Inas

Inas is a small district in Negri Sembilan, situated along the banks of the Sungai Jelai, a tributary of the Sungai Muar, bordering Johol to the south, Rembau to the west, and the tanah mengandung districts radiating from Seri Menanti to the north [1, p. 65]. Its population comprised approximately 350 nuclear family dwellings on roughly 1,170 acres of household and rice land [1, p. 69]. Inas holds a distinctive position in the political history of Negri Sembilan: it is identified in local tradition as the ancient state of Jelai, one of the original nine luak (districts) of the Negri Sembilan confederacy, yet its present-day political marginalization has left it without a clearly defined position in the polity [1, pp. 65–66].

Political Status and the Jelai Question

The political status of Inas has long been contested. Early historians, following Newbold, placed the ancient state of Jelai in Pahang, a location rendered implausible by its complete geographical separation from the remaining eight luak [1, pp. 66–67]. This identification rested on the fact that the chief of the Pahang district bore the title Maharaja Perba, which was also said to be held by the headman of ancient Jelai [1, p. 67]. Hervey noted the existence of “another Jelai, also known as Inas” but dismissed it on the grounds that its chief’s title resembled that of the Johol Dato’ rather than Maharaja Perba [1, p. 67]. Later writers, including Nathan and Winstedt, advanced the view that Inas was the early state of Jelai and that its position had been eclipsed by Johol, but no systematic study was made to trace the internal political development of the state [1, p. 67].

Diane Lewis’s 1960 study, drawing on fieldwork conducted between May 1957 and May 1958, challenged this consensus by reconstructing Inas’s political history from oral tradition [1, p. 65]. She demonstrated that the title Datok Perba was traditionally associated with the Inas waris (ruling group), and that historical records supported the claim that Inas received recognition from Johore before Johol: the Inas seal of authority, inscribed Datok Johan Pahlawan Lela Perkasa Waulat Kuala Dio, is dated 1218 Hijri (c. AD 1803), whereas the Johol chap dates to no earlier than AD 1874 [1, pp. 77].

The Aboriginal Substrate and Social Organization

Inas tradition presents a picture of aboriginal prominence that contradicts the prevailing assumption that Minangkabau colonists drove the aborigines to the hills [1, p. 88]. According to the 1901 census, 700 aborigines were recorded in Kuala Pilah district, compared with 157 in Seremban and 125 in Jelebu; by 1951 the Kuala Pilah figure remained approximately 700, while Rembau had only 54 [1, pp. 70–71]. Most of the aborigines in Kuala Pilah were found in settlements near the course of the Sungai Jelai, within or near the present states of Inas and Johol [1, p. 71].

The social organization of Inas reflected a synthesis of indigenous and immigrant systems. The Biduanda waris, the indigenous ruling group, held the territorial title and was organized into perut (sub-groups) among which succession to the office of Penghulu Luak rotated [1, pp. 78–79]. The later Minangkabau immigrants formed separate suku (matri-sibs) under their own ketua (heads), a system that was accommodated within the indigenous structure through the Tiang Balai, the council of chiefs [1, pp. 77–78]. The coming of Islam, rather than the introduction of Minangkabau custom, is identified in local tradition as the more significant transformation, producing a permanent division between those who settled in permanent clearings under a penghulu and those who remained in the jungle under the batin (aboriginal headman) [1, p. 75].

British Contact and Political Marginalization

The political marginalization of Inas resulted primarily from the refusal of Penghulu Omar to cooperate with the British at the close of the nineteenth century [1, p. 65]. When Datok Pengaman, a deputy of the Yamtuan Seri Menanti, came to reorganize titles and bestow pensions, Omar refused to negotiate, stating that he was already a rich man [1, pp. 82–83]. He also refused to meet Martin Lister, the first British Resident of the combined states of Negri Sembilan, appointed in 1895, or to sign a treaty [1, pp. 82–83]. Consequently, Inas was represented at the negotiation by Johol, and the four penghulu of Sungai Ujong, Rembau, Jelebu and Johol received full recognition with the title undang and corresponding pensions, while the Datok Inas retained only the lesser title Penghulu Jelai [1, p. 83].

The disparity in status was reflected in the pensions: at the time of Lewis’s writing, the Datok Inas received $39.60 monthly, while the Undang Johol was believed to receive as much as $2,000 per month [1, p. 84]. The traditional position of the batin was also undermined; in Inas, the batin no longer took part in the installation of the penghulu, and the post of Datok Jenang, the intermediary between batin and penghulu, had disappeared [1, p. 87].

Research and Documentation

The historiography of Inas spans from Newbold’s Political and Statistical Account (1839), which mentioned Inas as one of the larger villages of Johol, through Lister (1887), Hervey (1884), Wilkinson (1911), Winstedt (1934), and Josselin de Jong (1951), whose map of Negri Sembilan omitted Inas entirely while clearly showing the tanah mengandung districts [1, pp. 66–67]. Lewis’s 1960 study represented a methodological intervention: by systematically collecting oral tradition from five Inas informants and two outside informants, she demonstrated that local tradition could resolve questions that written sources had left ambiguous, and she challenged both the Pahang identification of Jelai and the generalization that aborigines had been driven to the mountains by Minangkabau colonists [1, pp. 68].

MBRAS Sources

• D. Lewis (1960). Inas: a study of local history. JMBRAS 33: 65–94

References

1. D. Lewis (1960). Inas: a study of local history JMBRAS 33(1): 65–94.