Taming the coolie beast plantation society and the colonial order in southeast Asia (Record no. 38701)

MARC details
000 -LEADER
fixed length control field 02582nam a2200181Ia 4500
005 - DATE AND TIME OF LATEST TRANSACTION
control field 20220315224917.0
008 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--GENERAL INFORMATION
fixed length control field 200202s9999 xx 000 0 und d
082 ## - DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION NUMBER
Classification number 307.72095981 BRE
100 ## - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME
Personal name Breman, Jan.
245 #0 - TITLE STATEMENT
Title Taming the coolie beast plantation society and the colonial order in southeast Asia
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Place of publication, distribution, etc. Delhi
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Name of publisher, distributor, etc. Oxford University.
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Date of publication, distribution, etc. 1989
300 ## - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Extent 321 p.
520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC.
Summary, etc. When Van den Brand wrote his pamphlet Millions from Deli, in the beginning of the twentieth century, it shocked public opinion in the Netherlands. The pamphlet documented tales of horror, which were everyday experiences of the coolies on the tobacco plantations in the Dutch colony of Sumatra. The rumblings which the pamphlet caused shook the government and it ordered an investigation. Its findings came to be known as the Rhemrev Report.<br/><br/>The Report was eventually suppressed by the Dutch government because it revealed a state of affairs even more horrifying than what the Millions from Deli had disclosed.<br/><br/>Professor Breman came upon the Rhemrev Report accidentally in the archives while working on migrant labour in South and Southeast Asia. Confidential comments made on the Report by powerful public figures were all intact. The result is the present book.<br/><br/>The Coolie Beast unfolds the social organization on the plantations in Sumatra. Class structure was organized along racist lines into white planters and Asian coolies, and the latter were further divided into head foremen, foremen, workers and contract workers. Only a handful of coolies were not inden tured. The bondage notwithstanding, labour relations were thoroughly capitalistic in nature. The historian and the economist will find the comparison with plantations in the Americas and elsewhere interesting. Political scientists and the general reader will find this book revealing for yet another reason. Breman gives a graphic description of the manner in which scandals were suppressed by the policy-makers both in the colony and in the home-country. The element of deception implicit in such dealings, seems particularly sinister because it mixes so well with the fact of colonial governance. People in positions of power will perhaps feel uncomfortable with this book, while others get to see the political backyard, similar the world over.<br/><br/>This is an angry book, powerfully written and it backed by sound scholarship. It is an excellent example of historical anthropology which is becoming important here and in the West.
650 ## - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name entry element Plantation -Sumtra
942 ## - ADDED ENTRY ELEMENTS (KOHA)
Koha item type Books
Source of classification or shelving scheme Dewey Decimal Classification
Holdings
Withdrawn status Lost status Damaged status Not for loan Home library Current library Date acquired Source of acquisition Total checkouts Full call number Barcode Date last seen Price effective from Koha item type
  Not Missing Not Damaged   Gandhi Smriti Library Gandhi Smriti Library 2020-02-02 MSR   307.72095981 BRE 48448 2020-02-02 2020-02-02 Books

Powered by Koha