Question

What was Surontiko Samin’s opinion about the state ownership of the forests? How did the Saminists protest against the Dutch?

Answer 1

Hint: The challenge was in concern with the oppressive forest laws that were imposed on the people and Samin’s logic against the Dutch control over the forests.

Complete answer:
The famous historic social movement by Surontiko Samin is an Indonesian movement organized in the north-central Java, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unlike major contemporary movements which did turn violent at some point of time or the other, this movement was based on peaceful resistance; Samin encouraged the people to retaliate in a peaceful manner: non-payment of taxes, continued extraction of teak from the forests for their domestic use, etc.
During that time, Indonesia was a Dutch colony. The imperialists started forest management laws in Java because by suppressing and terminating the rights of the locals over the natural resources, they wished to procure teak to build ships. Thus they sought to restrict villagers from accessing the forests; this facilitated the cutting of wood only for specified purposes- making river boats, constructing houses, etc.- that too only from specific forests under the Dutch supervision.
For reasons like transporting wood without a permit, grazing cattle in young stands, , or travelling on forest roads with horse carts or cattle, the villagers were punished . Basically, this was another instance of suppressing the will and liberty of the Javanese people. Such oppressive practices compelled Samin to rise as the leader of those people.
Surontiko Samin, an inhabitant of Randublatung village famous for its teak forests, sought to challenge the Dutch authority by questioning state ownership of the forest. He firmly held that the state did not create the wind, water, earth and wood, or any other natural resource for that matter, so how could it possibly own it. This led to an emergence of a widespread movement by his kins and followers. By 1907, 3,000 families were among his followers.
As suggested by Samin, the followers or Saminists chose the peaceful means of protest by lying down on their land when the Dutch came to survey it and refusing to pay taxes, fines, or perform free labour.
The basic ideology of Saminism rejected the capitalist structure of the Dutch colonialism; they forced oppressive taxes upon the Indonesians, even the poor had to follow, and monopolized the forest lands which were a public resource. Among such lands were the ones that contained precious teak forests used for trade.

Note:
The word Samin traces its roots to the Javanese word Sami, meaning ‘the same’. Samin sought to liberate his people from the back-breaking laws of the people and the way those laws incapacitated the locals. They snatched away the very source of their livelihood and at the same time, demanded heavy taxes. He thus, questioned the Dutch authority over the Indonesian forests saying that those aren’t limited to any community but belong to all.