture. origins of native Middle Eastern While her ideological perspective feminisms has high stakes in was certainly the product of many issues of geopolitical policy and convergent influences, including individual, national, ethnic, cultural, the hegemonic and imperialist, and religious self-determination. Sha’arawi’s unveiling was not a By looking back at the histories of blind, European-oriented rejection these contemporary debates, and of Arab-Egyptian cultural tradition. It the ways in which they evolved and was, if the evidence offered above ossified in the modern period, it may is accepted, an act of religious be possible to devise new strategies revisionism, of cross-class solidarity, for the future. More importantly, such and of progressivist nationalism. It a historical perspective helps to was representative of her efforts to undermine assumptions upon which navigate the conflictual political field structural power hierarchies such as of the colonized nation, and to retain patriarchy and colonialism have been both individual and cultural agency naturalized. in the formation of a specific vision of The initial inquiry that this text modernity. sought to unravel was the question
85 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 64. 86 El Guindi, “Veiling Resistance,” 64.
134 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 B e l a R u h of how colonized women, with ideologies, cultural propensities, Sha’arawi as a key point of reference, regional interests, localized
| were able to articulate an indigenous conditions, and personal concerns. C o n t e s i g I m p r a l F perspective while navigating a complex and interconnected discursive field in which the indigenous and the colonial are not only inextricable, but also mutually constitutive. Above, I have tried to complicate the perception that ideology formation was a process of intellectual transfer from north to south, indicating that the existence of this perception robs early twentieth- century feminists of their agency and reinforces imperialist worldviews. The adaptation, contestation, and selective incorporation of certain elements of European ideology is presented as a form of anticolonial resistance, as well as a measured and realistic response to actual social and economic conditions. A primary objective of this reading, which belongs to a larger trend in global conceptual history, is to emphasize the agency of non-Western women’s rights activists. At the same time, I attempt to complicate a binary and politicized construction of imperialist and indigenous feminist potentialities, articulated in the context of contemporary debates, which makes claims to a purified historical Islamic feminism while erasing the multiconfessional and transnational history of the Middle East. Instead, I traced the dynamic interchange of ideas and the highly selective formulation of independent ideologies, influenced both by the conceptions of Westerners and by a complicated matrix of preexisting
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 135 Making Patagonia an “Australian Argentina” and Making the Amazon Tightly Brazilian: Depictions and Political Projects in Roberto Payró’s and Euclides da Cunha’s Travel Writings (1898, 1904-1905)
by JOSÉ BENTO DE OLIVEIRA CAMASSA
136 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m ABSTRACT
The Patagonia and Acre territories were not part of Argentina and Brazil respectively by the time of their independences in the early nineteenth century. Instead, they were annexed during the Latin American Belle Époque, when both countries ascended economically and geopolitically and bore frontier impulses. Therefore, the incorporation of these territories
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was founded upon broader endeavors of national expansion M a k i n g P and development. With these aspirations in their luggage, the Argentine journalist Roberto Payró traveled to Patagonia in 1898, while the Brazilian essayist Euclides da Cunha a t g o n i “ journeyed to Acre and the West Amazon in 1904-1905. Using a comparative history approach, this article shows how their travel writings debated modernizing and territorial integration projects and echoed similar plans, as both regions faced A resemblant challenges. It also demonstrates how Payró’s and u s t r a l i n A g e Cunha’s beliefs about race and national identity contrasted, a point that is linked to different mainstream ideas in Argentine and Brazilian intellectual debates, entailing dissonant points of view over which groups of people should ultimately populate Patagonia and Acre. ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r
The author would like to thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo – FAPESP) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES) for financial support (grant #2018/02958-0, São Paulo Research Foundation).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
José Bento de Oliveira Camassa received a Bachelor of Arts in History (2016) and a Master’s degree in Social History (2021) from the University of São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil. For his master’s thesis, he researched Latin American Intellectual History (nineteenth and twentieth centuries). He looks forward to becoming a PhD candidate and developing his investigations on that field of study. Currently, he is also an undergraduate student at the University of São Paulo’s Faculty of Law.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 137 INTRODUCTION about local cultures and political or economic issues. Travel writing was In the Latin American Belle established as a journalistic genre, Époque, many capital cities, including which was mastered, among several Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, others, by two remarkable South witnessed immense changes, from American essayists: the Argentine the outset of industrialization to journalist, dramatist, and novelist the execution of urban reforms Roberto Jorge Payró (1867-1928) and inspired by Baron Haussmann’s the Brazilian engineer and writer Paris. One of these transformations Euclides da Cunha (1866-1909). was the blossoming of new spaces Considering the importance of both ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r for intellectual sociability, including authors in their countries’ Belle cafés, theaters, bookstores, and Époque press and literature, this publishing houses. Many newspapers research article aims to analyze and to and magazines were established, compare two pieces of travel writing and the press experienced a composed by Payró and Euclides2 u s t r a l i n A g e modernizing effort, as well as an about Patagonia and the Amazon A incipient professionalization.1 New respectively. opportunities for journalists and Initially, the article scrutinizes writers emerged, notedly in the 1890s the similarities concerning the (geo) a t g o n i “ and the 1900s. political and intellectual contexts of One of those possibilities their journeys. Then, it investigates consisted in the publishing of travel the depictions and policy propositions M a k i n g P | writings in the press. Many Latin each author embraced in their travel American intellectuals of that period writing. In doing so, the affinity of seized the opportunity and wrote both authors’ general modernizing about places they had travelled aspirations is highlighted. Finally, as a to, communicating points of view counterpoint, this paper verifies and explains the discrepancies between the way Euclides da Cunha conceived 1 Two important works about the series of transformations mentioned
J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m in the paragraph are, regarding 2 Since his tragic murder in 1909, Brazil and Argentina respectively: Euclides da Cunha has been so well- Nicolau Sevcenko, Literatura como known and revered among Brazilian Missão: Tensões sociais e criação scholars that he is usually referred to cultural na Primeira República by his first name. This article follows (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, that convention, referring to him by 2003); Alejandra Laera, “Cronistas, his forename, which has already novelistas: la prensa periódica como been done in English. See: Barbara espacio de profesionalización en la Celarent [pseud.]., review of Rebellion Argentina (1880-1910),” in Historia de in the Backlands by Euclides da los intelectuales en América Latina I. Cunha, trans. Samuel Putnam, La ciudad letrada, de la conquista al American Journal of Sociology 118, no. modernismo, ed. Carlos Altamirano 2 (September 2012): 536-542, http:// (Buenos Aires: Katz, 2008). www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/668402.
138 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m of the settlement of the West Amazon about diverse subjects. and how Payró imagined the same Working for the Brazilian process in southern Argentina. Ministry of Foreign Affairs during Ultimately, this paper explores how the Baron of Rio Branco’s tenure as Payró’s and Euclides’s points of view Minister (1902-1912), Euclides was the about the regions they visited were head of a commission in charge of related to their personal, national, the geographical exploration of the professional, and political identities. Amazonian area of Upper Purús, as a
| In close years, both writers part of border negotiations with Peru. M a k i n g P traveled to peripheral regions in He had been celebrated as one of their countries, areas that faced Brazil’s great essayists since his Os social conditions vastly different Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands) a t g o n i “ from the metropoles. Payró went (1902),5 a book that recounted the to Argentina’s Patagonian Coast in War of Canudos (1896-1897) in the 1898 as a reporter from La Nación, Brazilian Northeastern backlands A one of the largest newspapers in (more precisely in the state of Bahia’s u s t r a l i n A g e Buenos Aires. In the same year, he countryside), which described its published La Australia argentina (The environment and reflected on its Argentine Australia),3 a compilation of people. In 1904, the conflict with his Patagonian reports and narratives. Peru seemed to escalate. After
Between 1904 and 1905, Euclides writing about it in the press, the then- ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r made a journey to the territory of unemployed Euclides was invited to Acre in the Brazilian West Amazon. join the team of the above-mentioned He wrote several essays about the commission.6 Amazon, most of them posthumously collected in À margem da História (The Amazon: land without history) the second book: Euclides da Cunha, (1909),4 a book that includes texts Um paraíso perdido: reunião de ensaios amazônicos, ed. Hildon Rocha (Brasília: Conselho Editorial do Senado Federal, 2000). Euclides’s 3 Roberto Jorge Payró, La Australia Amazonian essays were translated to argentina: excursión periodística a las English in 2006: Euclides da Cunha, costas patagonicas, Tierra del Fuego The Amazon: land without history, e Isla de los Estados (Buenos Aires: trans. Ronald W. Sousa and Lúcia Imprenta La Nación, 1898). Sá (Oxford and New York: Oxford 4 Euclides da Cunha, À margem da University Press, 2006). História, ed. Leopoldo M. Bernucci, 5 Euclides da Cunha, Os Sertões Francisco Foot Hardman and Felipe (São Paulo: Ubu Editora; São Paulo: Pereira Rissato (São Paulo: Editora da Edições Sesc São Paulo, 2016). The Unesp, 2019). The essays published book has been translated into several in À margem da História have languages, including English. See: been republished in Um Paraíso Euclides da Cunha, Rebellion in the Perdido [A Paradise Lost], a book Backlands, trans. Samuel Putnam that includes more articles and (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, letters Euclides wrote about the 1944). Amazon. In this article, I will quote 6 Susanna B. Hecht, The scramble for
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 139 Although Payró was not By defining this scope of directly involved with his own analysis, this article uses both country’s diplomatic issues, they comparative and global history were a crucial background that approaches that extend beyond influenced his decision to travel to the national framework of the two Patagonia. The region was at the countries. The two selected cases center of an old litigation between involve the extremities of South Argentina and Chile that resurged in America, encompassing huge 1896-1898,7 which drove La Nación distances and deeply differing to publish news and stories about geographies. The global historian the area’s social and economic Sebastian Conrad reminds us that ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r conditions, as well as about its global history does not necessarily people and their everyday life. As imply worldwide coverage; the fact a correspondent reporter who had that the regions are in the same already travelled to Chile in 1895 and subcontinent cannot be disregarded to different Argentine provinces (such as a global scale for historical u s t r a l i n A g e as Santiago del Estero, Corrientes, research.9 In addition to examining A Córdoba, and Santa Fe), Payró took wider South American intellectual the job.8 debates, this text also discusses The unstable national how Euclides da Cunha and Roberto a t g o n i “ border situation was not the only Payró interpreted the global affairs similarity between the two regions. of their time, connecting events Acre and Patagonia were annexed occurring in India, Australia, and the M a k i n g P | by their countries in a similar context United States to their South American of national ascent and territorial homelands. consolidation. Likewise, both areas The authors investigated embodied analogous social and by this text also shared resonant geographical challenges to Brazil and enthusiasm for the development Argentina in the years following their of the Amazon and Patagonia. conquest. Both writers fashioned themselves as experts and political thinkers, as opposed to mere tourists that J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m the Amazon and the “Lost Paradise” travelled for leisure. Still, there remain of Euclides da Cunha (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), substantial distinctions between 199. the political perspectives in their 7 Susana Bandieri, Historia de travel writing. It is a purpose of this la Patagonia (Buenos Aires: paper to try to explain how these Sudamericana, 2014), 146, 266. differences echoed disparities in 8 Martín Servelli, “A través de la República: La emergencia del ideas about race and national identity reporterismo viajero en la prensa porteña de entresiglos (XIX-XX)” (PhD diss., Universidad de Buenos Aires, 9 Sebastian Conrad, What is Global 2014), 52, http://repositorio.filo.uba.ar/ History? (Princeton, NJ: Princeton handle/filodigital/6156. University Press, 2016), 8-10.
140 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m in Brazilian and Argentine intellectual should be understood as essays, circles during the Belle Époque, which were meant to open new paths despite sharing the same Eurocentric of thinking.12 common ground. As the Argentine literary critic Beatriz Colombi argues, this type of travel enjoyed great prestige in THE ROLE OF TRAVEL WRITING Hispanic-American literary networks AS ESSAY IN THE LATIN between the decades of 1890-1910.
| AMERICAN BELLE ÉPOQUE It conferred considerable discursive M a k i n g P authority on the figure of the traveling In the late nineteenth century, intellectual, who came to occupy the growth of the hotel market and a prominent place in the Hispanic- a t g o n i “ major international events such American press.13 For instance, as the Universal Exhibitions gave Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío way to the rise of tourism as a (1867-1919) and Guatemalan Enrique A way of traveling.10 The embryonic Gómez Carillo (1873-1927) worked u s t r a l i n A g e popularization of tourism challenged as foreign correspondents in Europe Latin American economic and and received big highlight features intellectual elites, insofar as traveling in Argentine papers, and as a result, to Europe was an old symbol of their texts seized larger readership power and high culture. Authors with and generated frequent intellectual ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r literary pretense tried to distinguish debates.14 Travel essays were among their travelogues or travel books the few signed articles in Latin from simple travel guides for middle- American newspapers, an indication class tourists.11 The French-Argentine of their authors’ renown.15 As can be writer Paul Groussac (1848-1929), gleaned from Darío’s examination of for example, made the appeal that local cultures, Groussac’s sociological traveling should be a stimulus for approach, and Manuel Ugarte’s (1875- intellectual reflection. On this kind 1951) anti-imperialist overtures, travel of travel, which he called viaje writing became a journalistic genre intelectual (intellectual travel), and was frequently used for voicing Groussac advised that travel writing different concerns.16 Euclides da Cunha and Roberto Payró were travelers of this 10 Cristobal Pera, “De viajeros y turistas: genre. Subscribing to Groussac’s reflexiones sobre el turismo en la literatura hispanoamericana,” Revista Iberoamericana 64, no. 184-185 (July- 12 Beatriz Colombi, Viaje intelectual: December 1998): 512, https://doi. migraciones y desplazamientos en org/10.5195/reviberoamer.1998.6124. América Latina, 1880-1915 (Rosario: 11 Graciela Montaldo, “Prólogo,” Beatriz Viterbo, 2004), 72. in Rubén Darío, Viajes de um 13 Colombi, Viaje intelectual, 13-17. cosmopolita extremo, ed. Graciela 14 Ibid, 13-17. Montaldo (Buenos Aires: Fondo de 15 Servelli, “A través,” 6-8. Cultura Económica, 2013), 22. 16 Colombi, Viaje intelectual, 13-17.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 141 aforesaid conception of travel interior. Despite not constituting writing as an intellectual and political empires, then-recently emancipated tool, both strove to influence countries such as Brazil and public opinion by debating certain Argentina also sought to enlarge issues related to the Amazon and their territories in the age of the Patagonia.17 To better understand Second Industrial Revolution, marked what these issues were, a further by a progressively integrated global historicization of the settings of these economy.21 As they were massive regions between the nineteenth and world commodity suppliers, broader the twentieth centuries is needed. territories meant the possibility of deeper wealth. That condition was ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r not exclusive for Brazil and Argentina PATAGONIA AND ACRE AS in South America. In fact, it was the NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL main issue in the Pacific War (1879- BATTLEGROUNDS 1884), in which Chile (another South American power) managed to defeat u s t r a l i n A g e In the late nineteenth century, Peru and Bolivia to annex areas A both Patagonia and Acre were like Antofagasta, rich in guano and what Mary Louise Pratt visualized saltpeter that provided nitrates, a as contact zones, or “social spaces valuable product at the time.22 a t g o n i “ where disparate cultures meet, clash, The Argentine impulse and grapple with each other, often towards Patagonia was related to in highly asymmetrical relations of the desire to expand its areas for
M a k i n g P 18 | domination and subordination.” agriculture and livestock, its major These regions were focuses of export for international markets in the what Walter Nugent conceived late nineteenth century.23 In the case as a frontier impulse,19 that is, a of Brazil, Acre was enticing because national expansionist drive towards of its rubber tree areas. Before the “extensive ‘free’ lands within their introduction of rubber species to own borders”20, aiming to combat Britain’s South Asian colonies in the native peoples and to colonize the 1910s, the Amazon and the Congo were the most important world J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m suppliers of rubber, as its vegetal
17 Ibid, 16. 18 Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial eyes: Travel writing and transculturation 21 Eric J. Hobsbawm, A era dos (London and New York: Routledge, Impérios, 1875-1914, trans. Sieni Maria 2008), 4. Campos and Yolanda Steidel de 19 Walter Nugent, “Frontiers and Toledo (Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, Empires in Late Nineteenth Century,” 1988), 95. in The American West: the reader, 22 Hobsbawm, A era dos Impérios, 113. ed. Walter Nugent and Martin Ridge 23 Ibid, 65, 79, 111; David Rock, El (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University radicalismo argentino, 1890-1930, Press, 1999), 40. trans. Leandro Wolfson (Buenos Aires: 20 Nugent, “Frontiers and Empires”, 45. Amorrortu editores, 2001), 13.
142 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m sources were rare, available only in peoples, some of them Trans- certain equatorial zones.24 Andean, such as the Mapuche. By the time of Payró’s and The Argentine authorities and Euclides’s travels, Patagonia and Acre landowners’ experience shifted had just been annexed by Argentina between varying degrees of and Brazil respectively. Emerging negotiation and bellicosity with the as victors of the Paraguayan War Indigenous groups on its border.27 (1864-1870, also known as the War Argentine elites, however,
| of the Triple Alliance), these two also claimed that geographical zone M a k i n g P South American powers used their (which included a part of the Pampas) military and geopolitical strength to as their legitimate territory inherited annex the aforementioned areas.25 from Spain, longing to attack its a t g o n i “ Even so, the means for these Indigenous societies and occupy accomplishments were different in the area. This plan became viable each case. and was launched in 1878, under the A The incorporation of the far presidency of Nicolás Avellaneda and u s t r a l i n A g e southern territories by Argentina Julio Argentino Roca’s administration was a martial enterprise. The in the Ministry of War. The ensuing southernmost region of the Americas military offensives—the so-called had theoretically belonged to the “Conquest of Desert”—lasted
Spanish Empire in previous centuries. until 1885, when Roca served as ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r Nevertheless, from the beginning President. The consequence of that of Hispanic-American national process was the murder of more than independence movements in the 12,000 Indigenous individuals, the 1810s to the end of the nineteenth breakdown of their societies, and the century, the area had not yet been beginning of Argentine rule over the formally incorporated by Chile on region.28 the Pacific side, nor by Argentina On the other hand, the on the Atlantic side. According incorporation of Acre by the to international law, the area was Brazilian government was a result terra nullius,26 even though it was of insurgencies upheld by Brazilian the homeland of many Amerindian seringueiros (tappers that extracted latex from Hevea brasiliensis, a tree known as seringueira) in the 24 Barbara Weinstein, The Amazon area and subsequent diplomatic rubber boom, 1850-1920 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1983). 25 David Viñas, Indios, ejército y frontera (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI Editores, 27 Gabriel Passetti, Indígenas e criollos: 1982), 16. política, guerra e traição nas lutas 26 Ana Carollina Gutierrez Pompeu, “A no sul da Argentina (1852-1885) (São construção da Patagônia argentina” Paulo: Alameda, 2012). (master’s thesis, Universidade de 28 Carlos Martínez Sarasola, Nuestros Brasília, 2012), 111, https://repositorio. Paisanos los índios (Buenos Aires: unb.br/handle/10482/10816. Emecé, 2005).
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 143 negotiations. Until 1903, Acre had American chartered company also been a peripheral part of Bolivian known as the “Bolivian Syndicate”) territory and was mostly inhabited by for a period of thirty years.32 Tensions Brazilian migrants.29 Since the 1870s, quickly escalated, and although the there was an ongoing migratory wave United States Department of State of Brazilian people to the Amazon. denied it, the lease posed a clear risk The migrants were mostly escaping of future American interference in the draughts in the Brazilian Northeastern Brazilian Amazon.33 backlands (especially from the In 1902, Acre witnessed a state of Ceará).30 Simultaneously, as new uprising of Brazilian settlers Susanna Hecht writes, “by the 1880s, led by Plácido de Castro (1873- ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r Acre was becoming one of the most 1908) against Bolivia, backed by the commercially desirable areas on government of the Brazilian state earth”: rubber held the promise of of Amazonas.34 This time Brazil material wealth or, at the very least, formally supported the movement, survival.31 as the government believed that u s t r a l i n A g e The Bolivian government had the “Bolivian Syndicate” would A not yet occupied Acre until the arrival pose a threat to its hegemony in of Brazilian immigrants. The country the Amazon. A war was about to tried to recover its sovereignty explode in the beginning of 1903 a t g o n i “ over the area in April 1899. As the but eventually, Castro’s military attempt failed, the country discussed success made Bolivia give up the a deal with the United States to plan of recovering Acre. The Baron M a k i n g P | receive American diplomatic and of Rio Branco, who had taken military support to exercise Bolivian office at the Brazilian Ministry of rights over Acre. When the news Foreign Affairs in December of the of the forthcoming deal circulated, previous year, managed to conciliate Brazilian settlers rebelled and with Bolivia and incorporate Acre declared the Acre Independent with Brazil through the Treaty State, which was not recognized by of Petrópolis (1903). The Treaty Brazilian authorities. Later, in 1901, stipulated the payment of 2 million Bolivia signed a contract that would pounds for Bolivia and the pledge J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m lease most of the Acre territory to of constructing a railway (which the Bolivian Trading Company (an would be called Madeira-Mamoré) to improve the transportation of Bolivian products through the Amazon 29 Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, “O Basin.35 Barão de Rothschild e a questão With this agreement, Acre do Acre,” Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional 43, no. 2 (December 2000): 150-169, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034- 32 Ibid, 172-173. 73292000000200007. 33 Bandeira, “O Barão de Rotschild,” 155. 30 Hecht, The scramble, 181. 34 Ibid, 155. 31 Ibid, 96. 35 Hecht, The scramble, 181.
144 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m was finally a part of Brazilian territory. They had not yet been integrated But another international dispute into Brazilian and Argentine national was impending, this time with Peru. imagined communities,39 popularized Brazil and Peru had not signed a by literature and widespread civic border treaty since the respective symbols throughout the nineteenth independences of both countries. century. Patagonia and Acre were Lima also had not recognized Acre as products of a “territorial fiction that legitimate Bolivian territory, arguing sought to legitimize the expansion
| that during Spanish colonization it of the Republics.”40 The immediacy M a k i n g P had belonged to the Viceroyalty of their incorporation demonstrates of Peru. Besides this, the Peruvian the artifice of the concept of national government wanted to annex Acre territory as a supposed traditionally a t g o n i “ due to the presence of Peruvian shared geographic land by one caucheros (who extracted latex from people. Castilla ulei, known as caucho) in In short, as Alberto A the region.36 Another war seemed Harambour-Ross stated about u s t r a l i n A g e imminent, but the conflict was solved Patagonia, “Patagonia as a national by diplomatic means, leading to the frontier refers to its paradoxical formation of the Joint Commission location as ideologically central and for the Reconnaissance of the Upper materially marginal at the same time.”41
Purús, integrated by Peruvian and According to Leopoldo M. Bernucci, ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r Brazilian members to cooperate on Acre typified an identical ambiguity for the demarcation of borders. Euclides Brazil in the 1900s.42 These conditions da Cunha was nominated head of the entailed the problems Euclides and Brazilian delegation.37 Payró tackled in their writings. Acre and Argentine Patagonia were thus outcomes of different national endeavors. These areas Prometeo Libros, 2010). were key pieces in the puzzle 39 Benedict Anderson, Imagined of expanding territories, which Communities. Reflections on the made nations feel more powerful. Origin and Spread of Nationalism Nonetheless, Patagonia and the (London and New York: Verso, 2006). West Amazon were still too far from 40 Alberto Harambour-Ross, “Borderland Sovereignties. Postcolonial their national capital cities. Their Colonialism and State Making in environments were so divergent that Patagonia. Argentina and Chile, they were often considered foreign 1840s-1922” (PhD diss., Stony Brook territories within their own countries.38 University, 2012), 79, http://hdl.handle. net/1951/59684. 41 Harambour-Ross, “Borderland Sovereignties,” 78. 36 Hecht, The scramble, 187-195. 42 Leopoldo M. Bernucci, “Imagens 37 Ibid, 216. utópicas e distópicas do deserto e 38 Claudia Torre, Literatura en tránsito. da floresta em Euclides da Cunha,” La narrativa expedicionaria de la Signótica 23, no. 1 (2011): 114, https:// conquista del desierto (Buenos Aires: doi.org/10.5216/sig.v23i1.16148.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 145 DEPICTING PATAGONIA AND THE economy. Moreover, upon arriving AMAZON: DENYING NEGATIVE in Buenos Aires, Payró said that he STEREOTYPES had not caught a cold on his trip, contrary to what was expected.44 The portrayals of Patagonia in He also reported no tribulation in Payró’s writings and of Acre in those his boat on the Magellan Strait, of Euclides’s have two dimensions. famous for its harsh conditions for Payró and Euclides indeed described navigation.45 The icebergs, alpine the regions’ faults, such as a shortage snow slides on the seashore, and of transportation infrastructure, an channels of Tierra del Fuego did absence of public facilities, poverty, not seem quite so frightening ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r abysmal economic inequality, and to Payró as much as beautiful. weak enforcement of the rule of law. The journalist even suggested Nevertheless, both authors remained that the region became a tourist hopeful about the future of the destination for summer vacations.46 Amazon and Patagonia. How was He characterized its landscape as u s t r a l i n A g e that possible? “spectacular”: “We were astounded A These writers did not view by the spectacle of a snow mountain these problems as inherent in both […] whose snow almost reached areas. Unlike previous authors, they the sea, with bluish smooth shades, a t g o n i “ tried to disconnect the regions’ really delicate, that highlighted problems from their natural features. the nearly absolute whiteness of Of course, as metropolitan men, the snow in the top, contrasting
M a k i n g P 47 | Euclides and Payró were astonished with the leaden sky.” Another by their peculiar landscapes and negative stereotype minimized by perceived them as indomitable at Payró was the Patagonian “curse first glance. Still, as their writings of sterility” mentioned in Charles illustrated, this depiction of the Darwin’s Beagle diary.48 Payró zones as ill-fated wild places was not solidified. In La Australia argentina, 44 Ibid, 418. Payró intended to relativize the 45 Ibid, 117. J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m coldness imputed to the Argentine 46 Ibid, 168-169. 47 Own translation. Original quotation: South Coast. Presenting statistics, he “[N]os sorprendió el espectáculo related Tierra del Fuego’s weather de uno de los ventisqueros […] cuya to Dublin’s, an important European nieve llegaba hasta el mar, con tonos city.43 By making that comparison, azulados suaves y tenues, muy finos, the author argued that Patagonian que hacían resaltar más la blancura casi absoluta de la nieve en la cima, climate was not an obstacle to destacada á su vez sobre el fondo develop both settlements and the plomizo del cielo.” Ibid, 172 48 Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin’s Beagle diary, ed. R. D. Keynes (Cambridge: Cambridge University 43 Payró, La Australia argentina, 311. Press, 2001), 253.
146 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m argued that shortages of drinkable accentuated that the strains with Acre water could be easily prevented and the Amazon were derived from through the creation of cisterns. But the recent process of integration most Patagonian areas did not face of these regions into Brazilian, this issue; they were suitable for more central and developed agriculture and cattle grazing, which areas. Euclides also asserted that made Payró optimistic about the all Amazonian problems would region’s future. disappear “as soon as that kidnapped
| In Euclides’s writings, there society [the Amazon] is incorporated M a k i n g P was also a refutation of some to its country [Brazil].” 51 prejudices about the Amazon. Euclides and Payró made
He refused to see affluents of the an argument for the fitness of the a t g o n i “ Amazon River as eternal natural Amazon and Patagonia for Western obstacles for navigation. For him, modern and scientific social the navigational difficulties were patterns, which they believed were A not predetermined by nature, but paradigms of civilization. The alleged u s t r a l i n A g e by the absence of relatively simple shortcomings which both essayists improvements to riverbeds.49 As noticed in those areas had more to an engineer, Euclides believed that do with political and social matters. water engineering could easily Payró and Euclides were among cope with the complexities in fluvial the authors that first wrote about ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r transportation in the Amazon Basin. Patagonia and the Amazon from a Euclides also refuted political and social approach rather preconceptions about Acre in than the naturalistic, traditional one particular. He strongly opposed that characterized early European the idea that the territory had an colonization. Thus, in their point unhealthy climate: “The exaggeration of view, political, social, and is clear. Territory of Acre and economic solutions were available generally the Amazonian plains for developing both regions and perhaps have that absolutely installing a “civilizing routine” onto common mortality in every new them. 52 settlement area. But it is substantially narrow.”50 Mentioning “every new settlement area,” Euclides 51 Own translation. Original quotation: “desde que se incorpore a sociedade seqüestrada ao resto do país.” 49 Cunha, Um paraíso perdido, 140. Euclides da Cunha, Obra completa, 50 Own translation. Original quotation: ed. Afrânio Coutinho (Rio de Janeiro: “O exagero é palmar. O Acre, ou, em Nova Aguilar, 1995), 802. geral, as planuras amazônicas […] tem 52 Jens Andermann, “Reporters en talvez a letalidade vulgaríssima em la frontera Periodismo de viaje e todos os lugares recém-abertos ao imaginación progresista en Payró y povoamento. Mas consideravelmente Arlt,” El Rodaballo 10 (Summer 2000): reduzida.” Ibid, 145. 76.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 147 IMAGINING PATAGONIA AND of shipping transportation in Punta THE AMAZON: STRESSING Arenas, in the Chilean Patagonia.56 POSSIBILITIES FOR The reporter proposed that the DEVELOPMENT Argentine state should offer aid to private sea routes to integrate its As demonstrated, both national Patagonian territories.57 authors presented many possibilities Payró also stressed the of modernizing and deepening importance of the creation of the exploitation of the regions railways and the installation of they wrote about. As a priority, telegraphs for the Argentine South better transportation networks Coast. Telegraph lines were being ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r were absolute necessities. Payró installed by the Army, and there was noted that the complaint about a prospect of a new railroad in the transportation was unanimous Patagonian Territory of Chubut to be among Patagonian settlers, an constructed by a private company.58 ineffectiveness that undermined That territory was already served by u s t r a l i n A g e trade and supply networks.53 the Ferrocarril Central del Chubut A In 1898 only Transporte railway since 1888.59 The railroad was Nacional Villarino, a steam cargo ship a typical emblem of the nineteenth- from the Argentine Navy, connected century aspiration for technology a t g o n i “ the region with Buenos Aires by sea. and progress.60 It also appeared As much as it reached some of the in Euclides’s propositions for Acre. main points of the Argentine South Apart from his ideas of improving M a k i n g P | Coast, Villarino still did not stop in navigation in Amazonian rivers, Camarones, Puerto Deseado, Puerto Euclides planned a Trans-Acrean San Julián, and the entire east coast railway, which was his greatest of Tierra del Fuego.54 Villarino’s conditions for transporting people
were far from ideal, as stated by 56 Payró regarded Punta Arenas Payró, himself one of its passengers: as an example to be followed by “And some people even dare to say Argentina, considering that the that this shipping line, that makes its Chilean government had allegedly J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m route once a month, really pursues often executed public works projects 55 to upgrade the harbor and urban the Patagonian development!” infrastructure in the town. See: Ibid, Payró envied the plentiful nature 134, 144. 57 Ibid, 11. 58 Ibid, 28. 59 Colin M. Lewis, British Railways in 53 Payró, La Australia argentina, 256. Argentina 1857-1914: A Case Study of 54 Ibid, 10-11. Foreign Investment (London: Athlone 55 Own translation. Original quotation: Press, 1983). “¡Y dicen que esta línea de 60 Marshall Berman, All that is solid transportes que hace un viaje al melts into air: The experience of mes, tiene por objeto el desarollo de modernity (New York: Penguin Books, aquellas regiones!” Ibid, 9. 1988), 18, 74, 92, 194.
148 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m project for the Amazon.61 This This quotation reveals a initiative would have been associated core belief Euclides and Payró had: with the grand Madeira-Mamoré increasing the population in the railway project, whose construction Amazon and in Patagonia was not would start in 1907. The connection only a way to maximize the economic between the two railroads would exploitation of the regions, but have allowed Acre to have a greater was part of a process of creating connection with the current Brazilian fairer, new societies in them. Both
| state of Rondônia. authors’ political plans regarding the M a k i n g P Euclides da Cunha had regions envisioned the promotion of a positivistic and evolutionist settlement not just as a demographic background, which made him issue, but as a tactic to establish a t g o n i “ a devotee to the sciences and certain social conditions and to technology. He also carefully overcome deprivation. observed international political Payró considered that A happenings, particularly the imperial a main source for the plights u s t r a l i n A g e policies of European powers. Having of Patagonia was its unequal in mind the British Empire and its landowning policies. The largest technological feats in Asia, Euclides part of rural area belonged to said that “Here, as in India, there absentee landlords, interested in were a plenty of professionals country estate speculation. This had ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r frightened of geographic and climate two effects: first, it decreased the difficulties – professionals that forgot chance of settlers, peasants, and that Engineering precisely exists for shepherds having their own lands or overcoming them.”62 renting a small rural estate. Second, Euclides knew about American it also contributed to keeping infrastructure successes as well. Argentine Patagonia uncultivated Evoking a railway that integrated and underdeveloped. Most of the the First Transcontinental Railroad, Patagonian National Territory of completed in 1869, he idealized that Chubut was unoccupied and, in the “just as the Union Pacific Railway did, fraction that was indeed occupied, the Trans-Acrean railroad will not suit the sheep population prevailed a present traffic once it does not yet over the human one, something exist. Instead, it will create that traffic.”63 Harambour-Ross conceived as a sheep sovereignty.64 According to Payró, this was due to legal 61 Cunha, Um paraíso perdido, 195-208. 62 Own translation. Original quotation: “[n]a Índia, como entre nós, não faltaram profissionais apavorados “a linha acriana, a exemplo da Union ante as dificuldades naturais – Pacific Railway, não vai satisfazer um esquecidos de que a engenharia tráfego, que não existe, senão criar o existe precisamente para vencê-las.” que deve existir.” Ibid, 201-202. Cunha, Um paraíso perdido, 201. 64 Harambour-Ross, “Borderland 63 Own translation. Original quotation: Sovereignties,” 133-143.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 149 proceedings that filibustered small caused Celman’s resignation, a land renting, which he deemed remarkable achievement, despite “disgusting.”65 PAN remaining the ruling party. A Payró fashioned himself prominent leader of Unión Cívica was as an ally of Patagonian pioneers, Bartolomé Mitre, former Argentine characterizing them as self-made President (1861-1868) and owner of men harmed by the Argentine La Nación, the political pamphlet government and its corrupt favoring of that movement. Because of their bias towards the terrateniente convergence in antirroquismo (landholder) elite. The writer (opposition to Roca and his followers), regretted how that scenario Mitre and Payró became close and ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r undermined the possibility of the latter started to write in La Nación development, framing country land in the mid-1890s. Mitre would even speculation as a parasitism that sign the foreword of Payró’s La blocked development.66 Australia argentina.68 Hence, Payró’s Those ideas were linked to criticism towards the Argentine u s t r a l i n A g e Payró’s political positions beyond government’s policy on Patagonian A Patagonia. He was a political rival issues was a political weapon against of roquistas gathered in PAN, or PAN and its administration. the Partido Autonomista Nacional The fact that the journalist a t g o n i “ (National Autonomous Party), the represented himself as a passionate group that had governed Argentina’s Patagonian spokesperson against federal government since 1874 that government and the landowner M a k i n g P | until 1916 and had Julio Roca as its elites is also affined to his links longstanding leader. As a young with early Argentine socialism. journalist in Bahía Blanca, Payró Payró founded the Socialist Party supported the Revolución del Parque in Argentina in 1896 with writers (Revolution of the Park) (1890), a and compatriots,69 such as José civic-military movement led by the Ingenieros (1877-1925) and Juan opposition group Unión Cívica (Civic B. Justo (1865-1928). Passages of Union) against President Miguel La Australia argentina indicate Juárez Celman (1886-1890). The a concern about the harsh life J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m movement criticized the corruption conditions of the urban working class and the electoral fraud under PAN’s in Buenos Aires. Payró mentions political hegemony.67 that jobless men from the capital city The political mobilization migrated to Patagonia and tried to make a living through high-risk and illegal work, such as gold panning
65 Payró, La Australia argentina, 40-41. 66 Ibid, 68. 67 Natalio R. Botana, El orden 68 Botana, El orden conservador, v-viii. conservador: la política argentina 69 Eduardo González Lanuza, Genio y entre 1880 y 1916 (Buenos Aires: figura de Roberto J. Payró (Buenos Hyspamérica, 1986), 164-174. Aires: EUDEBA, 1965), 54.
150 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m and wolf hunting.70 As opposed to tree plantations). He described that, agriculture and livestock in that form of work as a cruel, unfree Patagonia were highly attractive labor: “the most villainous division of alternatives for subsistence, insofar labor, which also created the most as they were safer and more shameless selfishness […] Tappers profitable activities. perform a terrific anomaly: they These elements may have work to slave themselves.”72 This been what lured Payró to the economic bondage involved a series
| region. In 1894, the first edition of of ruthless contracts imposed on M a k i n g P La Vanguardia (a Socialist paper tappers and made them endlessly based in Buenos Aires) stated that indebted to seringalistas (owners of in modern Argentina, impoverished seringais), which Euclides compared a t g o n i “ people’s possibility of subsistence to feudalism.73 The denunciation became increasingly constrained of these horrors resembled the to selling their labor and being tone of Joseph Conrad’s Heart A exploited for their surplus value.71 The of Darkness (1902), a book that u s t r a l i n A g e newspaper nostalgically remembered described how European colonizers, a past in which the production of the just as its ignominious character means of subsistence was freer in Kurtz, tyrannized people on the the country, something Payró thought African continent. Conrad’s classic rural Patagonia could offer in the novella was inspired by the Belgian ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r future. colonization of the Congo Free Small farming was an State.74 Euclides’s approach also ongoing possibility of subsistence in Patagonia that could be invigorated, but it had practically not yet begun 72 Own translation. Original quotation: in Euclides’s Acre. Acre’s settlers “a mais criminosa organização do were almost exclusively occupied trabalho que ainda engenhou o mais desaçamado egoísmo. [...] [O] as rubber extractors, as that was the seringueiro realiza uma tremenda sole extractive economic activity in anomalia: é o homem que trabalha the region. This had catastrophic para escravizar-se.” Cunha, Um consequences for the seringueiros’ paraíso perdido, 127. work conditions. Euclides was 73 Ibid, 128. 74 There is a long literary and academic horrified by what he witnessed in debate about Conrad’s relationship Upper Purús’s seringais (rubber with imperialism. In a public lecture, the Nigerian novelist and professor Chinua Achebe argued that Conrad’s racist representation of African 70 Payró, La Australia argentina, 310. peoples contributed decisively to the 71 Gonzalo Adrián Rojas, “Os socialistas imperial project. On the other hand, na Argentina (1880-1980) – um the Palestinian literary critic Edward século de ação política” (PhD diss., Said reasoned that Conrad should Universidade de São Paulo, 2006), be regarded both as an imperialist 275, https://doi.org/10.11606/T.8.2006. (due to his refutation of the idea tde-25052007-151218. that Africa and South America could
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 151 resembles José Eustasio Rivera’s La the river margins in Acre, especially in Vorágine (The Vortex) (1924), a novel Upper Purús and Upper Juruá. about exploitation in the Colombian Euclides da Cunha’s Trans- Amazon, and Roger Casement’s Blue Acrean railway project devised to Book on the Putumayo (1912), a work transform that situation, insofar as it that investigated the enslavement intended to disperse the population and extermination of Native people throughout the whole of Acre. The by the Peruvian Amazon Rubber engineer claimed that unoccupied Company, a British corporation. areas in that territory could afford Euclides thought the colonizers the possibility of having dependence on latex extraction was small farms and properties and being ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r poor for the economy in the long released from the fate of oppression term as well. As a predatory activity, they suffered as seringueiros. In it did not deliver foundations for the regions to be populated, a less further development. This intuition unequal society could emerge, was dreadfully confirmed in the early which could facilitate the presence u s t r a l i n A g e 1910s,75 not long after Euclides’s of public institutions, absent where A writings were published and the seringalistas ruled. author’s death in 1909, as the Brazilian Payró and Euclides were rubber boom did not manage to unsuccessful in their propositions a t g o n i “ endure. Though it had been a source because they were not embraced and of tremendous wealth for Brazilian enabled by national administrations. Northern oligarchies (as evidenced by In the years following La Australia M a k i n g P | Manaus’s sumptuous Belle Époque argentina, PAN’s government architecture), it did not leave a legacy attempted to advance some of welfare in Amazonian inlands such improvements in Patagonian as Acre. As Euclides warned, due infrastructure, but continued to favor to the lack of alternative activities, big landowners and country estate rubber tapping was producing a poor speculation, contrary to Payró’s and nomadic society. It suppressed anti-oligarchic position.76 Euclides’s population growth and geographic Trans-Acrean railroad, meanwhile, occupation, which remained stuck to inspired some projects and plans in J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m the National Congress of Brazil in the 1910s. However, none of them were have independent cultures and approved and they were gradually histories) and as an anti-imperialist (he forgotten as time passed.77 criticized the “corruption of overseas domination”). See: Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa,” Research in African Literatures 9, no. 2 76 Pedro Navarro-Floria, “La mirada (1978), 11-15, https://www.jstor.org/ del reformismo liberal sobre los stable/3818468; Edward W. Said, Territorios del Sur argentino, 1898- Culture and Imperialism (New York: 1916,” Quinto Sol 13 (2009): 78, https:// Knopf, 1993), xviii. doi.org/10.19137/qs.v13i0.3. 75 Weinstein, The Amazon rubber boom. 77 André Vasques Vital, “Política e
152 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m Beyond this common neglect across centuries. That is, defeat, both writers clearly shared having inherited from Spain a lack expectations and held many similar of colonizing abilities, Argentina propositions for Patagonia and the lingered to seize Patagonia while Amazon. Nevertheless, one topic England was sending its own on which they had quite contrasting explorers there.78 Since the mid- views was the racial and national nineteenth-century, there had identity that should reign in the been British settlers in Patagonia
| region each one visited. and its surroundings, most notably M a k i n g P in the Falkland Islands. Anglican missionaries had been in Tierra del PAYRÓ’S PATAGONIAN UTOPIA: Fuego since the 1830s, and Welsh a t g o n i “ EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION AND farmers had been in Chubut since ANGLOPHILIA 1865.79 For Payró, the British could take credit for all the trade, towns, A Payró strongly advocated for and livestock the region had already u s t r a l i n A g e Patagonia to be populated mainly by achieved. Thus, in order to grow, European immigrants, particularly of Payró believed Patagonia should Anglo-Saxon descent. Although the not expel the British community, but writer did not want to expel Argentine instrumentalize it. people from their own freshly Additionally, during most of ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r conquered national territory, he the nineteenth century, Argentine believed that British colonists were pundits were almost consensually the most capable of developing the fascinated by European immigration South Argentine Coast and positively as an alleged path to civilization. This influencing the native Argentines in point of view was shared both by the process. This Anglophile opinion PAN and its rivals, even though each was derived from several factors. administration had its own policy for First, Payró’s views stemmed attracting European settlers.80 Article from a repudiation of the Spanish colonization and its heritage. Payró not only thought that the colonial 78 Payró, La Australia argentina, 287. past was a burden for Argentine 79 Bandieri, História de la Patagonia, 158-165. development, but he understood 80 Alejandro Fernández, “La inmigración that Patagonia’s late integration subsidiada en la Argentina y la in Argentina was due to Spanish crisis económica de 1890,” História Unisinos 22, no. 2 (2018): 158-162, 167-169, https://doi.org/10.4013/ htu.2018.222.01. According to Saúde Pública no cativeiro dos rios: Fernández, until 1886, Argentine a integração nacional do território national and provincial governments federal do Acre (Alto Purus, 1904- promoted immigration by providing 1920)” (PhD diss., Fundação Oswaldo European settlers with provisional Cruz, 2016), 203-212, https://www. accommodation, job offer information, arca.fiocruz.br/handle/icict/16345. and favorable land renting and
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 153 25 of the Argentine Constitution Patagonian settlers (like Charles of 1853 established the official Ross and “Mary X”, characters of La promotion of European immigration Australia argentina) as prototypes as an essential state responsibility.81 of virtues supposedly associated Since the generation of Domingo with Protestantism, like willpower, Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888) and abnegation, and industriousness.83 Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810-1884), Evoking racial evolutionism, Payró Argentine intellectuals and politicians even wished for miscegenation had hoped that European immigrants between British settlers and would bring a better workforce and Argentines, which he saw as a way of a superior culture.82 Reverberating purportedly improving the latter.84 ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r those ideas in 1898, Payró stood Another reason for Payró’s within an Argentine mainstream Patagonian Anglophilia was his intellectual tradition. He described admiration towards the British male and female Anglo-Saxon Empire’s power85 and to the astonishing economic ascent of u s t r a l i n A g e Anglo-Saxon countries and colonies A acquisition conditions. Nevertheless, like the United States and Australia. the state had not yet subsidized transatlantic tickets for immigrants. Payró repeatedly mentioned national In 1887-1890, despite the fact that and colonial Anglo-Saxon frontier a t g o n i “ rates of immigration to Argentina spaces like the American West,86 were already consistently growing, South Africa, and Australia as models Juarez Celman’s government for Patagonian administration and started a program to subsidize M a k i n g P | immigrants’ transportation and development. He yearned for advertise Argentina as an immigrant Patagonia to imitate the ethnic destination in Europe. This policy was too expensive, however, and ultimately failed. In addition to the political and economic crisis, this 83 Payró, La Australia argentina, 80-91. resulted in a sudden retreat of 84 Ibid, 82; Harambour-Ross, European immigration to Argentina “Borderland Sovereignties,” 85. in the early 1890s. That conjuncture 85 Alan Knight, “Britain and Latin probably influenced Payró’s criticism America,” in Andrew Porter and Alaine
J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m towards PAN’s immigration policies in Low, ed., The Oxford History of the Patagonia, which he called inefficient. British Empire, Vol. 3, The nineteenth 81 Fernández, “La inmigración century (Oxford: Oxford University subsidiada en la Argentina y la crisis Press, 2001), 122-142. económica de 1890,” 158. 86 Before Payró, Argentine essayists, 82 Tulio Halperín Donghi, “Para qué such as Groussac, had already la inmigración. Ideología y política compared their country’s territorial inmigratoria y acelaración del expansion process to the American proceso modernizador: el caso Western experience in the form of argentino (1810-1914),” Jahrbuch für manifest destiny. Groussac himself Geschichte Lateinamerikas 13 (1976): had visited California and Utah in 437, https://www.degruyter.com/ the early 1890s. See: Paul Groussac, view/j/jbla.1976.13.issue-1/issue-files/ Del Plata al Niágara (Buenos Aires: jbla.1976.13.issue-1.xml. Administración de la Biblioteca, 1897).
154 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m melting pot and civil and economic given by Spanish colonization.90 freedoms of white pioneers in the This point of view was a reaction to American Far West.87 Payró also the Spanish-American War (1898), desired for Patagonia to become in which the United States defeated as affluent as Australia,88 especially the Spanish Empire.91 While some since one of its key products, cattle, essayists were afraid of the United was also an important Argentine States’ power in the Americas, commodity, whose production could Payró realized that the future of
| be increased with Patagonian lands. the continent was Anglo-Saxon. As M a k i n g P Similarly, Payró exalted the prosperity a result of that supposition, Payró the Falkland Islands had attained and assumed that, in order to keep rising, claimed that if Patagonia were under Argentina should uproot its Iberian a t g o n i “ British colonization, it would have a legacy and, in its place, implant better administration.89 Anglo-Saxon features. Patagonia, in The fact that Payró titled his view, could be a vital part in that A his Patagonian book La Australia process. u s t r a l i n A g e argentina not only referred to the southern, austral, location of the region, but also glorified the ASSURING THE AMAZON Oceanian colony, which served as WOULD REMAIN BRAZILIAN: a synecdoche of the Anglophone EUCLIDES’S PROJECT FOR THE ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r world. It is curious that Payró gave BRAZILIAN WEST AMAZON such praise to Anglo-Saxons in a moment when great Hispanic- On the other hand, Euclides American writers like Paul Groussac, undoubtedly thought Acre should be Rubén Darío, and José Enrique Rodó populated by national people rather (1872-1917) defended the alignment than immigrants. For him, the process of Hispanic-American nations and of demographic densification of these celebrated their Latin cultural ties spaces had to be an endogenous process, whereas Payró conceived of populating Patagonia as an
87 Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” [First published 90 José Luis Bendicho Beired, in 1893] in John Mack Faragher, ed., “Hispanismo e latinismo no debate Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: intelectual ibero-americano,” Varia “The Significance of the Frontier in Historia 30, no. 54 (2014): 637- American History” and Other Essays 639, https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104- (New York: Henry Holt, 1994), 31-60. 87752014000300003. 88 Robert Vincent Jackson, Australian 91 Mónica Quijada, “Latinos y economic development in the anglosajones: el 98 en el fin de nineteenth century (Canberra: siglo sudamericano,” Hispania 57, Australian National University Press, no. 196 (1997): 596-604, https:// 1977), 4-11. doi.org/10.3989/hispania.1997.v57. 89 Payró, La Australia argentina, 447. i196.687.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 155 exogenous phenomenon, with Anglo- disregarded its own national people, Saxons at its center. Why, then, was who, despite degrading conditions, there such a difference in approach? were vigorously developing a brand- To argue that it was due to new Brazilian territory.96 a lack of late nineteenth-century Euclides da Cunha’s position European immigration to the Amazon can be properly contextualized by is a mistake. By the time of Euclides’s a set of personal and intellectual journey to Acre, there were already factors. Euclides traveled as a state many European and Middle Eastern worker of the Brazilian Ministry immigrants in the regions of Purús of Foreign Relations, so he had a and Juruá,92 which Euclides certainly nationalist civic duty, unlike Payró’s ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r noticed.93 During the 1890s, Pará, a rivalry with PAN in the Argentine Brazilian Amazonian state, became Presidency. In private reports and a destination for significant waves letters to the Baron of Rio Branco, of Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian he displayed a sharp national pride immigrants.94 Therefore, if Euclides and registered his disguised distrust u s t r a l i n A g e perceived immigration as the best towards the Peruvian authorities A alternative for the Amazon, he could he had to work with in the Joint have plainly championed it. Instead, Commission.97 Beyond that, since his Euclides argued that the people pre-Commission articles, Euclides a t g o n i “ from Ceará who had been living in had always been a champion of Acre since the 1870s had already retaining Acre in Brazil. done a great job, even if they were That concern was linked M a k i n g P | not assisted by any government to the ambition of maintaining and aid. Euclides rebuked the fact that reinforcing Brazilian hegemony the Brazilian state subsidized Italian over the Amazon region. Euclides migrants to settle in the opulent followed an intellectual tradition that state of São Paulo95 whereas it was preached since the times of the national monarchy (1822-1889): a celebration of Brazil’s hegemony 92 Márcio Souza, História da Amazônia: do período pré-colombiano aos
J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m desafios do século XXI (Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2019), 259-260. received approximately 1,850,000 93 Cunha, Um paraíso perdido, 156. immigrants (mainly concentrated in 94 Marília Ferreira Emmi, Um século the state of São Paulo), a considerable de imigrações internacionais figure even though it was a smaller na Amazônia brasileira (1850- quantity than immigration to Argentina 1950) (Belém: Editora do Núcleo in the same time (nearly 2.5 million de Altos Estudos Amazônicos da people). See: Thomas Skidmore, Preto Universidade Federal do Pará, 2013). no branco: raça e nacionalidade 95 Similar to their Argentine no pensamento brasileiro (Rio de counterparts, Brazilian elites favored Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1976), 154-162. European immigration, which they 96 Cunha, Um paraíso perdido, 152-153. conceived as the path to supposed 97 Euclides da Cunha, Obra completa, 1: civilization. In 1870-1900, the country 583.
156 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m and exceptionalism over the other For Euclides, this Brazilian South American countries due to manifest destiny would be its great territory and supposed materialized by the constitution political stability.98 The West of a professedly ethnically fit Amazon interested Euclides not people, masters of environments so much because of its precious that were different from Europe. natural resources, but as a means Notwithstanding his early theoretical of bolstering Brazilian territorial reservations towards miscegenation,
| dominion. Brazilian settlers were in his view, this people had to be M a k i n g P indispensable for making Brazil’s a racially mixed one, with both sovereignty over the region more Amerindian and Portuguese legitimate and ensuring Acre would ancestry.100 As he praised Amazonian a t g o n i “ not be dominated by neighboring seringueiros, Euclides had already or imperial countries. Promoting lauded sertanejos (people that lived systematic European immigration in the backlands such as cowboys) in A to Acre would symbolically loosen Rebellion in the Backlands for their u s t r a l i n A g e Brazilian rule there, which could be courage and resilient adaptation perilous. to inhospitable biomes like the Euclides recognized the dry Caatinga in Brazil’s Northeast. consolidation and the occupation Sertanejos did not have exclusive of the national territory as a main European ancestry: they had ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r national priority, more important than accentuated Indigenous roots, so increasing GDP. He conceived of it their ethnic profile was far away from as the natural conclusion of a historic European-descended elites. mission initiated by bandeirantes Euclides was among the (adventurers and slavers who national writers that proclaimed explored remote Brazilian inlands, miscegenation as the most distinctive including the Amazon) in the feature of Brazil. Sílvio Romero (1851- sixteenth century.99 1914) and Capistrano de Abreu (1853- 1927), both authors of the influential 1870 Brazilian intellectual generation, advocated that idea through their 98 Leonardo Vieira de Oliveira, “Da sociological and historical works. ‘planta exótica’ ao excepcionalismo brasileiro: a missão Carneiro Leão Though Euclides, Romero, and ao Prata e a identidade internacional Abreu supported Eurocentric and saquarema (1851-1852)” (master’s racist worldviews, they denied any thesis, Universidade Federal possibility that Brazil could become Fluminense, 2018), 31, https://www. homogeneously and predominantly historia.uff.br/stricto/td/2213.pdf. 99 Danilo José Zioni Ferretti, “Euclides white anytime soon. In fact, Romero da Cunha historiador: a reinvenção do believed that Brazil would ultimately bandeirante em Os sertões,” Revista de História 160 (2009): 270-282, https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9141. 100 Thomas Skidmore, Preto no branco, v0i160p261-284. 126.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 157 go through a deep whitening heavily overstated it.104 In 1887, process, albeit he emphasized that only 1.8 percent of Buenos Aires’ it would be a dilatory one, lasting population were Afro-Argentine, for centuries.101 In the meantime, according to the city’s municipal the writer thought that Brazil should census.105 The national census of embrace miscegenation (which could 1895 estimated that the Indigenous even favor whitening) and recognize population declined from 93,138 itself as mestiço (mestizo). In light of in 1869 to about thirty thousand in that assumption, the great literary 1895, which represented less than 1 critic Antonio Candido (1918-2017) percent of the country’s population.106 said that Romero annihilated the This background allowed Payró to ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r Brazilian “illusion of whiteness.”102 dream of not just a white Argentine Nineteenth-century Argentine Patagonia, but rather a British essayists, on the other hand, seemed Patagonia—that is, an even more to nurture that illusion for their “Europeanized” region. nation. Argentina’s government had Euclides did not, nor could u s t r a l i n A g e managed to spread the conception he, project a similar horizon for the A that it was already an all-white Amazon or for Brazil. After all, the country. This belief relied on the official census conducted in 1890 Amerindian ethnocide, economic and indicated that 44% of Brazilians a t g o n i “ cultural marginalization of African were white,107 which (in spite of Argentines, and the enormous waves being 6% more than registered in of European immigration into the the national census of 1872),108 was
M a k i n g P 103 | country. Argentine late nineteenth- century censuses were symbolic mechanisms that reinforced that 104 Andrews, The Afro-Argentines, notion. Not only did they register 106-112. a real and huge decrease of the 105 Ibid, 66. 106 Comisión Directiva, Segundo censo proportion of Indigenous and African de la República Argentina: Mayo Argentines in the total population, 10 de 1895, 3 vols. (Buenos Aires: but, as historian George Reid Taller tipográfico de la penitenciaría Andrews argued, they also probably nacional 1898), 2: l, http://www.
J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m estadistica.ec.gba.gov.ar/dpe/ Estadistica/censos/C1895-T2.pdf. 107 República dos Estados Unidos do Brazil (Ministerio da Industria, viação 101 Ibid, 86. e Obras Públicas. Directoria Geral 102 Antonio Candido, Sílvio Romero: de Estatistica), Sexo, raça e estado Teoria, crítica e história literária (Rio civil, nacionalidade, filiação culto de Janeiro: LTC; São Paulo: Edusp, e analphabetismo da população 1978), xxi. recenseada em 31 de dezembro 103 George Reid Andrews, The Afro- de 1890 (Rio de Janeiro: Officina da Argentines of Buenos Aires (1800- Estatistica, 1898), 2, https://biblioteca. 1900) (Madison, WI and London: ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/ University of Wisconsin Press, 1980), liv25487.pdf. 4-9. 108 Núcleo de Pesquisa em História
158 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m still not the majority. Euclides and have never heard of one another, his colleagues had to cope with the but the reasons why they made certainty that Brazilian national and their journeys to their countries’ racial identities were in some way furthest regions are ultimately original and dissimilar from European connected. They were bonded to ones. This clarifies why Euclides’s the same global context of territorial settler heroes were racially mixed expansion that South American sertanejos and caboclos (Amazonian leading countries such as Brazil and
| backwoodsmen), while Payró’s Argentina attempted to join. M a k i n g P heroes were British. Because of their condition as brand-new territories, Acre and
Patagonia faced similar problems a t g o n i “ CONCLUSION: HERMANOS, during the Belle Époque. Thus, PERO NO MUCHO Euclides and Payró championed similar plans for infrastructure A This article examined how and territorial integration based u s t r a l i n A g e Roberto Payró’s and Euclides on technological integration and da Cunha’s travel writings had settlement. Reflecting on Acre’s deep underlying geopolitical and future, Euclides resorted to examples economic roots. Brazilians tend such as important railroads in the to think of Acre only as a specific United States and the British Empire’s ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r chapter of their national history109 technological achievements in India. and presumably Argentines do the Imagining a forthcoming Patagonia, same when it comes to Patagonia. Payró appealed to the example of A comparative approach to history Chilean Punta Arenas’s infrastructure writing demonstrates that this and the cases of economic traditional point of view may not be development in Australia and the as encompassing as an historical Falkland Islands. Studying each perspective concerned with writer’s propositions alone might give connections and similarities between them the appearance of exoticism countries.110 Euclides and Payró may or brilliance. On the other hand, this comparative study suggests they shared a fairly widespread Econômica e Demográfica, modernizing international repertoire, Publicação crítica do Recenseamento which characterized the late long Geral do Império do Brasil de 1872 nineteenth century.111 (Belo Horizonte: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 2012), 40. 109 Leandro Tocantins, Formação histórica do Acre (Brasília: Senado gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k101615j; Federal, 2001). Jürgen Kocka, “Comparison and 110 Marc Bloch, “Pour une histoire beyond,” History and Theory 42, no. 1 comparée des sociétés (February 2003): 43-44, https://www. européennes,” Revue de synthèse jstor.org/stable/3590801. historique 46 (1928): 17-19, https:// 111 Hobsbawm, A era dos Impérios, 96.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 159 Stating that Payró and Euclides were just the same, however, would also be unsatisfying. The relations each writer had with their governments were decisively different. That justifies why the Argentine wished to develop Patagonia without relying much on the state, while the Brazilian considered the national state as the leading actor in improving Acre. ” a n d M k i g t h e A m z o T l y B r Euclides and Payró were also on different sides regarding ethnic and national identity matters, which illustrates the state of divergence of racial theory in nineteenth-century u s t r a l i n A g e South America. In popular culture, A Brazil and Argentina are usually referred to as hermanos in Spanish and irmãos in Portuguese, both a t g o n i “ meaning “brothers.” One can say Payró and Euclides were somewhat brothers…pero no mucho (but not M a k i n g P | that much). The Amazon and Patagonia are perhaps the most contrasting natural landscapes on Earth. If they came together…well, maybe there would be a crack because of the thermal shock. But another result would surely be a better historical understanding of South American J o s é B e n t d O l i v r a C m history: not only the parallels between nations, but also the discrepancies between them. It is a strong hope that examining the global or continental contexts of different cases of travel writing can henceforth lead in that direction.
160 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021
In An Alien City: American Soldiers in Wartime Calcutta (1942-1946)
by SUCHINTAN DAS
162 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s ABSTRACT
Calcutta had emerged as one of the most important fulcrums
| for coordinating the movement of men, material, and money I n A l i e C t y during the Second World War. The advent of US troops in the city from 1942 onwards led to an unprecedented cultural encounter. This paper argues that the actual lived experiences of the American soldiers in Calcutta provided a stark contrast to their prescribed norms of conduct. This paper further contends that with their arrival, civilian-military relations were substantially reconfigured and the image of the British Empire was considerably damaged. An attempt has been made to set in relief the divergent experiences of the White American and African American troops besides mapping their experiences of and responses to the Bengal Famine. Lastly, this paper seeks to interrogate the globalizing nature of the Second World War by looking at Calcutta as a site of spontaneous and uneven cultural exchange where the US soldiers functioned as national emissaries and wartime cultural conduits.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Suchintan Das is pursuing an undergraduate degree in History from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He is a Rhodes Scholar-Elect from India for 2021 to the University of Oxford where he intends to study German civilian internment in India during the Second World War.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 163 “The last time when war had Bandyopadhyay, when describing broken out…prices had gone the grim realities of the Second up; food grains had become World War in Calcutta.3 It was during costlier. But it was nothing like this time, the author Manindra I n A l i e C t y | the ominous possibility that Gupta recounted in his memoirs, looms large this time. Calcutta that “American soldiers of both is being bombed, aircrafts keep races—white and black—with their flying over our heads, everything plentiful equipment, appeared like S u c h i n t a D s seems to be so different now.” aliens from another planet in the — Narayan Gangopadhyay, city.”4 Calcutta was a major city of the Upanibesh1 British Indian Empire—the erstwhile capital—which had become uniquely “If you come here with an open vulnerable to Japanese aggression mind you will find Calcutta is after the fall of Singapore in February “Teek-Hai” (Okay). Of course, it’s 1942. Defence of India in general, just like visiting any big city back and Calcutta in particular, was of home: you can have a good paramount strategic importance for time, or a bad time, depending ensuring an Allied victory. Apart from on how well you take care of being the nerve centre of logistics yourself.” — Brig. Gen. R.R. and communications in eastern Neyland, The Calcutta Key2 India, Calcutta was the major British port overlooking the Bay of Bengal, and was also the closest Indian city to Burma and China.5 Moreover, as INTRODUCTION: G.I. JOE IN THE Yasmin Khan notes, even though CITY OF JOY it was neither a home front nor a war zone, “India was nevertheless Death had been made “a critical to the war effort as a source part and parcel of everyday life”, reflected the author Sharadindu 3 Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, Sharadindu Omnibus (Vol. II), ed. 1 Narayan Gangopadhyay, Narayan Pratul Chandra Gupta (Kolkata: Gangopadhyay Rachanabali Ananda, 1971), 1. (Vol. III), eds. Asha Devi and Arijit 4 Manindra Gupta, Akshay Mulberry Gangopadhyay (Kolkata: Mitra & (Complete) (Kolkata: Ababhas, 2009), Ghosh, 1980), 94. All translations are 194. mine unless indicated otherwise. 5 Director of the Service, Supply, 2 The Calcutta Key (Guidebook for and Procurement Division War US Military Personnel in Calcutta, Department General Staff. Logistics Prepared by Services of Supply in World War II: Final Report of the Base Section Two Information and Army Service Forces (A Report to the Education Branch United States Army Under Secretary of War and the Chief Forces in India-Burma, 1945), http:// of Staff) (Center of Military History, cbi-theater.com/calcuttakey/calcutta_ United States Army: Washington D.C., key.html. 1993), 46-47.
164 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s of military manpower and industrial Command, the British Colonial production.”6 It was in this context Government, and the American Red that Calcutta emerged as one of Cross (hereinafter ARC). Needless
| the most important fulcrums for to say, their actual lived experiences I n A l i e C t y coordinating the movement of men, in wartime Calcutta differed material, and money in the China- substantially. The first section of this Burma-India theater (hereinafter CBI). paper aims to contextualize and The city doubled as a necessary juxtapose these varied experiences, transit point for Allied troops as recorded (penned and pouring into Assam and Burma photographed) and remembered by from across the subcontinent, and the American troops. In the second more importantly as a centre of rest section, their perceptions of Calcutta and recreation for troops returning and interactions with its people from assignments at the front. The will be examined to understand arrival of American troops (popularly to what extent and how civilian- known as G.I.s) from February 15, military relations were sought to be 1942 onwards set in motion a series reconfigured. The policy of racial of administrative, economic, and segregation in the US military will demographic changes in Calcutta.7 be treated as an important fault-line With this influx, the cosmopolitan to find out if there was a discernible character of the city was heightened divergence in the experiences of and the stage was set for an White and African American troops unprecedented cultural encounter stationed in the city in the third that took many forms and had many section. An endeavour will be made faces. Calcutta, its urbanscapes, to gauge how far the American amenities, people, and the alien US soldiers were aware of the Bengal troops were the primary protagonists Famine and how they responded in this encounter. to it in the fourth section. Lastly, by The normative experience of way of a conclusion, this paper will an average American G.I. in Calcutta try to interrogate the ‘globalizing’ was sought to be shaped by the nature of the Second World War, guidelines issued and restrictions by looking at Calcutta as a site of enforced by the US Military spontaneous cultural exchange where US soldiers functioned as national emissaries and wartime 6 Yasmin Khan, “Sex in an Imperial cultural conduits. War Zone: Transnational Encounters in Second World War India,” History Workshop Journal 76 (Spring 2012): 241, https://doi.org/ 10.1093/hwj/ dbr026. 7 Yasmin Khan, India At War: The Subcontinent and the Second World War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 324.
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FIGURE 1: “The American Red Cross Burra Club, leave center for GI’s and recreation spot for all enlisted men. The unpretentious façade belies an interior complete with dormitory, snack bar, restaurant, music room, games THUS SPOKE UNCLE room, lounge, barber and tailor shops, wrapping service department, and post SAM: PRESCRIPTIONS, exchange.” Photograph and caption by PROSCRIPTIONS, AND Clyde Waddell. (Available in the public TRANSGRESSIONS domain and free of known copyright restrictions: https://openn.library.upenn. edu/Data/0002/html/mscoll802.html) From 1942 onwards, more American soldiers came to India “than would actually see fighting on the fronts of Burma.”8 Some 150,000 G.I.s poured into India between 1942 and 1945 with the veritable goal of ‘saving China’, large parts of which
8 Khan, India At War, 142.
166 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s were under Japanese occupation.9 class. You see, they class everything They were to be stationed in India over there [in India].”13 Calcutta was with the primary tasks of airlifting no exception. It was described by
| war material and food aid into Sergeant Lowell H. Russell as “the I n A l i e C t y China, besides constructing a land debarking center for the United supply route through Burma—the States for practically all of the Ledo Road—so as to relieve the military in India. One can imagine the beleaguered Chinese.10 In doing so, crowded conditions and hyper.”14 the American G.I.s “found themselves Bewilderment inflected the in alien and unknown landscapes, average US soldier’s first impression dealing with Indian traders, of India. As Yasmin Khan put it, merchants and craftsmen, trying to “The ‘real’ India was a contrast to thrash out a war plan in a densely the jolly, sanitised newsreels which populated, and unfamiliar, part of the troops had been shown prior to their world.”11 As Ian Stephens recounted, departure, in which they had been by 1943, Calcutta: promised tropical fruits, constant sunshine and cheap shopping.”15 This was a great war-base... a vortex reaction was anticipated well by the of humanity into which men US Military Command. Together with doing war-jobs from all over the the American Red Cross in India and world, uniformed or not, were the British Colonial Administration, being sucked... American forces they sought to mitigate the shock started arriving; and with their and decisively shape the experience high living standards and total of the American troops in India.16 ignorance of India probably felt most alien of all.12 13 Burton Lester Cochran Collection All of a sudden, metropolitan (AFC/2001/001/26839), Veterans History Project, American Folklife cities in the subcontinent were Center, Library of Congress, http:// flooded with American troops, who memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc. were disconcerted by the stark natlib.afc2001001.26839/. realities of Indian life that were thrust 14 Lowell H. Russell Collection upon them. In the words of Sergeant (AFC/2001/001/10225), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Burton Lester Cochran, “I found one Center, Library of Congress, http:// thing—a very poor travel position. memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc. The—them seats on the—on the—we natlib.afc2001001.10225/. were using were, I think, about third 15 Khan, India At War, 144. 16 One of the ways in which this was sought to be done was by deploying female Red Cross workers to provide 9 Ibid, 267. much-needed care, camaraderie, and 10 Ibid, 259-260. entertainment for the benefit of war- 11 Ibid, 142. weary and homesick soldiers. Virginia 12 Ian Stephens, Monsoon Morning Allen was one such ‘G.I. Jill’ stationed (London: Benn, 1966), 102-103. in Calcutta, who served as a radio
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 167 For this purpose, they came up with 8. An attitude of respect leads pocket guides, written in a manner to ‘breaks’ being forgiven. of providing friendly advice, and 9. Take pictures only of the containing norms of conduct the laboring classes (and then I n A l i e C t y | G.I.s were supposed to adhere to, only if they consent); upper- during their stay in India. These class Indians don’t like to be guides were quite detailed, providing photographed. extensive information about almost 10. Look at passing British and S u c h i n t a D s everything that the American soldiers Indian women without tossing in India needed to know—ranging remarks at them. Four out of five from commentaries on the Indian women over here are offended caste system to locations of nearby by “yoo-hoos.”17 departmental stores. Needless to say, there were pocket guides for Calcutta Political neutrality, courteous as well, one of which, called The manners, appreciation of difference, Calcutta Key, listed out the following respect for societal norms, and prescriptions which deserve to be tolerance in conversations were quoted in full: recommended. Yet, Uncle Sam’s prescriptions and proscriptions went TRY THESE “DO’S” FOR SIZE: far beyond these recommendations, 1. Avoid political discussions. which were not always upheld. 2. Act here with the same Incidences of transgression common courtesy you use at were not infrequent and can be home. examined under four diagnostic 3. Guide the other fellow’s rubrics—politics, shopping, conduct; ‘breaks’ reflect on all. delinquency, and prostitution.18 A 4. Replace “Hey you!” with Pocket Guide to India declared, “India “Bhai!” or “Brother!” is a complex country, difficult for 5. Discuss Indian customs out people like ourselves to understand. of their sight and hearing. It is a country whose people are 6. You’re in Rome. Keep your going through a far-reaching political ways; let the Romans have upheaval. They, as we did over 160 theirs. years ago, seek to gain political 7. Keep your temper; the Indian independence.”19 Notwithstanding will keep his.
17 The Calcutta Key. 18 This is not to suggest that the personality and performed in plays incidences of transgression were all over India, from 1944 to 1946. See limited to these domains. Sara K. Eskridge, “G.I. Jinny,” W&M 83, 19 A Pocket Guide to India (For use no. 3 (Spring 2018), https://magazine. of US Military Personnel in India, wm.edu/issue/2018-spring/index. Prepared by Special Service Division, php. I am grateful to Shayna Allen for Army Service Forces of United States drawing my attention to this. Army), https://cbi-theater.com/booklet/
168 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s this obvious parallel, American troops troops were hardly insulated from the were expected to steer clear of undercurrents of Indian politics. Indian politics. Political discussions The Indian nationalist leader
| on the Indian situation were outright Jayaprakash Narayan appealed I n A l i e C t y discouraged. According to one guide: to these “soldiers of freedom” to “understand and appreciate the Americans are in India to fight [Indians’] fight for freedom” and to the Axis. You should stick to that let “[their] countrymen, [their] leaders and not try to settle the Indian and [their] government know the truth political problem. What we want about India.”24 The truth, however, is to cooperate with both the was not always conveyed to the G.I.s British and Indians to beat the by the US Military Command. For Japanese. Your place is to keep example, they were told that “Indians your eyes and ears open and want us to win. No group in this your mouth shut.20 country has any love for the axis.”25 At this time, one of the most prominent Another handbook cautioned, Indian political figures, Subhas “The political situation in India is not Chandra Bose, was parleying with easily understood and a short stay the German government in Berlin, in India is not long enough to be and his speeches from the Azad informed about it.”21 One of the prime Hind Radio Centre were regularly reasons why the top brass of the US reaching his followers in India, who military desired the G.I.s’ political did not necessarily desire an Allied ignorance was the sheer complexity victory. Moreover, American soldiers of Indian politics of the time, which did talk politics with the local people, they perceived to be too deeply when the need arose. In his memoirs, enmeshed in religion.22 For the British veteran G.I. Malcolm Harvey Stilson Colonial Government, while the recounted conversing for long presence of American soldiers was periods on war, peace, business, art, reassuring on the one hand, their politics, and more while purchasing possible undesirable involvement in gems from a Calcutta jeweller.26 local politics was a matter of concern on the other.23 Yet, the American
24 Srinath Raghavan, The Most Dangerous Place, 113. guide-to-india.html. 25 ‘Know Your India’, C.B.I. Roundup 20 Ibid. I, no. 9, November 12, 1942, 21 Khan, India At War, 146. http://cbitheater.com/roundup/ 22 A Pocket Guide to India. roundup111242.html. 23 Tathagata Niyogi, “Wartime Calcutta: 26 Malcolm Harvey Stilson Collection Walking a Gut-Wrenching Disaster,” (AFC/2001/001/02056), Veterans The Calcutta Blog, https://medium. History Project, American Folklife com/the-calcutta-blog/wartime- Center, Library of Congress, http:// calcutta-walking-a-gut-wrenching- memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc. disaster-b12e9d04b3aa. natlib.afc2001001.02056/.
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FIGURE 2: “The GI tourist here ponders Politics, though officially proscribed the purchase of a ‘rare gem’ --- a typical in discussions, did percolate through camera study of life on Chowringhee during the war. Firpo’s famous occasional banter, often while restaurant is in the background, and shopping. dhoti-clad Indians and a British officer Calcutta, with its attractive in shorts lend a bit of atmosphere.” Photograph and caption by Clyde marketplaces, offered ample Waddell. (Available in the public domain opportunities for the stationed and free of known copyright restrictions: soldiers to shop for their daily needs https://openn.library.upenn.edu/ Data/0002/html/mscoll802.html). and also to indulge themselves with the occasional souvenir. The Calcutta Key (hereinafter the Key) warned the G.I.s about the perils of bargaining. In fact, it was quite categorical in its suggestion:
In all the other stores and in the markets or bazars a deliberately high price is quoted to you for an article, and it is then
170 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s up to you to argue the price Haggling had to be tacitly accepted down to somewhere within as a rather innocuous wartime reason - without in the process distraction.
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losing your reason. You seldom In spite of repeated reminders I n A l i e C t y win. If you leave any shop in to the American troops in Calcutta to India confident that you out- put their best foot forward, occasional smarted the salesman, then be delinquent behaviour on their part sure of this: YOU DIDN’T! You had the possibility of heralding can profit by the experience ominous repercussions. For instance, (paid for) of other American Benod Behari Basu (younger brother soldiers. Buy sound products of the Bengali revolutionary Benoy in reliable stores at fixed prices.27 Krishna Basu and later known as the Father of Boxing in Bihar), According to the Key, that remembered having knocked out an the Americans would inevitably be American G.I. with a sharp blow to fooled was a foregone conclusion. the chin, for passing objectionable Nonetheless, the G.I.s continued comments about a few Indian women to indulge in bargaining and did at Esplanade. A crowd gathered make purchases from shops in quickly, and the fellow American Calcutta other than those officially soldiers left the site with their injured recommended. So much so, that the mate, without confronting Mr. Basu.29 Key went on to add: Such incidences were hardly rare. As Yasmin Khan notes, “[p]etty conflict In partial contradiction of between soldiers, local townsmen, foregoing advice, and advocated and villagers featured routinely as a part of your adventures in newspapers by 1944, and was in India, don’t neglect to try particularly noted as a problem in bargaining (in a small way) as Bengal and Assam.”30 Incidences the accepted minor sport east of serious crimes were not absent of Suez. But in doing so, avoid either. When an Anglo-Indian boy, street peddlers and side-street Eglind Roze, attempted to steal an stalls and instead, visit the New American military-vehicle parked Market where you will find a real near the ARC Burra Club at Dalhousie interest in the bazar itself as well Square, he was shot to death by a as get a kick out of horse trading few American soldiers. His family had with the salesman over their to be immediately compensated to great variety of wares.28 avoid a public embarrassment of the
The lure of the ‘oriental’ market was too strong to resist. 29 Personal correspondence with Prof. Amit Dey (to whom Mr. Basu had narrated this anecdote in the late 27 The Calcutta Key. 1970s) on June 28, 2020. 28 The Calcutta Key. 30 Khan, India At War, 274-275.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 171 US Military Forces.31 of “rest & recreation” which One of the leading faces of usually consisted of a feed, Hindu belligerents in the Calcutta a fight and sex (in any order) Riots of 1946, Gopal Mukhopadhyay, inevitably necessitating much I n A l i e C t y | later claimed to have procured two police intervention.33 American pistols and a few grenades from American G.I.s, back in 1945: Prostitution also required “If you paid two hundred and fifty much policing in wartime Calcutta. S u c h i n t a D s rupees or bought them a bottle of In the words of Peter R. Moore, “The whiskey, the soldiers would give you Calcutta police were responsible a .45 and a hundred cartridges.”32 for interning aliens from the Axis Illegal sale of arms and ammunition nations—including foreign sex was certainly not approved of by the workers from the European brothels US military command. At least a few in Karaya and the Japanese bordello American soldiers were involved in Watgunge.”34 Needless to say, in this practice nevertheless. In none of these locales fell within Calcutta, the docklands, which were the area which was “in bounds” for considered absolutely essential in the American troops, i.e. the “area the war effort, emerged as the prime which, in general, [lay] south of Bow centre of contraband and conflicts. Bazar Street and west of Lower As a policeman stationed in that area Circular Road up to its intersection later recounted: with Bow Bazar Street.”35 The Key warned G.I.s about the possibility of the docks boiled with activity contracting venereal diseases in its (and crime) as vast amounts of characteristically inimitable manner: military ordinance poured in, and the Burma front and Nationalist As in any port city in the Orient, China (via the Ledo Road) were Calcutta is riddled with venereal kept supplied by troop and diseases. Studies show that ‘military special’ trains through professional prostitutes are the Herculean efforts of the 150% infected (half have one East Bengal and Assam-Bengal and the other half have two). Railways. Soldiers, sailors and Even in the native population airmen from all the Allied nations wandered the streets in search 33 Janam Mukherjee, “Hungry Bengal: War, Famine, Riots, and the End 31 Ibid. of Empire 1939-1946,” (PhD diss., 32 Debjani Sengupta, “‘A City Feeding University of Michigan, 2011), 226. on Itself’: Testimonies, Histories, 34 Peter R. Moore, “Calcutta’s War and Literature on ‘Direct Action Police”, The Telegraph, March 21, Day’, Calcutta, 1946”, 17, https:// 2010, https://www.telegraphindia.com/ shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/ states/west-bengal/calcutta-s-war- bitstream/10603/18707/6/06_ police/cid/1269986. chapter%201.pdf. 35 The Calcutta Key.
172 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s the rate is well over 50%. That local police shied away from good-looking amateur whom disciplining foreign soldiers. you think you convinced by ‘Pimps and touts abounded
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your personal charm may be wherever the troops were I n A l i e C t y just the baby to hand you a gift stationed or on leave’, and taxi package—unwrapped.36 and rickshaw drivers and men employed in the cantonments This, however, was advice acted as local middlemen.39 that fell on deaf ears. In fact, the language of this guide was simply As a consequence of these not found to be proscriptive enough. transgressions, by the end of the war, On the contrary, visiting the brothel Calcutta would have one of the highest was perceived as something that rates of venereal diseases in the world, was tacitly condoned by even the more than many cities which were top brass. The colonial administration actually located in war fronts.40 considered the levels of venereal diseases to be “appallingly high” in Bengal and took cognizance of the THE CITY OF DI(STINK) widespread publicity of prostitution TION: PEOPLE, PLACES, AND in Calcutta. The fear of racial PERCEPTIONS miscegenation also lead to political ferment and the development of Calcutta was not just a anti-G.I. feelings among the Indian centre for coordinating war efforts populace of the city.37 Yasmin in eastern India, as it also offered Khan provides some idea about many wartime distractions for G.I.s the increase in policing demand who were stationed in the city. The that these ‘forbidden’ brothel- sights, smells, and sounds that the visits necessitated: “[t]wo hundred American soldiers came across here extra Military Police were recruited shaped their perceptions of the in Calcutta at a time of extreme city to a great extent. They came in manpower shortage to patrol brothels frequent contact with civilians and and unusually the military invested in often developed friendly relations civilian clinics.”38 According to India with them.41 While the British troops Command’s consultant venereologist, Eric Prebble, 39 E.E. Prebble, ‘Venereal Diseases in [T]he Military Police was India,’ Sexually Transmitted Infections ‘completely inadequate to 22, no. 2 (June 1946): 55-62, https:// doi.org/10.1136/sti.22.2.55. deal with the situation’ and the 40 Khan, India At War, 149. 41 For understanding the discernible divergence in the experiences 36 The Calcutta Key. of White and African American 37 Khan, India At War, 150. troops stationed in the city due 38 Ibid, 241. to the US military’s policy of racial
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 173 were more reserved in their dealings on the one hand, British troops with Indians, American G.I.s were were more squarely identified much more easy-going and tended as part of the ‘occupying forces’, to blend in better with the local American soldiers were perceived I n A l i e C t y | populace. The Key offered some to have much more of a ‘touristy’ air sound advice in this regard: about them. This becomes amply clear from the fact that the ARC You do see that the Indian is Burra Club organized free tours S u c h i n t a D s different from yourself. Granted. of Calcutta for the American G.I.s, But - do you see that that whose photographs documented the difference between the two of urbanscapes of and life in the city in a you does not give you a reason very tourist-like fashion. to criticize the Indian?...To repeat, The street-life of Calcutta was yes, the Indian is different. But effectively captured in photographs instead of merely noticing that by many G.I.s.43 The tram, the difference and judging it hastily, double decker bus, the ubiquitous suppose we take a good long stray cow, carts drawn by oxen, the second look and attempt to hand-pulled rickshaw, barbers and understand the fellow’s customs vendors, mendicants and urchins, and ways of living. Remember, and bootblacks and washermen it is an age-old failure to laugh featured prominently in John H. at things that you do not Smith’s photographs of Calcutta.44 understand.42 His collection also contained pictures of one ‘Mr. Nunday’, presumably This sermon, however, did not an Indian friend, whose daughter always prevent the G.I.s from having accompanied them on a visit to a little fun at the expense of their the Jain Temple of Calcutta. The Indian acquaintances. In spite of this, ‘exotic’ snake charmers had a or perhaps because of this informality pride of place in most American that characterized American-Indian photo albums. However, nobody interactions in wartime Calcutta, military-civilian relationships underwent a reconfiguration. While 43 See “Bob Fagelson’s Images of India,” China-Burma-India: Remembering the Forgotten Theater of World War II, http://cbi-theater.com/bf-india/ segregation, see Nico Slate, Colored india.html; “Glenn Garrelt’s India,” Cosmopolitanism: The Shared China-Burma-India: Remembering Struggle for Freedom in United the Forgotten Theater of World War States and India (Cambridge, MA and II, http://cbi-theater.com/glenn/india. London: Harvard University Press, html. 2012), and Gerald Horne, The End 44 John H. Smith, “Images of India: of Empires: African Americans and 1944-1946,” in China-Burma-India: India (Philadelphia: Temple University Remembering the Forgotten Theater Press, 2008). of World War II, http://cbi-theater. 42 The Calcutta Key. com/164th/164th.html.
174 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s
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FIGURE 3: “A Group of GI’s take a close documented G.I. life in Calcutta look at the snake-wallah’s hooded cobra. Both the snake and his master better than the military photographer are good specimens. The fangs of (and later Press Attaché to Lord course have been removed so the Mountbatten) Clyde Waddell. Some reptile can strike at will, scaring no one.” Photograph and caption by Clyde of his photographs were elegant Waddell. (Available in the public domain aerial shots of the city. Many featured and free of known copyright restrictions: the American soldiers manoeuvring https://openn.library.upenn.edu/ Data/0002/html/mscoll802.html). their way through the streets. Most depicted scenes from regular Indian life with remarkable honesty and somewhat of an ‘Orientalist’ tinge—but more importantly, all were accompanied by his idiosyncratic annotations.45 It is from Waddell that
45 Clyde Waddell, A Yank’s Memories of Calcutta (Houston: Self-published, 1947), http:// hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 175 one gets to know that a co-pilot had to be a welcome respite, and to accompany a taxi-driver (almost developed much admiration for the always a Sikh) in Calcutta from 1944 Sikhs. This sentiment was so strong onwards, “following an affray in that Stilson went to the extent of I n A l i e C t y | which a soldier knifed a driver.”46 calling Calcutta “a city of di(stink) Another photograph featured two tion” in his memoirs. One of his Indian movie actresses, Binota Bose poems captured this emotion quite and Rekha Mullick, both of whom effectively: S u c h i n t a D s were “well educated and prefer[red] American books, pictures.”47 Waddell Dawn walks the streets of captured the contradictions of Calcutta urban life seamlessly. His collection Swathed in a grey swirling cloak featured temples and burning ghats, Frightening the cockroach street performers and Indian women Into his crack.51 clad in sarees, the chaotic stock exchange and “patty-cake annies”,48 This was corroborated by addicts of the Chinatown opium dens Waddell in the caption of one of his and G.I.s bargaining with the “red photographs: street lassies”.49 The commotion and filth One of the commonest street of the city hardly went unnoticed. vendors is the Paan wallah, or The first thing that the American betel nut vendor. One tenth of troops registered upon their arrival the world chews the mixture in Calcutta was the din of the railway of leaf, spices, nut and other station. In the words of Malcolm H. variable ingredients. Chief by- Stilson, “The station is a cavernous product of the habit is a reddish place in which thousands of people splatter of stain, indiscriminately literally dwell, and where everything spat upon walls and sidewalks in from coition to childbirth takes Calcutta by carefree chewers.52 place.”50 The absence of sanitary conditions in Calcutta annoyed the Lack of hygiene was not the G.I.s, who found the clean gurudwara only cause of worry for the American soldiers in Calcutta. The tropical weather added to their woes, so medren/9949134203503681. much so that CBI Roundup (‘weekly 46 Waddell, A Yank’s Memories of newspaper published by and for Calcutta. the men of the United States Army 47 Ibid. Forces in China, Burma, and India’) 48 Nickname given by G.I.s to women who dried dung-cakes to later use ran a hilarious weather report about them as fuel. 49 Waddell, A Yank’s Memories of Calcutta. 51 Ibid. 50 Malcolm Harvey Stilson Collection 52 Waddell, A Yank’s Memories of (AFC/2001/001/02056). Calcutta.
176 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s snowfall in Indian cities in the middle around picking up Cigarette of July.53 butts and trash. No longer One crucial axis along which does Smokey sweep the porch.
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American-Indian interactions took Smokey is learning English. I n A l i e C t y place in wartime Calcutta was that of providing and receiving service. The British soldiers were According to Yasmin Khan, “American envious of the fact that their better- soldiers and airmen in India often paid American counterparts could had their own ‘native bearers’, locally afford to have personal bearers and recruited manservants who swept, would often make pointed remarks dusted, polished shoes and, fetched at what they perceived as a juvenile and carried tea and snacks, thus American dependence on their helping, as one GI magazine joked, Indian manservants. A member of ‘make a perfectly lazy man out of the CBI Roundup’s staff noted this a soldier’.”54 More often than not, rather sportily in a report written for these bearers were christened with Life magazine: “Hullo, dear. Did your ‘comical’ nicknames, and the G.I.s bearer brush your teeth and tuck you joked about their mannerisms and in last night? So far no one has found unsuccessful attempts to pick up a any better answer than the simple few English expressions in a bid to ‘Yes, he did.’ After all, he might have.”56 secure greater wartime opportunities The soldier-bearer and camaraderie from the relatively relationships often grew mutually friendlier Americans: paternalistic. According to Yasmin Khan: Our bearer’s name is “Smokey.” We’ve forgotten why we call him Sometimes soldiers were that, but there are no objections, invited back to local homes since his real name is “Pabitra and introduced to families, or Mondel.” Aside from his regular the soldiers helped pay for the duties, Smokey spends most of cost of weddings or for the his time learning GI ways…“Sahib education of young children. – Bird, Sahib – Cow, Sahib – For most of the people who House, Sahib – ABCDEFY,” and worked as servants on airfields, so it goes all day. Smokey is at barracks and bases, the job learning English. Things have gave them opportunities to changed in our barracks. No longer does Smokey roam
55 Jack Shelton, ‘Smokey Takes A Furlough’, Hellbird Herald I, no. 2, 53 ‘Weather SOARS ABOVE ZERO’, February 20, 1945, http://cbi-theater. CBI Roundup I, no. 44, July 15, 1943, com/superfort/hellbird_022045.html. http://cbi-theater.com/roundup/ 56 ‘Dear Mom, I Got A Valet’, Life, roundup071543.html. November 30, 1942, http://cbi-theater. 54 Khan, India At War, 148. com/life-roundup/life-roundup.html.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 177 learn some English and to earn CBI Roundup ran a story on how the inflated wages. For the most American tennis star (and a Special entrepreneurial, contact with the Service Officer in the CBI) Lt. Hal bases was even more lucrative: Surface defended his East Indian I n A l i e C t y | an opportunity to act as guide, Lawn Tennis Championship title by procurer of alcohol and women, defeating the top seeded Indian interpreter and general right- player, Ghaus Mohammed, in the hand man.57 finals.59 Another top wartime sporting S u c h i n t a D s attraction of Calcutta was the All However, the potential for Allied Boxing Crowns, involving conflict was not entirely absent service boxers from the American, either. American soldiers could not British, and Indian forces fighting to always comprehend the prevalent attain the annual glory.60 In addition, segregation of labour on the boxing offered an avenue for civilians basis of caste and often ended up to come in close contact with the misunderstanding the refusal on part American troops. Mr. Asaf Ali, a of their bearers to perform certain Calcutta University Blue (who later duties: worked in Air India), practiced boxing with the American G.I.s and improved One American officer fired his English by frequently conversing his bearer when that worthy with them.61 refused to remove a small piece Another prominent site for of lint from the floor. “Am I a wartime distraction and American- donkey, horse, nothing?” the Indian interaction in Calcutta was bearer heatedly demanded… The Grand Hotel. The destination Righteously angry at what he provided a space where the soldiers considered the “snobbishness” could “‘Forget the War!’, with Teddy of the bearer, the officer refused Weatherford on the piano in the to give him a letter of reference American Cocktail Bar, Chinese and thereby incurred the enmity jugglers, raffles, quizzes, and ‘hand- of his and all other bearers in picked dance hostesses’.”62 As the neighborhood…[who] formed a tight little union and no one
would work for the offender until 59 ‘Surface Defends Indian Net Title’, 58 he wrote the chit. CBI Roundup II, no. 17, January 6, 1944, http://cbi-theater.com/roundup/ Another domain in which roundup010644.html. Americans often brushed shoulders 60 ‘Ringside at Calcutta’, Yank (The US Army Weekly) CBI Edition, June 2, with Indians was that of sports. The 1945, http://cbi-theater.com/yankcbi/ yank_cbi_5.html#RINGSIDE. 61 Personal correspondence with Prof. 57 Khan, India At War, 148-149. Amit Dey (Mr. Ali’s nephew) on June 58 ‘Dear Mom, I Got A Valet’, Life, 17, 2020. November 30, 1942. 62 Khan, India At War, 156.
178 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s mentioned earlier, the American JIM CROW IN CALCUTTA: TWO soldiers provided a stark contrast to ARMIES OR ONE? their British counterparts, both within
| and beyond the city. Among other Out of about 150,000 I n A l i e C t y places of elite colonial recreation, American troops who were stationed “[i]n the clubs of Simla, the rumours in India during the Second World War, of increasing American designs on 22,000 were African Americans.66 South Asia, the strength of American Given the volatile political situation imports and the sexual irresistibility of in India, the British Colonial American men all mingled together Government had apprehensions to create profound wariness about about the reception that these the new allies.”63 Some G.I.s even troops were likely to receive in the got married to Jewish women in subcontinent. The problem, however, Calcutta.64 Yasmin Khan has rightly was entrenched in the structure of argued that “[t]he purchasing the US Military Forces. According to power and superhero stature of the Nico Slate: American GIs made much of the Raj look fossilised and diminished.”65 [T]here was not one but two This metaphor can be pushed a bit American armies in India—one further to claim that the dynamism white and one Black. From the and affability of the American soldiers day they registered for duty, in their interactions with the Indians African American soldiers made much of the Raj appear rather faced racial discrimination, debilitated and overtly paranoid. both official and unofficial. Jim Through their varied interactions with Crow followed African American the local Indian populace in Calcutta, soldiers abroad, where they the American soldiers ended up often traveled on segregated substantially reconfiguring civilian- ships, ate in segregated mess military relationships—undermining halls, slept in segregated tents, the unmitigable distance and and labored and fought in inescapable hierarchy that existed segregated platoons.67 between the colonial officers who commanded the British Indian Army In Calcutta, African American and the ordinary Indian people. G.I.s had a segregated ARC Club at Dalhousie Square called the Cosmos Club, with canteens staffed exclusively by African American 63 Khan, India At War, 151. women.68 While White American 64 “List of Calcutta Jewish women who married American and British troops were billeted in camps Servicemen: Compiled by Nancy Pine and Flower Silliman,” Recalling Jewish Calcutta, http://www.jewishcalcutta.in/ 66 Ibid, 267. items/show/1400. 67 Slate, Colored Cosmopolitanism, 152. 65 Khan, India At War, 151. 68 Khan, India At War, 267.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 179 (Karnani Estates and Camp Knox) troops were consistently portrayed and hotels within the city, Joseph as the archetypical ‘deviant’, or E. Davies remembered African more prone to disobedience. This American contingents being allotted was supposedly borne out by the I n A l i e C t y | accommodation far from the city, frequency with which they got often opposite the river Hooghly, into trouble with Indian labourers thereby limiting their access to and and Indian women, and were scope for wartime recreation.69 consequently reported by the Military S u c h i n t a D s In 1945, a swimming pool Police (MP).71 Consistent protests for US servicemen was opened on regarding discriminatory treatment a segregated basis. In reality, it was by military police led to positions for reserved for White Americans almost Black MPs being created near the all the time. Racial stereotypes such end of the war. Protests also led the as the supposed greater adaptability military to find a new rest camp site of African Americans to the tropical near Calcutta for Black troops.72 climate were cited to justify this: African American soldiers in Calcutta were perceived as When Black soldiers were naturally delinquent by the colonial excluded from a Fourth of administration. As Janam Mukherjee July celebration at the pool notes, “[the]disparagement of sponsored by the Red Cross, American black soldiers may have nearly the entire staff of the been a recurrent theme in explaining Cosmos Club, the Black Red the chaos on the docks.”73 In their Cross club, signed a letter report on an incidence of shelling of protest sent to Red Cross at the Calcutta Dockyards, the headquarters. Several of the Commissioners for the Port of volunteers, including Geraldine Calcutta noted that the “behavior Smith, a teacher from Chicago of the American Negro troop… and the assistant director of was disgraceful.”74 The trope of the Cosmos Club, resigned the ‘fiendish black man’—slovenly in protest. On its part, the and cowardly in their demeanour— army’s report presented the loomed large in the British colonial segregation of the pool as imagination. Crimes, real and equitable, adding, “Complaining imagined, were more frequently of segregation, however, attributed to the African American Negroes have completely soldiers: boycotted the pool.”70
In the internal reports of the US Military in India, African American 71 Ibid, 156. 72 Ibid, 153. 69 Slate, Colored Cosmopolitanism, 152. 73 Mukherjee, “Hungry Bengal,” 235. 70 Ibid, 154. 74 Ibid.
180 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s In Calcutta a handful of incidents Horne, the official history of the CBI occurred in which Black soldiers also noted that the African American seriously wounded Indian taxi troops ‘mingled more frequently
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drivers, although there is no with the Indians than did their white I n A l i e C t y evidence that race played a comrades.’79 Yasmin Khan put this factor in these assaults. Bengali very succinctly: anti-black prejudice was revealed in rumors that black Black troops and Indians found soldiers kidnapped children common cause contrary to and, according to at least one imperial expectations. Local confiscated letter, ate them.75 people chatted and traded with the troops, striking Contrary to the expectations up friendships even in the of the colonial administration, marketplace and the streets. however, interactions between the Banned from using some of African American G.I.s and the local the facilities allocated for white populace were not underwritten by soldiers and housed initially racial tensions or latent hostility. As in the densely populated area Corporal Charles Pitman recollected, of Howrah in Calcutta, black “The Indian people were cool to us GIs spent more time in local at first but once they found we were markets and backstreets…As not like the lies told about us they a consequence, black soldiers became friendly.”76 made new friends, received On the contrary, their relations invitations to local parties and were largely characterised by mutual dances and were more likely to respect and amity. According to have an Indian or Anglo-Indian one officer, “Negroes frequently lover.80 are invited to attend native civilian parties to which White troops are In spite of facing blatant racial not invited.”77 Others reported that discrimination within the military due Black troops were “invited to the to segregated amenities, poor living best Indian homes.” Nico Slate went conditions, second-class medical so far as to suggest that “African treatment, and disproportionately American soldiers and Indians were incurring the wrath of the Military able to forge solidarities, based in Police, the experience of African part on colored cosmopolitanism American G.I.s in wartime Calcutta and a shared opposition to racial was not a complete nightmare. oppression.”78 According to Gerald This was not because the colonial administration was more considerate, but because Black soldiers were 75 Slate, Colored Cosmopolitanism, 156. 76 Ibid. 77 Ibid, 157. 79 Horne, The End of Empires, 166. 78 Ibid. 80 Khan, India At War, 268.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 181 able to forge amicable relationships markets.”82 Janam Mukherjee with the local Indian populace even provides an example of this: amidst a global conflict. The high demand for ice by I n A l i e C t y | military personnel [particularly HARD TIMES: SCARCITY, by the Americans] put a STARVATION, AND THE further strain on fish markets SOLDIERS (which depended on ice for S u c h i n t a D s preservation during transport), Besides opportunities for thus denying a primary source of such cultural contacts, the war also protein to middle-class residents brought immense hardship in its of Bengal. In some districts, wake. Apprehensive of an impending fishermen, already crippled by Japanese invasion, the colonial “boat denial” were forced to administration of Bengal undertook throw away as much as a third of a ‘denial scheme’ and adopted a their catch due to a lack of ice.83 scorched earth policy at a time of war-induced food shortage. Black The price of rice increased marketeering and hoarding added to from $1.60/maund before 1941 people’s miseries. Author Manindra to $10/maund by 1943.84 The CBI Gupta witnessed truckloads of Roundup even ran an unabashedly food grains procured from different self-seeking story to this end titled districts of Bengal by the colonial “Sky-High Prices in India Justify government and the Ispahani Wages of G.I.’s”.85 Urban panic Merchant Company being stored gripped the residents of Calcutta. with the cosmetic protection of Fear of Japanese bombardment tarpaulins in the Botanical Garden at triggered a mass exodus from the Shibpur. Heaps of these undistributed city to the countryside. Meanwhile, food grains became infested with snowballed by the factors listed fungi during the early monsoons above, the Bengal Famine sparked of 1943 and were consequently off a humongous displacement of rendered inedible—worse than hungry, famished people, from the even animal feed.81 Freehand agrarian hinterlands to the metropolis military requisitioning greatly of Calcutta.86 aggravated this scarcity. As Yasmin Khan notes, “Initially, American quartermasters in India dealt directly 82 Khan, India At War, 202. with food suppliers, negotiating 83 Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 163. 84 1 maund = 80 pounds (approximately). prices and buying directly, with 85 ‘Sky-High Prices in India Justify dire consequences for some local Wages of G.I.’s, U.P. Man Writes’, CBI Roundup I, no. 38, June 3, 1943, http://cbi-theater.com/roundup/ roundup060343.html. 81 Gupta, Akshay Mulberry, 208. 86 See Chittaprosad, Hungry Bengal:
182 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s The unfolding of this they soon vanish - some die unfathomable human tragedy did not in the epidemics, others just go unnoticed by the American troops disappear.87
| in the city. The Key’s description of I n A l i e C t y the omnipresent ‘homeless man’ Clyde Waddell photographed personified suffering on the streets the human figures and faces of and alleys of Calcutta: this tragedy and took note of the prevalent public apathy: At some time or other while you are here you will witness Death - a way of life? The the sight of a crowd of men, indifference of the passer-by on women, and children who seem this downtown Calcutta street to to move together like a herd of the plight of the dying woman sheep. They huddle together, in the foreground is considered or they rush across the street commonplace. During the in a mob, or they gather in a famine of 1943, cases like this group shouting and jabbering - were to be seen in almost they are new arrivals in the city. every block, and though less Driven here by the famine, by frequent now, the hardened flood, drought, or other causes, public reaction seems to have they come from Bengal itself, endured.88 from Bihar, Orissa, or Assam. Homeless, helpless, hopeless The ordinary American G.I.s when they reach Calcutta, they frequently came across people fare as men have always fared, driven to destitution by the famine in that the able-bodied and the and expressed astonishment at strong among them as usual their miserable conditions: “The survive and soon find their unutterable filth and dirt of the Indian way into the immense labor beggar is really astonishing…in spite corps around the city - the rest, of all I had read about it. I half way expected it, but even then, I was surprised.”89 Corpses piled up on the A Tour Through Midnapur District, by Chittaprosad, in November, 1943 streets of Calcutta and the Municipal (Bombay: New Age, 1943); Famine Corporation was overburdened, Inquiry Commission of India, Report which caused the US Military Forces on Bengal (New Delhi: Government to step in at this juncture. In the of India, 1945); Tarashankar Das, Bengal Famine (1943) as Revealed in a Survey of the Destitutes in Calcutta (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1949); 87 The Calcutta Key. Paul Greenough, Prosperity and 88 Waddell, A Yank’s Memories of Misery in Modern Bengal, The Famine Calcutta. of 1943-44 (Oxford and New York: 89 Malcolm Harvey Stilson Collection Oxford University Press, 1982). (AFC/2001/001/02056).
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 183 words of Kermit A. Bushur: offend Churchill, the US troops in Calcutta did not passively observe [W]hen I was in Calcutta, the unmitigated escalation of not having any company this humanitarian crisis.91 They I n A l i e C t y | commander or anything like responded effectively, as they that, I was getting all the dirty had after the cyclone of October details. And the dirtiest they 1942, by raising funds to provide had at that time was going into relief to the distressed districts of S u c h i n t a D s town and picking up the dead. coastal Bengal.92 As Yasmin Khan See, the country was in a famine has pointed out, “[s]oldiers of all and they were starving people, nationalities felt disturbed by what they were elderly people, but they saw in Bengal in 1943 and many, they came to Calcutta so they deeply moved by their inability to could bathe in the River Ganges. alleviate suffering, did what they To their religion they’d have to could, offering up their own rations bathe in the River Ganges to and helping children to welfare be saved. Well, then they went centres.”93 This has been further going into town. They’d unroll corroborated by Tathagata Niyogi: their little bamboo roll that they had. They’d lie down there and It also appears that the US Army go to sleep and sometimes in India started a voluntary food they didn’t wake up. So, every donation scheme by saving from day there had to be a truck go their weekly rations of canned through the entire city and pick food. It was some of these cans up the dead. And then we would that kept my family in Metiaburuz take them down to the river, put fed during the war. Also, quite them on a big pile of wood and intriguingly, it appears that the burn them. That became very, British Government in Calcutta very disheartening and very sad tried its best to conceal the to see that happening. And I was gravity of the famine from the catching that detail every day, every day.90 91 For a detailed account of how the UNRRA food aid to Bengal Although Roosevelt ignored was blocked, see Manish Sinha, the question of channelling UNRRA “The United Nations Relief and food aid to Bengal, so as not to Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the Question of Food Aid During the Bengal Famine of 1943,” Proceedings of the Indian History 90 Kermit A. Bushur Collection Congress 73 (2012), 1042-1052. (AFC/2001/001/29937), Veterans 92 ‘Bengal Relief Funds Still Trickle History Project, American Folklife Through’, CBI Roundup I, no. 12, Center, Library of Congress, https:// December 3, 1942, http://cbi-theater. memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc. com/roundup/roundup120342.html. natlib.afc2001001.29937/. 93 Khan, India At War, 213-214.
184 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s American troops in the city throats, fighting to become by regularly transporting the independent states. Mass starving urban poor into food- killings were becoming a way of
94 95 |
camps in or outside the city. life. I n A l i e C t y
This paranoia of the colonial This saga of bloodshed government stemmed from deep was punctuated with incidents that political insecurity. The British Raj still evoked some hope. Golam was growing senile day by day while Kutubuddin, a cloth merchant for fissures within the Indian body politic generations, and his family took were widening to the point of a refuge at the American military rupture. The American soldiers had barracks by the lake, when his house arrived in Calcutta when the country in a Hindu-majority neighbourhood was going through a great political was besieged by a rioting mob.96 turmoil. They were leaving Calcutta Shortly after the outbreak of these when the city was gripped by a communal hostilities at the end dangerous religious conflict. Thomas of the war, the American soldiers Ray Foltz recounted his experience of were issued instructions to return witnessing these riots: to the US. They did not stay back to witness the worsening whirlpool of On February 29, 1946, several violence that would engulf the city thousand G.I.’s and I packed our during the Great Calcutta Killings duffel bags and boarded a truck of August 1946.97 The last issue convoy which drove us down to of the IBT Roundup came out on the King George Docks to board April 11, 1946, following which a the U.S.S. General Hodges. By smaller weekly news sheet called that time the Indian people of the Chota Roundup continued to be Calcutta were rioting against published until May 16, indicative of the British in their quest for the increasingly dwindling presence independence. Our convoy had of the American contingent in India. to travel through very hazardous By the 31st of May, almost all the areas and the trucks were pelted with stones and other debris
thrown by rioting Indians. The 95 Thomas Ray Foltz, “My Life As A G.I. trucks were covered by canvas Joe in World War II,” http://cbi-theater. to help protect us from the com/gijoe/gijoe.html. objects being thrown. Luckily, 96 Mukherjee, Hungry Bengal, 339. I was not hit. To make matters 97 For a detailed treatment of this theme of exacerbating communal violence worse in Bengal, Moslems and during the 1940s, see Anwesha Hindus were at each other’s Roy, Making Peace, Making Riots: Communalism and Communal Violence, Bengal 1940-1947 94 Niyogi, ‘Wartime Calcutta: Walking a (Cambridge: Cambridge University Gut-Wrenching Disaster’. Press, 2018).
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 185 American troopships had departed a war involving peripatetic armies from the port of Calcutta. Only a fighting far away from their home handful of “G.I. Joes” remained in fronts. These troops came face this city of the India-Burma Theater to face with people from very I n A l i e C t y | thereafter. different cultural backgrounds, with whom they had to communicate on a regular basis, in alien cities CONCLUSION: ‘GLOBALIZING’ during a protracted global conflict. S u c h i n t a D s EFFECTS OF A GLOBAL WAR? Perceptions of a mutual cultural otherness permeated their mundane There is no doubt that the interactions under extraordinary Second World War was a global circumstances. The situation of conflict. It was fought across American soldiers in wartime Calcutta continents with supply chains was no different. A Pocket Guide to stretching across different theaters of India tendered some advice in this war, and its conclusion was followed regard: by a substantial restructuring of the international geopolitical order. As you see more of the Indian Much light has been shed on this people, you will encounter dimension of the war, to the extent many customs that are strange that that other important aspects and new to Americans. A large have frequently been eclipsed.98 As number of them have grown out Tarak Barkawi has argued, “War and of the religions of the country armed conflict very often have been and are therefore most sacred. the leading edge of transregional You should respect them as you interconnectedness.”99 The Second would wish your own beliefs World War exemplified this. It was and ways of living respected by strangers.100
98 See Jeremy Black, World War Two: In spite of such cautioning, A Military History (London and misunderstandings were not a rarity. New York: Routledge, 2003); David The experience of an ordinary G.I. Reynolds, From World War to Cold in the city was usually characterized War: Churchill, Roosevelt and the International History of the 1940s by ‘fascination’ and ‘bewilderment’. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Malcolm H. Stilson, for example, 2006); Thomas U. Berger, War, Guilt, even noted the aggression with and World Politics after World War II which a priest at the Kalighat Temple (Cambridge: Cambridge University had stopped a fellow G.I. from Press, 2012). 99 Tarak Barkawi, “Connection and photographing a customary goat 101 Constitution: Locating War and sacrifice. Culture in Globalization Studies,” Globalizations 1, no. 2 (December 2004): 168, https://doi.org/10.1080/147 100 A Pocket Guide to India. 4773042000308532. 101 Malcolm Harvey Stilson Collection
186 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s However, these interactions What you may not have stopped were not underwritten by cultural to realize is that after the war, in anxiety and suspicion alone. These any permanent plan for peace
| were opportunities for forging lasting that includes (and must include) I n A l i e C t y cultural contacts and often provided Southeast Asia, India must and impetus for coming to terms with will assume a prominent role. otherwise incomprehensible cultural You are a practical person from differences. An intriguing parallel a practical nation. You can see drawn by Stilson while recounting that it makes common sense his visit to the Kalighat Temple will for anyone to cultivate a lasting illustrate this point further: friendship with India. Go to it, then. YOU - you’re the one who This is the mother side of the is going to do it. It is part of great, many armed Kali, goddess YOUR JOB.105 of childbirth. And I think back to the cathedral in San Antonio, In a global war such as this, Texas, where the Catholic soldiers were not merely combatants. women prayed to the statue of They were links between cultures the virgin Mary to grant them which were literally oceans apart. In children.102 spite of the uneven nature of their interactions with local inhabitants The American soldiers were across different theaters, they constantly reminded that they had a functioned as wartime conduits for purpose beyond fighting in a foreign the flows of ideas and information, country. They were also supposed to cultural traits and habits, and don the hats of envoys representing perceptions regarding peoples, the goodwill of the United States.103 places, and nations. Notwithstanding No matter how annoyed they were the diversity in their experiences, with “Indian children ranging from these soldiers had one thing in two to seventy years old” bickering common. They brought back stories after them for “Baksheesh”, they had of their military lives in alien cities, to remember this sermon:104 loan-words from alien tongues, and more importantly, they transmitted hybrid cultural motifs.106 Very few documents can testify to this better than Warren Weidenburner’s 1944
(AFC/2001/001/02056). 102 Ibid. 103 A Pocket Guide to India. 105 The Calcutta Key. 104 Kennison Cook, ‘Revised List of 106 See Eugene B. Vest, “Native Words “Things We Can Do Without”’, CBI Learned by American Soldiers in India Roundup I, no. 20, January 28, 1943, and Burma in World War II,” American http://cbi-theater.com/roundup/ Speech 23, no. 3/4 (Oct.-Dec., 1948), roundup012843.html. https://www.jstor.com/stable/486923.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 187 I n A l i e C t y |
S u c h i n t a D s
Christmas V-Mail to his father Joseph, FIGURE 4: Warren Weidenburner’s 1944 depicting Santa Claus riding a Christmas V-Mail to his father Joseph, depicting Santa Claus riding a sledge- sledge-cart drawn by a pair of excited cart drawn by a pair of excited Indian Indian oxen.107 oxen. (Courtesy: Carl W. Weidenburner) The Second World War was not just a global war; it was a
107 Carl W. Weidenburner, ‘China-Burma- India Christmas,’ in China-Burma- India: Remembering the Forgotten Theater of World War II, http://cbi- theater.com/christmas/cbixmas.html.
188 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S u c h i n t a D s globalizing phenomenon in many respects. Cities like Calcutta became wartime sites of spontaneous cultural
| exchange among participants who I n A l i e C t y operated within contrasting contexts and under varied constraints. The kaleidoscopic experiences of American G.I.s stationed there bore this out again and again. While their encounters with the local inhabitants were framed in terms of military obligation, possibility of adventure, wartime recreation and cultural immersion, the experiences of these encounters for the people of Calcutta were put into sharp relief by war- induced economic hardship, colonial coercion, subversive politics, and communal violence. A city which was starved and bombed for most of the war years and was greatly unfamiliar could still be “Teek-Hai” for soldiers engaged in an unprecedented and uneven global conflict, far from their homeland.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 189 2 Book
190 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 Reviews Book
ReviewsGlobal Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 191 The Global Bourgeoisie, The Rise of the Middle Classes in the Age of Empire. By Christof Dejung, David Motadel and Jürgen Osterhammel, eds. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. Hardcover: $99.95, Pp. 396, ISBN 9780691195834.
Review by SIMONE STEADMAN-GANTOUS
192 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S i m o n e Ever since the New Social were remarkably similar.”3 Forged in History of the 1960s brought the a period of increasing globalization, t e a d m n - G o u s study of the working class to the the middle class grew within and fore, historians have devoted ample between national boundaries, time to examining the cultural and often sharing the same values and social mores of the global “lower” lifestyles. The authors refute past
classes. But does the middle class theories that traditional bourgeois | have a similarly global history? This ideals spread from Europe to T h e G l o b a B u r g i s — k v w is the claim that editors Christof the rest of the world. Rather, the Dejung, David Motadel, and Jürgen emergence of the middle class in Osterhammel make in The Global every continent was closely tied to Bourgeoisie: The Rise and Fall of the rapid socioeconomic change of the Middle Classes in the Age of the nineteenth century, characterized Empire. Through a collection of by the formation of new transnational essays whose histories span the and trans-imperial structures. Working globe, this work positions itself as with a variety of sources, including the first truly global history of the state records, legal proceedings, rise of the middle class during the newspapers, and cookbooks, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. authors in this collection are able to Using the methodology of “Global make a convincing argument for the Social History,” the writers endeavor emergence of comparable middle to “reemphasize the importance classes across diverse locales. of class and social stratification in The book’s fifteen essays global history.”1 This work, therefore, are grouped into four categories: takes a comparative approach to state and class, colonialism and examining the emergence of middle class, capitalism and class, religion classes across the globe, as well as and the betterment of the world, the influences, entanglements, and failures and fringes, and global social networks through which they were history. Each author defines the connected.2 middle class differently, although a In their introduction, the few key features are made clear. The editors suggest that the modern middle class shared “particular forms period “saw transformations of class of sociability and associational life, hierarchies across the globe that taking place in coffeehouses, social clubs, and cultural organizations.”4 Their values included “the control 1 Christof Dejung, David Motadel of emotions, the veneration and Jürgen Osterhammel, “Worlds of education and individual of the Bourgeoisie,” in The Global Bourgeoisie, The Rise of the Middle achievement, the development of Classes in the Age of Empire an individual personality and pursuit (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019), 6. 2 Dejung, Motadel, and Osterhammel, 3 Ibid, 4. 12. 4 Ibid, 9.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 193 of self-perfection, a particular work the rise of the middle class in the ethic, a belief in progress, and a United States, where the lack of distinct understanding of science, a centralized government and politics, and religion.”5 In the private traditional aristocracy meant that sphere, the middle class had “distinct it was the American bourgeoisie forms of domesticity, family relations, who created the first charitable and gender roles.”6 While none of and cultural institutions. Others these features were universal, the demonstrated how the bourgeoisie authors argue that there existed quite born out of colonial processes often a significant similarity in the lifestyles, “merged European middle class T h e G l o b a B u r g i s — k v w
| sociability, and aspirations of the culture with their own distinct forms
global middle class. of colonial middle-class culture.”8 The collection dates the Emma Hunter’s chapter discusses emergence of the global middle the way in which the economically- class as ranging from between the marginalized East African colonial
t e a d m n - G o u s 1850s to 1950s. The authors write middle class asserted themselves that this was a time when global as part of a global bourgeoisie, development intensified, arguing that through appealing to shared S i m o n e by the 1880s, “clusters of bourgeois middle class values and lifestyles. classes could be found in the densely Colonialism and empire also had a populated parts of every continent, profound effect on the middle class and by the 1920s, they had matured living in the metropole, whose lives almost everywhere.”7 Although most were intertwined with European of the narratives presented end with imperialism and expansion into global the decline of European imperialism markets. following World War II, others feature It was the need for ever- more general overviews that extend expanding markets that drove into the period of decolonization. the emergence of the economic The first three sections of the bourgeoisie—characterized by book illuminate the ways in which the their ownership over the modes of linked processes of state formation, production—to create global linkages colonization, and capitalism shaped of finance, trade, and industry. The and were shaped by the emerging role of local middle class actors bourgeoisie. A strength of this work who brokered and facilitated larger is that each author strives to explain capitalist networks is explored by both the global and local context for Kris Manjapra in chapter 9. Manjapra the success of specific groups. For outlines the emergence of a “global example, Marcus Gräser discusses regime of imperial capitalism,”9
5 Ibid, 10. 8 Ibid, 25. 6 Ibid, 11. 9 Kris Manjapra, “The Semi peripheral 7 Dejung, Motadel, and Osterhammel, Hand: Middle Class Service 11. Professionals of Imperial Capitalism,”
194 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 S i m o n e and with it, a highly mobile class lay religious practice and middle of service providers. This mobile class identity.”10 These chapters t e a d m n - G o u s bourgeoisie facilitated the expansion therefore show how the middle class of capitalist regimes of knowledge, used religion to fashion themselves information, and control into as a group, and to relate to the previously unknown frontiers. The rapidly globalizing world around
authors in these chapters show how them. | incredibly connected the growth of a The next section, entitled T h e G l o b a B u r g i s — k v w global middle class was to the advent “Failures and Fringes”, is comprised of colonialism and imperial capitalism. of cases in which the formation of The fourth section covers the a successful middle class reputedly role of religion and the “betterment of failed. In these locations, “the claim the world” in the formation of middle of European and North American class identities. The authors contend middle classes to be the epitome that religion made up a central of modernity led to a sense of component of the middle class deficiency among the emerging worldview. This was especially true in middle classes.”11 In chapters 13 the case of charity, as middle classes and 14, the authors David S. Parker across the globe tended to use and Alison K. Smith use the case membership in philanthropic clubs, studies of South America and salons, and organizations to help Russia to reassess this narrative construct their own identities, values, and other global myths surrounding and respectability in the public the bourgeoisie. The absences and sphere. In chapter 10, Adam Mestyan discontinuities in this section make discusses the Muslim bourgeoisie clear the ineffectuality of attempting in the late Ottoman empire, who to evaluate all class formations used charities and philanthropic against their counterparts in Europe institutions to create new avenues for and North America. class sociability. Similarly, in chapter The central thesis of the book 12, Christof Dejung writes about is fleshed out in greater detail in the European and non-European the final chapter, written by Richard bourgeoisie’s push to establish Drayton. Drayton argues that the philanthropic organizations that history of the middle class should would conduct civilizing missions be studied through “connective” across Empire. Based on a fear of social degeneration among the colonies and underclasses, 10 Christof Dejung, “From Global these forms of philanthropy were Civilizing Missions to Racial Warfare: Class Conflicts and the influenced by a belief in “social action Representation of the Colonial World as a fundamental marker of Christian in European Middle Class Thought,” in Dejung, Motadel, and Osterhammel, The Global Bourgeoisie, 257. in Dejung, Motadel, and Osterhammel, 11 Dejung, Motadel, and Osterhammel. The Global Bourgeoisie, 184. 33.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 195 rather than comparative history. When viewed as the start of a new He constructs the emergence of realm of historiography, The Global a global middle class as part and Bourgeoisie makes a convincing parcel of globalization, and the case for the interconnected and violent integration of worldwide transnational nature of the rise of the markets under a Western capitalist middle class across time and space. hegemony. These processes The Global Bourgeoisie puts required the formation of a new class forth a clear framework for the future of mediators, thus creating a global study of the global rise of the middle middle class. It was in this process class. By arguing for a comparative as T h e G l o b a B u r g i s — k v w
| of “integration, standardization, and well as connective historical survey of
simplification that race, class, and the middle class, this work challenges culture became […] critical axes of the prevailing notions of bourgeois status identity and group dynamics in modernity as emanating solely from international society.”12 The question Europe. Presenting narratives from
t e a d m n - G o u s for global historians of the middle around the Middle East, Africa, Asia, class lies in how social differentiation the Americas, and Europe, each was transformed globally, without author is able to expertly decenter S i m o n e assuming that the European middle the history of the bourgeoisie class was impervious to outside during the nineteenth and twentieth influences. centuries. Whether they were known The goals of this collection as compradors, porteños, or effendi, are relatively ambitious, which can after reading this work there can no work to its detriment. While claiming doubt that the rise of the middle class to create a global history that was indeed global. makes room for local specificities, the general overview provided by many of the chapters are necessarily lacking in detail. Furthermore, most of the authors spend a considerable amount of space discussing what exactly constitutes the middle class, which can become repetitive. However, this work serves as an excellent jumping-off point for this new field in global social history.
12 Richard Drayton, “Race, Culture and Class: European Hegemony and Global Class Formation, circa 1800-1950,” in Dejung, Motadel and Osterhammel, The Global Bourgeoisie, 345.
196 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021
Manchurian Memories in Postwar Japan (戦後日本の満 洲記憶). By Satou Ryou, Kano Tomohiro, Yukawa Makie, eds. (佐藤量, 菅野智博, 湯川真樹 江編), Tokyo, Toho Shoten (東 方書店), 2020. Pp. 368, ISBN 9784497220042.
Review by CHI HO KIANG
198 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 C h i H o K a n g Before the post-WWII changing historical memory of these dissolution of the Japanese Empire, former settlers. They scrutinize the empire’s subjects had been how the narrative resonated with
| settling in China for several decades. and was reframed by the ups and M a n c h u r i e m o s P Most of them contributed, directly downs in Sino-Japanese relations or indirectly, to Japan’s expansionist and Japan’s internal politics. One project and modernist agenda. shared theme amongst these articles Peter Duus, professor of Japanese is the struggle between identity and imperialism at Stanford University, memory, the constant interaction suggests that the Japanese presence between personally held memories in China had a profound impact on of experience and larger memory o s t w a r J p n — B k e v i modern Japanese History in the early narratives. Given that settlers were twentieth century.1 However, what regarded as notorious “invaders” cannot be disputed is that Japanese and primarily excluded from the colonial settlers’ experiences living foreign property compensation in China played a constitutive role scheme and the pension scheme, it in their lives. How they formed, is hardly surprising that they were rationalized, and “reframed” historical highly motivated, both emotionally memories and their own identities in and financially, to redeem their postwar Japan is a question seldom reputation by highlighting their explored. Drawing mainly from the contribution to the empire, to the “Newsletters” (会報) issued by former community, and to the welfare of Manchukuo settlers’ groups, the the Chinese people. Stories and contributors of Manchurian Memories memories about Manchukuo selected in Postwar Japan（戦後日本の満洲 by respective leaders were published 記憶, mostly young scholars from in the aforementioned newsletters Japan in History and Memory Studies, to emphasize settlers’ contributions. provide a fresh perspective on the The “past” was deliberately and post-war experiences of former purposefully engineered. These imperial settlers in Manchukuo by articles offer intriguing insights into embedding it into the history of post- this engineering, demonstrating war Japan’s politics and society. how Manchukuo historical memory In a total of 11 articles, was reframed due to several non- organized into the three sections historical reasons deeply embedded entitled “Memory of War”, “Conflict in post-war Japanese politics and Memory,” and “Peripheral Memory”, international dynamics. In its entirety, the contributors illuminate the ever- this book captures the uncertain relationship between historical events, experience, and myth. 1 Peter Duus, Ramon H. Myers, and Impressively, most Mark R. Peattie, The Japanese contributors demonstrate an ability Informal Empire in China, 1895-1937 to connect personal identity and (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University historical memory with postwar Press, 1989), xi.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 199 geopolitical developments, while often been underestimated. Japan, also successfully illustrating the the former empire, lost much of its complexity of the colonial experience. influence in the formal diplomatic For instance, Kano Tomohiro（菅 world for several years after World 野智博）in his article “Narrated War II. In this circumstance, students Andong History”（語られる「安東 of the dead empire could be “re- 史」――一九五〇～一九七〇年代初 activated” to advance the national
o s t w a r J p n — B k e v i 期における『ありなれ』を中心に） interest. For instance, Japanese reveals that officials and merchants and Taiwanese students who had noticeably different attitudes graduated from the Daido Gakuin, towards the South Manchurian a training institute for colonial Railway Company, the empire, and officials in Manchukuo, played the city itself. Take manufacturing an underestimated role in Asian as an example: for the officers, the geopolitics in the post-war period. introduction of new manufacturing According to Lin Chih-hung’s（林 M a n c h u r i e m o s P | technology, the establishment of 志弘）article “Daido Gakuin Alumni the new harbor, and the building Association under the Cold War of a hydroelectric power station System”（冷戦体制下における大 were mainly regarded as part of the 同学院同窓会――日本と台湾の場合, C h i H o K a n g imperial efforts. On the other hand, these once empire-trained students settlers took these achievements as played a role in maintaining non- evidence of Andong’s advantages or governmental relations between characteristics to compare against Taiwan and Japan. In a sense, other major cities in Manchukuo and these state-builders-to-be fulfilled emphasized how the local community their mission at last – to facilitate could benefit. Nevertheless, Kano communication between Tokyo and underlines that this more or less East Asia. contradicted local narrative was It is worth noting that the eventually subsumed into an overwhelming majority of this book imperialistic narrative. It is convenient is related to Manchukuo’s historical to characterize all Japanese in memory. However, the articles do not Manchukuo as “imperialists” or, on draw much from literature on memory the other hand, to over-emphasize studies and cultural memory. Looking the independent “settlers” that at concepts such as “transnational departed from the imperial agenda. memory” and “multidirectional Instead, Kano stresses that their memory” could further problematize variant agendas and interests were these articles. Another issue comes inherently intertwined with the from the focus on the collective: imperial structure. taking full advantage of the settlers’ The book deserves a further “Newsletters”. Most authors compliment for offering a new take accentuate how these groups on post-war East Asian relations. The operated as a cohesive organization legacy of the Japanese Empire has in post-war society, while little
200 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 C h i H o K a n g attention is devoted to how this memory affected the everyday experiences of the individuals who
| belonged to these groups. M a n c h u r i e m o s P Manchurian Memories in Postwar Japan is an excellent addition to the study of imperial history in East Asia that connects empirical analysis with geopolitical dynamics. Researchers of postwar Japan will also find this book o s t w a r J p n — B k e v i appealing. The voices of the “Manchukuo settlers”, including the merchants, residents, students, and women subordinated in contemporary Japanese society, have finally been made intelligible to the public.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 201 Asian Place, Filipino Nation: A Global Intellectual History of the Philippine Revolution, 1887-1912. By Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz, New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. Hardcover: $140.00, Pp. 264, ISBN 9780231192149.
Review by CHARLES BROPHY
202 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 C h a r l e s B o p y In Asian Place, Filipino Nation, thought through interactions within Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz sets out the periphery, which gives renewed to write the history of the Philippine focus to the other foundations of
Revolution beyond the nationalist the modern nation-state system in | A s i a n P l c e and imperial historiography which Southeast Asia. has hitherto dominated its narration. Central to this is Aboitiz’s In doing so, Aboitiz gives focus to reading of the Philippine Revolution the Philippine Revolution as part through an emerging field of global , F i l p n o N a t — B k r e v w of a “global moment” in which its intellectual history. In doing so, unfolding emerged not through a Aboitiz builds upon transnational anti- dichotomy between imperial centre colonial thought in the work of Partha and periphery, but also through Chatterjee, Erez Manela and Cemil interactions between peripheries. Aydin,1 and roots the emergence of With this perspective, she renders the the nationalist Philippine Revolution experience of the Revolution as not in a “transnational transmission only a national one, but as regional of ideas”,2 highlighting the way in and global as well. which Filipino nationalist thought In studying the Revolution emerged within a global intellectual beyond a dichotomy between space. Where Aboitiz’s work further imperial centre and periphery, Aboitiz contributes to this literature is in its turns to the place of the Revolution greater concern with how Filipino within Pan-Asianist thought, as a nationalists moved from global and site of inter-Asian imaginaries. Yet, universalist concerns towards local in giving focus to the importance and national demands. The text is of Pan-Asianism for the Revolution, particularly concerned with how Aboitiz highlights another centre- Filipino thinkers moved from a global periphery dynamic, one within the and Pan-Asianist consciousness to a historiography of Pan-Asianism itself. The historiography of Pan- Asianism is dominated by a focus 1 Partha Chatterjee, The Nation on the concept as emanating from and its Fragments (Princeton, NJ: Japan, with peripheral Southeast Princeton University Press, 1993); Erez Asian countries seen as pursuing Manela,. The Wilsonian Moment: Self Determination and the International a derivative Pan-Asianism. Against Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism this, Asian Place, Filipino Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, gives an account of the Philippine 2007); Cemil Aydin, The Politics of Revolution which expands its Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of intellectual horizons, highlighting World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan- Asian Thought (New York: Columbia the Revolution’s Asian scope, whilst University Press, 2007). situating Filipino political thinkers as 2 Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz, Asian generative of Pan-Asianist thought. Place, Filipino Nation: A Global In doing so Aboitiz’s book calls for a Intellectual History of the Philippine focus on the study of global political Revolution, 1887-1912 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2020), 3.
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 203 sense of Filipino identity—localising of claims to imperial rule within the global. particular, or national, claims of Here Aboitiz’s work turns to difference. Yet where Aboitiz’s the concept of place. The standard account diverges from Chatterjee’s account of anti-colonial nationalism is in its insistence that this assertion has centred around the work of of difference and of place did not Partha Chatterjee. He argued that take the form of a detachment from nationalism emerged in the colonial a global and regional space. Rather, , F i l p n o N a t — B k r e v w world through an appropriation Aboitiz argues that the Filipino of the universalism of Western assertion of place occurred within modernity, yet in a way which a regional and global space. In this
A s i a n P l c e asserted the national difference sense Aboitiz’s account resonates |
of the colonised. In The Nation with the work of Andrew Sartori and its Fragments Chatterjee has on the global history of Bengali argued that reacting to the Western culturalism, in which—critiquing modern, anti-colonial nationalists first Chatterjee’s assumption of anti- C h a r l e s B o p y asserted their national sovereignty colonial nationalism as occurring within the ‘spiritual domain’ of through an opposition between fixed religion and culture, marking a pre-modern notions of community difference between the spirituality and the colonial state—Sartori of the nation and the materialism seeks to highlight the global space of Western modernity.3 In Aboitiz’s within which such culturalism was work this distinction emerges as a constituted.4 division between the transnational To highlight this dynamic, flows of global thought and the Aboitiz turns to the way in which embeddedness and locality of Filipino nationalists thought through place as a “non-universal plane” of questions of race, with particular particularity: national, ethnic, and attention to the newspaper La geographic. Solidaridad. As Aboitiz outlines, As Aboitiz recounts, whilst Filipino nationalists mixed pre- European empires asserted colonial forms of identity with sovereignty over their colonies European thinking around race through reliance upon a regulative and Social Darwinism to assert a idea (Christianity in the case of Malay racial identity as a basis for the Spanish Empire, technological a future Filipino national identity. improvement in the case of the Yet in keeping with her arguments British) it was through a juxtaposition around place, this identity was not between this idea and the colony’s subordinated to a narrow nationalism. place that nationalist movements emerged, challenging the universality 4 Andrew Sartori, Bengal in Global Concept History: Culturalism in the 3 Chatterjee, The Nation and Its Age of Capital (Chicago: University of Fragments. Chicago Press, 2008).
204 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 C h a r l e s B o p y On the one hand it linked up to Asian subversives could act with broader ideas of Malayness and greater political freedom as well Pan-Malay sentiments, linking as cities in which they imagined
Filipino nationalists to questions of richer alternative lives counter to | A s i a n P l c e national belonging in Indonesia and their colonial conditions”.5 In doing British Malaya. On the other hand, so, she echoes Tim Harper’s recent it asserted Malayness as a broader work on the Asian underground, as category capable of including a transnational spaces in which Asian , F i l p n o N a t — B k r e v w wider array of Asian populations, revolutionaries organised against particularly the Japanese. Thus, colonial regimes.6 while Japan provided a future model The importance of such of a non-colonial Philippines, it was transnational networks is further through a sense of geographic explored in Chapter 4 where Aboitiz and racial brotherhood that early turns to the figure of Mariano Ponce, nationalists could imagine forms of who handled the “international desk” cooperation outside of colonialism. for La Solidaridad and became In Chapter 3 Aboitiz then an ambassador of the Filipino traces the development of the Revolution. As Aboitiz highlights, this Filipino revolution from the nationalist role wasn’t merely the expression of thought of Rizal to the formation a national revolution reaching out for of the Katipunan under Bonifacio. regional or international solidarity, Aboitiz argues that the turn to a more but was rooted in Ponce’s own Pan- direct political nationalism did not Asianist thought—thought that was shrink away from earlier Pan-Asian manifest in his earlier scholarship on visions of the Filipino Revolution, regional folklore and his comparative but remained transnational in its accounts of colonial Southeast Asia, scope. The Katipunan vision was as well as his reflections on the rise neither a nativist reaction to an of Japan. It is by studying Ponce’s earlier cosmopolitan intellectual meetings with other Asianists such culture, nor a proletarian corrective to as Kang-Yu Wei, Sun Yat-Sen, as well bourgeois liberalism, and remained as Japanese Pan-Asianists such caught up within the transnational as Hirata Hyobei and Fukushima intellectual history of the Propaganda Yasumasa, that Aboitiz highlights movement: adopting the language of the “affective ties” which brought liberty, equality, fraternity, progress, Asian nationalists and revolutionaries and enlightenment; cheering on together in a shared sense of destiny the rebels in Cuba; following the and struggle. Japanese victory in 1895; and forging transnational connections and bases across Asia. Here Aboitiz highlights 5 Aboitiz, Asian Place, Filipino Nation, the role of cities like Hong Kong 92. and Yokohama as “safety valves” 6 Tim Harper, Underground Asia: Global and as “cosmopolitan cities in which Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire (London: Allen Lane, 2020).
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 205 It is in reference to Ponce thought from concrete political and that Aboitiz highlights how her geopolitical considerations. understanding of the Filipino In the final chapter Aboitiz Revolution’s transnationalism differs builds upon such concerns by from that of earlier scholars. Whereas turning to the afterlives of the Sven Matthiesson has argued that – Filipino Revolution, and the way while Ponce and others had a sense this peripheral Pan-Asianism came of inter-Asian solidarity – it would to subsequently influence political , F i l p n o N a t — B k r e v w be “far-fetched” to refer to them as movements in China, Indonesia, Pan-Asianists, against Matthiesson, and the broader Malay World. She Aboitiz argues that if a pure Pan- argues that the Pan-Asian legacy
A s i a n P l c e Asianism untainted by geopolitical was continued in the Philippines in |
and nationalist considerations did not the later thought of Artemio Ricarte, emerge in the period, Pan-Asianism Benigno Ramos, and President Jose P. remains central in spite of its impurity. Laurel, building upon earlier racialised As Aboitiz argues: “for the colonized, and Darwinian understandings of C h a r l e s B o p y an unmitigated idealism in the Asianism— which in the case of Jose negotiation of fields of power was P. Laurel could justify the Japanese simply impractical and unrealistic. Occupation. Finally, Aboitiz turns to As such, there was basically no post-war projects of Pan-Malay unity, ‘true’ Pan-Asianism among the ones which in transgressing imperial colonized or in Southeast Asia… borders highlighted the potential for because during this colonial era in an Asianism from the periphery, in the Southeast Asia essentially no activist form of an Indonesia Raya or Melayu political thinker was untouched by Raya, or in Diosdado Macapagal’s priorities of self-determination and later Maphilindo (an amalgamation of geopolitical realism”.7 Yet as she Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia), continues, “It is important, however, uniting the peoples of the Malay World to recover the Pan-Asianism of within a confederation of states. the ‘periphery’ and to understand It is then in highlighting such the ways in which it interacted alternative geopolitical imaginings with that of the center, rather than that Aboitiz’s project encourages us merely dismissing or occluding to to study political thought beyond the its existence for failure to conform hegemonic projects of the imperial to the center”.8 The important centre. And in giving emphasis to the methodological consideration which globality and transnationality of these needs to be further addressed is how peripheral imaginings of place, nation, we are to separate out Pan-Asianist and region, Aboitiz’s work should— more generally— encourage a greater focus on the global dimensions of 7 Aboitiz, Asian Place, Filipino Nation, Southeast Asian political thought. 132. 8 Aboitiz, Asian Place, Filipino Nation, 132.
206 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021
Distributive Struggle and the Self in the Early Modern Iberian World. Historamericana 44. Edited by Nikolaus Böttcher, Stefan Rinke, and Nino Vallen. Stuttgart: Heinz, 2019. Pp. 294. ISBN: 9783880997134.
Review by LARA WANKEL & ALINA RODRÍGUEZ
208 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 L a r W The edited volume of an inner conscious. The different
Distributive Struggle and the Self types of sources chosen for the case a n k in the Early Modern Iberian World studies are, in one way or another, e l & A i n a R by Nikolaus Böttcher, Stefan Rinke all documents in which individuals and Nino Vallen is an important presented (“fashioned”) themselves contribution to a growing body of to the request they were placing. o d r í g u e z scholarship on early modern “self- This “particular form of an early
fashioning” within the globalizing/ modern autobiographical culture” | D i s t r b u v e S globalized Iberian empire. It presents (p.11) spread throughout the Iberian a wide variety of case studies about empire, producing a great volume processes of self-fashioning within of documentation that, however, did the complex system of assessment become standardized to an extent. t r u g l e a n d h S f i E y M o I b W and remuneration in a manifold Given the vastness of the Iberian of regions in the Iberian world. world and the relative uniformity in The ten contributions in the book procedural action it achieved, the cover a broad temporal as well as edited volume thus speaks to the geographical scope, presenting case historiography on the globality and studies from both the Spanish and entanglements of the early modern Portuguese empires, focusing on world, as well as to studies on the a broad range of actors (men and changing conceptions of self- and women, conversos, creoles, indios, personhood in the early modern era. and Hindu merchants) on regions The reasoning behind the outside the Iberian Peninsula: in order of the chapters remains Africa, Asia, and the Americas from unclear, and is decidedly different the sixteenth to the eighteenth from the structure of the 2017
centuries. Out of the ten chapters, workshop this volume originated in. o r l d — B k e v i w six are written in English and four in On the one hand, this (dis)order and Spanish. decentralized approach emphasizes The main issue that the the main thesis of the volume on the volume tackles derives from the ubiquity of certain self-fashioning question of distributive struggle in strategies within the Iberian empire. the Iberian empires. As the Crowns On the other hand, it hinders the administered a distribution system of perception of a coherent temporal or privileges and rewards, individuals geographical narrative. under the regal rule of the Iberian The differing contributions empires had to present themselves orbit around several topics. Chapters as worthy of such remunerations. To 3 and 4 by Richard Herzog and Jose accomplish this, they had to create an Cáceres Mardones respectively deal individual narrative that made them with indigenous self-fashioning in worthy in the eyes of the Crown. The the Americas. Cáceres Mardones selves that these individuals crafted grapples with questions of a did not appear spontaneously, nor decolonization of Peru’s history, were they just the pure expression Andean historicity, and temporality
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 209 within Felipe Guaman Poma de The contributions by Nino Ayala’s writings. Cáceres Mardones’ Vallen, Delphine Tempère, and Noelle starting point is pacha, understood Richardson reflect the core of the in the Andean cosmovision as time volume. Researching a creole author and space. Guaman Poma’s self- in New Spain, Spanish agents in the o r l d — B k e v i w fashioning takes place within this Philippines, and Hindu merchants concept. By fashioning himself as in the Portuguese Estado da Índia “the epitome of the ‘Indians’” (p. respectively, these contributions 134), as old and living in poverty, he present paradigmatic examples of justifies his proposal for a remaking the ways in which imperial subjects of the Andean world in favour of fashioned a deserving self for/ its indigenous population —while within the system of assessment still accepting the authority of the and remuneration. In his analysis King. Herzog takes the life and work of Baltasar Dorantes de Carranza’s of Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl case, Vallen highlights the “inherently as an entry point to study broader relational nature of personhood” questions of the self-conceptions (p.165) in the early modern era. of native authors within the political Dorantes de Carranza, as a creole,
t r u g l e a n d h S f i E y M o I b W and legal system of New Spain. situated himself within a grid of For Alva Ixtlilxochitl, fashioning a various collectives present in the deserving self meant drawing on Americas while exalting himself and embellishing his lineage and due to his personal merits. His D i s t r b u v e S
| knowledge, and incorporating and statements on the inherent nature of
highlighting indigenous political the creoles potentially give further concepts. Herzog’s chapter fits in insight into a developing creole o d r í g u e z well with the contributions of Stefan identity. Mobility emerges as the Rinke and Cáceres Mardones, as all focal point in Tempère’s analysis of three deal not only with individual but legal records produced by Spaniards e l & A i n a R also group identities, in which space who were or had been in the a n k plays an important role. Philippines. She shows how these
a r W Through a combination of agents of empire highlighted their L visual as well as textual sources, Rinke administrative, military, or religious aims to show the “creolization” of the expertise, and above all their global concept and space of America in the mobility, to present themselves as seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. subjects protecting a Spanish empire He argues that the formations of a vulnerable at its limits, and therefore creole identity were closely tied to deserving of privileges. The article space. Creoles began to perceive by Richardson strikes a similar note, “America” positively in its own right, showcasing how Hindu merchants as a nexus between the “Old” and made use of the legal framework the “New” and as an identity-defining of the Portuguese empire as a element, sometimes in opposition to crucial element of their commercial Iberian ideas and policies. strategy. Members of the mercantile
210 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 L a r W class in the Estado da Índia inserted and how the reception of such a trait themselves into the Portuguese could be an asset (Tempère) or arise a n k colonial distribution system for suspicion (Böttcher). The fashioning e l & A i n a R economic gain, as well as for social of a deserving self could also be tied positioning and mobility upwards. to specific weaknesses, a point which A picture of mutual dependencies comes up in the contribution by o d r í g u e z and reciprocities between these Herzog and is made evident by Agata
merchants and the Crown emerged. Bloch’s contribution on Portuguese | D i s t r b u v e S Ingrid Simson’s contribution widows in the empire’s colonies presents similar strategies of the in Africa, Brazil, and India. Bloch fashioning of a deserving self, explores how many of these widows albeit in a more unusual type of portrayed themselves as poor and t r u g l e a n d h S f i E y M o I b W source: epic poetry. Simson’s literary helpless to evoke the king’s pity perspective highlights rare examples and receive financial help or special of the creation of a “deserving self” permits. through non-procedural documents. The remaining chapter by Through the use of Lilyam Padrón Reyes approaches inquisitorial documentation, Nikolaus another long-overlooked group Böttcher researched the lives of of imperial subjects: indios in the several conversos who constantly Cuban militias. Padrón Reyes studies moved across confessional lines. how these actors used their role in These highly mobile individuals were the defense of the empire to try to not crafting autobiographies to obtain improve their situation, as they were privileges or royal favors, but did so enduring the hardship of systematic in a hostile environment, trying to land dispossession. Taking part in the
survive religious persecution. This conquest or defense of the empire o r l d — B k e v i w case study is a noticeable exception was an important aspect of the self- in the volume, as the individuals in fashioning of the imperial subject, question were not voluntarily tailoring as is also touched upon by Simson, a self as part of the “distributive Vallen and Tempère. struggle,” but for survival. The framing outlined in the (Global) mobility is, introduction justifies the focus on unsurprisingly, one of the overarching the fashioning of a deserving self themes throughout many of the and proposes it can be effectively volume’s contributions. For (global) studied in the context of the historians of the early modern period, negotiations between subject and this does not come as a major ruler. The majority of the case studies surprise. For those who have not present a variation on the following yet plunged themselves into early mechanism: an imperial subject modern global history, however, aspired to obtain a royal favor in there might still be a surprising the form of financial benefits, titles, element in just how mobile some of and privileges. To back their claim, the early modern biographies were the actors crafted a narrative where
Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 211 they had behaved righteously and/ understanding how the fashioning of or unjustly landed in a challenging the self had a lasting impact on the situation. The self that they crafted Iberian world, beyond the discussion during this act of narration was on the limits of the agency of the tailored to maximize their chances of subjects. o r l d — B k e v i w gaining a royal benefit. Furthermore, There are indeed cases the narrative served to establish where the conclusions interpret the and strengthen their position within act of crafting a self as a gesture society. The structural similarities of assertiveness in itself, despite of the articles strengthen the the fact that the documents can thesis outlined in the introduction. only show a fabricated version of a However, the conclusions do —to an self. Some contributions include a extent— resemble each other. This profound discussion of the inherent can (especially when read one after difficulties of working with official the other, which, admittedly, is not (legal) sources, whereas others do necessarily the way an anthology not. It is likely that such a discussion such as this is usually read) seem would have exceeded the length of repetitive. The actors significatively some of these contributions—yet,
t r u g l e a n d h S f i E y M o I b W vary and to a lesser degree the types it could have prevented an over- of source do as well, but the scheme emphasis on measuring the extent of remains. One of the reasons behind self-assertion and agency. this is most likely related to sources. If Overall, it is remarkable that D i s t r b u v e S
| the procedure was uniform, then the this single volume is able to gather
main differences in the cases would so many perspectives from various probably come from the reaction of regions distant from each other o d r í g u e z the Crown to each petition, and in and spanning three centuries. By many cases the documents regarding reading the whole volume, the reader the fates of the petitions are lost. gets a glimpse on the multiplicity e l & A i n a R Nevertheless, the of the early modern Iberian world. a n k contributions consistently depict Considering the global nature of this
a r W how the struggles to obtain benefits Iberian sphere, it is unfortunate that L had a lasting impact on the creation such approach is still not as common. of the self. They offer a glimpse on Combining contributions on the how certain ideas born from the Spanish and Portuguese empires into interactions with the Crown poured a single volume is another strength of outside the realm of administrative this book. The union between these procedures and diffused in broader empires from 1580 to 1640, and the intellectual frames. This facet, strong entanglements between them the question on how the works overall, should be reason enough to were received (in cases with analyze them in conjunction more broad audiences), will need to be often. explored by further scholarship. A The volume is a rich overview history of reception would be key to for scholars interested in the history
212 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 L a r W of the formation and negotiation of the self during the early modern a n k period, and more specifically in the e l & A i n a R Spanish and Portuguese empires. The case studies brought together clearly illustrate the thesis that a o d r í g u e z particular kind of self-fashioning
employed by diverse actors in their | D i s t r b u v e S struggles for distributive justice spread throughout the Iberian world. It is thus a good example of a work that can expand the existent t r u g l e a n d h S f i E y M o I b W historiography to be more truly global, through showcasing the similarities in procedures between distant, diverse places. o r l d — B k e v i w
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