KARTINI

Kartini, that was her only name—Raden Adjeng is a title—wrote to her Dutch friends in the language of the Netherlands.

In her home circle she spoke always Javanese, and she was Javanese in her intense love for her land and people, as well as in dress and manners.

She was born on the 21st of April, 1879, the daughter of Raden Mas Adipati Sosroningrat, Regent of Japara. His father, the Regent of Demak, Pangèran Ario Tjondronegoro, was an enlightened man who had given European educations to all of his sons and who is described by his grand-daughter Kartini as—”the first regent of middle Java to unlatch his door to that guest from over the sea—Western civilization.”

The Regent of Japara went still further as became the next generation. He sent his daughters to the free grammar school for Europeans at Semarang so that they might learn Dutch.

Kartini’s best friend at school was a little Hollander, Letsy, the daughter of the head master. A question of Letsy’s, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” both puzzled and interested her. When she went home after school was over, she repeated the question anxiously, “What am I going to be when I grow up?” Her father, who loved her very dearly, did not answer but smiled and pinched her cheek. An older brother overheard her and said, “What should a girl become, why a Raden Ajoe of course.” Raden Ajoe is the title of a Javanese married woman of high rank, while the unmarried daughter of a regent is Raden Adjeng.

In Kartini, a spirit of rebellion was awakened which grew with the years. Even as a child she vowed that she would not become merely a Raden Ajoe, she would be strong, combat all prejudice and shape her own destiny. But she was soon to feel the weight of convention pressing upon her with inexorable force. When she reached the age of twelve and a half she was considered by her parents old enough to leave school and remain at home in seclusion according to the established usage. Some day there would have to be a wedding and a Javanese bridegroom was chosen by the girl’s parents and often never seen by his bride until after the ceremony, as her presence was not required at that solemnity.

Kartini implored her father, on her knees, to be allowed to go on with her studies. But he felt bound by the hitherto unbroken conventions of his race and she went into the “box” as it was called, passing four long years without ever once going beyond the boundaries of the Kaboepaten.

During those years reading was her greatest pleasure, and her father was proud of her intelligence and kept her supplied with Dutch books. She did not always understand what she read, but would often be guided through the difficult places by her father or by her favourite brother Kartono, who felt a warm sympathy for his sister.

But the spirit of progress slowly awakened even in slumbering Java, and when Kartini was sixteen, she was released from her imprisonment.

Her first journey into the outside world was to accompany her parents to the festivities held in honour of the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina.

This caused a great scandal in conservative Javanese society. But Kartini and her sisters did not have the freedom for which they longed, they could not go out into the world and fight its battles. They could only take well-chaperoned little excursions and meet the guests, both men and women, of their father’s household. They were free very much as a delicately nurtured Victorian young lady would have been free, half a century ago.

To be continued…