"A Dark State of Affairs": Hajj Networks, Pan-Islamism, and Dutch Colonial Surveillance during the Interwar Period

Alexanderson, Kris

doi:10.1093/jsh/shu020

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The Kongsi Tiga and the Dutch Shipping Monopoly on the Hajj During the late nineteenth century and thereafter, pilgrim travel from the Dutch East Indies to Mecca generally happened on board the Kongsi Tiga, a joint venture between the so-called Nederlandsche Stoomvaart Maatschappij Oceaan, the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland, and the N. V. Rotterdamsche Lloyd. Together, they formed a hajji shipping pool known as the "Trio Line" (Alexanderson, 2014). Krugers' photographic and filmic recordings reveal his active interest in Dutch steamship companies.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Kongsi Tiga began to be publicly criticized in local Muslim newspapers for squeezing Muslim pilgrims into their ships like "herrings in a tin" and not accommodating the religious passengers with adequate circumstances proscribed by the Islamic religion, such as the segregation between men and women on board, among other reasons. With the arrival of non-European competitors dedicated to the needs of Muslim customers in the market, the Dutch hajj transportation monopoly started to be seriously threatened (Alexanderson, 2014). Good advertisements were an arguably efficient means for the Kongsi Tiga to keep offers attractive to Muslim pilgrims and not lose customers to newly emerging and indigenously-owned shipping companies.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Colonial Gaze on Mecca: Networks Surrounding the First Documentary about the Hajj

Reichling

2023

J. Mater. Cult. Muslim World

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The first fully-fledged documentary about the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca was produced in 1928 when the Dutch filmmaker George Krugers (1890–1964) accompanied Muslim pilgrims from the Netherlands East Indies to the Arabian Peninsula. In the late 1920s, when the film project was carried out, an increasing number of Muslims from the archipelago embarked on the hajj journey, which was closely supervised and administered by Dutch colonial institutions. To uncover the “colonial gaze” engrained in the film, this article addresses the filming circumstances, the documentary’s visual content, its intended audiences, and the reception of the moving images in the Netherlands. It draws on Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory, foregrounding the social, political, and technological agents and networks that undergird Krugers’ pioneering film project about the hajj.

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Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Colonial Gaze on Mecca: Networks Surrounding the First Documentary about the Hajj

Reichling

2023

J. Mater. Cult. Muslim World

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“…It was in South Asia and South East Asia that European colonisers instigated the first systematic experiments in securitising the hajj. For instance, at the time of maritime transportation, colonial authorities in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) feared ‘contamination and transgression onboard’ (Alexanderson 2014: 1023), envisioning the travel to the Holy Places as a journey on ‘subversive seas’ which required tight surveillance (Chiffoleau 2015; Tagliacozzo 2015; Tantri 2016; Alexanderson 2019). In British India, authorities used a more laissez-faire approach than their Dutch counterparts since 1858 (following the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion), but their strategies of surveillance of pandemics and political Islam were enhanced by the 1870s (Low 2008: 282; Mishra 2011; Slight 2015, 2017; Tagliacozzo 2015).…”

Section: The State and The Hajj: A Review Of The Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The politics of the Hajj organisation in Senegal: security, legitimation and clientelism

Jourde

Brossier²,

Gomez-Perez³

2021

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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This article analyses how the state in Senegal has managed the hajj since the liberalisation era in the early 2000s. Although the essence of the hajj is religious, it is also deeply political and requires that the state manages complex relations with pilgrims, religious leaders, private travel agencies, politicians and Saudi authorities. This article argues that three inter-related imperatives structure the conduct of the Senegalese state: a security imperative, a legitimation imperative, and a clientelistic imperative. Security concerns lead the state to monitor and control pilgrims travelling to Mecca. Legitimation is seen in the collaborative relations with Sûfi orders and in the framing of the hajj organisation as a ‘public service’. Finally, given the magnitude of financial and symbolic resources attached to the hajj, clientelistic relations are constitutive of state officials’ actions. Overall, despite the post-2000 liberalisation of the hajj, the state has maintained its role as a gatekeeper, regulator and supervisor.

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“…15See, especially, Roff, The Origins of Malay Nationalism, 32–55; Alexanderson, “A Dark State of Affairs”; Low, “Thomas Cook and the Business of the Colonial Hajj.”…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coercing Mobility: Territory and Displacement in the Politics of Southeast Asian Muslim Movements

Gedacht¹,

Malhi²

2021

Itinerario

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This introductory article explores the recent turn in Asian history towards work that foregrounds mobility, circulation, and cosmopolitan connections, decentring colonial territoriality and postcolonial geo-bodies as the primary units of historical analysis. In it, and to frame our own special issue on Muslim movements in Southeast Asia, we point out that some of this mobility was coerced via projects of state territorialisation that actively displaced select, targeted Muslim actors whose presence in the polity was deemed problematic by states seeking to consolidate their power. Echoes of this displacement can be traced in the politics of the Muslim movements that these actors created, as we argue in this article and throughout the special issue.

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"A Dark State of Affairs": Hajj Networks, Pan-Islamism, and Dutch Colonial Surveillance during the Interwar Period

Cited by 21 publications

References 26 publications

A Colonial Gaze on Mecca: Networks Surrounding the First Documentary about the Hajj

A Colonial Gaze on Mecca: Networks Surrounding the First Documentary about the Hajj

The politics of the Hajj organisation in Senegal: security, legitimation and clientelism

Coercing Mobility: Territory and Displacement in the Politics of Southeast Asian Muslim Movements

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