Indo Europeesch Verbond

The Indo Europeesch Verbond (IEV) or Indo European Alliance was a social movement and political organisation founded in 1919 by the Indo-European (Eurasian) community of the Dutch East Indies that fought for race equality and political say in late colonial Indonesia during the early 20th century.

It was one of the first and largest European organisations in the Dutch East Indies that formulated a desire for an independent nation albeit in relation with a Dutch dominion and supported the Soetardjo Petition of 1936 that aimed for an independent status within a Dutch commonwealth.

Its vision was to retain an important position for the Indo European (Eurasian) segment of Indonesian society after obtaining independence from the Netherlands. Founding father of this organisation was Karel Zaalberg chief editor of one of the country's largest newspapers (Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad) and close friend to famous contemporaries like P.A. Daum, E.du Perron and Ernest Douwes Dekker.

Its main chairman and president (1929–1939) was Dick de Hoog.

The Dutch East East Indies (1800–1949), nowadays known as Indonesia, was the largest colony in the Dutch Empire. The colonial hierarchy consisted of 2 legal classes: 1) the European class; 2) the Indigenous class. In 1920 a third class: Foreign Easterners (Dutch: was added. The Eurasians known as Indos made up almost 75% of the European headcount.

The Dutch East Indies had a non egalitarian and patriarchal social and legal system. Indo children were for instance only registered as European if the European father decided to acknowledge his children with his indigenous partner. When this did not happen these Indo children would be assimilated into their mothers’ indigenous community. The colonial saying to describe this phenomenon was “The (Indo) child would disappear into the kampung (English: native village)”.

Within the official European legal class Indos could be found in all 3 social layers of European society. This European segment of society can be broadly divided into the following 3 social layers: 1) a small top layer of colonial and commercial leadership, including governors, directors, managers (ceo's), etc. Mostly consisting of expatriate Dutchmen; 2) a large middle class of mostly Indo civil servants; 3) lower income (to poor) layer solely consisting of Indo people that were legally European, but had a living standard close or similar to the indigenous masses.

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