Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements against the European Colonial Order

by Michael B. Adas

Adas explores the relationship between millenarianism and violent protest by focusing on five case studies representing a wide range of social, political, and economic systems. The rebellions examined Netherlands East Indies (1825-30), New Zealand (c. 1864-67), Central India (1895-1900), German East Africa (1903-6), and Burma (1930-32). Arranged topically to emphasize comparative patterns, the study analyzes causes, leaders, organization, failure, and the impact on the individual society.

Originally published in 1979.

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Genres: History, Indonesian Literature

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Michael Adas is an American historian and currently the Abraham E. Voorhees Professor of History at Rutgers University. He specializes in the history of technology, the history of anticolonialism and in global history.

Reviews

[Rifhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Adas compared five case studies of anti-colonial rebellions across different regions, cultures, socio-politico-economic makes-ups and time periods: Netherlands and the East Indies (1825-1830), Maoris versus the Christian missionaries in New Zealand (1864-1867), the British in Central India (1895-1900), German East Africa (1903-1906) and British Burma (1930-1932). These chosen rebellions were distinctively “millenarian”, and led by “prophetic” leaders: Java’s Prince Dipanagara, the Maoris’ Pai Maire, Birsa in British-ruled east-central India, the Maji-Maji rebellions in East Africa and Burma’s Saya San. His analysis is arranged neatly and topically across eight chapters. In these chapters, he discussed the affected communities, the roles these “prophets” played, their backgrounds and the course of the revolts; the circumstances that contributed to their uprisings, the events that triggered them, suppression and finally their aftermaths.

In these rebellions, the nemesis was “infidel” rule, but despite the apparent religious undertones of these rebellions, they were not fought in defense of religion, but were restorationist in sentiment (i.e. restoring the communities back to a former pre-colonial golden age by ushering in a “new age” of harmony, prosperity and fair self-rule). Adas presents a few main causes for these revolts: 1) the colonials changed their pre-existing farming practices and exposed them to greater fluctuations of the greater economic world market. This increasingly impoverished and exploited them. 2) The colonial governments went too far by challenging and undermining pre-existing belief-systems, institutions and socio-political systems, displacing pre-colonial leaders, elites, religious figures. 3) They formalized and destroyed pre-existing but customary patron-client relationships that had previously protected peasants from extreme economic hardship and preserved their economic standing within their communities. 4) The inability or unwillingness of the colonial administration to effectively address peasant grievances over accelerating exploitative conditions. 5) Displacement and relative deprivation (See Alberla, 1962).

Even so, these reasons did not typically lead to a sudden revolt, even where they were present in other colonized societies. Thus they are not pre-requisites to an open rebellion, let alone a millenarian one. This mirrors what Scott argues in Weapons of the weak (1985), that peasants will typically not rebel until all of their avoidance-protest avenues have exhausted and Moral economy of the peasant (1976); peasants’ risk-avoiding behavior will not have them easily participate in an open rebellion willingly. While their last attempts to express their grievances and influence change through colonial institutional means failed, the “real” triggers of open rebellion really were 1) the leaders’ eventual decisions to violently protest (They had previously preached more peaceful modes of coping with their grievances) and 2) “signs” and “prophecies” of an impending but inevitably successful rebellion.

Touching on the above-mentioned triggers, Adas warns readers from perceiving the “methods” used by the rebels (incantations, rituals, talisman, tattoos and other forms of “magic”) as “irrational”, “superstitious” and foolish. One must also resist the temptation to apply indiscriminate labels like “witch-doctors” and “quacks” onto the “prophets”. He strongly rejects ascribing the rebel participants with naïve “child-like” mentalities for believing entirely in the divine power of their “superstitions”. He insists that these were inspired by and originated from a world-view unfamiliar to foreign observers; one cannot simply apply western scientific criteria of “rational” onto non-western and prescientific societies.

Adas argues that their own world-view, the logic of their rebellion is coherent, purposeful and goal-oriented. Even the fact that these rebellions were crushed cannot be used to justify “irrationality” because the gap between goal and outcome should not be used as a means of measurement without first understanding the framework of their beliefs. Adas is clearly highly sympathetic to their belief systems. However, he also maintains objectivity by not veering towards sentiments that can be found in other sympathetic post-colonial literature that revered these “prophets” as national heroes or even other early “anti-imperialist” work that too strongly antagonized the colonial governments.

Adas showed more interest in the roles the “prophetic” leaders played in influencing the “millenarian” theme of these rebellions rather than the rebellions themselves. However, as much as these “prophets” were highly successful in the difficult task of mobilizing the peasants to revolt, attributing their success to “charisma” alone is myopic. In much “sympathetic” literature about these “prophets” and others that they are too focused on the “prophets” alone as leaders of the rebellions, other agents and factors that played important roles as mobilizers of revolt are overlooked. Once the “charismatic leader” label is lifted, “secondary” triggers of revolt will be more obvious.

For example, in his case studies, Adas argues that one of these “secondary” triggers that influenced these “prophets’” decisions to revolt was the need to win back followers that were increasingly being lost to other violent secondary leaders. Also, these rebellions would not have had successfully started without networks and links these “prophets” had with other leaders and elites that had helped spread their influences further. Furthermore, some local elites and other rival ethnic community leaders had been co-opted by the colonial government to help them rule the locals via proxy. These local “allies” had consciously and deliberately exploited the locals too, adding on to local grievances and dissent. From this point, Adas also points out to readers that colonials were not the only “provokers” in these rebellions.

This book presents much interesting and though-provoking arguments against classic hegemonic literature on peasant rebellions that try to link them to meta-narratives of larger nationalist conflicts. Much of his arguments in fact, mirror some of the most reliable and well-loved books on peasant resistance with two examples being Weapons of the weak (Scott, 1985) and Moral economy of the peasant (Scott, 1976) amongst others. He however, does not use them to support or influence his arguments. Instead, Adas seemingly uses his case studies to shape his own opinions. In doing so, he provides a richer account of peasant experiences and mentalities, where Moral economy of the peasant had treated them too superficially. His cross-analysis of the five case studies also helps to illustrate how multi-faceted these rebellions really were, and difficult to generalize despite the few parallels he has shown in this book.

When I first read this book, I was excited to learn about “relative depravity” at its beginning and was looking forward to further understand this theory through him and see how he would apply it onto his case studies. However, I was disappointed that its “presence” through the book was quite “weak”. I was left with a sketchy understanding of it. However, many years down, I read this book again, and with a stronger prior knowledge and comprehension of “relative depravity”, I could see how he had actually “unpacked” its concepts and used it more critically than I thought it did. It just needed more “careful” reading, and perhaps, if Adas had made this aspect more obvious by dedicating a more specialized section on it, it would have been an easier read.

Even so, he provides readers with alternate case studies from the ones that are too commonly used in much literature on peasant revolts (for example, the Saya San rebellion). Looking at his references, sources (conventional, i.e. archival and unconventional, i.e. interviews and local folklore) that helped him build his case studies are more dominant. He expressed in the beginning of his book, how difficult it is to find “official” and “academic” sources for “lesser-known” rebellion, but his sheer effort and determination to have kept doing so is commendable. This book is a nice mix of uniqueness and generality, provides new case studies for analyzing peasant rebellions and presents new ways of thinking about religiously-themed rebellions. I enjoyed it very much despite my initial struggles with it.

References

Michael Adas, Prophets of rebellion: Millenarian protests movements against the European colonial order. Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 1979.

David Aberle, “A note on relative deprivation theory as applied to millenarian and other cult movements”, in S. Thrupp (ed.) Millennial Dreams in Action, Comparative Studies in Society and History Supplements, No. 2. The Hague: Mouton, 1962.

James C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.

James C. Scott, Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985

[Rifhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Adas compared five case studies of anti-colonial rebellions across different regions, cultures, socio-politico-economic makes-ups and time periods: Netherlands and the East Indies (1825-1830), Maoris versus the Christian missionaries in New Zealand (1864-1867), the British in Central India (1895-1900), German East Africa (1903-1906) and British Burma (1930-1932). These chosen rebellions were distinctively “millenarian”, and led by “prophetic” leaders: Java’s Prince Dipanagara, the Maoris’ Pai Maire, Birsa in British-ruled east-central India, the Maji-Maji rebellions in East Africa and Burma’s Saya San. His analysis is arranged neatly and topically across eight chapters. In these chapters, he discussed the affected communities, the roles these “prophets” played, their backgrounds and the course of the revolts; the circumstances that contributed to their uprisings, the events that triggered them, suppression and finally their aftermaths.

In these rebellions, the nemesis was “infidel” rule, but despite the apparent religious undertones of these rebellions, they were not fought in defense of religion, but were restorationist in sentiment (i.e. restoring the communities back to a former pre-colonial golden age by ushering in a “new age” of harmony, prosperity and fair self-rule). Adas presents a few main causes for these revolts: 1) the colonials changed their pre-existing farming practices and exposed them to greater fluctuations of the greater economic world market. This increasingly impoverished and exploited them. 2) The colonial governments went too far by challenging and undermining pre-existing belief-systems, institutions and socio-political systems, displacing pre-colonial leaders, elites, religious figures. 3) They formalized and destroyed pre-existing but customary patron-client relationships that had previously protected peasants from extreme economic hardship and preserved their economic standing within their communities. 4) The inability or unwillingness of the colonial administration to effectively address peasant grievances over accelerating exploitative conditions. 5) Displacement and relative deprivation (See Alberla, 1962).

Even so, these reasons did not typically lead to a sudden revolt, even where they were present in other colonized societies. Thus they are not pre-requisites to an open rebellion, let alone a millenarian one. This mirrors what Scott argues in Weapons of the weak (1985), that peasants will typically not rebel until all of their avoidance-protest avenues have exhausted and Moral economy of the peasant (1976); peasants’ risk-avoiding behavior will not have them easily participate in an open rebellion willingly. While their last attempts to express their grievances and influence change through colonial institutional means failed, the “real” triggers of open rebellion really were 1) the leaders’ eventual decisions to violently protest (They had previously preached more peaceful modes of coping with their grievances) and 2) “signs” and “prophecies” of an impending but inevitably successful rebellion.

Touching on the above-mentioned triggers, Adas warns readers from perceiving the “methods” used by the rebels (incantations, rituals, talisman, tattoos and other forms of “magic”) as “irrational”, “superstitious” and foolish. One must also resist the temptation to apply indiscriminate labels like “witch-doctors” and “quacks” onto the “prophets”. He strongly rejects ascribing the rebel participants with naïve “child-like” mentalities for believing entirely in the divine power of their “superstitions”. He insists that these were inspired by and originated from a world-view unfamiliar to foreign observers; one cannot simply apply western scientific criteria of “rational” onto non-western and prescientific societies.

Adas argues that their own world-view, the logic of their rebellion is coherent, purposeful and goal-oriented. Even the fact that these rebellions were crushed cannot be used to justify “irrationality” because the gap between goal and outcome should not be used as a means of measurement without first understanding the framework of their beliefs. Adas is clearly highly sympathetic to their belief systems. However, he also maintains objectivity by not veering towards sentiments that can be found in other sympathetic post-colonial literature that revered these “prophets” as national heroes or even other early “anti-imperialist” work that too strongly antagonized the colonial governments.

Adas showed more interest in the roles the “prophetic” leaders played in influencing the “millenarian” theme of these rebellions rather than the rebellions themselves. However, as much as these “prophets” were highly successful in the difficult task of mobilizing the peasants to revolt, attributing their success to “charisma” alone is myopic. In much “sympathetic” literature about these “prophets” and others that they are too focused on the “prophets” alone as leaders of the rebellions, other agents and factors that played important roles as mobilizers of revolt are overlooked. Once the “charismatic leader” label is lifted, “secondary” triggers of revolt will be more obvious.

For example, in his case studies, Adas argues that one of these “secondary” triggers that influenced these “prophets’” decisions to revolt was the need to win back followers that were increasingly being lost to other violent secondary leaders. Also, these rebellions would not have had successfully started without networks and links these “prophets” had with other leaders and elites that had helped spread their influences further. Furthermore, some local elites and other rival ethnic community leaders had been co-opted by the colonial government to help them rule the locals via proxy. These local “allies” had consciously and deliberately exploited the locals too, adding on to local grievances and dissent. From this point, Adas also points out to readers that colonials were not the only “provokers” in these rebellions.

This book presents much interesting and though-provoking arguments against classic hegemonic literature on peasant rebellions that try to link them to meta-narratives of larger nationalist conflicts. Much of his arguments in fact, mirror some of the most reliable and well-loved books on peasant resistance with two examples being Weapons of the weak (Scott, 1985) and Moral economy of the peasant (Scott, 1976) amongst others. He however, does not use them to support or influence his arguments. Instead, Adas seemingly uses his case studies to shape his own opinions. In doing so, he provides a richer account of peasant experiences and mentalities, where Moral economy of the peasant had treated them too superficially. His cross-analysis of the five case studies also helps to illustrate how multi-faceted these rebellions really were, and difficult to generalize despite the few parallels he has shown in this book.

When I first read this book, I was excited to learn about “relative depravity” at its beginning and was looking forward to further understand this theory through him and see how he would apply it onto his case studies. However, I was disappointed that its “presence” through the book was quite “weak”. I was left with a sketchy understanding of it. However, many years down, I read this book again, and with a stronger prior knowledge and comprehension of “relative depravity”, I could see how he had actually “unpacked” its concepts and used it more critically than I thought it did. It just needed more “careful” reading, and perhaps, if Adas had made this aspect more obvious by dedicating a more specialized section on it, it would have been an easier read.

Even so, he provides readers with alternate case studies from the ones that are too commonly used in much literature on peasant revolts (for example, the Saya San rebellion). Looking at his references, sources (conventional, i.e. archival and unconventional, i.e. interviews and local folklore) that helped him build his case studies are more dominant. He expressed in the beginning of his book, how difficult it is to find “official” and “academic” sources for “lesser-known” rebellion, but his sheer effort and determination to have kept doing so is commendable. This book is a nice mix of uniqueness and generality, provides new case studies for analyzing peasant rebellions and presents new ways of thinking about religiously-themed rebellions. I enjoyed it very much despite my initial struggles with it.

References

Michael Adas, Prophets of rebellion: Millenarian protests movements against the European colonial order. Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press, 1979.

David Aberle, “A note on relative deprivation theory as applied to millenarian and other cult movements”, in S. Thrupp (ed.) Millennial Dreams in Action, Comparative Studies in Society and History Supplements, No. 2. The Hague: Mouton, 1962.

James C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.

James C. Scott, Weapons of the weak: Everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comparative look at five prophet-centered movements targeting European rule (the Maji Maji in German East Africa, Birsa's revolt in north-central India, the Saya San revolt in Burma, Pai Marire among the Maori of New Zealand, and Dipanagara in Dutch Java). Adas is careful in his approach, stressing surface similarities such as relative deprivation, the failure of cultural systems before Europe's might, and the ubiquitous desire to revive a pre-colonial cultural system. The movements obviously vary to wide degrees along a continuum of elite displacement, threats to local systems, and colonial demands on the indigenous society. Adas also stresses the common denominator of the 'prophet' as protest leader and the millenial expectations this role carries with it. Again, this varies a lot from case to case, some involving local-European syncretism or none at all. These weren't just protests against oppression and poverty, though, and this is where Adas shines: rather these movements were just as much a tool of exploitation of local elites vis a vis the peasantry as it was in the latter's interest, hence the millenarian bent to get people's juices flowing. Even better, Adas, albeit briefly, criticizes writers like Frantz Fanon for glorifying violence as an anti-colonial tool since, as these cases show, they were anything but successful or beneficial to the peoples involved.

[aldo zirsov]

salah satu bagian dari buku ini membahas perlawanan Pangeran Diponegoro, sebab-sebab perlawanan, baik dari sisi kolonial Belanda maupun dari pihak yang melawan.

Anehnya, buku yang terbit pertama kali tahun 1979 ini tidak menjadi referensi Peter Carey dalam menulis buku The Power of Prophecy: Prince Dipanagara and the End of an Old Order in Java, 1785-1855. Saya tidak menemukan buku ini dalam Bibliography maupun Index buku Peter Carey tsb.