Keradjaan (Malay kerajaan, “kingdom, realm”) was the term used for the independent Atjehnese statelets that made up the territorial fabric of Atjeh outside Groot-Atjeh. In the analysis of D. W. N. de Boer, the keradjaäns of Atjeh had “zich willekeurig als meer of minder belangrijke, onderling in geen enkel opzicht gebonden, zelfstandige staatjes ontwikkeld” — developed arbitrarily as more or less important, mutually unbound, independent statelets — and, crucially, they had arisen territorially rather than along genealogical lines.
Territorial rather than genealogical origin
De Boer grounded the proposition on De Atjehers, Vol. I, p. 62, where C. Snouck Hurgronje described the decisive moment of Atjehnese political development: “Zoodra echter de groote stap op het gebied der politieke ontwikkeling gedaan was, die hoofden of vorsten (Oeléébalang) tot gezaghebbers over bewoners van een zeker gebied maakte zonder onderscheid van kawoms of soekëë…” — once the great step had been taken which made chiefs or princes into authorities over the inhabitants of a defined territory, without distinction of kawom or soekëë.
The consequence for land law was direct. In Atjeh there was no dependence on a sufficiently strong following of members of the same lineage, sub-stem or clan; consequently there was no necessity to handle the beschikkingsrecht with circumspection, and no institution comparable with the Batak parripean land.
The coastal statelets
De Boer added a characterisation of the physical shape of these polities: Atjeh consisted “voor 90 % uit z.g. kuststaatjes” — for ninety per cent of so-called little coastal states — whose extent was proverbially reckoned “van af de blauwe bergen tot daar, waar men nog met sleepnetten visschen kan,” from the blue mountains to the point where one can still fish with drag-nets. The ruler of such a state, absorbed by important political affairs and by the scrupulous supervision of the inflow of all wathé (Malay hasil) due to him — import and export duties and other adat revenues — had little interest in which rajat, of whatever kawom or soekëë and from wherever, took waste land into use in his territory, provided it was not done in secret; nor did transfers of landholding among his own subjects particularly concern him.
Significance
The territorial character of the keradjaan is the structural fact from which De Boer derived the whole distinctive shape of Atjehnese land law: the weakness of the right of avail, the ease of clearance, the absence of village boundary disputes, and the primacy of fiscal over genealogical interest in the person of the oeleebalang.
See Also
- Oeleebalang
- Landschap (Atjehnese)
- Beschikkingsrecht in Atjeh
- Kawom
- De Atjehers (Snouck Hurgronje)
- Toba-Bataklanden
- Wathe
Source
Het recht op den grond in Atjeh, by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.