What were the causes of the Maria Hertogh riots?
Causes of Maria Hertogh riot.
Mrs Hertogh's Point of View
Mrs Hertogh told the court that she was persuaded by her mother after she had given birth to her sixth child to allow Maria to stay with her mother's friend, Aminah, for a few days. When Maria had not returned after three to four days, she went to look for Maria by bicycle. But she counld not find both Maria and Aminah.
Aminah's Point of View
Aminah rejected Mrs Hertogh's point of view. She declared that she was given the permission by Mrs Hertogh herself to adopt Maria in the late 1942. Aminah told Mrs Hertogh that she could not able to produce an offspring and thus, she will regard Maria as her own and bring her up accrording to Muslim believes. According to Aminah, Mrs Hertogh replied to her that she would want to be brought up as a Muslim. Aminah left to Surabaya to look for a job and never saw Mrs Hertogh till 1950.
Mrs hertogh and Aminah's point of view differ from each other. This might be the causes of the riots. No one could justified which statement is true. Maria Hertogh case therefore depends on evidence. Another causes of this riots is due to the different and individual religious law and believes. When Maria was married, she was under the age of 16 years old. Muslim allowed girls to get married after puberty at that time. But Maria was still a Dutch Catholic. In fact she was only allowed to get married after she was 16. On December 11, the court hearing convinced the crowd which was mainly the Malay, Indonesian Muslim and Chinese, outside the supreme court that the colonial legal system was biased to Muslim. The riots then begun. Since then the Eurasians and the Muslims were not in a good terms at that time. Any Eurasians in sight will be attacked.
Nur Syuhaidah Iqma (18)
posted by 3-10 Social Studies Work @ 9/04/2008 09:23:00 AM
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