Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915

This paper attempts to contest the colonial discourse on the history of Murut anti-British resistance. Anti-British resistance was part and parcel of reactions towards the British in the early periods of colonial rule from 1881-1915. In over three decades, the Muruts launched numerous rebellions ag...

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Main Author:	Fernandez, Callistus
Format:	Article
Published:	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 1999
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4161/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4161/

id	ukm-4161
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-41612012-05-23T06:52:00Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4161/ Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915 Fernandez, Callistus This paper attempts to contest the colonial discourse on the history of Murut anti-British resistance. Anti-British resistance was part and parcel of reactions towards the British in the early periods of colonial rule from 1881-1915. In over three decades, the Muruts launched numerous rebellions against the British with disastrous defeats and heavy loss of lives. For the British, these actions were considered irrational, driven by the Muruts’ desire to return to their past ways of lawlessness and savage practices. To the Muruts, each rebellion marked a sign of resistance against the colonial encroachment into their social, economic, cultural and political life. Contrary to colonial views that downplay the significance of the Murut rebellions, the latter did forge a unified nation by 1915. The Rundum Rebellion of 1915 was the climax of Murut resistance. It contained features of a unified nation, a fixed geographical boundary, a leadership hierarchy, mobilization of labour and the control of violence to oust the British from Murut country. In essence, Murut resistance had a single goal – to gain independence from colonial rule. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 1999-01 Article PeerReviewed Fernandez, Callistus (1999) Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915. AKADEMIKA, 54 . pp. 81-103. ISSN 0126-5008 http://www.ukm.my/penerbit/jdem54-05.html
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
description	This paper attempts to contest the colonial discourse on the history of Murut anti-British resistance. Anti-British resistance was part and parcel of reactions towards the British in the early periods of colonial rule from 1881-1915. In over three decades, the Muruts launched numerous rebellions against the British with disastrous defeats and heavy loss of lives. For the British, these actions were considered irrational, driven by the Muruts’ desire to return to their past ways of lawlessness and savage practices. To the Muruts, each rebellion marked a sign of resistance against the colonial encroachment into their social, economic, cultural and political life. Contrary to colonial views that downplay the significance of the Murut rebellions, the latter did forge a unified nation by 1915. The Rundum Rebellion of 1915 was the climax of Murut resistance. It contained features of a unified nation, a fixed geographical boundary, a leadership hierarchy, mobilization of labour and the control of violence to oust the British from Murut country. In essence, Murut resistance had a single goal – to gain independence from colonial rule.
format	Article
author	Fernandez, Callistus
spellingShingle	Fernandez, Callistus Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915
author_facet	Fernandez, Callistus
author_sort	Fernandez, Callistus
title	Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915
title_short	Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915
title_full	Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915
title_fullStr	Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915
title_full_unstemmed	Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915
title_sort	contesting colonial discourse: rewriting murut history of resistance in british north borneo from 1881 to 1915
publisher	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	1999
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4161/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/4161/
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:40:47Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:40:47Z
_version_	1777405575981694976

Contesting colonial discourse: rewriting Murut history of resistance in British North Borneo from 1881 to 1915

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