Data-Gathering in Colonial Southeast Asia 1800-1900

Farish A. Noor is Professor of Political History at the Faculty of Social Science FOSS, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia UIII. His work has focused on 19th century colonial Southeast Asia, looking at the modalities of racialised colonial-capitalism in the region. His recent works include Peta dan Kekuasaan (Mapping and Power, Lestari Hikmah, 2025), Data-Collecting in 19th Century Colonial Southeast Asia (Amsterdam University Press, 2020) and America's Encounters with Southeast Asia 1800-1900 (Amsterdam University Press, 2018).

"This is an original work on the role of data collection in colonial Southeast Asia, one of the first of its kind in the domain of Southeast Asian Studies. Its originality lies in the manner that it examines colonial data-gathering in terms of the concept of the panopticon and how the identities of colonized Southeast Asians were framed as a result." - Professor Syed Farid Alatas, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore

• Dedication A note on spelling Introduction. The Panopticon in the Indies: Data-Gathering and the Power of Knowing I. Lost no longer: The House of Glass that is Postcolonial Southeast Asia. Chapter 1: Caught in the Eye of Empire: Stamford Raffles' 1814 Java Regulations I. An English government does not need the articles of a capitulation to impose those duties which are prompted by a sense of justice: Lord Minto's brand of benevolent imperialism in Java. II. The Lieutenant-Governor is Watching You: Raffles' 1814 Regulations. III. Knowing Java and Policing Java. IV. Policing Bodies: Corpses, Prisoners and other 'Asiatic Foreigners'. V. Policing and Profit: Raffles' Regulations of 1814 as the Foundation of Regulated and Racialized Colonial-Capitalism. VI. Framing the Javanese as both Useless and Useful: Native Labour in Imperial Policing. Chapter 2: Deadly Testimonies: John Crawfurd's Embassy to the Court of Ava and the Framing of the Burman I. Stabbing at the Heart of their Dominions: John Crawfurd's Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava as a Blueprint for Invasion. II. I shall have the honour soon to lay an abstract before the Government: Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava read as an Intelligence Report. III. Who Can I Trust? John Crawfurd's Search for Reliable Data from Reliable Witnesses. IV. Racial Difference and the Framing of the Burmese in the Writing of John Crawfurd. V. Deadly Testimonies: Weaponised Knowledge in the Working of Racialized Colonial-Capitalism. Chapter 3: Fairy Tales and Nightmares: Identifying the 'Good' Asians and the 'Bad' Asians in the Writings of Low and St. John I. Fairy Tale Beginnings: Hugh Low Spins the Tale of Sarawak's 'Redemption' II. Knowing the Difference: Differentiating Between the 'Good' Asians and the 'Bad' Asians in the works of Hugh Low and Spenser St. John III. Protecting the Natives from other Asiatics: St. John's negative portrayal of Malays and Chinese as the oppressors of the Borneans. IV. Bloodsuckers and Insurgents: Knowing the Asian Other and the Maintenance of Colonial Rule. V. And the Narrative Continues: The Fairy Tale Ending to Sarawak's Story. Chapter 4: The Needle of Empire: The Mapping of the Malay in the works of Daly and Clifford I. Elbow Room for Empire: Britain's Expansion into the Malay Kingdoms. II. Stabbing at the Heart of the Malay: Seeking Justification for Britain's Expansion into the Malay States. III. Enter the Imperial Needle: Dominick D. Daly, Geographic Intelligence, and Colonial Mapping. IV. To Bring Darkness to Light: Hugh Clifford, Colonial Geography, and the Duty of 'the Great British Race'. V. The Geography of Empire: Mapping and Colonial Power. Chapter 5: Panopticon in the Indies: Data-collecting and the Building of the Colonial State in Southeast Asia I. We want to know you better: Data-collecting in the service of Empire II. Text and Context: Empire's Power Differentials and the Framing of the Colonized Other III. Imperial Hubris: When Empire's Archive Fell Apart. IV. The Panopticon Today: Data-Gathering and Governance in Present-day Postcolonial Southeast Asia. Appendix A: Proclamation of Lord Minto, Governor-General of British India, at Molenvliet, Java, 11 September 1811. Appendix B: Proclamation of Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-General of Java, at Batavia, Java, 15 October 1813. Appendix C: The Treaty of Peace Concluded at Yandabo. Appendix D: The Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between Her Majesty and the Sultan of Borneo (Brunei). Signed, in the English and Malay Languages, 27 May 1847. Appendix E: The Racial Census employed in British Malaya from 1871 to 1931. Timeline of events and developments in Southeast Asia 1800-1900. Bibliography. Index