Herinneringen aan het Indische spoor: een historisch onderzoek naar mondelinge overleveringen van spoormedewerkers in Nederlands-Indië werkzaam gedurende het koloniale bewind, de Japanse bezetting en de Indonesische onafhankelijkheid.

Abstract

During my internship at Het Spoorwegmuseum (National Railway Museum) I made an interesting discovery. In the depot of the museum I found 52 recordings of an old oral history project called Projekt Oost-Indische Spoorwegmensen (Project East-Indies Railway Workers). In 1989 Marian Langebach initiated this project – in cooperation with the museum - to research the lives and careers of former railway employees whom served in the Dutch East-Indies. Thus, in 1989 the project group interviewed several former railway employees, yet the recordings of which were left unnoticed in the depot of the museum until they were eventually forgotten. Last year, I accidently stumbled upon these remarkable recordings when I was looking for information about the Dutch East-Indies. After digitizing the audio recordings they appeared to be in perfect condition. I decided to use the information for my thesis. Oral history was in 1989 a relatively new field of study. Therefore, the project is in itself an interesting object of study since it gives a glimpse into research done in the past. Former research on the topic mainly focused on the military, economic and technological history behind the Dutch East-Indies railways. In contrast to the purely factual and technical information, I hope to offer a more nuanced perspective through the new source material. It is interesting to discuss the Dutch East-Indies railways from a microhistorical perspective because a multitude of sources makes it possible to challenge the established narrative. The purpose of behind this thesis is to obtain new information on the socio-cultural situation of railway workers in the Dutch East Indies. My research concerns what the stories of former railway workers can learn us about the ethnic and social structures in the Dutch East-Indies during the colonial period, the Japanese occupation and the independence of Indonesia. With self-written transcripts I first connected the different stories of the interviewees in my analysis. In my conclusions I placed the information within a broader historical perspective by using secondary literature. After many hours of listening I came to the conclusion that the stories of the interviewees are strongly connected to their racial background and position in society. Most respondents were born in the Dutch East Indies and were descendants of mixed marriages between the Dutch and Ingenious Indonesians. These Eurasians formed a separate social class – strongly linked to the Dutch colonial rule. The Eurasians had, before the Japanese war, a status as a European and a Dutchmen. They obtained their Dutch identity through birth and were therefore privileged, as opposed to the native population. Their privileges were wealth and prestige. The Eurasians formed the backbone of the Western civil society and formed the most prominent group of workers at the Dutch East-Indies railways. The railway provided an easy way to rise in social class. Nevertheless, the railways in the Dutch East Indies strongly perpetuated segregation between the Dutchmen, the Eurasians and the Indigenous people. The different prospects of prosperity within the railway companies remained - throughout the colonial period - highly intertwined with racial backgrounds. The Japanese occupation and Indonesian independence made an end to the social colonial structure of the Dutch. The Eurasians had no longer the right to exist and were forced to adopt Indonesian citizenship or leave for the Netherlands. The Eurasians were thus victims of the post-war polarization and had practically no choice to remain in the country of origin after the Republic was proclaimed. They were, by their loyalty to the Netherlands and European lifestyle, enemies of the state. Also, in the Netherlands the Eurasians were alienated from Dutch society. When the Eurasians left for the Netherlands they found themselves lost between two fatherlands. The history of the repatriated Eurasians is - in addition to the stories of the former railway workers - in itself an interesting new topic of historical research. Because of the rich stories of the interviewees this thesis can offer a refreshing and personal look at the history of the Dutch East-Indies railways.