H.J. Benda: The Samin Movement

7/22/2019 H.J. Benda: The Samin Movement

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H. Benda

L. Castles

The Samin movement

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 125 (1969), no: 2, Leiden, 207-240

This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT

One can make changes in the social order, one can meet grievances ofan economie nature, ... but if the Samin movement actually rests on apeculiar mental attitude of its adherents, then agrarian, economie orlegislative reforms may achieve something, but not much. Under no cir-cumstances would such reforms be able to deprive the movement of itsvital core. If this be the case, then [we should realize that] there's actuallyvery little that we can do, short of providing good education, and thenwait and see what influence such education may have.(From a memorandum written by W. de Keizer, Adjunct-Inspector ofAgrarian Affairs and Compulsory Services, Weltevreden, August27,1919.) The much-discussed Saminist community has now, in the era of in-dependence, started to behave normally just like other folk. Those whohad up to now not wanted to understand the changing times in order toprogress have now started to participate fully in the dvelopment of society.

Their new understanding is the result of information which the governmenthas brought to them, and as a result there is today no single [Saminist]misbehaving as they used to in the former colonial era ... Those illiterateamong them are starting to want to learn, and while they did not previouslypermit their children to enter school, they ar e now anxious to send th e m .. .(From Ch. 13, Ma sjaraka t Samin (Blo ra), in the Indonesian Infor-mation Ministry's publication, Repub lik Indonesia: Propinsi Djawa Tengah[n .p , ca . 1952], p. 482.)

M any well-knowm histories of the Indonesian nationalistmovement commence with a brief chapter, or at least witha few paragraphs, on the Samin movement of the late 19th and early20th centuries. This way of looking upon it, as precursor of subsequentideological and organizational manifestations of nationalism, appearsto have been adopted at first by Petrus Blomberger;1 and though laterwriters, especially Americans, took great care to dissociate themselves1 Petrus J. Th. Blumberger, De nationalistische beweging in NederlandschIndi (Haarlem, 1931), pp. 9-10. The same author also contributed the aritcleon Saminisme to theEncyclopaedie van Nederlandsch Indi (ed. O. G. Stibbeet. al, The Hague and Leiden), Vol. III, pp. 683-84.


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2 8 HARRYJ BENDA AND LANCE CASTLES

from B lumberger's colonial orientation, they did not hesitate to followhis chronological or even analytical treatment.2 Saminism itself has notyet been subjected to close scrutiny, however. There exists a fairlycomprehensive official report, written in 1917,3and also another,unof-ficial one, presented by an Indonesian intellectual to a club in Semarang,a year later.4 Most recently, the movement has been subjected to carefulinquiry by a young scholar at the University of Indonesia; but hiswork, which is entirely based on printed materials, has remained un-published so far.5 In the following pages, an attempt is made to gaindeeper insight into the phenomenon of Saminism on the basis of secon-dary and primary materials; we have, however, only had access toarchival sources in the Netherlands, which should one day be supple-mented by research in the Arsip Negarain Djakarta.6

It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that the movement founded bySurontiko Samin, a Javanese peasant, is one of the longest-living socialphenomena in modern Javanese history. It antedated by about twodecades the general awakening of organizational activity which Indo-2 See for example George McTurnan Kahin, Revolution and Nationalism inIndonesia (Ithaca, New Y ork, 1952), pp. 43-44; Jeanne S. Mintz, M arxismin Indonesia , in Frank N. Trager, ed., Marxism in Southeast Asia (Stanford,2nd ed., 1965), p. 175.3 Verslag betreffende het onderzoek in zake de Saminbeweging ingesteld inge-volge het Gouvernem ent* besluit van 1 Juni 1917, No. 20 (Batavia, 1918).Subsequent references to this report will be styled Jasper Report, after thename of its author, Asst Resident J. E. Jasper.4 Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo, Het Saminisme: Rapport uitgebracht aan de Ver-eeniging Insulinde (Semarang, 1918).5 Onghokham , Sam inism e: Tind jauaa social ekonomi dan kebudajaan padagerakan tani dari awal abad ke -X X (D jaka rta, 1964). For brief referencesto Saminism in recent works, see Justus M. van der Kroef Javanese

Messianic Expec tations: T heir Origin and Cultural C ontext , ComparativeStudies in Society and History I (1959), pp. 299-323, and H ar ry J. B enda, Peasant Movements in Colonial Southeast Asia , Asian Studies III (1965),esp. pp. 426-428. Since the present article was completed, The Siauw Giap' has written a paper for the International Conference on Asian His tory at K ualaLumpur (August 1968) making a number of important points, especially on theeconomie aspects of Saminism. See also his article Th e Sam in and Sam atMovements in Java: Two examples of peasant resistarice , Revue du sud-estasiatique, 1967/2, pp. 303-310 and Revue du sud-est asiatique et de l'ExtrmeOrint, 1968/1, pp. 107-113 (to be continued).8 While in the Netherlands in 1961-62 under a Guggenheim Fellowship, Mr.Benda was permitted to do research in the former colonial archives thenadministered by the Ministery of the Interior at The Hague. He gratefullyacknowledges the valuable assistance rendered him at that time, as well assubsequent financial support from the American Philosophical Society whichenabled him to continue research on peasant movements in Southeast Asia.


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT 2 0 9nesians have come to call theirK ebangkitanNasional Despite an earlyeclipse, it managed to survive in its original locale (though barely everspreading to adjacent areas for longer periods of time) throughout thecolonial period. A t its peak, when it probably counted some threethousand households, it disturbed the colonial bureaucracy with fore-bodings of massive peasant resistance, producing a flurry of attentionout of all proportion (as some few contemporaries realized) to theoccasion;7 subsequently it dropped from view, provoking no more thana few lines in the annual surveys published by the Dutch authorities,yet abready capturing the imagination of some Indonesian intellectualswho came to view it as a manifestation of indigenous socialism, peasantvirtue, and patriotic resistance to colonialism. Samdnism, in fact, has sur-vived into the era of Indonesian independence. The sheer stubbornnesswith which some Javanese in a rather remote part of the island haveclung to the ideas of their long-dead founder, deserves careful attention.And the fact that it did not cease when colonial rule ended, the fact thatcivil servants serving the Indonesian Republic appear to be almost asperplexed by Saminism as were their Dutch predecessors also indicatesthat it cannot be simply subsumed under the broader heading of natio-nalism. Recent politica developments of a far m ore radical-politicalform in the heartland of Saminism appear to us to have been distinctiveand by no means directly related to Saminism proper; yet it is surelyworth noting that Mbah Suro, until bis death the leader of the newmovement in the mid-1960s, bore, or had assumed, a name by whichSurontiko Samin had been known.8

As our analysis will show, Saminism was, and has remained, elusiveand difficult to pin down. Unlike later movements in Indonesian socialand political history, it never left its peasant abode. N o link with thewider world, with the currents that came to dominate the urban politicalscne, ever seems to have been forged. This remained true even when

7 S ee especially the caustic comments by G. L. Go nggrijp, rieven van Ophefferaan de redactie van het ataviaasch Han delsblad (M aastricht, n.d.), LetterN o. 89, esp. pp. 334-336.8 Soerontiko Samin was referred to as "Embah Soero" at the trial of PakK ar si j ah (Resident P . K. W . Ke rn to Governor-General, Sem arang, 5/25/1915,M inisterie van Kolonin, M ailrapport 1182/15, # 250/27). I t was alleged thatthe accused had predicted that Samin (who had died the previous year) wouldreturn and that in the month Suro many Saminists would come from Bloraand Gunung Kendeng to the Pati region. The recent Mbah Suro was knownas Pan dito Gunung Kendeng (the Seer of M ount Kendeng) ; this mountainis the mythological place of origin of the Javanese people.


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21 HAERYJ BENDA AND LANCE CASTLES

Saminists came to be confronted with urban-direoted competition. Notonly was Surontiko Samin himself illiterate, but his followers as wellas later, ephemeral, leaders of the movement likewise lacked the gift ofliteracy. Historians and social scientists are thus face to face with aphenomenon that has been written about by others, not one that hasprovided them with written records or pronouncements of its own.Admittedly, this is a feature that Saminism shares with most otherpeasant movements, and peasant societies generally, those on Javaincluded. Until now, however, there have been no anthropologistsstudying the movement viva voce and it is doubtful that they couldgain access to the Saminists if they tried, given the screen of secrecywhich has surrounded them from the very inception and which is thesource of all guesswork and hypothesizing that has marred all thatoutsiders, whether Dutch or Indonesian, have written about it. Thereexists yet another complication: that Saminist ideology, as we shallsee, does not too neatly fit the genene label of the Little Tradition;it almost looks like a concerted effort to dissociate itself not only fromthe two major socio-cultural streams in Javanese society, the Javanesearistocratie prijaji tradition and the piously Islamic santri tradition,but also from the peasan ts syncretic abangan tradition which tendsto reflect elements of the other two, but especially that of the prijaji.9

Origin and Spread of the Movement.Surontiko Samin was bom, probably in 1859, in a village nearRandublatung in the southern part of Blora regency. He was anordinary peasant, the owner of 3 bau (about 5 acres) of ricefield though, as befits the founder of a new religion, a noble ancestry wasattributed to him, whether by himself or his followers.10 Accordingto Dr. Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo, a pioneer nationalist who investigatedthe movement in 1918, Samin was the second of five brothers, andwas therefore identified by the villagers with Bima (or Wrekudara),the second of the Pandawa brothers in the Javanese wajang (shadow

9 These Javanese categories are derived from Clifford Geertz, The Religion ofJava (Glencoe, 1960). See also Robert Redfield, T he Little C omm unity andPeasant Society (Chicago, 1960), Chapter II I, for a development of the con-cepts of the great and little tradition.1 0 Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo, op .cit. p. 22. His father and grandfather were saidto have been ordinary peasants, his great-grandfather Kjai Keti of Radjegwesi,Bodjonegoro, and his great-great-grandfather Pangran Kusumaningaju.


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT 2

play) mythology.11Tjipto also suggested that it was Samin's experiencewith his first wife which had channeled his thoughts in the direction ofcriticizing the established social order. Alleging that Samin was not aMuslim, she had tried to have their marriage annulled by then ib(a localreligious official).12 This seems the more likely in view of two factswhich will be discussed later: that the conjugal relationship was ofparticular importance to the Saminists, and that they strongly rejectedthe pretensions of the Muslim religious functionaries to solemnizemarriages and funerals and collect fees for these purposes.

From about 1890 Samin began to attract a following in his ownand neighbouring villages, but apparently without attracting any atten-tion or creating problems for the colonial administration. About 1905this started to change: the Saminists began to withdraw from commonvillage life, refusing to contribute to rice banks lumbung desa) or tokeep their animals with the common herds. They paid taxes, makingit known, however, that they did not recognise these as obligatory, butmerely as voluntary contributions. Samin himself had stopped payingtaxes,but he apparently told his followers that they were not yet pu reenough to follow his exatnple.13 In January 1903, the Resident ofRembang reported that there were some 772 Saminists in 34 villagesin South Blora and the adjoining part of Bodjonegoro regency.14Villagers from Ngawi and Grobogan regendes had also come to learnthe new doctrine, and in 1906 it spread in the southern part of Rembangregency. Samin's sons-in-law, Surohidin and Karsijah, were active inpropagating the teaching.

Th e following year, when their number had supposedly reached 3,000,the rumor reached the local controleur (lowest-level Dutch administra-tive official) that the Saminists would revolt on March 1. Though hissuperiors refused his panicky request for troops, he arrested a groupat Kedung Tuban at a sl met n (ritual meal) held allegedly in connec-tion with the forthcoming rebellion. Samin was not seized then, but a1 1 Ibid. p. 19. It seems surprising, though, that the Dutch reports do not men-tion this, as they were aware that two of Samin's followers identified them-selves with two other wayang figures, Norojono and Djolodoro. Reports byL. Ch. H. Fraenkel, Resident of Rembang to Governor-General, 3/4/1907,Ministerie van Kolonin, Mailrapport 400/1907 [#2582/4] and ibid. 6/6/1907,Min. Kol. Mailr. 11/1908 [#6492/4].12 Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo, op.cit., p. 19. Under Islamic law a Muslim womanmay not marry a non-Muslim husband. However, as Samin had not at thattime begun to spread his new religion, the naib may have been corrupt.13 Koloniaal Verslag 1907,cols. 5-6 and F raen kel to Gov.-Gen., 3/4 /19 07. Fraenkel to Gov.-Gen. 1/24/1906, Min. Kol. M ailr. 400/1907 [#4 53 /38 ].


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few days later he accepted the regent's invitation to Rembang and wasthere arrested . Af ter interrogation Samin and eight of his followerswere banished to three separate places in the Outer Provinces.' Samindied in exile at Padang, Sumatra, in 1914.

The official accounts of this incident depict a state of rising messianicexpectation which was liable to erupt in violence.15 A new era wasto begin in the month of Suro (February 14, 1907); no taxes wouldhave to be paid and teak wood could be taken from the forests at will.Samin was to assume the title of radja (king), two of his followersnames fromwajang mythology. After Djumaat Paing (March 1, 1907)Samin and his followers would become strong men, the European andJavanese officials women, and so on. But it is possible that we arefaced here, not so much wiith messianic expectations among the people,as with expectations by the officials, fed by coloured reports fromadministration spies, that a messianic outbreak would occur. Yourdisciples say that with the new era... a ruler or Ratu Adil or Heru-Tjok ro will come, said Samin's interrogator. I know nothing aboutit and have never told them this. Your disciples say that you willbecome radja or ratu. No. 1 6 One wonders whether some of thedisciples had not merely assented to such propositions put to them bythe interrogators. In any case, the whole incident passed withoutviolence, except that a certain Modongso, angered by the imprisonmentof Samin, attacked the assistant wedono (Javanese subdistrict officer)of Kedung Tuban and his secretary. Modongso was injured by thepolice; no one was killed.

In fact, the authorities were aware that nothing deserving of exilehad been proved against Samin and his followers; but, having madethe arrests, it was feit that it was too dangerous to let them return totheir villages.17 The banishments were followed by a lull in Saministactivity; the spread into Rembang regency was reported halted. Yetthe movement did not die out: in 1908 a man called Wongsoredjospread Saminist ideas in the Djiwan district near Madiun. He wasquickly arrested and banished with two of his associates. He admittedhaving taught his followers not to pay taxes or perform corves,andhaving told them that they would be immune from Dutch sabres. Hisconverts were few and after a few years the movement virtually dis-15 Fraenkel to Gov.-Gen. 3/4/1907.18 Proces-Verbaal (record of interrogation of Samin), 5/16/1907, Min. Kol.Mailr. 11/1908.1T Fraenkel to Gov.-Gen., 6/6/1907.


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT 2 1 3

appeared from that area.18 In 1911, Samin's son-in-law Surohidin andanother apostle called Pak Engkrak were spreading the doctrine inGrobogan regency, while another centre developed at Karsijah's homein Pati regency.19

Saminist activity reached its peak in 1914, probably because thehead-tax was increased. In Grobogan the Saminists were unprecedent-edly disrespectful to the authorities, and moreover attracted the supporteven of some village officials.20 At the same time, a man called Prodjo-dikromo was telling people in the Baleredjo district north of Madiunthat taxes were to be further increased and inciting them to deceivethe land-surveying officers.21 In the Kajen area of Pati, Karsijah begancalling himself Pangran (Prince) Sendang Djanoer, exhorting thepeople to defy the government. At the village of Larangan Saminsrefused to pay taxes, assaulted the village head and resisted the policewho were sent against them. Several were wounded on both sides but noone was killed, and the offending villagers were taken to jail in Pati.22At the other end of the region affected by Saminism was the villageof Tapellan in Bodjonegoro regency, where Samin had had followerssince 1890. From 1912 the Saminists there had rented from the village

land on the banks of the Solo river. In 1914 they began to object topaying rent, claiming that the land belonged to the tiller and that they knew their rights . They drove off the villagers to whom the landwas newly assigned and assumed a threatening attitude with hoesand sickles when the assistant wedono arrived to settle the dispute.But at last they were disarmed and imprisoned by the police withoutany fatality.2These incidents, which occurred at the same time as the unprecedentedspread of the Sarekat Islam movement throughout Java, focussed con-siderable attention on the Samins; there was a partly public debate asto whether they were dangerous. When resistance by tenants took placeon a private estate near Surabaya in 1916 it was linked (wrongly) with

1 8 Proce s-Ve rbaal of W ongs oredjo , 4 /23/1908 , Min . Kol . Ma i l r . 1392/08; J . Hof -l and , Res ident of Madiun, to Governor -Genera l , Min . Kol . Mai l r . 381/08[# 22] Geheim ; M em orie van overgave bet ref fende de toestand in de Re sident ieM ad i un 1/2/1914 Min. Kol . Mai l r . 552/14.1 9 Jasper Report pp. 6, 12, 13.2 0 Ibid. pp. 12-13.2 1 Koloniaal Verslag 1915 Hoofdstuk C, col . 5.2 2 Ass . Res . Bennedroek Ev er t sz to Res ident of Sem arang Ke rn , 9 /25/1914,Min. Kol . Mai l r . 2132/14 (H 8862/27) .2 3 Jasper Report p. 15.


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214 HARSYJ BENDA AND LANCE CASTLES

Samin doctrine, as was a riot in Tuban regency.24 There waseventalk, unfounded again,of theSaministsand theSarekat Islam joininginaHolyWaragainsttheDutch.2^ Behind the scnes, high govern-ment officials, including thoseof theD epartmentof Interior Adminis-tration Binnenlands Bestuur , blamed Saminismon thepoliciesof theForestry Serviceand the sometimes tactless behaviourof its officers,whilethelatter stoutly defended themselves.26 In 1917,theAssistantResident of Tuban, J. E. Jasper, wasappointed t investigatetheeconomie backgroundof themovement.Hisreportis thebasic sourcefor this paper.Bythe timeit appeared, however, Saminismhadpassedits peak. While there was some expansion into new areas toUndaan,southofKudus,forinstancein1916 thetotal numberofadherentsbegan to decline. Jasper reported 2,305 households, including 1,701in Blora regency, 283inBodjonegoro,and therestinPati, Rembang,Grobogan, NgawiandKudus.27 [See map.]

Moreover,it became obvious that passive resistancetotaxationdidnot pay.W hereasin the early yearsof the movement village headshad apparently sometimes paid the tax themselves to avoid troublewith and intervention by higher authorities,28 recalcitrant Saministsnow hadtoface confiscationoftheir property,thedangerofimprison-mentor exileand often ostracism by other villagers. Efforts by Sa-ministsto spread their doctrinein theDjatirogo districtofTubanin1912and 1915were resisted andcame to nought.29 Because of thehostility of other villagers and pressure from village officials, someSaminists from outlying regions movedto the area wherethemove-ment was strongest, notably the villageofBapanganin South Blora.30

2 4 De Indische Gids, 1916, 1, p. 357.2 5 Zi jn de Sam i ns gevaa r l i j k? , De Indische Gids, 1916, 2, p. 939.Th i s a r t i c l e ,s igned L.B., had previous ly app eared in the Soerabajaasch Handelsblad.2 6 M e m o r i e van ove r gave , L. Ch. H. Fraenkel , Res ident of Rem bang , 7 / 4 / 1907 ,M i n . Kol.M ai l r . 987 / 07 ; R i nkes to G ove r no r - G ene r a l , W e l t ev r eden 3 / 29 / 1915 ,M i n . Kol.M ai l r . 1588/15 [ # 5 9 ] ; H a z e u to G ove r no r -G ene r a l , 26 7 Geheim,W el t ev r eden , 10 / 6 / 1915 , Min. Kol. M ai l r . 2405 / 15 ; H azeu to G o v e r n o r -G ene r a l , W e l t ev r eden , 3 / 6 / 1917 , Min. Kol. Mai l r . , 7718/17 [129 Geheim];Geheime miss ive van 28 Oct., 19151 7 7 / G e h . v/d Hoofdinspecteur , Chef v/hBoschw ezen .2 T Jasper Report, p. 19.2 8 De Goeroe Ilmoe Samin , De Indische Gids 1915, 1, p. 535. Ass. Res. Prinsto Resident of Rembang, Blora 2/8/1918, Min. Kol. Mailr. 8/8X/19 [# 11

Geheim].2 8 Jasper Report p. 17-18. For a possible reason see footnote 47 below.3 0 Jasper Report p. 17.


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Younger Saminists, it was reported, were abandoning non-paymentof taxes.31Saminism was not a homogeneous movement. lts various propagatorsseem to have had their own individual emphases. Given the absenceof a written-down doctrine, such variety was to be expected. Thevillagers of Benikudon in Grobogan, for instance, adopted Samin steachings as early as 1904, when they involved little opposition toauthorities. In Jasper s time they still observed many Islamic preceptsand did not defy the government. Efforts by Pak Engkrak to convertthem to passive resistance failed. Others, like the followers of Wono-kerto,who lived at Kalen in Blora regency, recognized taxes and labour

obligations other than those recently introduced; they refused thelatter, while regarding the former as a voluntary contribution. Yetanother group, the followers of Surohidin from Kemantren, also inBlora regency, refused to pay any taxes or perform village services,but they still behaved and spoke respectfully in their dealings with theauthorities. Not so the followers of Pak Engkrak, who was exiledin 1917: they refused all taxes and services and engaged in the mostexasperating passive resistance.32A variant of the movement was led by Samat, a peasant from Patiregency, between 1914 and his death in 1920. According to B lumberger,Samatism was a kind of communistic atheism based on reverence forthe soil and the cultivator. The Samatists believed that the land wasmerely pawned to the Dutch, and that when it would be returned tonative hands (about 1930) twin rulers (Ratu Adil) would come fromthe East and the West and establish a kingdom based on equalitysam a rosa samarata).3 3During the twenties successive colonial reports mention Saminism

as a minor irritation, and give occasional figures of the growth, ormore often contraction, in the number of adherents.34 Such detailsare about peripheral areas, rather than Blora regency, probably becausein Blora a modus vivendi had been reached with the authorities andthe movement had ceased to grow. After 1930 there is a hiatus in theavailable informaition about the Saminists. How they fared in the yearsof depression, Japanese occupation, and revolution is therefore not3 1 Koloniaal Verslag 1916, Hoofds tuk 6 , co l . 4 .3 2 The four groups ment ioned were d i s t ingui shed in Jasper Report, pp. 6-7.3 3 B l u m b e r g e r , op. cit., pp . 9-10 . Samat i sm i s a l so ment ioned in Indisch Verslag

1931, I , p. 54.3 4 Koloniale Verslagen 1920, col . 102; 1922, co l . 97 ; 1925, co l . 3 ; 1926, col . 3-4;

1927, col . 5; 1928, co l . 3 ; 1929, c o l . 4 - 5 ; Indisch Verslag 1931, I , p. 54.


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Houtvesterijen in 1918

The circles vary in size accordingto the numberof aminist families Miles 1_J


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Distribution of Saminist Familiesby Sub-districts 1917

Based on Jasper Report

\ embang

/ / n

\


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known. We do, however, catch a glimpse of them again in the early1950s, when the Indonesian Ministry of Information published a seriesof volumes on the provinces of the Republic. Those on East Java andCentral Java both contain accounts of the Saminists who lived nearthe provincial border.35 They seem to be based on information suppliedby local authorities, and there is probably some tendency on the authors'parts to romanticize the Saminists and to minimize any friction existingbetween them and the authorities.

In Bodjonegoro, East Java, there were about 250 Saminist familiesin several villages; for Central Java no figure was given, but mostwere in the regency of Blora, and the village of Bapangan was men-tioned. The Saminists were described as inoffensive and scrupulouslyhonest; they sought to be free from all bonds and would not takeorders from anyone. They addressed everyone democratically as sedulur( brother ). They were industrious as farmers, cooperating well withone another, but not exchanging much with outsiders; weavers oftheir own cloth, they had survived the textile shortage of the Japaneseoccupation better than others. Their birth and circumcision customswere like those of their neighbours, but their marriage and burialcustoms were different. Marriages were decided on between the partiesafter which the parents informed the village head. The modin (villagereligious functionary) was given no part in the Saminists' marriagesor funerals.

The writer on Central Java distinguished two groups among them.The Samin Lugu were patint, fearless and never took revenge forinjury. The outward man they held a matter of indifference, the inwardholy and pure as gold. The Samin Sangkak were bolder and resistedwhen attacked. They were suspicious and were very difficult to dealwith. Is was necessary to win their confidence. One senses here thatthe Samins were still capable of more opposition to the governmentthan was being admitted in this official publication. Nevertheless bothaccounts insist that by interaction with their neighbours the Saministswere becoming norm al and gradually beginning to adapt themselves .As a result of government information services they were not defiantas they had been vis-a-visthe colonial government. They no longer hadto be ordered to pay .taxes. (It must be remembered that the actualmonetary burden of direct taxation was much lighter after indepen-3 5 Republik Indonesia Propinsi Djawa-Tengah pp. 480-2 and Republik Indo-nesia Propinsi Djawa-Timur (n.p., ca. 1953), pp. 871-2.


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT 2 1 9dence.) A s a rule they no longe r forbade th eir children to attend school,though some at Tapellan (the scne of the 1914 incident describedabove) still would not send their children to school.The Economie Roots of Saminism.

T he S am inist mo vement, especially insofar as it came into conflictwith higher authorities, was clearly a manifestation of resistance toeconomie grievances, a matter of taxes, corves, land, water and wood.Jasper's commission, as we have seen, was to report on the economiecauses of the movement.

T he environm ent in which S aminism app eared was, of course, oneof poverty. In itself this is not very revealing, as Javanese peasantshave alway s been poor, in, that region as in oth ers, before a nd since.Contemporaries generally believed that in the dry limestones areasaround Blora the welfare of the peasant was lower than elsewhere,though some available statistical information casts doubt on this.3 6M ore important pe rhaps than poverty in spawning a movem ent ofthis kind was a sense of grievance, of subjection to remediable injustices.S uch grievance s' w ere in this case connected with taxation , novel inter-ferences in village life, and the enforcement of new and stringent forestrylaws. Jasper reported that the burden of taxation on the villagers washeavy and that inequities often occurred in collection.37 It was primarily3 6 O n paper t h e land situatio n in B l ora in 1920 w as better than a ver age :Indigenous population per square Blora All Central Javakilometre of:

total land 200 352wet ricefield 728 1124all indigenous agricultural land 401 508The direct ion of migrat ion i n t h e years preceding the 1930census a lso mak esit seem unlikely that t h e Saminist region w a s a particularly poor one in thefirst t w o decades of the 20th century. In 1930, 12 .9 of th e indigenouspopulation w a s b o m outside t h e regency of Blora, compared with a n averageof 8.4 for all regencies of Central Java. T h e t w o most heavily S aministdistr icts , Randublatung a n d P anolan, increased b y 17 a n d 23 respectivelybetween 1920 an d 1930,well above t h e Central Jav a average. (D epartem entvan Economische Zaken, Volkstelling va n Nederlandsch-Ind, V o l . I I , 1 93 4,pp. 161-3, 166-9, 186-7.) H ow ev er, t h e figures for land availability d o n o ttake account of the quality of the land a n d especially t h e supply of irrigat ion

w at er (s e e Jasper Report, p . 2 2 ) . A n article in De Locomotief, 2/24/1932described t h e poor economie conditions i n t h eregency of B odj onegoro b u t w a scontradicted b y later articles. F o r both see De Indische G ids 1902, 1,pp . 715-19.3 7 Jasper Report, pp. 35-36.


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22 HARRYJ BENDAANDLANCE CASTLES

their refusal to pay taxes, especially new impositions, which attractedoutside attention to the Saminists. In j>articular, the new land taxassessmentof 1914 which made previously exempt ownersof less than1/4 bau of pek r ng n (house-plot) land liable topayment of the landtax, seems to have stimulated the seeond wave of Saminist activity.Predictions of new taxes by Saminist propagandists were readily be-lieved because of the great variety of monetary exactions alreadyexisting.So the stories spread that there would be new taxes on theburial of the dead, on bathing buffaloes in streams, on travelling onthe roads,and soon. 38

Ironically, this feeling of being continually subject to new harass-ments arose partly because of measures introduced to improve thewelfareof the villagers under theaegis of the so-called Ethical Policyafter 1901.Such measures were not responses to the fek needs of the.people, and moreover they generally involved new financial burdensfor them.For instance, when buffalo bulls from Bengal were introducedto improve the local stock, each peasant had to pay 5 to 20 guildercents, and sometimes contribute labour as well, to maintain them. 39Thiswasfeit as a sheer imposition, as buffaloes were only an insigni-ficant element in the rural economy of the region. In many villages,treasuries wereset up and allocated a portion of the communal land.This meant that the proportion of communal land allotted in rotationfor individual use was reduced, which was the more serious as sucha high proportion was already reserved for village officials.40 Theintroductionof this system, and theutilization of thefund, waslargelydependent on the whims of the Dutch officials controleurs).In oneareatheonly use towhich themoney was put in the first four monthswas theerection of large boards at the entrance of each village listingthe landowners names. To avoid such pointless expenditure, othervillagesin the area refused to set upvillage treasuries. 41

Efforts to combat plague by improving the consitruction of housescaused difficulties in some areas. In Ngawi regency in 1916 and 1917interest-free loans were made available for rebuilding, but still many3 8 Ibid. p. 52.3 0 Ibid. p. 40.4 0 Ibid. pp. 22-23 , and 30. Jasp er fe i t tha t th e p ropor t ion of l and reserved for

village officials tanah bengkok) was too h i g h . The l and ass igned to thevi l lage head in some vi l lages was 13 bau u n d e r a new s u rvey , though 12 bauw as the l ega l amoun t . Among them were Ka len and K e m a n t r e n in P a n o l a ndis t r ic t , the h o me s of the Samin i s t l eade r s Wonoker to and Su roh id in .4 1 Ibid. p. 41-6.


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT 2 2 1peasants could not keep up the repayment installments and came toregard them as yet another exaction.42 .When schools were introduced,fees had to be paid and the Saminists, regarding this as another kindof tax, refused to send their children to school.43 These new kinds ofinterference added to the traditional duties like nightwatchman serviceand providing pebbles to mend the roads, created a feeling of exasper-ation among the villagers which was expressed in passive resistance.Few of these grievances, of course, were confined to the region inwhich Saminism flourished. Elsewhere discontent was expressed throughSarekat Islam or in sporadic acts like the burning of canefields.

On the other hand, however, the grievances connected with theForest Service deserve separate discussion as they have a particularreference to the region in which Saminism spread and may help toexplain ithe movement's unique character. The Saminist heartland isparex ellen e the teak forest region of Java. In Blora regency in 1920about 40 % of the land w as in government teak forest reserves, thehighest proportion in Java.44 It is also noticeable that the typicalSaminist villages were generally on or near the margins of the forest.[See map.] The major exception is the area of Saminist activity aroundM adiun, a plain of extensive rice-fields. S ignificantly, however, althoughthe M adiun region has probably been more susceptible than any otherto mystical and messianic movements, Saminism did not strike deeproots there and quickly disappeared.

The teak-forest region has a distinctive economie history going backto the precolonial and early colonial period, when it provided timberfor the north coast shipbuilding industry. As the coastal areas becamedenuded the inland areas of the Solo and Lusi valleys became moreimportant, and the increasing population made more intensive exploi-tation necessary.In the last decades of the nineteenth century the government's ForestService increased greatly in size and efficiency. Dutch foresters weresent to Germany to learn the latest techniques of scientific forestry,and some German experts were actually employed in the Indies. Districtby district, the forests were mapped and defined. From 1874, in har-

4 2 Ibid. p p .49-50.4 3 Ibid. p. 70 . T he Saminists also objected to w h a t w a st a u g h t a t school, notablythat t h e children were taught t o know th e meaning of other people's property,and not to know about their ow n property .4 4 Departement v a n Landbouw, N ijverheid en Handel , Landbouwatlas va n Javaen Madoera (Weltevreden, 1928) 2, p . 3 9 * .


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HARRYJ BENDA AND LANCE CASTLES

mony with the prevailing liberal economie doctrine, exploitation hadbeen left to private contractors, bu t from 1897 the process of conversionto areas subject to intensive governmental exploitation or houtvesterijenbegan.45 These stood under the direct administration of the ForestService itself and they were operated according to a scientific workingplan. In the same year the Forest Police, who had theretofore beenunder the control of the Department of Interior Administration, wereplaced under the Forest Service. No region was more affected by theseinnovations than that of Blora and Grobogan. By 1918 nearly all theforests in the region had become houtvesterijen,a major source ofrevenue for the government.

The officers of the Forest Service seem to have had a high moraleand were justifiably proud of its achievemernts. Their training andtechnical orientation , however, made them relatively indifferent to theimpact of their reforms on the economy of the local peasant population.It is significant that in th e memoirs of A. E . J. Bruinsm a, ChiefInspector of the service, and pioneer of many innovations, the Javanesepeople scarcely make an appearance.46 Peasants who had been in thehabit of collecting wood in the forests now found them dosed; indeed,under the more efficint system recently introduced dead fallen timberwas no longer left to be collected.47 Special arrangements made underInterior Administration pressure to provide wood for local needsremained a dead letter without the Forest Service's cooperation.48When taxed with responsibility for Saminism, the foresters indignantlypointed not only to the economie advantages of their policy but to thefact that the forests had always, even in the days of the Javanesemonarchy, been in principle state property.49They failed to perceive that4 5 Koloniaal Verslag 1897, p . 214 . A r t i c l e Bosch w eze n i n Encyclopaedie van

Nederlandsch Indi, V ol. 1, pp . 385-92.4 8 A . E . J . B r u i nsm a , H er i n ne r i ng en , Boschbouw kundig Tijdschrift Tectona,X I X (1926) , pp . 689-708.4 7 Only in Tuban r egency, where the t eak fores t s had not been organi sed ashoutvesterijen, w as the r ig ht to col lect fal len t imber unl imi ted. De IndischeGids, 1918, 2, p. 1449) . Pe rh ap s this exp lains wh y two S am inist ef for ts tospread the i r doct r ine in to tha t r egency f a i l ed . The houtvesterijen w er e f a rbet ter (or , f rom the peasant point of view, worse) pol iced. De Indische Gids,1906, 1, p. 509.

4 8 J . H . Becking , D e houtv oorz ienin g voo r de in l andsche bevolk ing , Tectona,X I X (1926) , pp . 904-913. See a l so the exch ange in De Indische Gids, 1905, 1,p p . 862-869 and 1906, 1, pp. 39-42.4 8 Chef v / d Diens t v /h Bosc hwezen to Di re c teur La ndbo uw, Ni jverheid enHa nde l , Bui t enzorg , 6 /22 /1917, M in . Kol . Mai l r . 1459/17 , [# 39 / Ge h e i m] .T h e Residen t of Re mb ang wro te to n i s succ esso r : T h e fores t er s for the most


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT . 2 2 3

to the villager the enforcement of what had previously been at best atheoretical but unenforced principle might appear just as much aninvasion of his rights as a new law.In many villages where land was scarce the people petitioned thatforest land be opened for agriculture, but the Forest Service alwaysrefused. Transactions involving the exchange of land between peasantsand the service also caused trouble. Sometimes, after surrendering hisold plot, the peasant was forbidden to plough the newly-cleared plot hehad received on the ground that a few teak trees were still standing. 50Or the document recording the exchange might be lost and the peasantwould have no redress. Again, forest police would behave arbitrarilyin their search for stolen wood. Such injustices, real or imagined,naturally tend to occur when illiterate peasants interact with a power-ful, and foreign, bureaucracy.

Samin himself recognised the government's right to planted teak,buit regarded natural forests as open to all. He himself was repeatedlyfined for stealing wood from the forest; he always informed the villagehead before taking it.51 Naturally the few thousand Saminists were notthe only ones who stole wood. The forests were a temptation to thehard-pressed peasants, whether or not they subscribed to the pithySaminist formula: Lemah pada duw, banju pada duw, kaju padaduw (Land, water and wood are the property of all). In fact it wasduring the depression, after Saminism had become quiescent, thatinfractions of the forestry law reached enormous proportions, with asmany as 45,000 offences a year listed in teak-forests alone. 52

Before leaving the subject of Saminism's economie roots we shouldask how far the movement was comm unistic , as it was often describedby contemporary commentators. It is generally agreed that Saminowed nothing to modern socialism. Although the Dutch CommunistSneevliet5 3 was propagating Marxism during the second, more mili-tant, wave of Saminist activiity, his environment, mainly Surabaya and

pa r t suffer f rom the diseases of onesidedness and being always r ight Recht-haberei). H ar dl y any of them h ave a feeling for the interests of th e peop le;wi th most of them everything has to yield place to the interests of the serv-i c e . . . Var iou s fores t er s under s t an d co-opera t ion wi th the adm ini s t r a tion tomean tha t they do exact ly as they p lease . Mem or ie van overgave , L . Ch. H .Fraenkel , 7/4/1907, Min. Kol . Mai l r . 987/07, p. 19-20.5 0 Jasper Report, p p . 5 8 - 5 9 .

5 1 J . Bi j leve ld , D e Sam in Bew eging , Ko loniaal Tijdschrift, X I X (1923) , p . 15 .5 2 Indisch Verslag 1936, I, p. 111.5 3 R u t h T . M c V e y , The Rise of Indonesian Com munism (It ha ca , 1967 ), pp . 12 ff.


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4 HARRYJ BENDA AND LANCE CASTLES

Semarang, had as little contact with the wooded hills and dusty roadsof Blora regency as if they had been in another country. While theSarekat Islam blended modern and traditional elements and bridgedthe urban-rural dichotomy sporadically, we have seen that Saminismwas purely a village phenomenon. The socialism of the Saminists wassimply the rejection of outside interference and exactions and insistenceon what they imagined to be their prescriptive rights. Antecedents ofsuch formulae as that mentioned in the previous paragraph can probablybe sought, as one contemporary suggested, in Javanese history ratherthan in European ideology. To mention an early example, when KiaiAgeng Pengging founded a new sect in the 16th century, and wasasked his doctrine by emissaries of the Sultan of Demak, he repliedthat the earth and the air were not the property of the prince but ofall men; the prince could tax and mint coim, but everything in theworld was for the use of everyone.54 While the Ministry of Informationpublications mentioned above speak of the cooperation among thepostwar Saminists, the main impact of the teaching seems to have beenindividualising: the Saminists stressed the nuclear family and withdrewfrom labour exchange and other common bonds with non-Saministvillagers.55

The Religion of Adam.When asked for their comments on Jasper'9 report, some Dutchofficials who had worked in the area feit that its emphasis on economiemotivation was excessive.56 On the one hand, they pointed out thatmany of the poorest villages were unaffected by the movement, just as

most of the wood-stealing was done by non-Saminists. On the other,there was no doubt that the Saminists had strong religious convictions,and many of their actions were inexplicable in terms of simple economieadvantage. For instance, when valuable property was stolen from a6 4 Zijn de Sam ins geva arlijk? , pp. 944-5.5 5 Th e comm unism of the Samins is denied by A . Tisso t van Pat ot, En keleaanteekeningen over de secte der Samins , Jaarverslag van den TopografischenDienst in Nederlandsch-Indi over 1914, Vol. X , p. 200, and by Bijleveld,op.cit., pp. 14-15.5 8 Ass. Res. L. Fonteyn to Resident of Rembang, Bodjonegoro 2/5/1918, Min.Kol. Mailr. 818X/19 [#43, Geh.]; Ui twe rkin g der voorstellen van hetSam inrapport Jaspe r , n. pi., n. d., Min. Kol. Ma ilr. 1182/20; ControleurC. A. Schnitzler to Resident of Rembang, Rembang 12/19/1918, Min. Kol.Mailr. 818/19 [ 22,Geh.].


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Saminist, he refrained, on principle, from reporting the theft to thepolice. (It was only from the report of an administration spy that thefact became known.)5 7 Moreover when the Saminists' property wasseized to cover their arrears of taxation, they refused to accept thesurplus back from the state. Their state of mind is indicated in thisdescription of a courtroom scne by a Javanese journalist who visitedRembang in December 1914.58 (The patih a Javanese official, isquestioning a Saminist.)

You still owe the state 90 cents.I have not borrowed anything from the state.You have to pay taxes though?Wong Sikep (i.e. the Saminist) knows no taxes.

This answer the patih found rather too bold, and he told the policeman sittingnext to the Saminist to slap him in the face. But the Samin-disciple remainedcalm, and when he had received the blow, said: N atu rally th e prijaji is offended,and finds me vexing. The state orders him to collect taxes and I don't want topay them. Naturally he becomes annoyed.Are you crazy or are you pretending to be crazy?I am not crazy nor do I pretend to be.You used to pay taxes; why not now?Formerly is formerly, now is now. Why doesn't the state stop asking

for money?The state spends money too for the native population. If the state did nothave enough money, it would be impossible to maintain the roads properly.If we find the state of the roads troubling us, we we 11 fix them ourselves.So you won't pay the tax?Wong Sikep knows no tax.Such people are naturally difficult to persuade to another opinion. So thedecision of the Distric t Court wa s: T he D istrict Court orders you to pay yourdebt to the state. If you have not paid within 8 days ... your goods will be seized.GoI And the Saminist leaves calmly, saying: A s far as I know, I have notborrowed anything from the state. W hen 8 days had passed and the Sam inists

had maintained their refusal to pay, their goods were seized... None of [them] ...resisted the seizures ... On the 8th and 9th of January the goods were sold.From the proceeds the taxes owing were paid; the rest of the money was to bereturned to the owners, but they would not accept it. The y said : A s far asI know, I haven't sold anything ...The exact nature of the religious beliefs which sustained theSaminists in such clashes with authority cannot be described con-fidently, as they came to the knowledge of the authorities largely inthe form of sayings with secret meanings. Very likely the explanations

given by the Saminists did not cover the full meaning. (The Javanese6 7 Jasper, op. cit. p. 68.5 8 De Goeroe Ihnoe Samin , De Indische Gids 1915, 1, pp. 535-6. This articlehad previously appeared in De Locomotief Semarang.


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have a special fondness for investing sayings with two or moremeanings.) 5 9

When first questioned in 1906, Samin stated that he did not believein Allah or any other divinity, as he had not seen him. For the samereason he did not believe in heaven or heil. 6 0 Clearly, the Saministsdid not share the Muslim concept of God, hence the common referencesto them as atheistic . T he belief tha t God is with in m e they sharedwith some other Javanese mystics, including Kiai Ageng Pengging. 6 1Sam in described his teaching as the science of the proph et A da melmoe nabi adam). However, he explained that nabi (prophet) signified

to him wo man , and adam, ma n . According to one Dutch w riter,wom en were called adam nabi and men adam1 wa l i .6 2 Such iden-tifications point to the central importance of sex and the magical powerinhere nt in it for th e Sam inists. Th ey called their wives sikep , andthemselves won g sikep , meaning those who em brace. 6 3Djeneng lanang, damel rabi,Toto-toto wedak djandji demen.Tetep Nabi Adam kandeg wekasan.Sing kulo nitni tatan sikep rabi.Wong sikep weruh tk dw.T h e m eaning of these Unes is roughly a s f ollow s:I t be longs to the male to marry ,To make up (h is face fo r the wedd ing) i f he loves ( someone) .Nab i Adam sha l l ex is t t i l l the end o f the age .W h at I know is (on ly ) the regu la t ion o f the con juga l househo ld .H e wh o e m b r a c e s k n o w s wh a t h e h a s .

5 9 S e e B . R . An d e r s o n , T h e L a n g u a g e s of I n d o n s ia n P o l i t i c s , Indonesia, I ,pp . 92-5 .6 0 Ho ofdp un te n van de lee r , ve rkon d igd door Soe ron t ik o a l ia s Sam in , land-b o u we r . . . , M in . K o l . M a i l r . 4 0 0 /1 90 7 .

6 1 'Z i jn de Sam ins gevaa r l i jk? , pp . 939 , 945 . Fo r a desc r ip t ion of the m aincharac te r i s t ic s o f Javanese mys t ic i sm as obse rved a t the loca l leve l see Geer tz ,op . cit., pp. 309 ff.

6 2 Ho o f d p u n te n v a n d e l e e r . . . ; J . B i jl ev e ld , op. cit., p . 11 . Ass is tan t Res ide n tZandve ld , inves t iga t in g in 1914 a repor t tha t a S amin is t ca lled Tr oen o t ik owas go ing to se t up a s ta te wi th h i tnse l f a s k ing , was assu red by Troeno t ikotha t by s ta te negoro) h e m e a n t himself t h e k in g rodj) of his wife . Onewo nde rs i f the Sam in is t s d id no t some t imes pu l l th e leg s o f the i r in te r -roga to rs . Zandve ld to Res iden t o f Rembang , B lo ra , 1 /30 /1914 , Min . Kol .M a i l r . 2 8 7 /1 4 .

6 3 O n g h o k h a m , op. cit., p . 30 . T he S iauw Giap has po in ted ou t tha t wong sikepa lso mean t a fu l l member o f the v i l lage communi ty .


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT 2 2 7Some of the doubl meanings may be guessed. We have seen thatin the incident at Tapellan in 1914 the last line was used to mean

The Saminists know their rights .64Similarly, in view of the identifications mentioned in the previousparagraph, the third line probably means W oman-man, i.e. thesexual act or relationship, shall exist till the end of time . Again, thefourth line is related to the rejection of obligations towards the villageand higher authorities. T he S aminist say s: 'I have nothing exceptmy wife, my children and my possessions. Therefore I do not workon the roads, nor guard other people's houses and property'... 6 5When called upon to perform the village duty of nightwatching (rondamaidm), the Saminists used to point to their sexual organs and saythat they had a duty to their wives at night. 66 In such gestures andin repeaiting their ambiguous formulae, the Samins seem to have beencalling upon the magical power known to them in sex, to strengthenthem in their doubtless worrying defiance of authority.Such an attitude to sex recalls the linga cult of H indu Java, formsof which survived after the conversion to Islam. One recent student,Onghokham, suggests that it was the cult of Bima, in particular,which had a phallic significance and was communicated to the Saministsby means of the wayang drama, in which they had a particularinterest.67 While this is rather speculative, it will be recalled that hisfollowers were said to identify Samin with B ima. M oreover it isstated in the story of Bima (Lakon Bima Sutji) that he was a teacherwithout knowing books and spoke to everyone in ngoko (i.e. withouthonorifics). H e was the berator during and after earthly life . A swe have seen, Samin was a teacher though illiterate, and used onlyngoko.

The sexual and mystical beliefs of the Saminists were accompanied8 4 The Javanese lines printed here appear in two slightly different versions in Zijn de Samins gevaarlijk? . The translation given there is as follows: Debestemming van den man is het huwelijk (de paring). De vrouw sluite eenhuwelijk mits zij beminne en bemind worde. De propheet Adam zal bestaantot het einde der dingen. Ik ken niets anders en denk aan niets anders danaan de regeling van het huisgezin. De wong sikep (de menschen van )wisten zelf wat het hunne is en wat hen te doen staat.Neither of the present writers understands Javanese, but they have altered

this somewhat on the advice of Javanese-speaking friends. S ee also O ng-hokham, op .cit., p. 30.6 5 Zijn de Sam ins gevaarlijk , p. 941.6 8 Jasper Report, p. 19.6 7 Onghokham, op . cit., pp. 51-54.


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by simple ethical teachings, which one of Samio's early disciplessummed up for Jasper a s follows: Do not be idle; do not He; do notsteal; do not commit adultery; behave paitiently; if insulted remainsilent; do nat ask money or food from anyone; but if anyone asksfood or money of you, give it. 6 8

And indeed both Dutch and Indonesian writers credit the Saministswith such traits as honesty, generosity, patience and industriousness.Three aspects of their behaviour are particularly noteworthy. First,with rare exceptions they remained obstinately non-violent. Whenhit by the police ithey don 't hit back in f act they rejoice inwardlyand later hold a feast. 6 9 .Since the information available to the Dutchabout their beliefs did not seem to explain such a passive attitudeadequately, it was suggested that it was merely a tactic and thatSaminists would resort to violence when the time was ripe.70 There isno evidence to support this suggestion. In the second place, Saministsattracted comment by their industry and success as cultivators. ThusAssistant Resident Jasper, who in 1917 conducted the investigationof the Samin movement at the behest of the colonial govemment, wasconvinced that their fields were the best tended in their villages; hisobservation was echoed thirty-five years later by Indonesian officialswho commended the Saminists as fit models for their neighbours inagricultural matters.71 Though zealous as producers, the Samins re-putedly strove to keep as far as possible outside the money economy.Finally, it was also recognised by outsiders that the Saminists accordedtheir women far more respect than was true of their b ng n neigh-bours, an attitude quite in accordance not only with the movement'sstress on matters marital and sexual but also with its egalitarian notionsin general.72

This account of Saminist beliefs cannot claim completeness. What.for instance, lies behind the formula Bum i, adji, djaman (E ar th,incantation, age) which new converts to Saminism had to pronounce?Perhaps, as Onghokham suggests, we are dealing here with a relicof an agricultural fertility cult.73 Were the Saminists really believers6 8 Jasper Report p. 3 .6 9 S ta tement o f an Ass is tan t Wedono (minor Indones ian o f f ic ia l ) , Ass . Res .M. Zandve ld to Res iden t o f Rembang , B lo ra 1 /30 /1914 , Min . Kol . Mai l r .2 8 7 / 1 4 [ 1 2 ] .7 0 T i s s o t v a n P a to t , op. cit. p. 200.7 1 J a s p e r , op. cit. p . 7 1 ; Republik Indonesia Propinsi D jawa-Teng ah pp. 481-2.7 2 Bijleveld, op. cit. pp. 14-15.7 3 O n g h o k h a m , op. cit. p. 54.


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in the Hindu-Buddhist law of Karma, as a post-war commentatorstates, or is this a prijaji intellectualization? 7i Finally, what was theeschatological element in the Religion of Ad am ? Dutch accountsinsist that the Sam inists lived in hope of a Lo rd of the Lan d , atwhose coming the Saminists would inherit all the best things and theDutch and Javanese officials would be dispossessed or humiliated. In1914 it was said that they were expecting Samin's return from exilewith a Dutch wife and an army, and would not believe the report ofhis deaith.75

Yet there is reason to suspect that these Dutch writers were deceivedby their informants, their apprehensions, and even by their ownerudition. Their mode of thought is illustrated by the advice givento the government by Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, the great Islam-ologist and Adviser for Native Affairs.7 6 He distinguished two typesof native messianic movements in Java, those of Islamic inspirationwhich expeoted salvation in a Holy W a r an d the coming of a M ahd i,and those of Hindu-Buddhist inspiration, which looked for a RatuAdil or Heru Tjokro. The former, Snouck warned, were dangerousbecause of Islam's international links, but the latter could easily bedisposed of by removing the leader from the scne. Since the Saminmovement was clearly not Islamic, he concluded thait it was a messianicmovement of the second kind. He had no reliable information thatcould have enabled him to examine the Samin movement in isolation;he certainly did not consider the possibility that the Saminists fittedneither category: that their resistance to taxation was inspired bymystical-sexual ideas which had nothing to do with the propheciesof Djojobojo and the other stock-in-trade of Javanese messianism. Inany case, Saminism showed no sign of withering after the removalof its leader, as Snouck Hurgronje's successor as Adviser for NativeAffairs, Hazeu, anxiously remarked: 7 7 evidently there was some con-7 4 Republik Indonesia, Djawa-Tengah, p. 480.7 5 N ota of Soem ant r i , Bup at i of Bod jonegoro , to Ass . Res . of Blora , 1 /25/1916,Min. Kol . Mai l r . 2017/16 .7 8 Ambtelijke Adviezen van C. Snouck Hurgronje, 1889-1936, ed . E . Gobe andC. Ad r iaans e , Vo l . I I I (T he H ag ue , 1965) , pp . 1975-76 and 1978. Snou ck ' scom men ts span the decade 1907 to 1917. See a l so H a r r y J . Benda , Ch r i s t i aa nSnouck H ur g r on j e and t he Founda t i on of D u t ch I s l am i c Po l i cy i n I ndones i a ,Journal of Modern History X X X (1958) , pp . 338-347, and Ch r i s t i aa n

S n o u c k H u r g r o n j e , i n International Encyc lopedia of the Social Sciences(New York , 1968) , Vol . 5 , pp . 340-342. Van der Kroef {loc. cit. does inc ludeSam i n i sm am ong Javanese m ess i an i c m ovem en t s .7 7 Re po r t of Ha ze u to Gov. -Gen. , W el t evred en, 3 /6 /191 7, Min . Ko l . Mai l r .718 / 17 ( 129 - G eh . ) .


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23 HARKYJ BENDA AND LANCE CASTLES

tinuing socio-economic grievance feeding the movement probably,he thought, connected with the forest laws.The messianic Ratu Adil movements which are endemic in Javagenerally come to a violent crisis, and then are suppressed and dis-appear. On the other hand we have seen that the Samin movementwas almost completely non-violent: not a single life was lost. Andthough there were periods of critical excitement, the outstandingSaminist characteristic was quiet tenacity. Most unmessianic, too,was the ability of the Saminists to find a modus vivendi which in thelong run satisfied the powers-that-were without abandoning their ownprinciples; since the two post-war accounts of the movement at ourdisposal make no mention of messianic expectations, it is possible toconclude that Saminism has in fact been a virtually unique movementin Javanese social history. This does not necessarily mean that therewas no messianic element in Saminism. As we have seen, the differentpropagators of Saminism stressed various emphases and it is likelythat some of them, especially those active beyond the Saminist centresproper, as in the Madiun region, did use messianic themes. It is pos-sible,too, that some of his followers viewed Samin as a Ratu Adil even

though he had no desire to be so considered, just as Tjokroaminoto,the Sarekat Islam leader, was seen by some as the Heru Tjokro ofJavanese prophecy because of the similarity of the names. 78 Giventhe general proclivity to messianic modes of thought, it would indeedhave been surprising if some followers had no t attempted to domesti-cate Saminism into pre-existing patterns; this, after all, is whatpeasants are wont to do with new ideas.79But it may have been just such peripheral manifestations whichwere seized upon by Dutch officials with their ultra-cautious approach

to any possible disturbance of peace and order. Always looking fora messianic movement, they found in the chatter of goat-boys and indubious interpretaitions of esoteric verses the dues necessary to identifySaminism with the stereotype.80And so Saminism tended to be pigeon-7 8 On T jokroaminoto ' s appea l , see Rober t Van Nie l , The Emergence of the

Modern Indonesian Elite ( T h e H a g u e and B a n d u n g , 1960 , pp. 105-107, andB e r n h a r d D a h m , Sukarnos Kamp f urn Indonesiens Unabhdngigkeit: Werde-gang und Ideen eines asiatischen Nationalisten (F ra n k fu r t a m Ma in a n dBerlin , 1966), pp. 11 ff.

7 9 Cf. H ar ry J . Benda , Ref lec t ions on Asian Comm unism , The Yale ReviewL V I (1966) , p . 7 .8 0 The Ass is tan t Res iden t o f B lora ' s ac t ion aga ins t the Samin is ts in 1907 w a sbased on the ta lk o f the boys who herded the v i l lage goa ts . (Onghokham,

op.cit., pp . 26 and 29) .


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holed as a Ratu Adil movement, despite the perception of at least onecontemporary that it was sui generis.81 Reliance on administrationspies aggravated the problem, as such people quickly discerned thekind of information their employers were eager tovhear and providedit accordingly.Saminism Islam and the Com munity.

Though Dutch officials found it difficult to understand the truenature of Saminism, they easily saw that, whatever it might be, it wasnot a Muslim-inspired movement. One of ithem, in fact, clearly under-stood that, unlike most other grass-roots movements in Java, Saminismwas distinctly un-Islamic, if not perhaps anti-Islamic in inspirationand content.82 Obviously, the Religion of Adam deviated quitesharply not only from the tenets of orthodox Islam but even from theusages and practices of the traditional, syncretic Islam that constitutedthe spiritual and religious world of most Javanese peasants. ltsdeviations from doctrinal puriity are, however, not really surprising,for the area most affected by Saminism was one of low Islamic pene-tration. In general, orthodox Islam is more firmly established in theculture of the Pesisir, or North Coast region, than in the interiorrice basins of Java. The Saminist heartland, the area where the Soloand Lusi rivers flow between ranges of teak-covered limestone hills,forms a border region between the Pesisir in the north and the Soloand Madiun basins to the south; but it shares with the latter a lowcommitment to orthodox Islam. None of (the important centres ofMuslim activity in the twentieth century, whether rural pesantrn(Koranic seminaries) or urban kauman (trading quarters occupiedby the faithful), lies in the region of Saminist influence.The small number of Mecca pilgrims from this part of the islandis one indication of its primarily abangancharacter, though it maymerely indicate relative poverty (the haddj requiring considerable per-sonal funds). In the years 1928-31 there were an average of 28 pilgrimsannually per 100,000 population for Java and Madura as a whole.But in the regencies of Blora and Grobogan combined, the rate wasonly 10 per 100,000. For Bodjonegoro-Tuban the rate was 12 and for

8 1 Bijleveld, op.cit. p. 11.8 2 Ibid. p. 11.


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Pati-Rembang 18.83Figures are nat readily available for earlier periods,but there is no reason to assum e ithat the situation was very differentin the first two decades of the twentieth century. Yet another indicationmay be found in the postwar era. In ithe general elections of 1955 andthe regional elections of 1957 Muslim parties polled less than a quarterof all votes in the regency of Blora and less than one-third in theregency of Grobogan. These parties admittedly fared better in Bodjone-goro,Pati and Rembang, but it is doubtful that their support came fromthose parts of these three regencies thait had been major Saministterritories.84

But if the Religion of Adam arose in an environment where itencountered less opposition from dev'out Muslims than might havebeen the case in most other parts of Java, this does not explain whyits adherents so resolutely turned their backs on the far-from-orthodoxIslam of their village neighbours. Saminism, it must be remembered,arose before Islainic Reformism, with its stress on scriptural orthodoxyhad gained ground in the island. The opposition between Sammistsand Muslims , that is to say, must not be mistaken for the subsequentpolarization between the abangan the at best nominally-Islamic peas-ants, and the santri the consciously pietistic Muslim farmers or mer-8 3 These ratios a r e calculated from figures in the Indische Ve rslagen for theseyears . F o r earlier years t h e breakdown according t o terr i tor ia l units i s toocrude t o b e valuable f o r o u r purpose. Mor e appropria te r a w dat a w ouldpossibly b e available in the Jedda A rchive of the N ether lands Minis t ry ofForeign Affairs i n T h e H a g u e . ( S e e Jacob V redenbregt , T h e H a d d j :Some of its Fea tures a n d Func t ions in Indonesia , Bijdragen tot de Taal-Land- en Volkenkunde 11 8 [ 1 9 62 ] , p. 146.)

These f igures fo r later periods a r e given o n t h e assumption t hat t h e broadlines of geographical var ia tion of religious practice in Java have n o t changedmuch in per iods a s short a s a generation o r t w o , a n assumption which iss trengthened b y t h e high congruen ce between th e dis tr ibution of Mecca p i l -g r ims in 1928-31 and of Muslim par ty votes in the elections of 1955 an d1957. T h e opinion given b y t h e Resident of Re mb a n g in 1907about t h e areacovered b y t h e regencies of Rembang, Blora , Tuban a n d Bodj onego ro shouldalso b e quoted : T h e population of this region is in general n o t fanatical.I have seen n o evidence of zealous Is lamic teachers . There a r e though,especially in Bodjonegoro regency, gurus w h oteach mys tical l o re . . . Memor ievan overgave L . C h . H . Fraenkel, Resident of Rembang, 7 /4/1907, M i n . K o l .Mailr . 987/07.8 4 T h a t i s , t hepar ts adjoining t h eregency of Blora. See thetables in J .D . Legge ,Central Authority and Re gional Au tonom y in Indonesia (Itha ca, 1961),pp. 247ff. an d th emaps in Dona ld Hindley , T h e Com mu nist Party of Indonesia1951-1963 (Berkeley, 1964), p p .226-228 . E xcept i n Bodjonegoro, t h e Ma s ju mipolled fa r behind t h e more syncre t ist ic Mus l im par ty N ahda tu l U lam a; inBlora t h e Ma s ju mi w o n only t w o seats out of 35 in the Regency Councilin1957.


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THE SAMIN MOVEMENT 2 3 3chants. To most of the non-Saminist villagers, Islam meant little morethan having the modin officiate, for a fee, at marriages and funerals;it did not mean behaving in a specifically Islamic way, under theguidance of orthodox ulama bent on preaching the pure doctrineand hence militating against traditional Javanese peasant Islam assuch. Saminists, however, objected even to this mild, abangan lslaxnof their environment, and they insisted that, not being M uslims, theywere beyond the modin sauthority.

Perhaps this provides us with a clue to the Saminists' relationshipwith Islam: it was not primarily religious doctrine that was at issue,but rather the movement's individualistic anarchism which refused torecognize any and every outside authority. The Saminists rejected themodin not as the represenitative of a faith that was necessarily re-pugnant to them,85 but rather as part, however humble, of an officialhierarchy whosercrison d tre they denied. Nor was such an assessmentof the religious officials of Jav a mistaken. For though in someenvironments they might be the most orthodox religious figurespresent, these officials were in fact part and parcel of the prijaji andabanganworlds rath er than representatives of santri culture proper.Indeed, the higher religious officials, the penghulu and naib, wereappointed by, and in fact often related to, the Javanese aristocracy,Islamic expertise in their ranks being the exception rather than therule. The proper representative of Islam was, by contrast, theulama,and tensions between these true santri and the religious bureaucracywere as common as was the former's contempt for the latter.But, as we already said, the heartland of Saminism was not thenatural abode of the santri, and complaints against the Saminists'religious heterodoxy were not lodged by ulama but by officialdom.8 5 T he S aminists do not seem to have behaved in a way w hich offended M uslimreligious sensibilities, and we find no references in the sources to complaintsof insults to Islam, the Prophet, or the like. In the 1950s, it was reportedthat the Saminists were tolerant of people of other faiths. (Republik Indonesia,Propinsi Djawa-Tengah, p. 480.) This absence of conflict should be attributedpartly to the fact that the santri community was then less cohesive andsensitive, at least at the village level, than it later becam e. (O n frictionbetween Islam and Javanism a t the elite level, see G. W . J. Drew es, T he

Struggle between Javanism and Islam as Illustrated by the Serat Der-magandul , Bijdragen tot de Taal-,Land en Volkenkunde \22 [1966], pp. 309-365.) By the early 'fifties serious tensions were created in villages whenmembers of the abangan Per ma i organisation refused to let the modin burytheir dead and solemnize their marriages. (Geertz, op.cit., p. 2ff.)


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Thus in 1906 the regent of Blora had some Saminists examined bythepenghulu(religious judge) and thepriesterr d (coUegiate religioustribunal), who reported thait Saniinism was in conflict with Islam. Theregent therefore asked the higher authorities to ban the new creed,only to be advised by the Dutch Resident thait since the followers ofSamin were not Muslims they could not be made to conform to Islamicpractices, such as the law relating to Islamic marriages.86 The Dutchprinciple of non-interference in religious affairs, so important in aidingthe growth of Islamic reformism in later years,87 was thus similarlyuseful in protecting Saminists against enforced religious conformismto their environment.

Indeed, compared to the incidental complaints concerning theSaminists' religious behaviour, those stressing their marked lack ofdeference to officialdom generally occur far more frequently. In mostof their dealings with prijaji, and even with European officials, theSaminists showed disrespect, most clearly exemplified by insistenceon using ngoko, the "low Javanese" form of speech, when addressingtheir alleged superiors. Opposition to prijaji authority was not neces-sarily limited to Saminists in the early decades of this century,88 andit became a far more general characteristic of later radical movements.But with the Saminists, it formed part of a peculiar conception ofJavanese society in general, and was thus but one aspect of theirpolitica attitudes. The "Religion of Adam ", that is to say, was notonly a pre-Islamic but also if only unconsciously a pre-Hindu-Buddhist ethic: it harked back to a "pure" Java, unsullied by allforeign, authority-laden intrusions. Since the authorities confronting8 6 F rae nke l to Go vernor -G enera l , R emb ang , 1 /24 /1906 . M in . Ko l . M ai l r . 400 /1907

[# 45 3/ 38 ] . W i th th e subsequen t po l i tic i sa t ion o f re l ig ious d i f fe rences thea t t i tude o f the au thor i t ie s o f the Indones ian Repub l ic to such phenomena hasa lso changed , a s i s sugges ted by the p ress b r ie f ing g iven by the DiponegoroDiv is ion Chief of S taf f B r igad ie r -Ge nera l W ido do on the suppress ion of t heM bah S uro raovement. " S in ce the des t ruc t ion of the Ges tap u-P K I , [ the coupof Sep te mb er /O c tob er , 1965]" , he sa id , Pendukunan ( M a g ic a l - m y s t i c a lcen t res ) have sp rung up l ike mushrooms in the ra iny season . Among themis M b a h S u r o ' s padepokan a t Nging g i l , B lo ra , which was v is i ted in d rovesby h is fo l lowers . Th is p roves tha t they have too l i t t l e fa i th in the i r ownre l ig ion" . (Sinar Harapan, M ar ch 13, 1967.)8 7 S e e Ha r r y J . B e n d a , "De c o lo n i z a t i o n i n I n d o n e s i a : T h e P r o b l e m o f C o n -

t i n u i t y a n d C h a n g e " , American Historical Review, L X X (1965) , pp . 1067-1068 .8 8 A so -ca lled Djow odip o movem ent seem s to have ex is ted wi th in SarekatIslam, a imin g a t th e s impl i fica tion o f the Javan ese language and the em an-c ipa t ion o f the common man in some par t s o f cen t ra l and eas te rn Java .Koloniaal Verslag 1919, col. 7.


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the Saminists were prijaji with their Dutch bureaucratie masters andtheir Muslim bureaucratie subordinates, they could easily have cometo see colonialism, Islam, and Hindu-derived prijaji values as partsof a single, alien and hierarchical establishment from which they soughtto escape.

And even this was not enough. For insofar as their b ng n neigh-bours had to all intents and purposes accepted that establishment, hadsubmitted to secular authority and embraced Islam (albeit a far fromorthodox Islam in the eyes of true, santri believers), Saminists hadno choice but turn their backs on their abanganvillage neighbours,their selamatans (ritual feasts), their gotong royong (mutual aid)practices and all that made up the village community.89 It was, then,not from a specifically Muslim ummat (religious community) that theywished to secede, but from an Islamically-tinged abangan world, themicroscopic mirror-image of Java's Great Tradition. In thus seekingto contract out of their environment, Saminists espoused an individual-istic folk culture. The Saminists' insistence on the primacy of inter-personal relations (as exemplified by their constant preoccupationswith the nuclear family) and on cultivating their own lands (as exem-plified by their sustained record as model farmers) ran counter toabanganmores and practices. Their refusal to recognize the ir en-vironment also found expression in their attitude towards money: forSaminists not only refused to pay taxes or to accept cash balancesresulting from the forced sale of propenty confiscated by the govern-ment's tax collectors, they tried to live without money altogether; inthe few cases where their economie self-sufficiency proved inadequate,they would reluctantly bring money to their b ng n neighbours, butinsisting that they were offering it in exchange for goods, ratherthan for purchasing such good s.90

The community's reaction to such behaviour was a kind of ostracismwhich excluded Saminists from a share in the common village lands.True enough, the social milieu of Java in those years precluded atotal breach bqtween the adherents of old and new, the more so sincefamily ties often cut across ideological cleavages.91 (In spite of whatwe have here termed their individualism , the Saminists, by their8 9 Benda's earlier statem ent tha t Sam inism cx>nstituted a peculiar varian t ofth e abangantradition of rural Ja va ( Peasan t M ovements in Colonial South-east Asia , op .cit. p. 428) has thus to be rejected.8 0 Jasper Report p. 71.9 1 Ibid. p p . 6 9 n d7 2 . . . . , .


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willingness to< help materially anyone who asked them, carried the b ng n Javanese custom of hospitality to an extreme.) But even then,the divisions remained, Saminists and abangans at best coexistingrather than truly living together in all-embracing village communities.Having broken with the b ng n world around them, Saminists mayalso have succeeded is escaping from the spiritual bondage of Javanesemessianism, and in maintaining themselves as a distinct social sectrather than disappearing as a fly-by-night band of religious zealots.

Nothing, in fact, better illustrates their separateness and resiliencethan the Saminists continued existence through the turbulent yearsof theSarekat Islam colonial Java s largest mass movement. Saminismhad, of course, preceded the founding of ithat movement by morethan two decades, yet theSarekafs appearance and subsequent meteoricrise apparently neither diminished the hold of Saminism among itsadherents nor and this is at first sight equally surprising didfollowers of the two engage in competitive clashes. It almost seemsas if the two, though spatially and in several other respects so closeto each other, moved in separate and rarely intersecting orbits. Hadthere been friction, colonial officials, always on the lookout for troublein native society, would doubtless have reported it; yet careful perusalof the available record yielded only some incidental comments on theinteraotion of Saminists and Sarekat followers. Thus one administrativereport tells us that both movements were active in the eastern part ofBodjonegoro regency, Sarekat spokesmen having entered the scnerather late, after Samin had died in exile in Padang in 1914. Up tothat time, his followers, most of them still believing their leader tobe alive and expecting his return, had been quiescent. But once theSarekat propaganda in their region got underway, the Saminists be-stirred themselves and became more zealous in propagating their creed,yet without agitating against the newcomers.92 Even in this instancethe result seems to have been competitive coexistence rather tjhanhostile ideological confrontation.

Had Saminism been fundamentally opposed to Islam on religiousgrounds, such a pattern would have been inconceivable. Though origi-nally founded by pious santri traders, Sarekat Islam had soon passedunder non-santrileadership which espoused political rather than religi-9 2 Note of Soemantri, Bupati of Bodjonegoro, to Assistant-Resident of Blora,Bodjonegoro 1/25/1916, Min. Kol. Mailr. 2017/16. A former Assistant-Resident of Bodjonegoro expressed the same opinion. Selleger to Einthoven,Loemadjang 3/30/1916, Min. Kol. Mailr. 2017/16 [I65G Spoedig, Geheim].


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ous causes as time went on. We know all too little about the ways inwhich this new movement actually operated at the local level, but itappears most likely that in several regions santri did continue to wieldgreat influence, especially so in cities and towns. Thus in Lasem, atown in Rembang regency, it was led by an Arab (a merchant?) bythe name of Said Abubakar, who in 1916 agitated among peasants innearby villages.93 Muslim kauman in small urban centres, such asPadangan near Tjepu, may have played a key role in some areas.At the same time, however, Sarekat Islam was, or became, far morethan a santri movement, as was witnessed by the ease with whichleftwing radicalism developed within it. This not only happened in theranks of the highly urbanized national leadership in Semarang, butalso in such smaller branches as Tjepu in South Blora which was oneof only three S.I.. branches to support Semaun's red faction at theOctober 1921 Sarekat Congress; from then until its dissolution in1927, Tjepu in fact sustained a branch of the Imdonesian CommunistParty.9*

When we inquire what the S.I. was agitating against (and for), itsoon becomes apparent that, in essence, the grievances it exploitedwere virtually identical with those tne Saminists were reported tovoice: opposition to a rumoured new *tax assessment, to the forcedcreation of village treasuries, to the introduction of Bengal stud buf-faloes, etc.95 There can be little doubt, then, that the S.I., far frompropounding the cause of a santri ummat among the peasants, in thatpart of Java at least, seemed most concerned with rallying themaround the banner of resistance to the status quo as represented byprijaji Chinese middlemen and European officialdom. But these, wesaw, were the prime targets of the Saminists, too. Why, then, did thetwo movements not merge into one, why, in particular, did notSarekatIslam so much better organised and so spectacularly successful in itsdrive to enlist the masses in so many parts of Java, absorb the smallband of followers of an exiled, illiterate leader? The answer maywell be that at the grassroots level the S.I. was a basically abanganmovement, whose adherents had not contracted out of Javanese peasant9 3 M e m o r i e van ov e r gave van he t be s t uu r van E . E i n t hoven , Res i den t vanRem bang , 5 / 9 / 1917 , M i n . K o l . M a i l r . 1632 / 17 .9 4 M c V e y , op.cit. p. 144. See a l so pp . 312 and 434 (n . 119) ment ioning theT j ep u P K I b r anch . O f t he b r anche s m en t i oned i n the l a t t e r f oo t no t eRandub l a t ung and W i r osa r i w e r e a l so i n Sam i n i s t coun t r y and poss i b l y w er ea l so S . I. b ran che s tha t went r ed . .9 5 Koloniaal Verslag 1916 Ho ofds tuk C, co l . 3 .


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society and had no apparent desire of ever doing so. Thus, thoughin terms of specific grievancesvis a vis the colonial order as such thereexisted little difference between them and the Saminists, in terms oftheir underlying world views and ethical concepts they may well havebelonged


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that it dealt with the Saminists with a lack of violence which is startlingwhen seen in the context of Southeast Asia's long history of peasantmovements and their suppression a history still in the making,so to see.

In any case, the mushrooming growth of Sarekat Islam and theIndonesian Communist movement, which together constituted fargreater and more ominous challenges to the fabric of colonial societythan Saminism, also marked the end of the era of relative stability inwhich the Samin movement had originally arisen. Both waxed andwaned, bypassing the small Saminist groups in their midst, when socialdisorder and uncertainty became more widespread, in a climate onceagain rif e w ith th e messianic notions of the Ratu Adil. It would seemthat, after (these movements had spent themselves, tranquillity returnedto rural Java from the late 1920s until the end of the Dutch colonialregime. But the Japanese invasion and occupation, foowed by thelarge-scale perturbances of the Indonesian Revolution, once moregenerated an atmosphere of pervasive anxiety and anomie, engulfinghundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Java's peasants with mes-sianic hopes. While new parties and movements had arisen in theintervening years, many of them equipped with admixtures of modernideologies, the latterday upheavals are often unmistakeably more mes-sianic in character than Saminism ever was.97

HARRY J. BENDA ANDLANC E CASTLES

9 7 Dahm op. cit., passim ) has convindngly shown that Sukarno's Partai NasionalIndonesia drew a great deal of its mass support from its founder's recourseto messianic appeals. This may also be true of the movement led by MbahSuro, which arose in the very heartland of Saminism and which may even,, as we already suggested, consciously seek to identify itself with SurontikoSamin. On Mbah Suro, see Ramelan, Mba h Suro Nginggil Kisah HantjurnjaPetualangan Dukun Klenik mBah S uro), Djak arta 1967 (Usaha P enerbit Matoa ), Willard A. Hanna, The Magical-Mystical Syndrome in the Indo-nesian Mentality, P art III: The Rise and F all of Mbah Suro, AmericanUniversities Field Staff Reports Service, Southeast Asia Series, Vol. XV,No. 7 (Indo nesia), David Mitchell, Com munists, My stics and Sukarnoism ,Dissent, Melbourne, Autum n 1968, pp. 28-32, and P h. v. A., Ha m m er andSickle among the My stics , Review of Indonesian and Malayan Affairs,Sydney, Vol. 2, No. 1, Jan.-Mar., 1968, pp. 60-61.


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Postscript:Since cornpleting this article we have obtained, through the kind help

ofProf Dr Sartono Kartodirdjo, some typed reports of research on theSaminists undertaken in 1955 by the Social-Political Faculty of GadjahMada University and the Bureau for Social Work Research (BPPS)at Jogjakarta (Soehernowo c.s.:Research olongan MasjarakatSamiri .It appears that the Saminist groups, lacking any central organisation, hadgrown apart over the years and were at tha t time in the process of beingreabsorbed into the main stream ofabanganJavanese culture. However,there was still sufficient evidence of their previous distinctiveness,especially in the Bapangan core area. The original Saminists did notfast, meditate or worship spirits, nor pay attention to wajangor keto-prak. But more recently they had become interested in such mattersand in the prophecies of Djojobojo, and outlined for the Jogjakartastudents more than one elaborate cosmology. The central importanceof sexual imagery was confirmed. While the Saminists as peasants didnot appear to be either particularly rich or particularly poor, theirintense commiitment to agriculture as a way of life was noted again.Although they had become more accommodating tow ards the govemmentsince the beginning of the Japanese occupation, they were still suspiciousof officials and used their esoteric language to minimize communicationwith them. Repontedly many had been reluctant to vote in the generalelections of 1955, saying that all parties were equally good; but werepersuaded that to go along and 'vote randomly' would do no harm.The only figures given, however, show anything but random voting:in Bapangan, the PK I received 67 of all votes cast. Th ere is alsoother evidence in the repo rts of some Saminist affinity w ith Comtnunism.But, as in earlier decades, neither officials nor urban researchers seemto have fully penetrated the Saminists' wall of secrecy and understoodtheir motivations.

Documents

H.J. Benda: The Samin Movement