Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Toer

EARTH OF MANKIND ESSAY
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How the colonized were complaisant to colonial rule
In most cases, we tend to understand colonialism as the process where the colonialist imposes his will on the colonized forcefully. While this is true, in some cases, the colonized communities tend to be complaisant and seemingly receptive of the colonial rule. Toer seems to insinuate that the colonized were complaisant to the colonialism. In the novel, the Javanese community is the one being colonized by the Dutch as Toer portrays the society. Toer does not also show that the Javanese community is forced to take up some colonial ideals and personalize them, rather they go after them.
Minke is a young man from the Javanese community. He comes from a royal family and he is privileged to afford any education money could buy. He is thus send to Hogere Burger School. Hogere Burger School (H.B.S) was a Dutch high school that was reserved for the Europeans. Minke schooled with the Europeans and though he was discriminated against, he continued until he graduated. In this case, it is clear that no one forced Minke to attend a school reserved for the Europeans. The cost of education in this school was not affordable to any native. It seems that his family and Minke himself who boasted of having schooled in a prestigious school was a source of pride. Concisely, the Javanese people found schooling in a prestigious school reserved for the Europeans as prestigious. Though there are many reasons why a native would want a good education, but schooling in the very institution that colonizes and oppresses your people without coercion is a self-inflicted form of colonialism. The Javanese people were brainwashed and continued to wish to be like the very people who oppressed them such that they envied their education rather than sticking to their own ways of life. Minke, of all people should have been groomed to take over his leadership role to lead his community to independence but he chose European education and way of life over his duty to decolonize his land. By going to a European school, he was complaisant of the colonial rule and sought to be like his colonialists. Additionally, Minke excelled in his academics. He even published how works in Dutch journals. Though his quest for education was justified, he took a seat in the table of the very people who oppressed his people. Minke also stayed with the Mellemas till he was ‘abducted’ by his father to go and help him in his promotion ceremony as an interpreter. It shows how Minke was complaisant with the ways of his colonialists such that he went on to stay with them rather than with his family or at alternative accommodation at the school. He enjoyed their way of life and though there is nothing wrong with enjoying that life, he was busy enjoying the privileges of being a colonizer rather than working with his community to fight for their rights.
Robert also exemplifies how some Javanese people were complaisant of colonialism. Firstly, Robert was mixed; his father was Dutch and his mother Nyai (name of Dutch concubines). He would only be Dutch if he was recognized by his father. On the other hand, he had nothing to lose by self-identifying as a native. Quite on the contrary, he identified as a Dutch even when his status was unclear and had not been recognized by his Dutch father. He continually insisted to be referred and treated as a Dutch. He went as far as planning on how to humiliate Minke by inviting him to their family. Though his plan failed on humiliating Minke, it shows how the natives and the other oppressed groups such as the mixed descendants of Dutch ...