Raden Adjeng Kartini

Kartini was born into an aristocratic Javanese family when Java was part of the Dutch
colony of the Dutch East Indies. Kartini's father, Sosroningrat, became Regency Chief of Jepara.
Kartini's father was originally the district chief of Mayong. Her mother, Ngasirah was the
daughter of Madirono and a teacher of religion in Teluwakur. She was his first wife but not the
most important one. At this time,polygamy was a common practice among the nobility. She also
wrote the Letters of a Javanese Princess. Colonial regulations required a Regency Chief to marry
a member of the nobility. Since Ngasirah was not of sufficiently high nobility,[2] her father
married a second time to Woerjan (Moerjam), a direct descendant of the Raja of Madura. After
this second marriage, Kartini's father was elevated to Regency Chief of Jepara, replacing his
second wife's own father, Tjitrowikromo.
Kartini was the fifth child and second eldest daughter in a family of eleven, including half
siblings. She was born into a family with a strong intellectual tradition. Her grandfather,
Pangeran Ario Tjondronegoro IV, became a Regency Chief at the age of 25 while Kartini's older
brother Sosrokartono was an accomplished linguist. Kartini's family allowed her to attend school
until she was 12 years old. Here, among other subjects, she learnt to speak Dutch, an unusual
accomplishment for Javanese women at the time. After she turned 12 she was 'secluded' at home,
a common practice among Javanese nobility, to prepare young girls for their marriage. During
seclusion girls were not allowed to leave their parents' house until they were married, at which
point authority over them was transferred to their husbands. Kartini's father was more lenient
than some during his daughter's seclusion, giving her such privileges as embroidery lessons and
occasional appearances in public for special events.
During her seclusion, Kartini continued to educate herself on her own. Because she could
speak Dutch, she acquired several Dutch pen friends. One of them, a girl by the name of Rosa
Abendanon, became a close friend. Books, newspapers and European magazines fed Kartini's
interest in European feminist thinking, and fostered the desire to improve the conditions of
indigenous Indonesian women, who at that time had a very low social status.
Kartini's reading included the Semarang newspaper De Locomotief, edited by Pieter
Brooshooft, as well as leestrommel, a set of magazines circulated by bookshops to subscribers.
She also read cultural and scientific magazines as well as the Dutch women's magazine De
Hollandsche Lelie, to which she began to send contributions which were published. Before she
was 20 she had read Max Havelaar and Love Letters by Multatuli. She also read De Stille Kracht
(The Hidden Force) by Louis Couperus, the works of Frederik van Eeden, Augusta de Witt, the
Romantic-Feminist author Goekoop de-Jong Van Eek and an anti-war novel by Berta von
Suttner, Die Waffen Nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!). All were in Dutch.
Kartini's concerns were not only in the area of the emancipation of women, but also other
problems of her society. Kartini saw that the struggle for women to obtain their freedom,
autonomy and legal equality was just part of a wider movement.

Kartini's parents arranged her marriage to Joyodiningrat, the Regency Chief of Rembang,
who already had three wives. She was married on the 12 November 1903. This was against
Kartini's wishes, but she acquiesced to appease her ailing father. Her husband understood
Kartini's aims and allowed her to establish a school for women in the east porch of the Rembang
Regency Office complex. Kartini's only son was born on 13 September 1904. A few days later on
17 September 1904, Kartini died at the age of 25. She was buried in Bulu Village, Rembang.
Inspired by R.A. Kartini's example, the Van Deventer family established the R.A. Kartini
Foundation which built schools for women, 'Kartini's Schools' in Semarang in 1912, followed by
other women's schools in Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Malang, Madiun, Cirebon and other areas.
In 1964, President Sukarno declared R.A. Kartini's birth date, 21 April, as 'Kartini Day' an Indonesian national holiday. This decision has been criticised. It has been proposed that
Kartini's Day should be celebrated in conjunction with Indonesian Mothers Day, on 22 December
so that the choice of R.A. Kartini as a national heroine would not overshadow other women who,
unlike R.A. Kartini, took up arms to oppose the colonisers.
In contrast, those who recognise the significance of R.A. Kartini argue that not only was
she a feminist who elevated the status of women in Indonesia, she was also a nationalist figure,
with new ideas, who struggled on behalf of her people and played a role in the national struggle
for independence.

Letters
After Raden Adjeng Kartini died, Mr J. H. Abendanon, the Minister for Culture, Religion
and Industry in the East Indies, collected and published the letters that Kartini had sent to her
friends in Europe. The book was titled Door Duisternis tot Licht (Out of Dark Comes Light) and
was published in 1911. It went through five editions, with some additional letters included in the
final edition, and was translated into English by Agnes L. Symmers and published under the
title Letters of a Javanese Princess.
The publication of R.A. Kartini's letters, written by a native Javanese woman, attracted
great interest in the Netherlands and Kartini's ideas began to change the way the Dutch viewed
native women in Java. Her ideas also provided inspiration for prominent figures in the fight for
Independence.
There are some grounds for doubting the veracity of R.A. Kartini's letters. There are
allegations that Abendanon made up R.A. Kartini's letters. These suspicions arose because R.A.
Kartini's book was published at a time when the Dutch Colonial Government were implementing
'Ethical Policies' in the Dutch East Indies, and Abendanon was one of the most prominent
supporters of this policy. The current whereabouts of the vast majority of R.A. Kartini's letters is
unknown. According to the late Sulastin Sutrisno, the Dutch Government has been unable to
track down J. H. Abendanon's descendants.

Ideas
Condition of Indonesian women
In her letters, Raden Adjeng Kartini wrote about her views of the social conditions
prevailing at that time, particularly the condition of native Indonesian women. The majority of
her letters protest the tendency of Javanese Culture to impose obstacles for the development of
women. She wanted women to have the freedom to learn and study. R.A. Kartini wrote of her
ideas and ambitions, including Zelf-ontwikkeling, Zelf-onderricht, Zelf-vertrouwen, Zelfwerkzaamheid and Solidariteit. These ideas were all based on Religieusiteit, Wijsheid en
Schoonheid, that is, belief in God, wisdom, and beauty, along
with Humanitarianisme (humanitarianism) and Nationalisme (nationalism).
Kartini's letters also expressed her hopes for support from overseas. In her
correspondence with Estell "Stella" Zeehandelaar, R.A. Kartini expressed her desire to be like a
European youth. She depicted the sufferings of Javanese women fettered by tradition, unable to
study, secluded, and who must be prepared to participate in polygamous marriages with men they
don't know.

Vegetarian lifestyle
It is known from her letters dated October 1902 to Abendanon and her husband that at the
age of 23, Raden Adjeng Kartini had a mind to live a vegetarian life. "It has been for sometime
that we are thinking to do it (to be a vegetarian), I have even eaten only vegetables for years now,
but I still don't have enough moral courage to carry on. I am still too young." R.A. Kartini once
wrote.

She also emphasized the relationship between this kind of lifestyle with religious
thoughts. She also quoted, "Living a life as vegetarian is a wordless prayer to the Almighty."

Kartini
Raden Adjeng Kartini loved her father deeply although it is clear that her deep affection
for him became yet another obstacle to the realisation of her ambitions. He was sufficiently
progressive to allow his daughters schooling until the age of 12 but at that point the door to
further schooling was firmly closed. In his letters, her father also expressed his affection for R.A.
Kartini. Eventually, he gave permission for R.A. Kartini to study to become a teacher in Batavia
(now Jakarta), although previously he had prevented her from cral of her pen friends worked on
her behalf to support Kartini in this endeavour. And when finally Kartini's ambition was
thwarted, many of her friends expressed their disappointment. In the end her plans to study in the
Netherlands were transmuted into plans to journey to Batavia on the advice of Mrs. Abendanon
that this would be best for R.A. Kartini and her younger sister, R.Ayu Rukmini.
Nevertheless, in 1903 at the age of 24, her plans to study to become a teacher in Batavia
came to nothing. In a letter to Mrs. Abendanon, R.A. Kartini wrote that the plan had been
abandoned because she was going to be married ..."In short, I no longer desire to take advantage
of this opportunity, because I am to be married..". This was despite the fact that for its part, the
Dutch Education Department had finally given permission for R.A. Kartini and R.Ay. Rukmini to
study in Batavia.
As the wedding approached, R.A. Kartini's attitude towards Javanese traditional customs
began to change. She became more tolerant. She began to feel that her marriage would bring
good fortune for her ambition to develop a school for native women. In her letters, R.A. Kartini
mentioned that not only did her esteemed husband support her desire to develop the woodcarving
industry in Jepara and the school for native women, but she also mentioned that she was going to
write a book. Sadly, this ambition was unrealised as a result of her premature death in 1904 at the
age of 25.