Ratu Pelabuhan: Ketidakadilan air, kapitalisme perkebunan, dan gerakan mesianistik di Sukabumi pada 1906

Abstract

Messianic movements in colonial Indonesia have largely been interpreted through religious, millenarian, or anti-colonial perspectives, overlooking the ecological conditions that shaped collective resistance. This study reinterprets the 1906 Rachman Movement in Sukabumi through the lens of the political ecology of water, examining how water injustice contributed to rural mobilization. Using historical methods, including heuristic source collection, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography, the study analyzes colonial administrative reports and seventeen contemporary newspaper articles published between January and July 1907. The findings reveal that the movement was driven not primarily by religious fanaticism but by structural inequalities in irrigation access. The collusion between colonial authorities and local elites diverted water to private estates and tea plantations, marginalizing local farmers and intensifying agrarian tensions. The colonial government’s failure to resolve these grievances transformed ecological injustice into collective resistance, while Rachman’s messianic claim as the Ratu Pelabuhan served as a political idiom that legitimized resistance against colonial agrarian exploitation. By integrating environmental history and political ecology, this study challenges conventional interpretations of Indonesian messianic movements and demonstrates that ecological injustice was a key driver of rural resistance in the late colonial period.