MN7 Mangkunegara 7

Only recently I read the book by Madelon Jayadiningrat, Vorst tussen twee werelden (2006). The author is married (since the 1970s) to a grandson of Mangkunegara VII (his daughter married dr. Husein Jayadinigrat, from Banten and the first Indonesian to receive a Ph.D in Leiden University). Her husband, Husein Jayadiningrat Jr. lived and worked as a psycbhologist in the Netherlands, so, she never lived in the palace of the Mangkunegara, but still is a member of the family. She could make use of many personal documents of the great ruler who was born in 1885, became successor of the throne in 1916 and died in 1944.

The book is written more as a historical novel than as a collection of sources for a dissertation (and it was also never meant as a trule academic exercise). It begins with the visit of Dutch painter Isaac Israëls who in 1922 made a portrait of the ruler. MN VII did not like it and also did no buy it, although he later regretted this and bought a copy.
A major theme in the book is the position of MN VII: as a feudal vasal who had to live with a variety of residents, some considering him as a good friend and cooperator, others more or less as a hindrance and opponent of Dutch colonial rule. MN VII liked to British rule in Malaysia, where the traditional rulers had much more authority. He tried to organise a Council of Local Rulers with the idea that they should be the kernel for a new Indonesian autonomy in harmony with the Dutch. It was not welcomed by the young nationalists, like Soekarno, but also not by the Dutch. Nothing came out of it.
MN VII was a fervent promotor of Javanese language and culture, although his Dutch was perfect and more and more people around him began to use Dutch too. He did not reject Islam as a religion, but did not like its functionaries and its detailed claim on many aspects of society. Initially this made him not enthusiast about a close Association with Husein Jajadiningrat who was from Banten and grown up in a family where formal Islam was much stronger than in Surakarta. Still, he liked Husein for his powerful position in Batavia, at the political centre. He also was not really in conflict with formal Islam. He was not too eager on drinking alcohol.
Mangkunegara VII regretted that after Ronggowarsito no new pujangga kraton was nominated. Such a person should inspire and formulate the spirit of Javanese culture (p. 83). Sarekat Islam was not seen by him as an Islamic, but as an etnic Javanese movement.
Pages 349-50: the British were much more lenient in giving privileges and power to native rulers than the Dutch. He felt really at home in Britain (after his visit to Holland, related to the marriage of Juliana, January 1937).
A wonderful book.
Some words written after reading the short notice by Merle Ricklefs on private versus state wealth in BKI 175.1:59-66. In the 1920s the financial position of the Mangkunegaran was quite good, while the Sunan had financial problems. Resident Nieuwenhuys had written in his Memorie van Overgave that the sunan had no private fortune other than the regalia, the pusaka (page 311).