The njai (; Enhanced Indonesian Spelling System: nyai) were women who were kept as housekeepers, companions, and concubines in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). In the Javanese language, the word nyai meant "sister", but the term later took a more specific meaning. Author Rob Nieuwenhuys described the position of the njai as always subservient, being the white man's housekeeper and companion, before she was his concubine.
Terminology and description
The term njai, also found in the spellings nyai, njaie, nyaie, nyahi or nyi, comes from a Balinese word meaning sister. In Sundanese the term nyai refers to "miss" or young woman, while in Betawi dialect, nyai refers to "grandmother" or elderly lady. The Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia gives three definitions for njai: as a term for referring to a married or unmarried woman, as a term for referring to a woman older than the speaker, and for the concubine of a non-Indonesian. It is this last definition which is used here, a definition which gained traction in the 17th century when Balinese njais first became common in the colonial capital of Batavia (now Jakarta). The word, in discussion of the Indies, is sometimes simply translated as "mistress".
A variety of other terms were used to refer to the njai, with a varying degree of positive and negative connotations. In the 19th century the term inlandse huishoudster, or simply huishoudster (housekeeper), was common. The njai were also known as moentji, from the Dutch diminutive mondje, meaning "mouth", and the more negative snaar ("strings"); both referred to the njais verbal propensities. As the njai could also serve as a translator and language teacher, terms such as boek ("book") and woordenboek ("dictionary") are also noted. Objectification of the njai was found in terms such as meubel ("furniture") and inventarisstuk ("inventory items").
Not all njai were necessarily native Indonesian – in Madelon Szekely-Lulofs's 1931 novel Rubber, njai Kiku San is Japanese.
History
Europeans first arrived in the Indonesian archipelago in the 16th century, and in 1602 the Dutch East India Company was established to ensure Dutch domination of the spice trade. The Europeans established small settlements, and in many of them the European residents were all men. Without contact with Dutch women, they began turning to their female slaves (mostly originating from Sulawesi, Bali, and outside the archipelago) for sexual services. By 1620 the habit had become so prevalent that Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen passed a law forbidding Dutchmen from keeping concubines. To prevent a relapse, Coen began bringing orphans from the Netherlands, termed compagniesdochters, to become wives of company employees. The program, however, had little effect, as the company could not keep up with the demand. There were also concerns that these women were only accepting marriage for personal gain and that they would attempt to draw their husbands back to the Netherlands – and out of the employment of the Dutch East Indies Company.
In the 1650s, Governors-General Carel Reyniersz and Joan Maetsuycker began promoting interracial marriage between Dutchmen and indigenous women, who were thought to be less greedy and less likely to ask their husbands to leave the Indies. The Eurasian daughters of these marriages proved to be popular targets of affections, as marriage to one could help men improve their social position. Many men, however, were unable to marry them, as they generally sought persons already in a position of power. Instead, it was more common for Dutchmen to take Asian women as their partners, as they could not marry without the company's permission and would not be repatriated if they married a non-Christian.
When the British took control of the Indies in 1812, they were shocked by the practices of concubinage, interracial marriages, and slavery in the Indies. They attempted to force all elements of Indies society to live in accordance with British morals. However, they were unable to eliminate the keeping of njais, and, indeed, some Englishmen kept a njai of their own.
After the British returned the Indies to the Dutch in 1815, a new wave of immigration – including some women – began. These newcomers, as with the British before them, were shocked by the intermarriage and keeping of njais. Under the new system they established, which pushed for a sharper delineation between Europeans and non-Europeans, a njai marrying a European could be recognized as of a similar stature to Europeans. Those who were not married, however, received no special recognition.