Tobacco Contestations: State, Planters, and Peasants in Besoeki Residency, East Java, Mid-Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries

This chapter examines the varied nature of Dutch imperial economic regimes by examining the politics of land and labour in tobacco cultivation in the Besoeki Residency of East Java from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The lack of a hierarchical local aristocracy, which existed in parts of Central Java, led plantation owners, traders, and the colonial authorities to deal with more diverse power structures. Competing interests between land renters, foremen, and local peasants or migrant workers further shaped regulations, and responses to them. Tobacco-shed burnings may be seen as a form of resistance by the peasants, but may also have reflected cases of malevolent foremen, or tensions between local leaders and community members. Archival research and oral histories expose contentious issues over time, relating to ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ rights and obligations regarding access to land and the fluidity of boundaries as spaces for control, resistance, or compliance.