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Local Government in Rural Central Java*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Robert R. Jay
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Rural settlement patterns on the island of Java conform in general type to the dominant mode throughout the rest of monsoon Asia: a nucleated residential unit surrounded by the lands cultivated by the residents, forming a community with political, economic, and religious dimensions. The dominant form of agriculture depends upon irrigated lands planted primarily with rice. In upland areas, where the topography has limited the spread of the irrigated land, the residential units are relatively small and isolated, and a characteristic village organization has developed in which the daily patterns of interaction can encompass the entire village. The much larger part of Java's population, however, lives in lowland areas where gentle, even gradients, plentiful sources of water, and the seasonal rains have permitted the establishment of widespread systems of irrigation. Here the residential units have expanded and coalesced into large blocks and strips of several square miles, alternating with large uninterrupted areas of irrigated land. Under these conditions, village units have expanded far beyond the daily interaction group, and vaguely denned neighborhoods (barisan or lingkungan) have developed within which most of the daily patterns of mutual interest and aid take place. Within the area studied, the average population of the lowland rural village is roughly 600, with a range from 200 to 2000. The average area encompassed by each village is roughly a quarter square mile, with a range approximately proportional to the population.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , February 1956, pp. 215 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1956

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References

1 Report on Indonesia, V, No. 11 (Mar. 22, 1954), 13–14.Google Scholar

2 Reliable figures do not permit an estimate of the present proportions of rural-urban population. A rough figure of 80 per cent rural to 20 per cent urban suffices for indicative purposes only.

3 The “Madiun Affair” was an abortive Communist-led uprising centered about Madiun, Central Java, in September 1948. Intended as a “bloodless” coup, the revolt unleashed the latent antagonisms between Moslems and non-Moslems and set off a bitter and bloody civil war in and around the area.

4 For the growth of factionalism in Indonesian politics both before and after national independence see: Van Mook, H. J., “Nieuw Koeta Gede,” Koloniaal Tijdschrift, XV (1926), 566Google Scholar; Pringgodigdo, A. K., Sedjarah Pergerakan Rakjat Indonesia (Djakarta, 1950)Google Scholar; Kahin, G. McT., Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia (Ithaca, 1952)Google Scholar; and Pluvier, J. M., Overzicht van de Ontwikkeling der Nationalistische Beweging in Indonesia ('s-Gravenhage, 1953).Google Scholar

5 In the immediate area studied, the common Javanese term in use for the village proper is desa, and for the next higher level of administration, the collection of villages under a single headman, the term used is kalurahan. The official Indonesian terms, however, are dukuhan for the village and desa for the collection of villages. I have kept to the official terminology. Wherever the word “village” is used, reference is to the dukuhan.

6 In addition to the form of village and desa government which developed under royal influence, other forms, perhaps more traditional and certainly less authoritarian, existed at the perimeters of the central Javanese area. For a description of variations as of ca. 1800, see Raffles, Thomas S., Substance of a Minute on 11 February, 1814 (London, 1814), I, 182f.Google Scholar

7 The administration of local government, under the jurisdiction of the Kementerian Dalam Negeri (Ministry of the Interior), operates at 7 levels. The island of Java is divided first into 3 propinsi (“province”) of approximately equal area, each with a population of about 16 to 17 millions. A propinsi is divided into 4 to 6 karesidenan (“residency”), a karesidenan into 4 to 5 kabupaten (“regency”), a kabupaten into 4 to 5 kawedanan (“district”), and a kawedanan into 4 to 5 katjamatan (“subdistrict”). These are all under the direct control of the central government. Below them are the desa, 15 to 20 per katjamatan, and the dukuhan, 2 to 7 or more per desa.