INTRODUCTION

The expression “to rule is to tax” could be used by a Malay Sultan heading a Malay maritime state in Southeast Asia as well as by colonial power-holders. Under colonial rule, however, state instruments for taxation generally became more efficient.

Taxation as a form of surplus extraction by the state is, I argue, crucial for an understanding of the changes in the Karo Batak uplands of Langkat regency (kabupaten) in colonial times. The formerly Islamic Malay maritime state of Langkat, bordering Aceh in the north, was one of the petty Malay states on the east coast of Sumatra to be annexed by the Dutch around 1865. This annexation meant the incorporation of tribal Karo Bataks, who lived quite autonomously in the uplands, into a newly styled Sultanate of Langkat under colonial dominance. At the same time, the Karos were confronted with a booming plantation economy operated by Western entrepreneurs since 1870.

This chapter is about the changing status and conditions of the Karos in Langkat during the period of colonial rule. Contrary to the idea of a penetrating capitalist market system dominating a periphery, as dependency theorists have been claiming, I show how important was the role of the state in the changes that took place in upland Karo rural society. The state, I argue, should however be viewed in regard to its interaction with local village politics, and not as an overwhelmingly influential unitary force.

In this chapter, I focus on two phenomena: peasantization and the development of ethnicity. I characterize the changes in the uplands of Langkat as a “peasantization” process affecting tribal Karo society. By this I mean that the incorporation of members of the Karo “tribe” – “tribe” used as a relational concept – into the newly styled Malay state, made them “peasants” because of the extraction of surplus from Karo rural society by this state. Whereas the Karo “tribe” formed part of a larger society through relations of trade and war, it was the character of these relationships that changed. Thus I define “peasants” as rural cultivators whose surpluses are transferred to a dominant group of rulers (Wolf 1966). “Ethnicity”, I argue, should not be seen as a timeless, unchangeable part of culture. I describe both of these phenomena in relation to state policy, especially with respect to taxation, its policy on land, and on the Karos as an ethnic group.