Suara Anak-Anak dalam Rumah Tangga Kolonial: Surat-Surat Putra-Putri Indo-Pribumi Snouck Hurgronje (1906-1908)

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine letters written by the children of Dutch colonial officials and renowned Islamic scholar Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, who lived in Ciamis from 1906 to 1908, as a primary source for exploring and understanding the emotional dimensions, experiences, and identities of Indo-Native children within the colonial family system. Unlike previous studies that focused on Snouck's travels and intellectual and political contributions or the impact of his colonial policies, this paper attempts to highlight the domestic and emotional dimensions of Snouck and his family in the Dutch East Indies through an epistolary analysis and microhistory approach.  Analysis of these letters reveals at least several main themes, including longing for a father who has left his wife and children, expressions of obedience and politeness characteristic of Sundanese-Ciamis culture, education as a path to social mobility, economic dependence on the colonial father figure, and the negotiation of children's identities in the context of mixed families. These letters also show how colonialism worked in the domestic sphere through emotional, economic, and cultural relationships between fathers and their children. A significant contribution of this research is its effort to enrich Indonesian colonial historiography by presenting the voices of children, which rarely appear in official colonial archives, and showing that the experience of mixed families can be an important lens for understanding colonialism from a more human and personal perspective.