Ireland is mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I only in a comparative aside, but the analogy drawn is one of the more striking historical illustrations offered by Snouck Hurgronje’s translator, A. W. S. O’Sullivan. The reference occurs in a footnote to the discussion of the Dutch policy of “concentration” (Concentration Scheme) during the years 1884–1896.
Snouck, in the body of the text, had been describing the colonial situation in Acheh during that period. The policy of “concentration” — which has since been abandoned, he notes — was, in itself, enough to account for the slow advance of the Dutch in their conquest of the country. Within the “linie” (the Dutch defensive perimeter around Kuta Raja) was the seat of government and so much of the country as had been absolutely reduced to submission. Outside were those openly hostile or of doubtful fidelity, interspersed here and there with a few who were loyal to the government. The translator, in a footnote, remarks: “We are reminded of the ‘pale’ in Ireland in the 16th century (Translator).”
The historical allusion is to the English Pale — that area of eastern Ireland, centred on Dublin, which remained under effective English control in the late medieval and early modern period, while the surrounding country was held by Irish chiefs whose allegiance was doubtful or actively hostile. The phrase “beyond the pale” originates in this arrangement. The analogy with the Dutch “linie” in Acheh is close: in both cases a small fortified enclave of regular government was surrounded by a much larger country in which the authority of the central power was intermittent, contested, or altogether absent; in both cases the policy of the government oscillated between forward defence and withdrawal behind the perimeter; and in both cases the existence of the line marked the limits, not of the theoretical claims of the sovereign, but of his actual administration.
The comparison between the Irish Pale and the Achehnese linie is one of several analogies by which the translator sought to make the colonial situation in Acheh intelligible to English readers. Others include the comparison of the Dutch Gompeuni (the colonial government) with the British East India Company, and the comparison of the Achehnese system of government with that of the Malay states. The reference to Ireland is the only direct comparison in Vol. I between the Achehnese and a European country’s internal administration, and it serves to mark the strength of the impression produced on a contemporary observer by the Dutch policy of “concentration.” Snouck himself remarks that the policy was “in itself enough to account for the slow advance of the Dutch in their conquest of Acheh”; the translator’s footnote supplies the European parallel that the reader of an English edition would naturally require.
The mention of Ireland is otherwise incidental to the argument of The Achehnese. It belongs to the historical and polemical Introduction, and the country reappears in the body of the work only through this single analogy.
Additional account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Ireland
Ireland is mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I only in a single comparative aside supplied by the translator, who draws an explicit parallel between the Dutch military “linie” (line) in Acheh and the English Pale in sixteenth-century Ireland.
The Translator’s Note on the Linie
In the course of Snouck Hurgronje’s account of the Dutch military policy of “concentration” (1884–96) — a policy which had, by the time of his writing, been abandoned — the translator inserts a footnote which both explains and historicises the policy. “Within the ‘linie’,” he writes, “was the seat of government and so much of the country as had been absolutely reduced to submission. Outside were those openly hostile or of doubtful fidelity, interspersed here and there with a few who were loyal to the Government. We are reminded of the ‘pale’ in Ireland in the 16th century.”
The reference is to the English Pale — the area around Dublin which, from the late medieval period down to the Tudor conquest, remained under effective English control. Beyond the Pale, the rest of Ireland was held by Gaelic lords whose allegiance to the English crown was nominal or non-existent; within the Pale, English law and English administration prevailed. The analogy with the Dutch linie in Acheh is close: in each case, a colonial power reduced its effective occupation to a fortified enclave, leaving the hinterland in the hands of the native or the hostile.
The Function of the Comparison
The translator’s note serves to bring the Dutch military policy in Acheh within the comparative horizon of European colonial history. The English Pale was, in the late nineteenth century, a familiar figure of speech — the expression “beyond the Pale” had already entered the general English vocabulary in the sense of “outside the limits of acceptable behaviour” — and the choice of the comparison is a mark of the translator’s intention to render Snouck’s account intelligible to the English reader. The same chapter elsewhere draws parallels with British experience in British India and in the Straits Settlements, and the Ireland reference takes its place within this broader comparative apparatus.
The Politics of the Parallel
The parallel drawn between the Dutch linie and the English Pale carries, in the context of The Achehnese, a quiet political charge. The Pale in Ireland was, in the late nineteenth century, a memory of a colonial policy which had been overtaken by events: the Tudor conquest, the plantations, and the Act of Union had long since incorporated the whole of Ireland within the United Kingdom, and the Pale had ceased to exist as a political fact. The translator’s comparison implies that the Dutch linie, too, was an obsolete policy — already, by Snouck’s writing, abandoned in favour of a more forward military posture. The analogy is at once historical and political: it places the Dutch policy in the perspective of an older colonial experience which had been transcended, and it suggests that the Dutch, in turn, would have to transcend the linie.
The Comparative Frame of The Achehnese
The mention of Ireland is otherwise incidental to the argument of The Achehnese. It belongs to that comparative apparatus — English, Irish, Indian, Malay — by which the translator and the author together brought the institutions of Acheh within the comprehension of the European reader. The book itself is, throughout, concerned with the internal constitution of Achehnese society, and Ireland reappears in its pages only as the source of this single historical analogy.
See Also
- Kuta Raja
- Concentration Scheme
- Acheh War
- Van Heutsz’s governorship
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- A. S. O’Sullivan
- Acheh
- British India
- Straits Settlements
- Netherlands India
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.