Stereotyping the turks : images from dutch colonial newspapers in Indonesia

Abstract

There are abundant studies on Turkish Historical influences in the world, from Europe to Asia, India, and Southeast Asia. But there are insufficient scholarly narratives consulted from the existing available 19 th century colonial newspaper sources that dealt with the colonial works on reshaping the character of the Rum-Turk and the Ottoman that had in previous centuries, preserved in extensively pleasant and inspirational images among the societies in the Netherlands East Indies. Before the colonial period, numerous scholars agree that the influence of the Ottoman occurred in early days where the Portuguese set foot in Malacca Straits. The Ottoman relation with Aceh and the continuous correspondences contributed to the view of societies in the Netherlands East Indies to present fond impression on the Ottoman that the victory and naval force of the Ottoman were penned down in numerous local letters and manuscripts across the Islands and Peninsula as an inspirational depiction. As mass printing had become the most effective measure in producing new type of knowledge, especially on describing images of racial class and defaming the colonial economic and political non-native rivals, the colonial propaganda and descriptions were printed repetitively over the centuries. As the result, the constructed images of the Turks were politicized for the colonial gain. This paper examines the role of Dutch colonial newspapers in shaping images of the Turks, the Ottoman, and the caliphate among its colonized societies. It investigates dissemination of colonial pseudo-scientific knowledge and the transformation of views on the Turks resulted from it. Through utilizing Dutch colonial newspapers between 1840s-1945, this paper provides additional narratives on colonial knowledge production discourse on Indonesian trans-boundary relations under colonial era.