Title
Decent colonialism? Pure science and colonial ideology in the Netherlands East Indies, 1910–1929
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2009
Abstract
This article examines changes within the Dutch civilising mission ideology after the decline of the Ethical Policy. Support of pure science, scientific knowledge that supposedly transcended ideology and politics, allowed the colonial administration to continue to project their rule as decent and moral, even as conflict and repression dominated colonial politics in the 1920s. The argument starts with the construction of pure science after 1910, under the care of J.C. Koningsberger, out of the research traditions at the Department of Agriculture. It next examines the creation of institutions and agendas of pure science. And finally it analyses the absorption of pure science into the civilising mission of the 1920s. It concludes with a discussion of what this means for historical evaluations of the Dutch colonial project.
Journal Name
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Recommended Citation
Goss, Andrew. "Decent Colonialism? Pure Science and Colonial Ideology in the Netherlands East Indies, 1910–1929." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40.1 (February 2009): 187-214.
Comments
Published by the National University of Singapore.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=SEA