Overpopulation in Asia

The Javanese lacks the strong adaptation to Western life, one finds in the
Japanese. He also lacks the economical instinct of the Chinese. The
great transition with him goes with more stiffness and greater difficulty and the old life keeps functioning longer and with greater intensity.
Ever so many movements may pass alongside and over him, inwardly he remains the same. He is inclined to keep somewhat aloof and notwithstanding all adaptation on the outside, in the depths of his soil he remains his old self.

J.H. Bavinck.

Responsible Parenthood and Birth-rate.

The enormous problems, which loom large in the lives of the Javanese people, cause this population to live in a deep poverty (according to western notions) and also gives to the future a black aspect. Looking for a way out has for many decennia already been the subject of investigations by Europeans, mostly dutchmen. We mention Bleeker, Boeke, van Gelderen, Kerkkamp, Lekkerkerker, Mohr, Regelink, Scheltema and Wertheim. It seemed as if the great distress, which, when seen by European eyes was great and partly avoidable, inspired only Europeans to reflection and research, but by the people involved it was hardly seen as a problem.
The “Javanese way of life” has as a consequence that with the population increase there was practically but one answer: “reclamation of unoccupied land”. Now that after 1940 this answer is no longer adequate in Java and a new answer has not been found, this population problem increases with the growth of the population-density. Sometimes it looks as if this increase will carry on until it will have reached its own “solution”. When for all the mouths there was no sufficient food, the food and the want of food were equally shared. Where the shortages weighed too heavily, the victims fell. They were the great numbers of infants and toddlers, who died from malnutrition and from diseases that found their way prepared by bad nourishment. It are mainly the small children who pay with their lives for the lack of a necessary adequate answer to the Javanese population problem. Probably in the future this will be the case in a much greater measure than it is now already. Besides the gradual starving of infants and toddlers in the older age-classes too victims will be made by local famines, as was likely from the report concerning Gunung Kidul (Nielen 1959).
Instead of waiting, till this process of increasing starvation, accompanied with a rising mortality, will have brought about a population equilibrium, an attempt at searching for a humane and responsible escape from this hunger and misery is in every respect worth all sorts of efforts.
Was in former times a high birth-rate of the Javanese population needed in order to survive all the possible calamities, as epidemics, mutual wars, catastrophes in nature as floods, volcanic eruptions, and failure of crops, after the establishment of a government wielding authority over many islands of the Indonesian archipelago, some centuries ago, and the availability of hygienic means for fighting epidemics, the occurrence of similar calamities became less frequent. A demographic adaptation to these great influences coming from out side did not happen. High increases of the death-rate of short duration became scarcer and the birth-rate was high and remained constantly so. The enormous population-growth was to a high degree the consequence of the reaction of the masses of the people to the interior security and peace, brought about in the colonial period and which led to one of the most rapid processes of growth of a rural population in the world (without immigration).
An adaptation of the birth-rate to the so radically changed constellation in Java did not happen. It is not to be seen how a possible solution of the population problem in Java might ever be found without this adaptation. However, the reorganization of agriculture as formulated by Tergast, as well as the starting of an industrial development in Java, and the conscious acceptance of the necessity to limit the number of pregnancies in marriage, suppose an other attitude in life than is found in Java as the predominant one today.
Necessary will be:

• Reorganization of the agriculture to arrive at a maximum production of crops by the most efficient way.
• Changing over to other methods of production in addition to agriculture, like industry, and to bring this to an ever greater in crease and technical perfection.
• Introducing a distinction between sexuality and propagation of the race and in this respect to accept this also in its proper sense in social behaviour and in married life.

All these concerns, so necessary for the future of Java’s population, arise from and are supported by an attitude of life disposed to the wish to change society, in order to achieve for its members more happiness and less restraint, more opportunity for development of personality, less risk of disease and untimely death. An attitude in life striving restlessly and with never-ceasing activity to better the conditions of life, to bring luxuries, health, joy and longevity within the reach of the many; an impulse to search the arising problems, in order to try to solve them with all readiness to fight, all organizing power and technical resources, in a rational and efficient way. An attitude in life, by which the bearer of it becomes aware of being placed over against this world, instead of experiencing this world as one whole, of which he himself is only a part. It is the attitude of life underlying western civilization and which was described summarizingly as ‘being directed towards a total comprehensive approach of the world, with which one knows to be confronted as an object in individuation”. (J.van Baal, 1948).
In the period of the 18th century, but more still in the 19th and 20th centuries Java has entered the sphere of influence of western civilization, as it was represented by a western government-apparatus, western entrepreneurs and western missionaries.
The Javanese community has not remained unchanged under the influence of western civilization. The contact between Western and Javanese culture has conducted towards a transfer of western cultural values to the Javanese population, such as central national authority, with the modern government-apparatus, the beginning of modernization of the feudal economic life above desa-level (more in West- and East-, than in Central-Java), western education, means of communication and changes in the people’s agriculture, as for instance better varities of crops.
This process has been and is still incessantly stimulated by the policy first of the colonial and later on of the national authorities, from above and from the outside. The progress of this acculturation in Java has been described in detail by Burger. (1949-1950).
The feudal structure of the state, in which the monarch and nobility had a predominating position and in which the kraton (palace) was the centre of political, cultural, economic and military life, was gradually changed with the loss of national independence in the 18th century. In the territory of the D.I. Jogjakarta the feudal structure appeared to be able to hold its ground longest. The desas, which before had been integrated within the context of the feudal structure and which were orientated culturally upon the court, broke away from this vanishing context. The religious respect for monarch and nobility declined after the decrease of monarchical power and the stagnation in court-life. In the political and economic life great and profound alterations developed in this period. Stature-labour and forced supplying of agricultural products disappeared, while wage-work, ground-rent, contractual obligations and sale of products appeared in desa-life. The once moneyless, closed and self-sufficient produce-economy of the desa was about 1,900 opened for money-economy. Tax was no longer paid in the shape of products but in money. The relations between the villagers were weakened and room was made for the development of the people’s self-realization in some measure. Western education, which originally came within reach of the upper strata of Javanese society, the nobility, has, after obtained independence, come within reach of great number of villagers and enjoys a great popularity.
The central question remains, how far will this progressive acculturation also change the Javanese attitude of life and make it approach to the European attitude of life, by which process the first would achieve a grater dynamic. Will, by way of release of the previously so strong social and religious ties of feudal Java, after an initial confusion, an inspiration and dynamic appear in the attitude of life, through which Java could find the way to more prosperity? The attitude of life dominant in Java, is o.a. Characterized by its static nature.
People feel themselves as a part of the surrounding world and more in particular as a part of the desa-community. The monarch had an essential place in the religious world-image. The sultan of Jogjakarta bears the name of : Hamengkubuwono, that is to say: “He that has the world under his rule and care”. Authority has always been looked for and found by the Javanese outside the individual person. Taking a decision is done collectively, while in many cases the “decision” comes as a command from above. Life in a closed community contained little room for individual unfolding. The interests of the village-economy and notably the preservation of harmony in the community were a primary concern. Nor was individualism in the village-sphere encouraged by the feudal mentality. “Uncommunicativeness, with a leaning towards a servile attitude is comprehensible in a society, where for centuries a feudal or colonial authority could dispose of life and goods of the countryman and where a free voicing of his opinion would not bring the farmer any good”. (Wertheim, 1950).
The conviction was general, that the religious and social world in which one had been born, had grown up and received a place, was good as it was and should remain so, there was no spontaneous inclination to alter the social structure from within. Also that , which is seen with European eyes as poverty, was considered and accepted as a matter of course.
Poverty in Javanese eyes means the loss of the so vital ties with one’s village community. The method of production was determined by the past and by the small wants of the desa. A great and essential significance is in Java still attached to the world of magic conceptions.
The Javanese nobility, who see the wajang-heroes their forefathers, whom they take as their examples, have a low opinion of trade and consider manual labour as inferior. Real life consisted for them a.o. in enjoying the padi, planted by the peasentry.
The opinion that manual labour is an inferior occupation, especially assigned to subordinates, finds many adherents among those, who consider themselves as belonging to the people on the higher steps of the social ladder. How many decennia will it be before, with the increasing dynamizing of the Javanese attitude in life already visible in the social upper strata and proceeding far into the desas, by means of the growth of individualism and of the inclination to greater prosperity and the further loosening of the desa-ties, Javanese society will produce everything that will conduct towards a greater prosperity.

“The traditional state of being tied down, which permeated the whole Javanese society in all its tissues, is still a silent force intercepting, averting, hampering, or supporting, bewitching or making fun of all new phenomena”. (Burger, 1949).
It may be foreseen that a similar cultural revolution will keep a slow pace. A process interfering so intensely with the habits of life will take many decennia. And it is exactly this long period, which in view of the present need is already no longer available.
Especially in Jogjakarta, where the old cultural pattern has attained such a high degree of development and could hold out for such a long period, it is to be expected that this renewal and dynamizing will have to overcome many resistances.
When we direct our attention towards the interests of infants and pre-school children in present and future, such a slow pace is not encouraging.
That is why in the near future no amelioration may be expected in this situation. The high rate of mortality in infancy and pre-school age period, as a symptom of the disharmonic demographic development in Jogjakarta and in Java, will disappear only at the time when a successful solution has been found.
It seems likely that much misery and suffering can be prevented by a conscious regulation of the number of children. For this end would be necessary a mental attitude to which belongs an insight:

• that the task of feeding and upbringing the child falls exclusively to the parents and not to a bureau of consultation or to government authorities;
• that the significance of marriage for personal and social life is not to be found in a maximum procreation and that reflection about the meaning of matrimony becomes urgent, notably about the purpose of companionship and the non-parenthood side of marriage. It would mean, that a quite different conception of marriage from the one prevalent to-day, should be accepted;
• that too large a number of children may menace the well-being of the whole family and of the entire population and that therefore measures towards adaptation are worthy of consideration, “Saben anak mboten nggawa bedja dewé- dewé”.
• that the generation of children is a direct and personal responsibility of the parents and that it means shirking one’s responsibility, if “what marriage brings in the way of offspring, is left to the disposal of the mercy of heaven” (after a formulation by Boeke);
• that the procreation of children, who have an ever-increasing chance of falling victims to malnutrition, ought to be felt as an urgent call to one’s sense of responsibility. The value of these children’s lives will have to be answered for the Him, the Prince of Life, who is the sole owner of human lives;
• that a rational approach to the control of this problem in marriage life is possible by distinguishing in sexual life between the sexual act and the act of procreation and that this may be made a social custom;
• that the population-problem can only find its hoped-for ultimate solution on condition that the Javanese people should be willing to see and accept this popularity problem as their own and should in addition be convinced, that a solution is inconsistent with large numbers of children and that this solution will have to be found for an important part within Javanese marriage-practice.

These insights are no common property in Java and the lack of them stands in the path of the finding of a solution. In view of the great significance, which controlling the birth-rate in future may have for the possible solution of the population problem and for a rise of prosperity in Java, it seems to us unavoidable that an action directed this way should be carried on by propaganda, that the question should be put up for discussion at the appointed places and that the Javanese population should be continuously confronted with their own population-problem, in order to possibly shorten the period still wanted before an attitude of life, that is sufficiently dynamic, will be obtained by the Javanese population.
An action in this direction, which consequently has to come from outside and from above, will meet with great resistances in its way, but if we start from the optimistic supposition that in principle it is possible by means of organized attempts from various sides to change the face of Javanese land and society in such a way, that by dynamizing Javanese society the activities for the continuance of the building of a prosperous society will find their own sources among the Javanese population, then this action will be worth every effort.
The prospects of the influence, which reorganization of agriculture, building an industry and transmigration could have to-day for the raising of prosperity in Java, will be able to change for the better, if these measures were accompanied by effective regulation of the birth-rate. An effective regulation of the birth-rate renders a rashly started industrialization with its great risks of failure and damage less hazardous.
The great resistance, rising in the people against the idea of responsible parenthood, was evident in the following events:
In 1952 in Jogjakarta a first attempt was made to make the population familiar with the idea of responsible parenthood. An address over the radio by a female physician pronounced in the local studio appeared to evoke declinatory reactions in letters and in the press.
In October 1952 a meeting was convened by the Jogjakarta Women’s Organisation, in which the subject “Family-planning and Pregnancy-planning” was brought in for discussion. Many authorities, among whom representatives of the Muslim and Roman-Catholic population-groups, and of the health-services, were present. The meeting resolved: that family-planning as a measure of population-policy was esteemed to be unacceptable. The use of contraceptives was rejected. The religious groups, Islam and Roman-Catholic. Declined the idea in any form and with any intention.
On the 12th of November 1952 in Jogjakarta, under auspices of the local Institution for Family welfare founded by a small circle of medically orientated women, a bureau of consultation has been erected for the examination of pregnant women with an opportunity for consultation concerning pregnancy planning for women not healthy enough to have babies too frequently. However from the slow growth of this bureau, which during the 8 years of its existence never exceeded a number of 8 new consultations per week, one can guess the resistance of the local population.
The deeper significance, which in Java is attached to marriage, finds its source in the religious world of images which has developed in Java. “In Java all the religions that have lived there, have grown together into a special whole, in which the various parts cannot be divided any more. Hinduism and Buddhism have grown together in a strange way in former ages, and later on Islam too has been taken up in the whole of this religious world of ideas, in a gradual and easy way”. (Bavinck).
Out of the various religious currents, that have come to Java, many elements have been assimilated into its own religious mango-mysticism, which has for centuries dominated the thinking of the Javanese population. Javanese religious thought-life was described by Bergema as mago-mysticism with pre-animistic polydemonistic and pantheistic tendencies coupled with ancestor-worship. Hinayana Buddhism until about the 8th century, as well as Mahayana Buddhism since the 8th century, have exercised their influence in Java. Tjandi Kalasan and Borobudur still bear witness of Mahayana here. Mahayana, which in Java was assimilated, was mixed with magic. It aimed at the obtaining of Buddha ship is this life by way of meditation, yoga, with all kinds of incantations and charms. In the middle of the 9th century Java came under Hindu influence, namely in its increasing Sivaitic form. The influence on the religious life of Java’s people has been very great. It is likely that the worship of Siva took place in the shape of a lingga-cult.
Before the arrival of Islam in the 14th century the lingga-cult was spread in Java. It is even possible that the lingga-cult has existed in Java, before the development of its influence took place through Sivaism, and that the last was assimilated so soon, because it was a better form of expression for the existing religious thought-world, so that later on the lingga was seen as a symbol of Siva. (v.Akkeren, 1951).
In the lingga-cult the phallus is represented in the shape of a cylindrical rough stone and worshipped with oblations (perfumed water and oblation-butter), so that the lingga, dripping on all sides, should bless the fields, the live-stock, and the marriages with greater fertility. The great male initiative-taker will then fertilize the receiving female earth. The lingga may be the symbol of the earth-god and ancestor of the area, whose ashes were sometimes put down near the stone.
The person of the monarch too may be narrowly connected with the lingga, so that the unity of god and monarch found expression in the name of the lingga. The royal persons of that time were identified with Siva, like in Sivaism. In Central Java the oldest inscription over a Siva-sanctuary dates from the year 732. A.D. and up till now the lingga-cult still finds its place as a visit to the village of Bagelen (somewhat west of the region of the D.I.Jogjakarta) may show. Names of places in Java are still reminiscent of the lingga-cult, such as:

• Probolinggo (East-Java) = radiant lingga,
• Purbolinggo (Central-Java) = powerful lingga,
• Linggadjati (West-Java) = living lingga.