GENERAL
TANAP New programme Two years ago Professor Leonard Blussé sketched the outlines o f the historical research programme TANAP, ‘Towards a New Age o f Partnership’ (his speech was published in HAS Newslet ter, number 18 (1999))- Its objectives are to encourage archival preservation efforts and to launch a new series o f academic ex plorations into the early modern history o f ‘monsoon Asia and South Africa. At the heart o f the programme lie the 4,000 metres o f archives o f the Dutch East India Company (VOC) from 1602 till 1795. Amerindian Studies (CNWS) at Lei den University initiated the acade he vast holdings of mic component of the TANAP pro the VOC archives in ject. The central idea behind TANAP was that young Asian and African Jakarta, The Hague, historians with knowledge of local Cape Town, Colombo, and historical sources would gain access Chennai have been in to the Dutch sources, and that creasingly gaining recog young Western historians would re nition from both politicians and in ceive training in Asia. By training ternational scholars. Supported by both Western and Asian historians, UNESCO and the Dutch Ministry of two new kinds of ‘research plat Foreign Affairs, the General State forms’ could be created: a platform Archives (Algemeen Rijksarchiej] in The for young Asian scholars and a EuroHague launched the TANAP project pean-Asian one. In view of the limit in 1999 in order to restore and con ed knowledge about Asia, in Asia (ev serve all remaining VOC archives. Part ident even within the ASEAN coun of the plan was to make highly de tries], and not to mention the limits tailed inventories that would help re of European scholarship on Asia, searchers find their way through the these platforms can serve as impor enormous volume of records with tant instruments for the exchange more ease. of knowledge and creation of long One year after the archivists con term scholarly networks in the fu servation programme began, the Re ture. search School for African, Asian, and
■ By H E N D R I K E. NI EMEI J ER
New ideas These demerits, of course, did not prevent interesting presentations being given during the conference, by participants from both the West and East. In almost every field of at tention, new ideas based on field work, the study of literature, and archival research, were presented. I The largest number of panels related to Asia; China and India were espe cially prominent. It was striking to see that there was only slight inter est in the new Central Asian coun tries, which have experienced such drastic changes during the last few years. The conference was enlivened by a symposium on ‘good gover nance in Asia'- organized in close coI operation with the Canadian Inter national Development Agency - in which plenary sessions were devoted ! to topics as ‘women and human se curity’ and ‘civil society and democ racy’. As at every conference the ex change of ideas about current events in the countries studied, taking place in the corridors was of great importance. The consequences of the Asian crisis were an important topic in and outside the sessions. It was a pity that only a small number of publishers showed an in terest in this prestigious meeting. The organization should do its ut most to ensure that the presence of university presses will be much larg er next time. 1
Dr Huub de jo n g e is senior lecturer in economic anthropology at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He has done fieldwork on Madura and java. E-mail: h.dejonge@maw.kun.nl
N E WS
Through TANAP, young, promis ing historians from Asia, the Middle East and South Africa can now get an opportunity to become acquainted with Dutch sources on early modern Asian history. The project focuses on the role of the different Asian re gions within the context of global history. The most recent studies demonstrate the potential for vivid historical reconstructions based on both local and VOC sources. Topics like: the politics of trade in Safavid Iran (Rudolph P. Matthee), trade re lations of Al-Mukha (Cees Brouwer), the fortunes of the kingdoms of jambi and Palembang on Sumatra (Barbara Watson Andaya), and the court politics of Siam’s capital Ayutthaya (Dhiravat Na Pombejra) all contribute to a better understand ing of pre-colonial ‘monsoon Asia, the Arabian seas, and many other topics. Given that the fascination with VOC records is still very much a preoccupation of Western histori ans, the usefulness of these archives for ‘autonomous history’, written by non-Western scholars, will hopeful ly be furthered by the TANAP pro gramme.
The kdcuanccdt Master's On 3 January 2001, the first group of graduate students from Southeast Asia, China, and Japan began lan guage training and history courses at Leiden University as participants of the TANAP Advanced Master’s Programme (AMP), a postgraduate course. Eight students will follow intensive language courses in both
modern and old Dutch and palaeo graphy (old manuscript reading), and are to become acquainted with a wide variety of VOC documents (Bromienkunde). With the help of vari ous experts, a special colloquium has been set up around major themes, such as ‘trade relations’, ‘urban settle ments’, and ‘war and peace’, among others. The AMP leads to a Leiden post-graduate degree. The most important component of the Advanced Master’s Programme is the preparation of a PhD proposal. Under the close supervision of an ex pert in the field, each of the partici pants will make an inventory of the sources available on his or her sub ject, compile literature lists, write a clear research plan with a sound the oretical base, and put everything within the framework of a convinc ing time table. Those AMP students selected for the PhD programme will continue their research for another four years. At TANAP, ten PhD schol arships are available to Asian and African graduates. But, graduate stu dents who can demonstrate suffi cient knowledge of VOC sources and present an interesting research pro posal can apply directly for a PhD po sition. The second group of graduate stu dents will begin with the AMP in January 2002. A total number of twelve scholarships is available for Asian and African students. Euro pean or American graduates are also invited to join this programme, but only a limited number of places is available.
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IISH 65th A nniversary The International Institute o f Social History (IISH) was estab lished in 1935 with the primary aim o f preserving archives o f labour movements in various parts o f the world threatened by repression and fascism. Since then it has grown to become the largest institution for social history in the world. It attained this position through its ongoing efforts to protect the cultur al heritage o f the labour movement and other emancipatory groups, often in very threatening situations. The institute s research division has also developed rapidly and initiated a number o f research projects on various aspects o f labour histo ry, thereby increasingly emphasizing internationalization and global links. From 23 to 25 November 2000, the IISH organized a conference on ‘Global Labour History in the Twenty-first Century’ to commemorate its sixty-fifth anniversary. By RAT NA S APTARI
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cholars from various parts of the L / world with their specializations covering all continents presented fifteen papers altogether. These papers could be broadly classi fied into two main foci: regional and occupational. The regional studies were meant to provide a reflection of labour history scholarship within a particular region as well as a brief overview of the history of labour in that region. In both these dimen sions, two contrasting theoretical po
sitions could be seen. On the one hand, some papers dealt with and ar gued for ‘traditional’ concerns in labour history, namely those of mate rialist-based class action among the ‘formal’ sectors and artisans within the working population and the role of trade unions. These papers showed how unions and workers organiza tions have been both strengthened and weakened by specific govern ment policies and political and eco nomic conjunctures within the na tional contexts, and how academic concern has been shaped by intellec tual fashions in the academic world. On the other hand was the positivist
While the TANAP programme un folds and becomes steadily more comprehensive, its web site increas ingly serves as a meeting point for interested academics. Recent histori cal debates and literature, newly transcribed documents from the VOC archives, workshop and confer ence papers, research plans, and re search findings are all presented on this web site. The General State Archives (Algemeen Rijksarchiej) and its Asian counterparts plan to pub lish detailed inventories on this web site in the future. ■
and structuralist approach critical of old traditions of labour scholarship that emphasized the need to look at the different forms of labour produc tion regimes and the variety oflabour movements, and of workers (shift ing) perspectives. It needs say that the latter are also shaped by other identi ties, namely gender, race, and ethnicity. Although none of the papers were defending a universal stance of look ing at labour history, the way in which the understanding of context was taken into account differed greatly. It was quite interesting to observe that those arguing for an ex amination of the ‘traditional’ work ing class were also the ones examin ing the earlier industrializing coun tries of Western Europe and North America. And those arguing for a broader definition of workers' cate gories and workers’ consciousness were the very ones whose papers fo cused on the later industrializing countries of Latin America, Africa, Asia, and also Australia. Differences were also seen in the discussion of the occupational stud ies, which focused on railway work ers, mineworkers, dock workers, ma sons, and paid domestic workers. Some of the papers came to the con clusion that universal patterns could be seen in the nature oflabour rela tions, and in the course of develop ment of each particular sector. Oth ers emphasized the way in which local and national contexts provided a different breeding ground for the specific sectors, thus resulting in dif ferent forms of labour relations, re cruitment patterns, and workers ac tivism and perspectives.
For more information and to acquire registration forms for the Advanced Master’s Programme and PhD Programme, please consult the web site and/or contact the scien tific co-ordinator ofTANAP, Dr H. E. Niemeijer, at the e-mail address noted below.
Dr H.E. N iem eijer is a theologian affiliated to the Research School for African Asian, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), Leiden University, the Netherlands. E-mail: H.E.Niemeijer@ledeidenuniv.nl Http:! lwww.tanap.net
Although these differences were not resolved and could not be dis cussed in depth, the rich collection and variety of papers brought a bet ter understanding to the concepts of ‘global labour history’ and to the no tion of ‘comparisons’. Certain un easiness with the use of the two key concepts of this conference definite ly was a healthy sign of a more criti cal stance in the study oflabour, un dermining any tendency towards complacency. This can surely be seen as a movement away from the use of mechanistic and static approaches within social science and history. In this light, the conference can cer tainly be seen as a major step for ward in the history of the IISH, pay ing great tribute to its sixty-fifth an niversary. ■
Dr R atna Saptari is affiliated to the International Institute o f Social History (IISG), and programme co-ordinator of CLARA. E-mail: rsa@iisg.nl
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