Eurasian people living in or connected with Indonesia
The Indo people (, ) or Indos are Eurasian people living in or connected with Indonesia. In its narrowest sense, the term refers to people in the former Dutch East Indies who held European legal status but were of mixed Dutch and indigenous Indonesian descent as well as their descendants today.
In the broadest sense, an Indo is anyone of mixed European and Indonesian descent. Indos are associated with colonial culture of the former Dutch East Indies, a Dutch colony in Southeast Asia and a predecessor to modern Indonesia after its proclamation of independence shortly after World War II. The term was used to describe people acknowledged to be of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent, or it was a term used in the Dutch East Indies to apply to Europeans who had partial Asian ancestry. The European ancestry of these people was predominantly Dutch, but also included Portuguese, German, British, French, Belgian and others.
The term "Indo" is first recorded from 1898, as an abbreviation of the Dutch term "Indo-European". Other terms used at various times are 'Dutch Indonesians', 'Eurasians', 'Indo-Europeans', 'Indo-Dutch' and 'Dutch-Indos'.
Overview.
In the Indonesian language, common synonymous terms are (for males), , , , and Indo means Eurasian: a person with European and Indonesian parentage. "Indo" is an abbreviation of the term "Indo-European" which originated in the Dutch East Indies of the 19th century as an informal term to describe the Eurasians. is an abbreviation of the Dutch term . Indische was a term that could be applied to everything connected with the Dutch East Indies. In the Netherlands, the term includes all Dutch nationals who lived in the Dutch East Indies, either Dutch or mixed ancestry. To distinguish between the two, Eurasians are called "Indo" and native Dutch are called "Totok". In the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia), these families formed "a racially, culturally and socially homogeneous community between the Totoks (European newcomers) and the indigenous population". They were historically Christians and spoke Dutch, Portuguese, English and Indonesian.
They were compared to Afrikaners from South Africa, who also share Dutch ancestry and culture, but are not mixed-race.
In the 16th-18th centuries, Eurasians were referred to by a Portuguese term (Dutch: ) or as "coloured" (Dutch: ). Additionally, a wide range of more contumelious terms, such as "liplap", can be found in the literature.
History of European trade and colonialism in Southeast Asia (16th century – 1949).
Portuguese and Spanish in Southeast Asia (16th century).
Eurasians in the Dutch East Indies were descendants of Europeans who travelled to Asia between the 16th and the 20th century. The earliest Europeans in South East Asia were Portuguese and Spanish traders. Portuguese explorers discovered two trade routes to Asia, sailing around the south of Africa or the Americas to create a commercial monopoly. In the early 16th century, the Portuguese established important trade posts in South East Asia, which was a diverse collection of many rival kingdoms, sultanates and tribes spread over a huge territory of peninsulas and islands. A main Portuguese stronghold was in the Maluku Islands (the Moluccas), the fabled "Spice Islands". The Spanish established a dominant presence further north in the Philippines. These historical developments were instrumental in building a foundation for large Eurasian communities in this region. Old Eurasian families in the Philippines mainly descend from the Spanish. While the oldest Indo families descend from Portuguese traders and explorers, some family names of old Indo families include Simao, De Fretes, Pereira, Henriques, etc.
Dutch and English in Southeast Asia (17th and 18th century).
During the 1620s, Jan Pieterszoon Coen in particular insisted that families and orphans be sent from Holland to populate the colonies. As a result, a number of single women were sent and an orphanage was established in Batavia to raise Dutch orphan girls to become East India brides. Around 1650, the number of mixed marriages, frequent in the early years of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), declined sharply. There was a large number of women from the Netherlands recorded as marrying in the years around 1650. At least half the brides of European men in Batavia came from Europe. Many of these women were widows, already previously married in the Indies, but almost half of them were single women from the Netherlands marrying for the first time. There were still considerable numbers of women sailing eastwards to the Indies at this time. The ships' passenger lists from the 17th century also evidence this. Not until later in the 17th century did the numbers of passengers to Asia drop drastically.
Given the small population of their country, the Dutch had to fill out their recruitment for Asia by looking for overseas emigration candidates in the underprivileged regions of north-western Europe. Originally, most Dutch VOC employees were traders, accountants, sailors and adventurers. In 1622, over half the Batavia garrison of 143 consisted of foreigners (Germans were the majority among them), there were also French, Scots, English, Danes, Flemings, and Walloons (they were half of the VOC overall). Europeans living in Batavia also included Norwegians, Italians, Maltese, Poles, Irish, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Swedes. The number of Swedes travelling to the East on Dutch ships numbered in the thousands. Many settled in Batavia for long periods. Some of the settlers in the 18th and early 19th centuries were men without wives, and intermarriage occurred with the local inhabitants; others brought their families. The VOC and later the colonial government to a certain extent encouraged this, partly to maintain their control over the region. The existing Indo (or Mestizo) population of Portuguese descent was therefore welcome to integrate. An Indo-European society developed in the East Indies. Although most of its members became Dutch citizens, their culture was strongly Eurasian in nature, with a focus on both Asian and European heritage. 'European' society in the Indies was dominated by this Indo culture into which non-native born European settlers integrated. The non-native-born (totok) Europeans adopted Indo culture and customs. The Indo lifestyle (e.g. language and dress code) only came under pressure to westernise in the following centuries of formal Dutch colonization. This would change after the formal colonisation by the Dutch in the 19th century.
Eurasian men were recruited by the colonial regime as go-betweens in both the civil administration and the military, where their mastery of two languages was useful. Few European women came to the Indies during the Dutch East India Company period to accompany the administrators and soldiers who came from the Netherlands. There is evidence of considerable care by officers of the Dutch East India Company for their illegitimate Eurasian children: boys were sometimes sent to the Netherlands to be educated, and sometimes never returned to Indonesia. 
Using the evidence of centuries old Portuguese family names many Indos carried matriarchal kinship relations within Eurasian communities, it has been argued by Tjalie Robinson that the origin of the Indo was less of a thin facade laid over a Dutch foundation, but sprang from an ancient mestizo culture going back all the way to the beginning of the European involvement in Asia.
In 1720, Batavia's population consisted of 2,000 Europeans, mainly Dutch merchants (2.2 percent of the total population), 1,100 Eurasians, 11,700 Chinese, 9,000 non-Indonesian Asians of Portuguese culture (mardijkers), 600 Indo-Arab Muslims, 5,600 immigrants from a dozen islands, 3,500 Malays, 27,600 Javanese and Balinese, and 29,000 slaves of varying ethnic origins including Africans.
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, there were new arrivals of Europeans in Malacca who made it their new home and became part of the Malacca Dutch community.
Dutch East Indies (1800–1949).
In 1854, over half of the 18,000 Europeans in Java were Eurasians. In the 1890s, there were 62,000 civilian 'Europeans' in the Dutch East Indies, most of them Eurasians, making up less than half of one per cent of the population. Indo influence on the nature of colonial society waned following World War I and the opening of the Suez Canal, when there was a substantial influx of white Dutch families.
By 1925, 27.5 percent of all Europeans in Indonesia who married chose either native or mixed-blood spouses, a proportion that remained high until 1940, when it was still 20 percent. By 1930, there were more than 240,000 people with European legal status in the colony, still making up less than half of one percent of the population. Almost 75% of these Europeans were in fact native Eurasians known as Indo-Europeans. The majority of legally acknowledged Dutchmen were bi-lingual Indo Eurasians. Eurasian antecedents were no bar to the highest levels of colonial society. In 1940, it was estimated that they were 80 percent of the European population, which at the previous census had numbered 250,000.
An Indo movement led by the Indo Europeesch Verbond (Indo European Alliance) voiced the idea of independence from the Netherlands, however only an Indo minority led by Ernest Douwes Dekker and P.F.Dahler joined the indigenous Indonesian independence movement. Examples of famous Indo people in the Dutch East Indies include Gerardus Johannes Berenschot.
Japanese occupation (1942–1945).
During World War II, the European colonies in South East Asia, including the Dutch East Indies, were invaded and annexed by the Japanese Empire. The Japanese sought to eradicate anything reminiscent of European government. Many of the Indies Dutch had spent World War II in Japanese concentration camps. All full blooded Europeans were put in Japanese concentration camps while the larger (Indo) European population, who could prove close native ancestry, were subjected to a curfew, usually in their homes, which was known as Buiten Kampers (Dutch for outside campers). First the POWs, then all male adults and finally all females with their children and adolescents were interned. Boys of 10 years old and older were separated from their mothers and put into a boys camp usually together with old men. While the women were interned with children in women's camps, Vrouwenkampen all working age men were interned as forced unpaid labor. The Japanese failed in their attempts to win over the Indo community, and Indos were made subject to the same forceful measures.
"Nine-tenths of the so-called Europeans are the offspring of whites married to native women. These mixed people are called Indo-Europeans… They have formed the backbone of officialdom. In general they feel the same loyalty to the Netherlands as do the white Dutch. They have full rights as Dutch citizens and they are Christians and follow Dutch customs. This group has suffered more than any other during the Japanese occupation".
— Official US Army publication for the benefit of G.I.'s, 1944.
Indonesian Independence struggle (1945–1949).
Leaders of the Indonesian independence movement cooperated with the Japanese to realise an independent nation. Two days after Japan's surrender in August 1945, the independence leaders declared an independent Republic of Indonesia. The majority of Indo males were either captive or in hiding and remained oblivious to these developments. During the occupation, the Japanese had imprisoned some 42,000 Dutch military personnel and around 100,000 civilians, mostly Dutch people who could not provide proof of Indonesian descent. During the Japanese occupation, the Dutch were put into the lowest class. Native blood was the only thing that could free Indos from being put into concentration camps, 160,000 Indos (Eurasians) were not herded into camps. It is estimated that 8,200 european POW and 16,800 Indo people and European civilians died in Japanese concentration camps and the number of Indo people who died outside the camps is unknown.
On 24 November 1945, Sutomo leaked propaganda to specifically kill the Dutch, Indo, Ambonese and unarmed civilians, Hundreds of Eurasians were killed in attacks by fanatical nationalistic Indonesian youth groups in the Bersiap Period during the last quarter of 1945, and it is estimated that around 5,500 to 20,000 Indo people and European civilians people were killed and 2,500 went missing during bersiap period.
So of the 290,000 Indo people and Europeans, 260,000 of whom had Dutch citizenship before the Japanese occupation, it is estimated that more than 50,000 died during the Japanese occupation until the Bersiap period.
Emigration from the Dutch East Indies (1945–1965).
Over 10% of the "Indo-Europeans" took Indonesian citizenship after Indonesian independence. Most retained full Dutch citizenship after the transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia in 1949.
In 1949, 300,000 Eurasians who had been socialized into many Dutch customs were repatriated. The Dutch established a repatriation programme which lasted until 1967. Over a 15-year period after the Republic of Indonesia became an independent state, virtually the