Modern Library of Indonesia - The Saga of Siti Mariah

The Saga of Siti Mariah, a translation of Hikayat Siti Mariah by Haji Mukti, a largely unknown author in the history of modern Indonesian literature, is a window into the workings of Cultuurstelsel , the forced cultivation system imposed by the colonial government in the Dutch East Indies from 1830 until 1870. Embedded in this book’s pages are the lives of Dutch sugar barons, indigenous elite, European officials, and Chinese middlemen who were enriched under the system, intersect by lives of Javanese peasants who suffered under its yoke and Javanese women who were bedded by the Dutch masters and administrators, fit only to be concubines, never wives.