The Padri (or Paderi) War lasted from 1821 to 1837 and arose from a movement among the Minangkabau people of the central western coast of Sumatra both to purify Islamic practice and resist colonial rule. The Minangkabau social structure was matrilineal and highly decentralized. Their official ruler, the raja of Pagaruyung, had only nominal authority, while village chiefs (panghulu) held real power. In the early nineteenth century, Minangkabau believers returning from the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca brought back ideas of purifying the Islamic faith of their people. This involved eschewing traditional syncretic folk beliefs, gambling, drinking, and drug taking, and seeking to end their matrilineal traditions. The name of the movement was derived from Pedir, from where the pilgrims set sail for Arabia. The movement declared a jihad (holy war), and its followers imitated the purification movement of the Wahhabi of Arabia by wearing white robes and turbans. Poorer people were attracted to the movement, and as it acquired strength, political power resulted through influence on local village leaders. In particular, fines were levied for breaking the prohibitions of Islam. The new movement began to clash with the panghulu; even the raja was endangered, and most of the royal family was murdered in 1815.
While the British interregnum in the Dutch East Indies, under Sir Stamford Raffles, tolerated the movement, the Dutch return to Sumatra in 1819 altered the situation. The traditional leaders aligned themselves with the Dutch after war broke out in February 1821; however, they lost legitimacy in the eyes of the Minangkabau for this alliance—disastrous for their long-term survival. While Dutch troops were able to control the Padri movement, they refused to reinstate the displaced Minangkabau raja, establishing a Dutch regency instead. Inevitably this created more sympathy for the Padri movement, as some traditional leaders reconciled with Islamic forces. This allowed the Padri leader, Tuanku Imam Bonjol, to resist the Dutch in the city of Bonjol for fifteen years. The Dutch reached an understanding with Bonjol in order to conclude another war (1825–1830) on nearby Java. The final siege of Bonjol lasted months, due to the ferocious resistance of the residents. With the city of Bonjol destroyed and Iman Bonjol exiled elsewhere in the Indies, sporadic warfare occurred in the mountains for years afterwards. The Padri War is a classic case of how the Dutch exploited intracommunity divisions gradually to assume control of the entire archipelago.
Further Reading
Ricklefs, M. C. (1993) A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1300. 2d ed. London: Macmillan Press.
Tarling, Nicholas, ed. (1992) The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Vol. 2. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
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