Dutch officials could not conceive of cross-ethnic concerted guerrilla resistance

Evidence

The terror of a European slaughter was never realized in Deli nor, as far as any sources indicate, ever really attempted. But repeated sabotage of the plantations produced a scale of terror among Europeans, a scope of directed violence, and coordinated efforts among Sumatra’s resident ethnic groups that was not to be repeated again until the mid-twentieth century. In other ways, it was a conjuncture of resentments that was one of a kind, animated by the intensification of Dutch incursions into the interior of Aceh and by unfettered intensification of physical abuse of workers on the estates. The forest benting had remained so long “unknowable” to the Dutch because they could not conceive of such a cross-section of concerted and collective guerilla actions against them. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1250

Categorization

• SEED: The delinked notion that colonizers’ categorical blind spots — criminal vs insurgent, personal vs political — prevented them from ‘knowing’ resistance offers an essay lens on how classification schemes produce ignorance.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1250
• XREF: connects to: Rochussen could not identify who threatened colonial rule; Eurocentric Marxism could not grasp Third World revolutionary forces

Broader Connections

• Rochussen could not identify who threatened colonial rule #corroborates (0.70)
• Eurocentric Marxism could not grasp Third World revolutionary forces #corroborates (0.55)