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OAEen doopsgezinde ‘filiaalgemeente’ van Wormerveer in Batavia?
Nederlandse doopsgezinden in het koloniale Oost-Indië, circa 1800-1950. Een overzicht
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Doopsgezinde Bijdragen, Volume 51, Issue 1, Sep 2025, p. 185 - 229
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- 01 Sep 2025
Abstract
During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, when the Dutch colonized the numerous islands which now form the country of Indonesia, scores of Dutch Mennonites (Doopsgezinden) went to live and work there, either for a long period (sometimes lifelong) or a shorter number of years. They worked as government officials, including lawyers, judges, teachers, researchers, (assistant-)residents or even higher ranking officials, but also as owners or administrators of coffee, tea and sugar plantations or sailors. Their number increased rapidly from around 1830 onwards. In general they had a liberal-minded religious attitude, so hardly any of them had contacts with the Doopsgezinde mission, which started in 1851 in Central Java. Nevertheless a certain number among them was looking for a religious home, which they did not find in the so-called Indische kerk. So in 1913 they decided, with assistance of like-minded Doopsgezinden in the Netherlands, to ask a Dutch pastor to pay a pastoral visit. Pastor Hendrikus Britzel arrived with a list of no less than 500 names and stayed for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately the First World War made next steps impossible and the dream to form a separate congregation was never materialized. Probably untill World War II several hundreds of Dutch Doopsgezinden were employed in the colony. After the harsh time of Japanese occupation and the Indonesian struggle for independence, only a few remained. In general these Doopsgezinden hardly criticised the colonial government and only a minority among them had really cordial and equal relations with the local population or were interested in the nationalist movements which arose from the early twentieth century on.