A Censored Social Writer
From Darkness to Light, the posthumous book that made Kartini famous in the Netherlands, did not include all of her letters. Letters on personal topics, China, opium and criticism of the colonial administration were intentionally left out.
April 23, 2013
KARTINI was seriously ill. The 7-year-old's body was shivering. None of the doctors brought in by her father, Raden Mas Adipati Ario Sosroningrat, the regent of Jepara, could treat her. Then a Chinese man who was being punished by the Dutch East Indies government visited their home.
Sosroningrat's three children already knew this man. He offered to help, asking Kartini to drink water mixed with ashes of burnt shio palm leaf veins from a temple in We
...