Though Western readers are now becoming generally familiar with the external aspects of Indonesian politics and economics, there has been remarkably little scientific analysis of the deeper social forces, many of them going far back in history, which give the modern Indonesian nation its distinctive characteristics and will govern much of its future development. This book provides, for the first time in the English language, a scholarly and thought-provoking appraisal of these long-term social changes, mostly arising from the impact of Western civilization on traditional Indonesian society over the past three or four centuries. The analysis throws a flood of light on the forms which Indonesian nationalism has assumed, on the development of religious life and its bearing on political, educational, legal and economic modernization, on the growth of urban societies and the entrepreneurial class, on the social status of Chinese and other minority groups, and on the influence of Western ideas, including those of Christianity and Marxism.

The author demonstrates that Indonesian society has been in a process of transition for many centuries and that Indonesians have played a more active role in this than has generally been assumed hitherto by Western observers. Besides drawing upon a great wealth of Dutch scholarly research, the author has been able to benefit from his own personal experience in Indonesia, both before and during the war, and again in 1956-1957. He is now Professor of sociology and modern history of the non-western world (South and Southeast Asia) at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Herrijzend Azië (Resurgent Asia), Het Rassenprobleem (The Race Problem), East-West Parallels and of numerous articles in learned journals, and one of the editors of World on the Move (1957).

This book is issued under the auspices of the Institute of Pacific Relations as part of its international research program on contemporary Asian problems.